What to do on a Johannesburg layover

Every plan below starts and ends at O.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB). Each one counts 75 minutes from touchdown to the Gautrain or a car, and gets you back to the terminal 90 minutes before your flight, boarding pass already in hand; with a bag still to drop, give yourself more.

Your passport comes first: who can leave the airport. US, UK, Canadian, Australian and most EU passports need nothing in advance, but Indian passports need a visa or an ETA. Then check the day. The Apartheid Museum is closed on Mondays. On Sundays the Hector Pieterson Museum closes at 4pm and Nelson Mandela Square at 5pm, and Rosebank’s rooftop market is on.

Only Sandton and Rosebank are on the Gautrain. You reach the Apartheid Museum, Constitution Hill and Soweto by Uber or Bolt, and nobody publishes ride times to them, so the car times below, and the walk in Soweto, are our own estimates.

5.5 to 6.5 hours: Sandton and Constitution Hill

You’ll have about 1.5 hours in town on a 5.5-hour layover and about 2 hours on a 6-hour one.

Nelson Mandela Square by Gautrain

The simplest plan from OR Tambo: a 14-minute train with no traffic, and a square a few minutes from the platform. It suits a first visit and anyone who’d rather not take a car.

1. Gautrain to Sandton, 14 minutes and R228 each way, tapping in with a contactless bank card.
2. Walk under 5 minutes from the station to Nelson Mandela Square. It’s free, with the statue of Mandela at the foot of the steps and restaurants round the edge.
3. With time to spare, walk on into Sandton City, the shopping centre beside the square.
4. Back to Sandton station 2 hours 20 minutes before your flight.

Opening hours. The square opens at 9am every day and closes at 7pm Monday to Thursday, 8pm on Fridays and Saturdays and 5pm on Sundays; some restaurants keep their own hours. With 75 minutes to get out of the airport and 35 to get there, a landing before about 7:10am means waiting for it to open.

Late flights. The last train back leaves Sandton at 8:50pm, which suits flights up to about 11pm. For a later one, come back by Uber or Bolt, about 40 minutes by our estimate.

Constitution Hill’s Highlights tour

Constitution Hill is the former prison complex in central Johannesburg that is now home to South Africa’s Constitutional Court. Its one-hour guided Highlights tour is the shortest way into the country’s history on a layover.

1. Uber or Bolt from the airport to Constitution Hill, 11 Kotze Street, about 40 minutes.
2. Buy a ticket at the Visitor Centre, open from 8:45am, and join the next Highlights tour: one hour, R150 for adults and R90 for children aged 5 to 17, students and pensioners. The site is cashless, so pay by card.
3. Uber or Bolt back to the airport, leaving 2 hours 15 minutes before your flight.

Pick your time. Tours start on the hour from 9am, and the last one starts at 4pm: no tickets are sold after that, so to make it, land by about 1:45pm. On a 5.5-hour layover you’ll have about 80 minutes there, which works only if a tour starts soon after you arrive; with 6 hours or more you can wait for the next one.

Check the date. It’s closed on 25 and 26 December and 1 January, and closes at 1pm on 24 and 31 December. Entry is free on national days such as 16 December, so expect a queue.

More time? Full tours of two hours start at 10am and 1pm, for R200 an adult and R110 a child. They need a layover of about 6.5 hours, timed so you arrive for one of the two starts.

6.5 to 10 hours: the Apartheid Museum, Rosebank and Soweto

With 6.5 hours you’ll have about 2.5 hours in town, enough for the Apartheid Museum or Soweto; with 8 hours about 4, and with 9.5 about 5.5, enough to see two of them.

The Apartheid Museum

South Africa’s museum of apartheid, and the sight to choose if you have time for only one.

1. Uber or Bolt to the Apartheid Museum, on the corner of Northern Parkway and Gold Reef Road in Ormonde, about 40 minutes.
2. Buy your ticket at the door: R240 for international adults, including an audio tour, or R260 with a guided tour, and R190 for students, pensioners and children. Your ticket classifies you at random as “white” or “non-white”, and you enter by the gate it names.
3. Give it two hours.
4. Uber or Bolt back, leaving 2 hours 15 minutes before your flight.

