City tours in Johannesburg

7 min read Updated November 2026 Compare all tours

Johannesburg began with gold. George Harrison, an Australian prospector, found the main reef on the farm Langlaagte in July 1886. The name Johannesburg was first used officially in October that year, and the first plots were auctioned in December. “Johannesburg’s early history is the story of gold,” Britannica writes, and city tours still follow that thread, from the old Mining District to Constitution Hill and the Apartheid Museum on the road to Soweto.

The hop-on hop-off bus

The red City Sightseeing bus starts at its tour office in The Zone mall on Oxford Road, Rosebank. Under the 2026/2027 timetable the first bus leaves at 09:00 and then every 40 minutes, and the full loop takes two and a half hours. After Rosebank it stops at Melrose Arch, the Mandela Foundation, the Monroe Drive viewpoint, Constitution Hill, the Mining District, the Apartheid Museum and theme park, Gold Reef City, Newtown, Braamfontein, the Holocaust & Genocide Centre, Johannesburg Zoo and the Military Museum, before it returns to Rosebank. Tickets are for one or two days, and a free shuttle links selected Sandton hotels with Rosebank, returning at 17:35.

The combination ticket adds a two-hour Soweto tour with a guide who lives there. It starts from the City Sightseeing desk at Gold Reef City, and the bus then brings you back to Rosebank via the Apartheid Museum. Entrance fees are not included in either ticket. Riders like the bus as a safe, easy first look at the city at their own pace. One guest found that a long stop at the museum left too little time for Soweto, so decide in the morning which of the two comes first.

Constitution Hill

Constitution Hill is a former prison complex where both Gandhi and Mandela were held, and the Constitutional Court stands partly on the site of its Number Four prison. The visitor centre opens from 08:45 to 17:00 and sells no tickets after 16:00. The one-hour highlights tour leaves every hour on the hour, the last at 16:00. The two-hour full-site tour, through the Old Fort, the Women’s Jail, Number Four and the court, runs daily at 10:00 and 13:00. Individuals and small groups do not need to book, and payment is cashless. On six public holidays, from Human Rights Day to the Day of Reconciliation, entry is free.

The bus stops here, and the full days by MoAfrika, Kilimanjaro Travel and Tour and Stephenson Adventures include a visit. City Sightseeing notes that entry to the Constitutional Court itself is free.

Houghton, the Mandela Foundation and Wits

The Nelson Mandela Foundation at 107 Central Street in Houghton shows Mandela’s post-presidential office and a permanent exhibition on his life and times, alongside changing exhibitions. It is open from Monday to Saturday, 09:00 to 16:00, and is the bus’s third stop. The Stephenson Adventures day drives through Houghton Estate, where Mandela lived after his presidency, and along Munro Drive for the view over the northern suburbs.

The Origins Centre at Wits University, on the corner of Yale Road and Enoch Sontonga Avenue, is open from Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 17:00, and on Saturdays and public holidays until 16:00. It is closed on Sundays, and guided tours there need to be booked in advance.

Full days with a guide

The guided full days collect you in Johannesburg and combine the city with the Apartheid Museum and Soweto. MoAfrika starts with a guided tour of Constitution Hill, crosses the Nelson Mandela Bridge for an orientation drive through the centre, then visits the Apartheid Museum and Soweto, with the Hector Pieterson Museum, Regina Mundi and Vilakazi Street. Entry fees are included, lunch is not, and the guide speaks English.

Stephenson Adventures takes nine hours and starts further north, at Nelson Mandela Square in Sandton, before Houghton, Munro Drive, Constitution Hill, Braamfontein, Newtown and the Mandela and Tambo building, then the museum and Soweto. All entrance fees are included and lunch is at your own cost; the listing marks it as unsuitable for people with limited mobility. African Eagle passes the Hillbrow Tower, Ponte City and the Carlton Centre on the way to Constitution Hill and includes lunch at a shebeen on Vilakazi Street. Kilimanjaro’s day ends at 17:00.

The inner city from a vehicle

The German Foreign Office advises against visiting Johannesburg’s CBD at any time of day. The US State Department says violent crime is more common in city centres, especially after dark, and Canada calls the area around the main train station dangerous because of high crime. The bus and the guided days show the centre mostly from the vehicle, with short stops. For walking, see walking tours, all of them guided.

Two well-known places in the centre are closed. The Carlton Centre’s viewing deck on the 50th floor has been shut since March 2020, with no sign of reopening, and the Johannesburg Art Gallery in Joubert Park is closed for restoration. In Newtown, the Market Theatre was converted from an old fruit and vegetable market in 1976 and staged anti-apartheid plays; Museum Africa stands on Mary Fitzgerald Square nearby.

After dark

African Eagle’s night tour takes seven hours with pickup and drop-off at your hotel. It drives past the historic buildings of the centre, stops in Maboneng, continues to Soweto for a beer tasting and ends with dinner on Vilakazi Street. Alcohol is extra, and children under two cannot join. The German Foreign Office advises against overland drives after dark and warns of carjackings at quieter junctions at night, so a tour with a driver is the simpler choice for an evening. Food and music tours are on food and nightlife.