Johannesburg

The currency is the rand (ZAR, R), at about R18 per dollar and about R3.3 per Brazilian real in 2026. Tap-to-pay works for almost everything, including ride-hailing apps, markets and gas stations, but carry cash for what doesn't take a card machine: tips, street stalls, car guards. 2026 ranges, approximate: coffee R35–55; a simple lunch R100–180; a main course at a mid-range restaurant R180–320. A full dinner with wine R450–800 per person; beer R35–60; a house wine bottle R220–400. App ride R60–180; hostel bed R350–550; mid-range hotel night R1,200–2,500. Tipping is expected and is part of workers' income: 10–15% at restaurants, and small change for whoever helps at the gas pump and the parking spot. VAT is 15% and already included in the price. Purchases over R250 qualify for a refund at the airport counter, with the receipt and a filled-out form.

OR Tambo Airport: 24 km, the busiest in Africa

OR Tambo (JNB) is 24 km east of downtown, in Ekurhuleni, and is Africa's busiest airport, with between 21 and 24 million passengers a year. The Gautrain links the terminal to Sandton, and you buy the card at the same ticket office: without it, the turnstile won't open. By Uber or Bolt, count on R350–550 to Sandton and R300–450 to downtown. Lanseria Airport (HLA), to the northwest, handles low-cost domestic flights and has no train, only cars or shuttles. Never accept a ride from anyone who approaches you in the arrivals hall, and if you're in a rental car, drive straight to your hotel.

The Gautrain covers just one axis

The Gautrain covers the Park Station–Rosebank–Sandton–Midrand–Centurion–Pretoria/Hatfield axis, with feeder buses on the same card: the leg costs R30–80 within Johannesburg and R90–120 from Sandton to Hatfield, but the line doesn't serve the west or the south. For Soweto, Rea Vaya, Africa's first BRT, running since August 2009, links the CBD to the township for R9.90–28, with a dedicated lane and enclosed stations. Minibus taxis, 15-seat vans, carry most of the region's workers for R12–25 a leg and are hailed with hand signals from the sidewalk, one for each destination; the first time, go with someone who knows the route. Metrobus and Metrorail trains are unreliable. In practice, visitors get around by Uber or Bolt, between R60 and R180 for most trips, requesting the car from inside the building. The neighborhoods are too far apart to walk, with 15 km from downtown to Sandton and no continuous sidewalk, and cycling is only worth it in a group or on a guided tour, like the ones in Soweto.

Violent crime in Johannesburg is high in absolute numbers, but it's concentrated in identifiable areas and times, and almost all of it can be avoided with simple rules. Don't walk at night anywhere, including the leafy northern suburbs. In the CBD, Hillbrow, Berea, Yeoville and Joubert Park, don't walk around alone: by day, go with a guide, and at night, don't go. On the street, the most common crime against visitors is the smash-and-grab at traffic lights, so drive with the windows up, doors locked, nothing visible inside the car and enough distance from the car in front to maneuver. At OR Tambo there's a scam of following rental cars to the hotel: if you're suspicious, drive to a busy gas station or a police station instead of parking. Only withdraw cash inside a mall or bank branch, and turn down anyone who offers help at the ATM. During scheduled blackouts, traffic lights go off and streets go dark, so avoid driving at those times. Use Uber or Bolt, check the license plate and get in from inside the building, not from the sidewalk. Emergencies: 10111 (police), 10177 (ambulance) and 112 from a cell phone. The health side is easy: the Highveld is at 1,750 m and has no malaria or yellow fever risk, and the certificate is only required from travelers arriving from an endemic country. Tap water is treated and safe to drink, although supply interruptions are frequent.

Greet before asking for anything

Getting straight to the point sounds rude. Say “howzit,” “sawubona” or “good morning,” wait for the reply, and only then ask your question: at the counter, at reception, at the gas station and when getting into a minibus taxi.

The handshake has three parts

Palm, thumbs interlocked, palm again, often with the left hand supporting your own forearm. If the other person starts it, go along; missing the second part isn't a problem, pulling your hand away mid-way is.

“Just now” isn't now

“Now now” means shortly, “just now” means later, and “now” could still mean today. If you need an actual time, ask for the number instead of trusting the expression.

Don't photograph people without asking

Ask permission before photographing people, especially in Soweto, Alexandra and the CBD, where there's a long history of residents being photographed as scenery. On a guided tour, let the guide ask for you.

During a blackout, the intersection line sorts itself out

A traffic light here is called a “robot.” When it goes dark, the four directions take turns, one car at a time, in order of arrival, with no one coordinating. Cutting that order annoys people more than any honking.

In Johannesburg, race is a common topic; it isn't a casual one

The census categories (black, coloured, Indian, white) still structure public policy and come up in normal conversation. Listen to the local vocabulary before using it, and don't turn the subject into a joke.

Walking between neighborhoods

Thinking you can walk between neighborhoods. It's 15 km from the CBD to Sandton, without a continuous sidewalk. Plan every trip as an app ride, and count 30–50 minutes during rush hour.

Staying only in Sandton

Booking everything in Sandton and going home saying you've seen Johannesburg. Sandton is a fifty-year-old financial district. What explains the city lies 15 to 30 km away, and that's where your days should go.

Soweto on your own and without context

Going to Soweto on your own on the first day and without context. A walking or cycling tour with a local guide in Orlando West costs R400–800 per person. It runs 3 to 4 hours, and takes care of orientation, safety and explanation at once.

