Itinerary · Johannesburg · South Africa
One day in Johannesburg
A day-by-day plan grouped by neighbourhood, so you spend your time seeing Johannesburg, not crossing it.
Updated By the AMZBooking editorial team
Photo: NJR ZA, CC BY-SA 3.0
Quick answer
One day is a taster: the plan below covers the essentials, but most visitors want 3. Day 1: Apartheid Museum and Gold Reef City. Base yourself in Sandton.
Key facts
- Days
- 1
- Sights covered
- 5
- Day trips
- None
- Best base
- Sandton
- Book ahead
- Nothing essential
Day by day
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.
Morning
Apartheid Museum
Go in the morning while you are fresh, and leave time for the temporary exhibitions on Mandela and the transition to democracy. Allow 2–3 hours.
Late morning
Gold Reef City
Book the underground mine tour separately when you arrive; it is the part that explains how Johannesburg came to exist. Allow Half a day.
Lunch
Lunch: Braai
Steakhouses and shisa nyama butcheries; Heritage Day (24 September) is informally called National Braai Day.
Afternoon
Constitution Hill
Take the guided tour; former-prisoner stories bring the cells to life, and look for the court's art collection and the bricks reused in its walls. Allow 2 hours.
Late afternoon
Vilakazi Street and Mandela House
Visit with a local guide who can add stories of the 1976 uprising, then eat lunch at one of the Vilakazi Street restaurants. Allow 1–2 hours.
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.
If it rains
- Swap in Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum (Soweto): Walk the route between the museum and Vilakazi Street; markers on the pavement follow the students' march.
- 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
$$$$ · Best for first-timers, shopping, luxury and families
Sandton
Glass towers, Nelson Mandela Square and the city's biggest malls
Pace and daylight
The sights in this plan add up to roughly 9–12 hours of visiting over one day, 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
Questions travellers ask
+Is one day enough in Johannesburg?
One day is a taster: the plan below covers the essentials, but most visitors want 3. How many days Johannesburg needs.