Pick your day. It’s open Tuesday to Sunday, 9am to 5pm, and on most public holidays; it’s closed on Mondays. For two hours inside, arrive by 3pm, which means landing by about 1pm.

Rosebank and Nelson Mandela Square by Gautrain

A day on the train with more than one stop, and on a Sunday the best of the train plans, when Rosebank holds its rooftop market.

1. Gautrain to Sandton, then change to the north-south line for Rosebank, 4 minutes on. Allow up to 55 minutes from the airport with the waits; the fare is R240.
2. Rosebank Mall, open 9am to 7pm Monday to Friday, to 6pm on Saturdays and to 5pm on Sundays. On Sundays the Rosebank Sunday Market fills the mall’s rooftop from 9am to 4pm. Allow about 75 minutes.
3. Gautrain back to Sandton, 4 minutes, and walk to Nelson Mandela Square for about 45 minutes.
4. Back to Sandton station 2 hours 20 minutes before your flight.

Pick your day. Come on a Sunday for the market; on other days Rosebank is a shopping stop. The last train back from Rosebank leaves at 8:34pm and meets the 8:50pm from Sandton, so leave Rosebank by then even if you’d planned to come back from Sandton. It needs a layover of about 7 hours.

Soweto: Hector Pieterson and Vilakazi Street

Soweto, the township south-west of the city, is where the student uprising of 16 June 1976 began and where Mandela’s house stands on Vilakazi Street.

1. Uber or Bolt to the Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum, 8288 Khumalo Street, Orlando West, about 50 minutes. It remembers the students killed in the uprising; allow about 50 minutes.
2. Walk about 500 metres, roughly 10 minutes, to Vilakazi Street.
3. Mandela House, at 8115 Vilakazi Street: R185 for international adults, R75 for ages 7 to 18 and R5 under 7, by card only. Its daily hours aren’t published, so treat it as a bonus: if it’s shut, the street itself still makes the trip.
4. Uber or Bolt back from Vilakazi Street, leaving 2 hours 25 minutes before your flight.

Pick your time. The museum opens at 10am every day and closes at 5pm, or 4pm on Sundays. Land before about 8:35am and you’ll wait for it to open; to have 50 minutes there, land by about 2pm, or 1pm on Sundays.

Getting around. Keep to the museum, the short walk and Vilakazi Street, keep your phone and camera out of sight between them, and book the car back in the app rather than accepting a lift. A local guide adds the stories behind each place.

Check the date. Mandela House is closed on 25 and 26 December, 1 January, Good Friday and Family Day.

The Apartheid Museum and Constitution Hill

Two sights in one car day, from Tuesday to Sunday, for a layover of about 8 hours.

1. Uber or Bolt to the Apartheid Museum, about 40 minutes, for two hours.
2. Uber or Bolt to Constitution Hill, about 20 minutes, for the one-hour Highlights tour.
3. Uber or Bolt back to the airport, leaving 2 hours 15 minutes before your flight.

Timing. The last Highlights tour starts at 4pm, so leave the museum by about 3:30pm, which means landing by about 11:30am. The museum opens at 9am, so a landing before about 7am means a wait.

The Apartheid Museum and Soweto

The fullest history day: the museum’s account of apartheid, then the township where so much of it was fought. It needs about 9 hours, from Tuesday to Sunday.

1. Uber or Bolt to the Apartheid Museum, about 40 minutes, for two hours.
2. Uber or Bolt to the Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum in Soweto, about 35 minutes.
3. Walk to Vilakazi Street and Mandela House.
4. Uber or Bolt back to the airport, leaving 2 hours 25 minutes before your flight.

Timing. The Hector Pieterson Museum closes at 5pm, or 4pm on Sundays, so leave the Apartheid Museum by about 3:30pm, or 2:30pm on Sundays. That means landing by about 11:30am, or 10:30am on a Sunday.

Overnight: rest at the airport, then Constitution Hill at opening

Rest at the airport, then Constitution Hill at opening

For a late-evening landing and a flight the next afternoon, if you can enter South Africa.