Bag in plain sight on the passenger seat

Leaving a bag, phone or backpack visible on the passenger seat with the window open: it's the favorite target of smash-and-grab robberies at traffic lights. Drive with the windows up, doors locked and nothing in view, and always stop with space between you and the car in front.

Public transport after eight

Counting on public transit after 8pm. The Gautrain shuts down around 9pm, Rea Vaya cuts its frequency sharply at night and minibus taxis practically stop, so from then on the way out is the app, with pickup from inside the building.

Sawubona

hello, to one person (sa-u-BOH-na, in isiZulu); to more than one, “sanibonani”

Ngiyabonga

thank you (ngui-ya-BON-ga, isiZulu); in Sesotho, “kea leboha”

Howzit

what's up: a South African English greeting that doesn't expect a report, just a “sharp” back

Sharp sharp

cool, agreed, understood; usually comes with a raised thumb and closes the conversation

Sho't left

“drop me right there”: used to ask for a stop at the next corner in a minibus taxi

Robot

traffic light; “turn left at the robot” is a common, literal instruction, not a playful bit of slang

The ridge, the terrain and the water

Johannesburg sits on the Witwatersrand ridge, a watershed at an altitude of 1,750 m that separates the Limpopo basin to the north from the Vaal and Orange basin to the south; that's why the city has no sizable river and depends on water transferred from the Vaal and from the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, more than 400 km away. The terrain is a rolling plateau with rocky outcrops (koppies), and the difference between the lowest point, in the south, and the Northcliff ridge, at about 1,807 m, is about 200 m.

A grid that follows the ore

The city grid follows the ore: the reef runs east-west, and alongside it line up Main Reef Road, the railway, the old mines and the yellow mine-waste dumps, many now reprocessed or grassed over. North of that line are the leafy suburbs of Parktown, Houghton, Rosebank and Sandton, served by wide avenues; to the south and southwest, Soweto and the historic townships, separated by strips of open land that were deliberate buffer zones.

High-altitude climate and a city built for cars

The climate is subtropical highland (Cwb), with a rainy summer and a dry, sunny winter, and the roughly ten million trees planted in the northern suburbs form a canopy so dense it shows on satellite images as an urban forest. The city covers about 1,645 km² and was designed for the car: most of life happens on streets without continuous sidewalks, in malls and in gated complexes.

Nearly all of the country's urban music came from here

Almost all urban South African popular music came from here. Marabi was born in the yards and slums of downtown in the 1920s, with piano and organ at clandestine liquor-selling parties; the 1950s brought pennywhistle kwela and Sophiatown jazz, with Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela, Dolly Rathebe and the Manhattan Brothers big band, all documented by Drum magazine. After 1994, kwaito slowed down house music and put township slang on top (Arthur Mafokate, Boom Shaka, Trompies, Mandoza), and from 2016 amapiano, created in the townships of Gauteng with the deep bass of the log drum, became the country's main cultural export, led by Kabza De Small and DJ Maphorisa. Pantsula, a fast-footed dance that emerged on the streets in the 1950s, still goes along with all of it.

A tradition of its own in urban writing

In words and images, the city has its own tradition of urban chronicle. The Drum of the 1950s trained Can Themba, Es’kia Mphahlele, Bloke Modisane and Nat Nakasa, with photography by Jürgen Schadeberg and Bob Gosani. Nadine Gordimer, winner of the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature, wrote almost all her work in Parktown; Ivan Vladislavić made walking through Johannesburg a method; Phaswane Mpe put Hillbrow at the center of the South African novel in 2001. In film, “Come Back, Africa” was shot clandestinely in Sophiatown in 1959, “Tsotsi” won the Oscar for best foreign-language film in 2006 and “District 9” used Chiawelo, in Soweto, as a set in 2009. The contemporary art market is the largest on the continent, with Everard Read (opened in 1913), Goodman and Stevenson, and the FNB Art Joburg fair in September.

Sport and religion on the weekend

Sport and religion fill the weekend. The derby between Kaizer Chiefs, founded in 1970, and Orlando Pirates, from 1937, is the Soweto Derby and fills FNB Stadium twice a season; cricket is played at the Wanderers, in Illovo, nicknamed the Bullring, and rugby at Ellis Park, where South Africa won the Rugby World Cup final on June 24, 1995. On Sunday morning, whole buses carry worshippers of independent African churches (the Zion Christian Church is the country's largest) and Regina Mundi, in Moroka, still bears bullet marks on its ceiling from shots fired inside the church during the 1976 uprising.

Tsotsi (Gavin Hood, 2005)

Shot in Soweto and Alexandra and based on Athol Fugard's novel, it won the Oscar for best foreign language film in 2006. It puts on screen the physical distance between the township and the walled suburb: the geography apartheid drew and the city has kept.

Portrait with Keys, by Ivan Vladislavić (2006)

One hundred and thirty-eight fragments about walking through the northern suburbs in the 1990s and 2000s. It's the best account there is of what walls, electric fences, automatic gates and security-company signs did to the idea of a street.

Stimela, by Hugh Masekela (1974)

The song of the coal train that brought workers from Mozambique, Malawi, Lesotho and Zimbabwe to the Rand's mines. In seven minutes it explains why the city exists, who built it and under what conditions: more than any museum panel could.