Travel Guide to Johannesburg

Johannesburg is South Africa’s largest, most advanced and wealthiest city due to the large-scale gold and diamond trade. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng and is beginning to act as one functional city together with Pretoria, forming one Megacity with more than 10 million people.

Major attractions in Johannesburg

The city has many historical attractions, visited by local and foreign tourists. These attractions include:

• History Museums
• The Apartheids Museum
• The Hector Pieterson Museum
• Gold Reef City
• Johannesburg Zoo
• Art Galleries
• Johannesburg Art Gallery
• Museum Africa
• The Market Theatre
• Townships
• Soweto
• Alexandra

Getting Around

Airport

Except for the OR Tambo International Airport, Johannesburg also have the Rand Airport near Germiston, the Grand Central Airport in Midrand and the Lanseria Airport. The Lanseria Airport is used for commercial flights to Durban, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Botswana.

The OR Tambo Airport is a large airport near the city of Johannesburg, Gauteng. It was formerly called the Jan Smuts International Airport, but was renamed in 1994 to the Johannesburg International Airport. The airport is South Africa’s busiest airport because it serves as the primary airport for domestic as well as international travel to and from South Africa. The OR Tambo Airport handled about 19.5 million passengers in 2007.

The OR Tambo International Airport is currently undergoing major development in preparation for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The airport will serve additional air traffic from Europe, the Middle East and the rest of Africa during the time of the World Cup. The following domestic airlines have flights to and from Johannesburg:

• British Airways (BA) operated by ComAir (Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth)
• kulula.com (Cape Town, Durban & George)
• South African Airways (SAA) (Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Durban, East London, Pietermaritzburg, Port Elizabeth)
• Mango Airways (Cape Town, Durban)
• South African Airlink (George, Nelspruit, Pietermaritzburg)
• South African Express (Bloemfontein, George, Kimberley, Polokwane)

Roads

Johannesburg Ring Road is composed of three different freeways. They are: The N3 which links with Durban The N1, the busiest national road in South Africa, which links with Pretoria and Cape Town The N12 which links with Witbank and Kimberley

Railway

The metro railway of Johannesburg transports thousands of workers daily and connects the central city Soweto, Pretoria and many other small towns. The Gautrain and its rail system were designed for traffic between Johannesburg and Pretoria. They are currently busy with upgrading of the rail link for the additional traffic expected for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Taxis

Johannesburg has two kinds of taxis, metered taxis and minibus taxis. The city lacks a convenient public transport system and informal minibus taxis are used by the city’s working class citizens.

Buses

Buses are another form of public transport used by the working class people in and near the city, but there are a number of private bus operators who focus on touring groups.

When to go

The climate

Johannesburg has a dry, sunny climate with occasional downpours from October to April. The average maximum temperature in summer is about 26ºC (79ºF) and it is Johannesburg’s rainfall season. Winters are cool during daytime, with clear skies, and nights are cold with frost. Maximum temperatures drop to an average of about 16ºC (61ºF).