Johannesburg itineraries for one to five days

7 min read Updated November 2026 Compare all tours

Two things shape a Johannesburg plan more than distance. Several sights close on Mondays, and the big outings, a safari or the drive to the Cradle of Humankind, start early in the morning. The plans below assume tours with pickup or a car with a driver; the getting around page covers the Gautrain and taxis, and is Johannesburg safe explains why the city centre and Soweto are best seen with a guide.

One day

Start at Constitution Hill, where the visitor centre opens at 08:45. The one-hour Highlights tour leaves every hour on the hour and covers the Old Fort or the Women’s Jail, the Number Four prison and the Constitutional Court. Both Gandhi and Mandela were held prisoner here. Payment is cashless.

From there, drive to the Apartheid Museum in Ormonde, open from Tuesday to Sunday between 09:00 and 17:00. The museum suggests two hours for a brief visit and does not consider it suitable for children under 11. In the afternoon, continue to Soweto: Vilakazi Street in Orlando West, the only street in the world where two Nobel Prize winners lived, and the Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum on Khumalo Street, which Time Out lists as open daily from 10:00 to 17:00.

A guided full-day tour fits all of this into one day, with pickup from your hotel and a drive through the old city centre and over the Nelson Mandela Bridge. It ends at about 17:00. If you prefer to move at your own pace, the hop-on hop-off bus leaves Rosebank at 09:00 and then every 40 minutes, stops at Constitution Hill and the Apartheid Museum, and offers a two-hour Soweto tour as an add-on.

Two days

Use the second day for a safari. Pilanesberg National Park lies in the crater of an extinct volcano in North West Province, about two hours from Johannesburg according to the Pilanesberg Wildlife Trust, and it is malaria-free. Day tours collect guests between 06:00 and 06:30, make a morning and an afternoon game drive in an open vehicle with a light lunch in between, and are back after about 12 hours. Which animals you see varies from day to day. This is also the best use of a Monday, when the Apartheid Museum is closed. More on Pilanesberg safaris.

Three days

Split the third day between human origins and the capital. The Cradle of Humankind lies north-west of the city. The Sterkfontein Caves, where the Mrs Ples and Little Foot fossils were found, are open from Tuesday to Sunday, 09:00 to 16:00, and the Maropeng Visitor Centre every day over the same hours. Guided tours with pickup take about five hours; the cave visit has many steps and narrow passages.

Pretoria is about 50 km north of Johannesburg, or about 30 minutes on the Gautrain from Sandton. The half-day tour from Johannesburg leaves at 08:00 or 13:00 and takes five hours, with entry to Kruger House and the Voortrekker Monument and a drive past Church Square and the Union Buildings. The afternoon departure follows a morning in the Cradle if your first tour ends by lunchtime.

An alternative start to the day is a balloon flight. Bill Harrop’s launches near Skeerpoort, west of Hartbeespoort Dam and about an hour from Johannesburg, before sunrise; with breakfast, the morning takes three to four hours. See hot-air balloon flights and Hartbeespoort Dam.

Four or five days with Kruger

Kruger National Park is a separate trip rather than a day out. SANParks gives distances of 411 km from Johannesburg to the Numbi Gate and up to 490 km to Orpen, and reviewers of the three-day tour mention a drive of around five hours each way. The gates close at night, and driving in the park outside the gate times is not allowed. Airlink also flies from Johannesburg to Skukuza in about an hour.

A three-day safari with pickup in Johannesburg leaves room for four game drives. Some longer tours return along the Panorama Route in Mpumalanga, past God’s Window, where the cliffs drop 700 m, and the 33 km Blyde River Canyon; after heavy rain, the provincial parks agency sometimes closes viewpoints at short notice. Kruger is a malaria area, so ask a doctor before you go. The Kruger safari page compares the tours.

Weekends and bad weather

On a Sunday, the Rosebank Sunday Market fills the rooftop parking deck of Rosebank Mall from 09:00 to 16:00, in the same district as the hop-on hop-off departure point. Gold Reef City, in Ormonde like the Apartheid Museum, opens from Thursday to Sunday, which suits a family afternoon; see Johannesburg with kids. In summer, severe thunderstorms can bring a change of plan, and museums such as the Apartheid Museum are the obvious indoor choice; in winter, the early safari starts are cold. The best time to visit page has the seasons, and things to do in Johannesburg lists everything else.