2 days in Johannesburg

Day by day

1. Day 1: Apartheid Museum and Gold Reef City

   Apartheid Museum, Gold Reef City, Constitution Hill and Vilakazi Street and Mandela House, then Nelson Mandela Bridge in the evening.

   1. Morning

      Apartheid Museum

      Your ticket randomly classifies you as 'white' or 'non-white', and you enter through separate gates. Allow at least two to three hours; the material is harrowing and some galleries are unsuitable for young children.

   2. Late morning

      Gold Reef City

      It sits next to the Apartheid Museum and a casino complex.

   3. Lunch

      Lunch: Braai

      Steakhouses and shisa nyama butcheries; Heritage Day (24 September) is informally called National Braai Day.

   4. Afternoon

      Constitution Hill

      Guided tours cover the Old Fort, the notorious Number Four section and the Women's Jail. Beside them stands the Constitutional Court, built in 2004 partly with bricks from the demolished awaiting-trial block.

   5. Late afternoon

      Vilakazi Street and Mandela House

      Desmond Tutu's home is a few doors down, and the street is lined with restaurants serving township food and cold drinks.

   6. Evening

      Nelson Mandela Bridge

      Photograph it from the Braamfontein side in the early evening, and leave by car or ride-hailing rather than walking at night.

2. Day 2: Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum and Soweto by bicycle or with a local guide

   Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum, Soweto by bicycle or with a local guide, Orlando Towers and Maboneng street art and galleries, then Braamfontein in the evening.

   1. Morning

      Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum

      Sam Nzima's photograph of him being carried away became a defining image of apartheid. The memorial and museum, a few blocks from Vilakazi Street, trace the uprising hour by hour.

   2. Late morning

      Soweto by bicycle or with a local guide

      Riding at street level and talking with residents gives a much fuller sense of Soweto than a coach tour.

   3. Lunch

      Lunch: Boerewors roll

      Weekend markets such as the Rosebank Sunday Market, and stadium and roadside stalls.

   4. Afternoon

      Orlando Towers

      They are among Soweto's most recognisable landmarks.

   5. Late afternoon

      Maboneng street art and galleries

      Local guides run inner-city walking tours that start here and continue into the old CBD.

   6. Evening

      Braamfontein

      Rooftop bars, craft-beer spots and old-school pubs near Wits University, best in the early evening.

Before you go

If it rains

• Swap in Origins Centre (Braamfontein): Do it the day before visiting the Cradle of Humankind; the context makes the fossil sites far more meaningful.

Where to stay for this itinerary

Pace and daylight

The sights in this plan add up to roughly 16–22 hours of visiting over 2 days, before meals and getting between them. Daylight runs from about 10.5 hours in June to 13.8 hours in December.

Getting between stops: Train. The Gautrain links OR Tambo airport, Sandton, Rosebank, Park Station and Pretoria with clean, fast trains; Sandton is about 15 minutes from the airport.

More or fewer days

• One day in Johannesburg
• 3 days in Johannesburg

Questions travellers ask