The Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg

6 min read Updated November 2026 Compare all tours

The Apartheid Museum opened in 2001 on a site of seven hectares in Ormonde. Fodor’s places Ormonde between the inner city and Soweto, and Gold Reef City lies in the same area. Many tours combine the museum with Soweto. Entry includes an audio guide and tickets are sold at the desk. The museum’s own advice is to plan two hours if you only want to engage briefly with the exhibitions, and it does not consider the museum suitable for children under 11.

Opening hours and tickets

The museum stands on the corner of Northern Parkway and Gold Reef Road and is open from Tuesday to Sunday, 09:00 to 17:00, and on most public holidays. Some tour listings and guidebooks still give Wednesday to Sunday; the museum’s visitor page says Tuesday. Since 1 May 2026 international visitors, including those from SADC countries, pay R240 per adult and R190 for students, pensioners and children, with the audio guide included. A guided visit costs R260 and R200. South Africans with an ID pay less, and anyone who shows a City Sightseeing bus booking gets a reduced price.

Inside the museum

In Your Pocket describes how your ticket randomly assigns you as “white” or “non-white” at the entrance, and you go in through the matching gate. The permanent exhibition then follows the country’s history in sections, among them Race Classification, The Significance of 1976, Mandela’s Release and the 1994 Election.

Guests on the half-day tour describe the visit as emotional and heavy, and many found the museum the strongest part of their day. It is also large. One guest had about an hour inside and saw only the highlights, and another wished the guide had said how much time to allow for each section. If the museum matters most to you, choose a tour that gives it two hours or more.

Half days with Soweto

The half-day tour by Kilimanjaro Travel and Tour takes five and a half hours with pickup in Johannesburg and includes the entry tickets. In Soweto it goes inside the Mandela House, passes Desmond Tutu’s house and views the Hector Pieterson Museum from outside, because its story is told at length in the Apartheid Museum. Lunch is not included, so bring snacks and water, and the small vehicle can feel cramped in the back.

Mmile Africa Tours runs a four-and-a-half-hour version that starts at the museum and allows about two hours there. It then drives through Soweto, with a 15-minute stop at the Orlando Towers and a drive through the Nomzamo settlement. Museum entry is included; the Mandela House entry is not.

Full days

A full day leaves more time for the museum and adds the city. Kilimanjaro’s eight-hour tour starts at Constitution Hill, drives through the old inner city to Gandhi Square and Chancellor House, continues to Soweto and ends at the museum; the day finishes at 17:00 with drop-off at your hotel. MoAfrika includes guided entry to Constitution Hill, the Apartheid Museum and the Hector Pieterson Museum, plus a walk through an informal settlement, and makes a donation for each booking to a day-care centre in Motsoaledi. African Eagle includes lunch at a shebeen on Vilakazi Street. The Stephenson Adventures day lasts nine hours, adds Sandton, Houghton and Newtown and includes all entrance fees; lunch is at your own cost.

AdventureTourism runs a private version with a guide who is a third-generation South African and the author of the book White Boy; it adds the Constitutional Court, and museum entries are not included. If you would rather plan the day yourself, the City Sightseeing bus stops at the museum, and its combination ticket adds a two-hour Soweto tour with a resident guide. Entrance fees are extra on the bus.

On your own

The museum is stop 7 on the City Sightseeing red bus, which leaves Rosebank at 09:00 and then every 40 minutes under the 2026/2027 timetable; Gold Reef City is the next stop. The combination ticket’s Soweto tour starts from the City Sightseeing desk at Gold Reef City and takes two hours in a small group. Afterwards the bus back to Rosebank stops at the museum again, so you can do Soweto first and the museum second. One rider found that the museum took so long that Soweto felt rushed. If you go by car or taxi instead, the German Foreign Office recommends verified e-hailing apps rather than taxis hailed on the street, and warns of smash-and-grab thefts at traffic lights and in slow traffic.

Constitution Hill and Gold Reef City

Constitution Hill, the former prison complex where Gandhi and Mandela were held, is the other site that most full-day tours include. The Constitutional Court stands partly on the site of the Number Four prison. The visitor centre is open from 08:45 to 17:00 and sells no tickets after 16:00. One-hour highlights tours leave on the hour, the last at 16:00, and the two-hour full-site tour runs at 10:00 and 13:00. Payment is cashless. Entry is free on Human Rights Day, Freedom Day, Youth Day, Women’s Day, Heritage Day and the Day of Reconciliation. More on city tours.

The Gold Reef City theme park shares the museum’s bus stop. It opens from Thursday to Sunday and on public holidays, and its mine tour goes 75 metres underground; children under four are not allowed on it.