In short
Johannesburg was born of gold in 1886 and has never stopped being a working city. It has no single centre: apartheid, then the flight of business northwards in the 1990s, produced a conurbation broken into poles separated by motorways.
Sandton is the current business district. Maboneng and Braamfontein are regenerated inner-city quarters, with galleries and markets. Soweto, to the south-west, is a township of about two million people and a city in its own right.
Arriving and getting around
OR Tambo airport is the largest in Africa. The Gautrain links it to Sandton and Pretoria by fast train: the simplest and most reliable transport for a visitor.
Johannesburg is a car city. Apart from the Gautrain and the Rea Vaya buses, public transport is poorly suited to tourist journeys. Car hire or ride-hailing apps are the norm.
The city sits at about 1,750 metres, which tempers its climate.
What it really costs
Johannesburg is affordable for a foreign visitor, food and accommodation included — markedly more so than Cape Town.
When to come
April–May and September–October. The southern summer (October–March) brings violent late-afternoon storms; winter is dry, sunny, with cold nights.
What nobody tells you
Safety calls for specific habits. Local and official advice converges: do not walk in the centre at night, do not display valuables, keep car doors locked, check district by district. Consult your own ministry's travel advice before departure. These precautions do not make the city inaccessible — guided visits of Soweto and the centre are common and well organised.
The Apartheid Museum issues a ticket at the entrance randomly assigning a racial classification, which determines which door you go through. It is the museum's most effective device, and it lasts ten seconds.
Constitution Hill is the former prison where Gandhi and Mandela were held, today the seat of the Constitutional Court — built deliberately on that site.
The Cradle of Humankind, an hour away, is a World Heritage site where some of the most important known hominin fossils were uncovered.