Johannesburg in 2 days
Two days most people skip — and without them the rest of South Africa stays a postcard with no writing on the back.
- How long
- 2 days
- Book ahead
- A Soweto tour
A two-day Johannesburg plan runs in a set order: first the museum that explains the system, then the township that lived under it, and on day two the court and the government that replaced it. The museum in the morning, Soweto in the afternoon with a guide, Pretoria by Gautrain.
The Apartheid Museum and Soweto
The Apartheid Museum, at opening. Your ticket assigns you a racial category at random and sends you through one of two separate entrances — the point lands in the first ten seconds. The exhibition runs from 1948 to 1994 and beyond. The ticket is €13, audio guide included; it is closed on Mondays, so day one does not fall on a Monday.
Lunch in Maboneng, in the inner city — galleries and rooftop bars. Go by day.
Soweto, with a guide. Two Nobel Peace laureates, Mandela and Tutu, lived on Vilakazi Street. Mandela's house is a museum; Tutu's is still the family's and is seen from the street.
The Hector Pieterson Museum, on the site of the student uprising of 16 June 1976. It is named for the boy in Sam Nzima's photograph, which newspapers around the world ran within days.
Dinner in Melville or Parkhurst; both have a restaurant street that works in the evening.
Constitution Hill and Pretoria
Constitution Hill — a former prison that held both Mandela and Gandhi, now the Constitutional Court, built from that prison's bricks. The building is open to the public: hearings, and the art collection in the atrium.
The Gautrain from Park station to Pretoria, thirty-five minutes.
The Union Buildings — the seat of government, with a nine-metre Mandela statue with open arms and terraced gardens below. In October the whole city is purple with jacaranda.
The Voortrekker Monument or the Kruger House Museum, depending on which side of the story interests you; both stand in the same city, and that is the point.
Back on the Gautrain; dinner in Sandton if the flight is early.
If there is a third day
- The Cradle of Humankind, an hour west — the Sterkfontein caves, where the most complete Australopithecus skeleton was found. Guided visits only, Tuesday to Sunday.
- Pilanesberg, north-west of the city, if Kruger is not happening at all: the Big Five in a malaria-free park.
- The Neighbourgoods Market in Braamfontein, Saturdays from nine — a food market, so lunch is sorted there too.
Three mistakes
- Driving yourself around Soweto. It is not about danger but usefulness — without a guide you do not know what you are looking at.
- The Apartheid Museum in the afternoon. Two hours or more of that material after lunch and nobody makes it to the end.
- A hotel near the airport. The Gautrain runs OR Tambo to Sandton in fifteen minutes; proximity to the airport buys you nothing.
Before you go
Short answers to what people ask most before setting out.
Is stopping in Johannesburg worth it at all?
For two days, yes. The Apartheid Museum and Soweto explain the country you then look at in Cape Town and Kruger; without them the rest of the trip stays scenery. If you only pick one — the museum.
Do you need a guide for Soweto?
Yes, and not mainly for safety. Soweto is a township of about 1.3 million people with almost no signage explaining what happened where; a local guide shows you what you would not have recognised.
How do you get to Pretoria?
On the Gautrain from Park station, thirty-five minutes. The Gautrain also runs to OR Tambo airport with one change, so Pretoria can fit into the day of a flight.
Ready for Johannesburg?
Where to next
Johannesburg
→A city that sprang up on a gold reef in 1886 and had a hundred thousand people ten years later
Kruger · 442 km
→A park the size of Slovenia that you drive yourself, charged by the head and by the day — not by the car
How well does Johannesburg suit you?
→Six questions: a score for this place and others like it.
Front row for the next trip
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