Updated Date:
Author: BazBus Editorial Team
Quick Summary: Johannesburg is South Africa’s biggest city and its busiest international gateway, and most backpackers land here without a plan for what to do with it. This guide covers the four neighbourhoods worth basing yourself in, the heritage sites that make a Jo’burg stop genuinely worthwhile, how to move around a city built for cars, and how Johannesburg connects to the rest of a South African trip. BazBus does not currently run its hop-on hop-off network to Johannesburg, so the practical transport advice here is written independently of our own service.
Before anything else, the honest bit. The BazBus hop-on hop-off network currently operates one corridor: Cape Town to Port Elizabeth along the Garden Route, with door-to-door hostel pickups at more than 40 towns and villages in between. We also run day trips from Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, and multi-day Kruger National Park safari packages.
We do not currently operate a scheduled bus service to or from Johannesburg. That means:
Older blog posts and archived reviews still describe a Baz Bus route running up the coast through Durban to Johannesburg. That was a real part of our history, but it is not the network we run today, and we would rather tell you that plainly than let you plan around a service we cannot deliver. If the route picture changes, we will update this guide.
We have still written this guide properly, because a very large share of international backpackers arrive in South Africa through OR Tambo International Airport and need to know what to do with two or three days in Jo’burg before flying south. Thirty years of moving backpackers around this country means we hear where people stayed, what they wished they had skipped, and what went wrong.
Most backpacker itineraries treat Johannesburg as a connection: land, overnight near the airport, fly to Cape Town. That is a defensible plan if you are short on time. It is also how people miss the two or three days that most reliably change how they understand the rest of the country.
Cape Town and the Garden Route show you South Africa’s landscape. Johannesburg shows you its recent history, at close range and without much softening. The city grew out of an 1886 gold rush, was reshaped by apartheid-era spatial planning, and has spent the three decades since 1994 rearranging itself again. Almost every conversation you will have further south — about land, about townships, about why the Garden Route looks the way it does — makes more sense once you have spent a day in Soweto and an afternoon at a good museum.
There is a practical argument too. Johannesburg is the cheapest place in the country to buy things you will need for a long trip: SIM cards, hiking gear, a decent daypack, medication. Prices in Cape Town’s tourist districts and in Garden Route towns are noticeably higher.
Johannesburg is a sprawling, low-density, car-dependent city. Your choice of neighbourhood matters more here than in almost any other South African destination, because the distance between a good base and a bad one can be an hour of traffic and a meaningful difference in how freely you can walk around.
Maboneng, a seSotho name meaning “place of light”, is a regenerated warehouse district on the eastern edge of the inner city. It is where the modern Johannesburg tourism story usually starts: galleries, rooftop bars, a Sunday market, street art, and a handful of backpacker-friendly guesthouses within walking distance of each other.
What Maboneng gives you is the ability to walk somewhere in the evening, which is rarer in Jo’burg than newcomers expect. What it does not give you is a walkable route to the rest of the inner city. The precinct is compact and the streets immediately around it are not tourist-oriented. Walk inside the precinct, use a ride-hailing app to leave it.
Melville sits northwest of the centre and is the closest thing Johannesburg has to a leafy, low-rise, student-adjacent neighbourhood. 7th Street carries most of the bars and restaurants, the University of the Witwatersrand is a short drive away, and the guesthouses here tend to be converted homes with gardens rather than warehouse conversions.
Melville suits travellers staying three nights or more, people working remotely, and anyone who wants to walk to dinner without planning it. It is further from the heritage sites than Maboneng, so budget for transport.
Braamfontein is the student and creative quarter just north of the central business district, and it puts you within walking distance of Constitution Hill and a short ride from the Nelson Mandela Bridge and the inner city. It is busy during the week, quieter on weekends when students leave, and has a good weekend market. Accommodation skews toward apartment-style stays rather than classic backpacker dorms.
Sandton is the financial district: shopping malls, corporate hotels, and the cleanest, easiest transport links in the city thanks to the Gautrain. If you are transiting, arriving late, or travelling with family, it is the low-friction option. It is also expensive by backpacker standards and almost completely disconnected from the city that makes Johannesburg interesting.
A rough rule from three decades of listening to travellers compare notes: stay in Sandton if the trip is short and logistics-driven, stay in Maboneng or Melville if you actually want to see Johannesburg.
Constitution Hill in Braamfontein is a former prison and military fort that now houses South Africa’s Constitutional Court. The Old Fort, the Women’s Jail and the Number Four section held both Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi at different points in their lives, and the site’s transformation into the country’s highest court is about as direct a piece of symbolism as any museum anywhere offers. Give it at least two hours with a guide; the guided tours are what make it land.
The Apartheid Museum, south of the city near Gold Reef City, is the country’s most comprehensive treatment of the apartheid era. Visitors are issued a ticket that arbitrarily classifies them as “white” or “non-white” and routed through separate entrances — a device that sounds gimmicky in writing and is not remotely gimmicky in person. Allow half a day. It is emotionally heavy and there is no sensible way to rush it.
Soweto is South Africa’s largest township and a city of well over a million people in its own right. The standard route covers Vilakazi Street — the only street in the world to have housed two Nobel Peace Prize laureates, Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu — the Mandela House museum, and the Hector Pieterson Memorial, which commemorates the 13-year-old killed when police fired on student protesters in June 1976.
Go with a guide who is from Soweto. Bicycle and tuk-tuk tours have become the standard backpacker format and they work well: slow enough to talk to people, fast enough to cover ground. This is the same principle our own driver guides work on along the Garden Route — the difference between seeing a place and understanding it is usually a local person willing to answer questions.