1. Sleep at the InterContinental, opposite international arrivals, or the Protea Hotel O.R. Tambo Airport, by its free shuttle, which runs to a schedule until 12:30am and on request overnight.
2. Check out and take an Uber or Bolt at about 8am to Constitution Hill, about 40 minutes, with your bags.
3. Be at the Visitor Centre when it opens at 8:45am, and take the 9am Highlights tour.
4. Uber or Bolt back to the airport, leaving by about 10:15am.

You’re back at the airport by about 11am, so your flight needs to leave at 12:30pm or later. Landing at about 10:30pm, that’s a layover of about 14 hours. On Mondays the plan works as well, since Constitution Hill is open every day except 25 and 26 December and 1 January.

The Apartheid Museum also opens at 9am, from Tuesday to Sunday: for two hours there, your flight needs to leave after about 1:30pm. Or take the first Gautrain, at 5:30am on weekdays and 5:27am at weekends, and be at Nelson Mandela Square when it opens at 9am, for a flight from about 1pm.

24 hours

With a day and a night, you can see the city’s history properly. Airlines don’t publish a free stopover for Johannesburg, so book your own room, by the terminal or in Sandton on the Gautrain.

• Start at the Apartheid Museum at 9am, from Tuesday to Sunday, and give it two hours.
• Spend the afternoon in Soweto, at the Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum (until 5pm, or 4pm on Sundays) and on Vilakazi Street.
• The next morning, take Constitution Hill’s two-hour tour at 10am, or the one-hour Highlights tour from 9am.
• On a Sunday, add Rosebank’s rooftop market, from 9am to 4pm, by Gautrain.
• The last Gautrain leaves Sandton at 8:50pm, so for an evening out, plan to come back by Uber or Bolt.

Rest at the airport

The lounges are past security, so you can use them without entering South Africa. The two hotels are before immigration, so you need to be able to enter to use them. At the airport covers lounge prices, showers and Wi-Fi.

Airside lounges in the international terminal

The Bidvest Premier Lounge is open 24 hours to any departing passenger, whatever the airline or class. After security in Terminal A, walk to the south end of the duty-free shops and take the escalator up to the mezzanine; the lounge is in the right-hand corner. Entry costs R708 at the door and covers the 4 hours before your flight; each 15 minutes before that costs R45. Showers and towels, light meals and drinks are included, and it takes cards only.

The airport lists more lounges on the international side, among them Shongololo, Aspire and the airlines’ own lounges. They don’t publish their prices, so ask at the door, or check whether a lounge membership or your card covers you.

InterContinental Johannesburg O.R. Tambo Airport, landside

Opposite the international arrivals hall, a short walk once you’re through immigration, and a few metres from the Gautrain station. Check-in is from 2pm and check-out by 11am. It publishes no day-use rate, so for a daytime rest after a morning landing, ask the hotel about early check-in when you book.

Protea Hotel by Marriott O.R. Tambo Airport, landside

In Kempton Park, a few minutes from the airport by the hotel’s free shuttle. It leaves from the airport bus terminal, a short walk from international arrivals in Terminal A, to a schedule from 4:15am to 12:30am; between 12:15am and 4:15am, call the hotel on +27 11 977 2600 once you’re through immigration to ask for it. Check-in is from 2pm and check-out by 11am, and no day-use rate is published.

Tips that make a Johannesburg layover easier

• One card each on the Gautrain. Every traveller taps their own contactless bank card or Gautrain Card, and taps the same card out as in.
• Watch the clock in the evening. The last train back leaves Sandton at 8:50pm. After that it’s an Uber or Bolt.
• Pay by card. Constitution Hill and Mandela House take cards only, and so does the Bidvest Premier Lounge.
• Book cars in the app. Check the plate and the driver’s name before you get in, and keep your phone, camera and bags out of sight in the car and on the street.
• Tip the porters. They wear bright orange, and R20 a bag is the suggested tip.
• Data. The airport’s free Wi-Fi gives you 1 GB or 4 hours; for maps and booking cars in town, set up an eSIM before you fly.
• No clock change. South Africa is on UTC+2 all year.