Top Things To Do In Johannesburg in One Day

We finished our Garden Route road trip from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth, and from there boarded the direct flight for Johannesburg. Its just an hour and half duration of flight, while we reached Jo’burg by late evening and called it a night. So our plan for the next day was to directly head for Kruger National Park which is approximately a drive of 6-7 hours from Johannesburg. So would publish a detailed blog on Kruger National Park too, make sure you check that out. However we decided to explore Jo’burg once we are back from Kruger, keeping this city for the last in our entire South Africa trip. Read through to know about top things to do in Johannesburg in One Day. Use this 1 day in Johannesburg Itinerary to plan a short visit to this beautiful city.

Johannesburg aka Jo’burg, is the largest heartbeat city in SA, so make sure you don’t miss a chance to explore the corners. Many travellers tend to omit Jo’burg from their itinerary and prefer visiting Cape Town and other safari destinations usually. Jo’burg is a dynamic city which will not only intrigue you, but will surely leave
you in awe with everything it offers. Try to spend a full day in Jo’burg which is enough, and you will be able to understand how culturally and historically rich this city is making it a wonderful holiday destination.

Read the detailed blog below and click here to get your Wild Card.

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What’s the best time to visit Johannesburg : Things To Do in Johannesburg

For its mild temperature Jo’burg is an excellent destination to visit all year-round. However April- October are ideal if you wish to avoid rain, with temperature relatively cooler than the other months. Rainy months starts
from (May- August) and summer is from (November- March)

How to reach Johannesburg : Things To Do in Johannesburg

There are multiple flight options to reach Jo’burg from Cape town, Durban and other major cities as well. We ended our garden route road trip from Cape town to Port Elizabeth and boarded direct flight from there.

Is Johannesburg safe and worth visiting : Things To Do in Johannesburg

This question definitely hits everyone’s mind for sure. But don’t worry there is currently no nationwide security advisory in effect for Jo’burg. Would still suggest try to avoid empty streets and dark alleys. You might hear some robbery cases taking place all the time and we won’t deny that its not true. So don’t go anywhere if your instincts says not to.

If you are staying in a hotel, leave your passport and other valuables in the safety deposit box or in the locker and just carry a photocopy of your passport. If you are renting out a car, always keep the car locked and do not
stop for any hitch hiker or person in trouble on the road.

Getting around the town is pretty simple and easy here even you are not self driving. But please try to avoid public trains, and call for Uber or cabs instead. We rented our car through Rentalcars which gives cheapest option after comparing best websites. Make your booking here!!

Where to stay in Johannesburg

Johannesburg has variety of hotels. You can make your booking here.

So here are list of things to do in Johannesburg!

Visit Lion and Safari Park
Visit the very famous Apartheid Museum
Visit Soweto Towers
Take a walking tour of Maboneng neighborhood

If you are not self driving and are interested for Guided Tours then book here.

Lion and Safari Park

Situated only 40min from Johannesburg this is a place we would definitely suggest to visit. Just turn on the GPS and there is no chance of getting lost anywhere. This man made Lion & Safari Park is nestled in the beautiful Magaliesberg mountain range covering a proximity of 600 hectare.
This park is a home to a vast selection of indigenous species of wildlife such as Lion, Cheetah, Hyena, Leopard, Wild Dog, Zebra, Giraffe (to mention only a few). We could not spot wild dogs in Kruger National Park, and we were so desperate to see those. Finally to our satisfaction enjoyed watching some of the wild dogs here so closely.

You can also opt for a guided tour from the reception, but in our opinion if you are self driving its better you take your personal car inside. While guided tour operators would bring you back after a designated time frame, however if you are self driving inside the park there would be no time limit for you, also you see the same things and nothing different.

Rates inside the park: R199 per person self driving.

For guided tour: 1hr- R290 per person , 2hr-R325 per person

Visit the Apartheid Museum

The Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg, illustrates the apartheid and the 20th century history of South Africa. It was really saddening, that we could not walk inside the museum because it was held closed for Covid.
But make sure go and have a look around. Admission charges for adults are R95, while for students and children its R80. Museum Opening hours are from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM daily.

Take a tour of Soweto Towers

Once we were out from lion and safari park, directly drove towards Soweto towers which almost took us 45min to reach. Its one of the SA oldest and largest township which is now a adventure hub. On reaching you would see
two high rise Orlando towers which are really colourful and iconic there. If you are on for daring sports and exhilarating activities like bungee, quad biking and others you can definitely give it a try here.

Take a tour of Maboneng neighborhood

As we explored Jo’burg on our last day we really made it a point of visiting every possible corner we could. We drove from Soweto to Maboneng neighbourhood, which took almost 50min. Trust us this is one of the city’s bustling shopping and club hub you can visit where you can eat and drink some of the best food and local produce of South Africa.
This neighbourhood is also very famous for graffiti streets and walking lanes which are really impressive.
So we enjoyed our last night here gulping beers and also tasting South African wines along grabbing some dinner at one of the many delicious restaurants.

Envisioning the lovely end to this amazing time at Johannesburg, and yeah that’s all about it, things you can do in Jo’burg. So guys hope you find this blog helpful planning yours, and if you have any queries please write it down in the comment section below. We would try to help with the best of our knowledge.

Top Things To Do in Johannesburg in One Day

What’s the best time to visit Johannesburg : Things To Do in Johannesburg

How to reach Johannesburg : Things To Do in Johannesburg