About an hour northwest of the city, the Cradle of Humankind is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the richest hominid fossil sites on earth. The Sterkfontein Caves and the Maropeng visitor centre are the two standard stops. It makes a comfortable day trip and is a genuine change of pace from the heritage-and-history circuit.
Johannesburg’s reputation runs ahead of it, and the reality is more specific than the reputation. The risks are real, concentrated, and largely avoidable with a few habits:
None of this is unique to Johannesburg — the same situational awareness applies in most large cities — but the city is big and unfamiliar enough that habits matter more than instincts.
Here is where honest sequencing helps. Johannesburg is the country’s main international gateway and it sits close to Kruger National Park, the Panorama Route and the Drakensberg. Cape Town and the Garden Route are roughly 1,400 km southwest. There is no direct backpacker bus network connecting the two halves today.
The itinerary most of our passengers end up building looks like this:
Our Kruger Park safari packages run from three to five days and include guided Big Five game drives, a bush braai and a visit to Blyde River Canyon, so travellers who want the northeast covered without organising it themselves often add a safari package to a Garden Route pass. Passes start at eight days and run to 21 days from either Cape Town or Port Elizabeth.
“We are in our 30s and wanted some chill out time after a big family wedding, try some wines, see the sights, meet people, and not worry about who would drive and where each day!!! I looked at every option for months…after checking Bazbus reviews we eventually were convinced to book the 14 day travel pass..and we added a Kruger Park safari package too. Thank you Matt and the office team, we had the best 3 weeks we could have imagined.” — Lisa-Jane, Canada, March 2025.
Travellers who arrive in Johannesburg after Cape Town are sometimes disappointed, and travellers who do it the other way round are sometimes relieved. It helps to know what each city is for.
| Johannesburg | Cape Town | |
|---|---|---|
| Main draw | Recent history, urban culture, museums | Landscape, coastline, outdoor activity |
| Walkability | Low — neighbourhood-level only | Moderate — several walkable districts |
| Backpacker scene | Smaller, more dispersed | Large, concentrated, well established |
| Typical stay | 2–3 nights | 4–7 nights |
| Public transport for visitors | Gautrain plus ride-hailing | MyCiTi buses, ride-hailing |
| Onward backpacker bus network | None currently | BazBus hop-on hop-off to Port Elizabeth |
Neither is better. They answer different questions. Our Cape Town travel guide covers the southern half of that comparison in detail.
Johannesburg is generally cheaper than Cape Town for accommodation and food, and more expensive for transport because you will use ride-hailing for almost every movement. A realistic daily budget for a backpacker staying in Maboneng or Melville covers a dorm bed or budget private room, two meals out, one museum entry and three or four short rides.
Two costs people underestimate: the airport transfer, and the Soweto or Cradle of Humankind day tour. Both are worth paying for. Both are easier to book from your accommodation than online in advance, because Jo’burg guesthouses tend to work with guides they know personally.
Is Johannesburg safe for backpackers?
Johannesburg requires more planning than Cape Town, but it is not a city to avoid. The overwhelming majority of incidents involving visitors come down to a small number of avoidable behaviours: walking between neighbourhoods, walking after dark, and displaying phones and cameras in public. Base yourself in a well-run guesthouse in Maboneng, Melville, Braamfontein or the northern suburbs, use ride-hailing apps for every trip, and take guided tours into Soweto and the inner city rather than exploring alone. Ask your accommodation which specific streets they recommend avoiding — local, block-level advice is far more useful than general advice, and Jo’burg hosts give it freely.
Can I travel from Johannesburg to Cape Town on BazBus?
Not at present. The BazBus network currently runs between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth along the Garden Route, and does not extend to Johannesburg. Most travellers fly between Johannesburg and Cape Town, which takes about two hours and is usually the cheapest option once you account for the time a 1,400 km overland trip would take. Once you are in Cape Town, you can pick up a hop-on hop-off pass and travel the Garden Route at your own pace. Independent long-distance coach operators such as Intercape and Greyhound do run the Johannesburg–Cape Town corridor if you specifically want to travel overland; they are point-to-point terminal-to-terminal services rather than door-to-door, so you will need to arrange your own transfers at both ends.
How many days do I need in Johannesburg?
Two full days covers Constitution Hill, the Apartheid Museum and a guided Soweto tour without rushing. Three days lets you add the Cradle of Humankind or a slower exploration of Maboneng and Braamfontein. Beyond four days, most backpackers tell us they would rather have spent the time in Kruger or on the coast. If you are arriving on a long-haul flight, add an extra night at the start purely for jet lag — trying to absorb the Apartheid Museum on three hours’ sleep is a waste of a good museum.
Is it better to visit Johannesburg at the start or end of a South Africa trip?
At the start, for two reasons. First, the historical context you pick up in Johannesburg improves everything you see afterwards, especially township visits and cultural tours further south. Second, most international flights route through OR Tambo anyway, so doing the Johannesburg leg on arrival avoids a backtrack. The main argument for the reverse order is weather: Johannesburg summers (November to March) bring dramatic afternoon thunderstorms, and if your dates are fixed you may prefer to schedule the city portion around them.
What should I book in advance?
Accommodation for your first two nights, your airport transfer, and any guided Soweto or Cradle of Humankind tour if you are travelling in December or January. Everything else can be arranged on the ground. Museums do not generally require advance booking outside peak holiday periods.
This guide describes the BazBus network as it operates in September 2026; route coverage, pass options and pricing change, and Johannesburg is not currently served, so confirm the current network before building an itinerary around it. Neighbourhood safety conditions, museum opening hours and entry fees also shift, so cross-check specifics with your accommodation and the relevant site’s own channels close to your travel dates. Review dates are missing from our source corpus and must be added before publication.
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