Discover Johannesburg Walking Tours with iBestTravel
Johannesburg walking tours serve as the ultimate introduction to this dynamic city for first-time visitors, who might feel overwhelmed stepping out alone. While the city has made notable strides in safety and infrastructure over the past decade, public transport options still leave much to be desired, and some areas can be daunting for tourists.
Numerous walking tour guides are enthusiastic about showcasing the hidden gems of the city to both visitors and locals. Each tour company specializes in different experiences, making it possible to embark on a unique adventure every weekend without retracing your steps.
Top Eight Walking Tour Companies in Johannesburg
Past Experiences
Past Experiences offers an array of tours in downtown Johannesburg, focusing on popular graffiti tours. Founded by Jo Buitendach, who is a trained archaeologist passionate about street art, this company invites local graffiti artists to co-host tours. Additionally, Past Experiences offers a shopping tour that guides guests through the city’s blanket shops, second-hand clothing outlets, and traditional medicine markets, along with a ‘Naming Jozi’ tour that explores the evolution of street and place names in the city.
Dlala Nje
Dlala Nje operates both as a community center and a tour company, located at Ponte City. This remarkable cylindrical skyscraper is famed as Africa’s tallest residential building and serves as a stunning focal point for tours.
The tours generally explore Ponte’s core and ascend to its 51st floor, while also navigating neighborhoods like Hillbrow, Yeoville, and Berea, which many locals deem unsafe. Thus, a guided tour with Dlala Nje is a safe approach to visiting these areas. Their Yeoville food tour, focused on pan-African cuisine, is a culinary highlight not to be missed.
JoburgPlaces
Specializing in Johannesburg’s intricate political and cultural history, JoburgPlaces is renowned for its four- to five-hour walks through the inner city. The popular ‘Marshalltown’ tour serves as an excellent introduction, while the ‘Pubs, Bars & Rooftops’ walk remains a perennial favorite.
Innovative tours like ‘Money, Banks & Vaults’, which unearths the city’s financial history by visiting historic vaults and the old Johannesburg Stock Exchange, and ‘Urban Farming & Green Rooftops’, showcasing Joburg’s hidden gardens, have also gained popularity.
Johannesburg Heritage Foundation
The Johannesburg Heritage Foundation (JHF) is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the city’s architectural heritage. Offering volunteer-led tours that traverse both downtown and the suburbs, the JHF provides unique access to historical treasures that are often overlooked.
Though some tours may repeat, many are one-off events introducing participants to exclusive historical treasures. To discover the current quarterly program, visit the JHF website.
Mainstreetwalks
Mainstreetwalks, located at Curiocity Backpackers, offers immersive experiences focused on the revitalized Maboneng neighborhood, along with unique Friday night ‘Underground Pub Crawls’ that explore local bars and shebeens. They also provide the ‘East City Cycle’ rides, introducing visitors to the suburbs of Troyeville and New Doornfontein.
Known for ‘Picnics in the Sky’, Mainstreetwalks takes tour groups to the top of Carlton Centre for a meal with breathtaking views.
City Skate Tours
Based in Maboneng, City Skate Tours offers a unique perspective on Johannesburg by exploring the city on skateboards. Founder Ayanda Mnyandu is dedicated to teaching beginners the basics of skateboarding, assuring everyone feels comfortable whether they choose to ride or walk along.
During the tours, participants visit historically significant sites like Beyers Naude Square, well-known among skateboard enthusiasts.
Roving Bantu Kitchen & Treks
Sifiso Ntuli, known as ‘the Roving Bantu’, provides not only culinary experiences at his unique restaurant, Roving Bantu Kitchen, but also engaging treks through Brixton and Fietas. He shares candid insights on the remnants of apartheid during these explorations, paired with traditional meals that offer a taste of South Africa’s rich culture.
Lebo’s Soweto Bicycle Tours
Lebo Malepa is the mastermind behind Lebo’s Soweto Backpackers, a pioneer of black-owned backpacker establishments in South Africa. His bicycle tours through Soweto allow visitors to explore this vast collection of townships more thoroughly than walking could offer.
The cycling tours, available as half- or full-day options, delve into the historic Orlando West area, including memorials commemorating the 1976 Soweto Uprisings. Participants are welcomed to interact with local residents and taste traditional food. For those who prefer alternative transportation methods, walking and tuk-tuk tours are also available.
