Wildlife parks and game reserves near Johannesburg

7 min read Updated November 2026 Compare all tours

The parks around Johannesburg fall into two groups. The Lion & Safari Park and the Rhino & Lion Nature Reserve keep lions, cheetahs and wild dogs in fenced enclosures, and you see them from a vehicle on a drive of one to two hours. Dinokeng, north of Pretoria, is a game reserve where the Big Five roam a larger area, as in Pilanesberg or Kruger, only closer to the city. None of them replaces a full safari, but they fit into a morning or an afternoon.

Dinokeng, the Big Five north of Pretoria

Dinokeng Game Reserve describes itself as Gauteng’s only Big Five game reserve, about 40 minutes from central Pretoria, off the N1 North near Hammanskraal. It is malaria-free. The tour with transfer collects you in Pretoria or Johannesburg around 7 or 8 am and spends 2.5 hours in an open vehicle with a ranger, with a break in the bush for a snack and a drink. The conservation fees are included, and the tour is not for children under 6 or people with limited mobility. The operator suggests sun cream, a hat and binoculars.

Drivers with their own car can buy a self-drive route permit on top of the daily fee. Dinokeng has more than 140 km of tracks, most of them suitable for sedans, and you must stay on the marked routes. Motorbikes are not allowed, passengers on the back of a bakkie must ride inside a closed canopy, and sitting or standing through a window or sunroof is not allowed. The speed limit on the self-drive routes is 30 km/h. Driving without a permit costs a fine of R2,500. In September 2026 the reserve warned about fake offers circulating on TikTok and other social media, so book through the reserve or a known operator.

Lion & Safari Park

The Lion Park left its 80-hectare site near Johannesburg in 2016 for a larger property near Hartbeespoort, west of Pretoria. A 2017 report put the new site at 600 hectares on the R512; it lies 13 km from Lanseria Airport. A guide drives you in a game truck through the antelope area, where giraffes, zebras, springboks and impalas graze, and then through the enclosures of lions, cheetahs, wild dogs and leopards. On weekends and public holidays the lions are fed at 12:00 and 15:00. You can also drive yourself in a closed car; soft-tops and convertibles are not let in.

The half-day tour with pickup in Johannesburg or Pretoria includes a two-hour drive in an open safari vehicle after a safety talk and is not for children under 4. Guests like seeing lions, cheetahs and wild dogs at close range from a caged vehicle, often after a safari without lion sightings. One guest wrote that it is a zoo on a larger scale: the animals are still confined and depend on people for food. We list the park only for the drive through the enclosures.

Rhino & Lion Nature Reserve and the Wonder Cave

The Bothongo Rhino & Lion Nature Reserve lies in the Cradle of Humankind near Krugersdorp. Under new owners it stopped cub petting on 13 September 2019, and its chief operating officer called breeding for cub petting undesirable from an animal welfare perspective. A game drive of 1.5 to 2 hours in an open vehicle looks for lions, white rhinos, wild dogs, hippos, crocodiles and cheetahs.

The Wonder Cave is inside the reserve. Time Out describes it as the third-largest cave chamber in South Africa, 40 m underground: you go down 87 steps at an angle of 45 degrees, then take a lift. It opens from Tuesday to Sunday, with tours every two hours, and the ticket includes a self-drive through the reserve. A full-day tour combines the cave with the reserve’s wildlife centre and predator camp. The cave and the fossil sites of the Cradle are covered on Cradle of Humankind tours.

Ann van Dyk Cheetah Centre

The centre at De Wildt has worked since 1971 to keep a viable gene pool of cheetahs and African wild dogs. It says more than 600 cheetah cubs and more than 500 wild dog pups have been born there, and that the mystery of the King Cheetah was solved there. In 2025 it ran a guided tour of two hours daily at 09:00 and 14:00, and a cheetah run with a guided tour on Wednesdays and Sundays at 08:00, not for children under 7 or under 1.2 m. Booking is essential. The tour with pickup from Johannesburg or Pretoria shows cheetahs including the King Cheetah, wild dogs, caracals and vultures, and on some days the cheetah run.

The debate about captive lions

Lions are bred in captivity in South Africa, and cub petting and walks with lions have been offered to visitors. On 2 May 2021 environment minister Barbara Creecy released the report of a High-Level Panel that recommended South Africa should not breed lions in captivity, keep them in captivity or use captive lions commercially. The panel found that the captive lion industry poses risks to the conservation of wild lions. A draft notice of September 2023 aimed to stop new breeding facilities, and a ministerial task team reported in April 2024 on ways for owners to leave the industry voluntarily.

In July 2025 minister Dion George announced a notice that prohibits new captive lion facilities for commercial purposes. As of February 2026 a parliamentary committee had recommended adopting the draft Lion Prohibition Notice, but Daily Maverick reported no final publication, and cub petting was not banned. The tourism association SATSA called cub petting and walking with lions unacceptable in its 2019 guidelines. This site does not list such activities.