A return trip with international guests. A world class facility sadly neglected by jhb Council. The staff are amazing and knowledgeable and do their best but more than a few of the interactive exhibits out of order. The grounds overground and neglected. What a pity. Indigenous surrounds are essential and part of the experience, but keep it neat, and the poor staffs uniforms tired and worn. Your maintenance team and marketing team need a performance review.

I remember when Maropeng opened. It was one of the first outings with our new baby and I remember being so impressed by the centre. I was very excited to return for the first time since then, having moved overseas. We once again visited with my oldest son, now a teenager, along with his brothers, cousin, aunt, uncle and ouma. We made the excellent decision to tour the centre with a guide. He was very knowledgeable and passionate about sharing the centre with visitors, so we all learnt a lot in an enjoyable way. The boat ride was lots of fun and took our kids by surprise. Sadly, some of the displays are clearly the worse for wear, with some not working at all. This was disappointing, after having seen how fantastic it was when the centre first opened. I hope management can make repairs and restore the centre to its former glory so that people can continue to learn about the fossils in the Cradle of Humankind.

I decided to do a tour by myself and was able to take my time and go through everything at my own pace. The only downside of the tour was the interactive displays were damaged, some do not work and there are a handful of lights working in that area. Other than that the displays are mostly looked after.

We made a special detour on our tour of South Africa with admittedly very high expectations. What we enjoyed: the fact that it’s a world heritage site and all surrounding areas are preserved. After having visited the natural museums of Washington DC, New York, etc - we were a bit under-whelmed by the limited size and scope of the museum and its exhibits. Somehow, we thought *actual* original artifacts could be viewed here but they are stored elsewhere and every exhibit is basically a replica for purposes of protecting them (which we understand but frankly takes away from the whole point of making a big detour to view the exhibits). Speaking of the exhibits, they were also underwhelming and not commensurate with a world heritage site. Lastly, there is a dark boat ride, the purpose of which still eludes us. All in all, we enjoyed the journey but given how far we’ve traveled from home and our limited time, I wouldn’t have made the big detour.