Language · 11 published
Country guide
Nine provinces and 2,798 kilometres of coast, running from the South Atlantic round to the Indian Ocean, wrap 1,221,037 square kilometres and more than 63 million people. It has three capitals rather than one, which is fair warning about how spread out everything else is. Cape Town sits under a mountain in the southwestern corner and is the reason most first visits happen; Johannesburg inland is the economic centre and the airport nearly everyone arrives through; Durban on the Indian Ocean coast is the warm-water city. The game reserves are a separate journey again, hours from any of the three.
Reviewed by Elena Voss · Roavina Travel Editor
Every city catalogued in this country so far, ranked by how much there is to see.
Photograph · Diego Delso · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photograph · Mark Hillary · CC BY 2.0
Ranked by importance — sitelinks, pageviews and heritage status, not editor preference.
107 places match
Category
Typical visit duration
Interests
Table Mountain is Cape Town's defining flat-topped landmark, recognised globally as the city's most iconic natural feature. Its distinctive horizontal summit plateau, approximately three kilometres in length, rises dramatically above the city bowl and Table Bay.
Robben Island Museum is a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Table Bay, approximately seven kilometres off the coast of Cape Town.
Soweto is a township southwest of Johannesburg, South Africa, established as a segregated residential area during apartheid. It became central to the anti-apartheid struggle, notably the 1976 Soweto Uprising.
Maboneng
Maboneng Precinct is a regenerated inner-city district in eastern Johannesburg, South Africa. The name means place of light in Sesotho.
Chapman's Peak Drive is a spectacular coastal road that winds along the Atlantic-facing cliffs between Hout Bay and Noordhoek on the Cape Peninsula. The route is carved into the steep mountainside, offering dramatic ocean views from elevated vantage points.
Camps Bay is an Atlantic seaboard suburb of Cape Town, South Africa, distinguished by its wide crescent beach and dramatic mountain scenery.
Newtown
Newtown Cultural Precinct is a revitalised former market and industrial district in central Johannesburg. The area has been transformed into a cultural hub that concentrates several significant institutions within walkable proximity.
The Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre is a museum and educational facility located in the Rosebank area of Johannesburg. It examines the Holocaust alongside other genocides globally, with particular attention to South African human-rights history.
The Nelson Mandela Foundation is an archive, exhibition, and research centre in Houghton, Johannesburg. It preserves and interprets Nelson Mandela’s papers, photographs, personal effects, and public legacy.
Hout Bay Harbour is a working fishing harbour situated in the coastal suburb of Hout Bay, approximately 20 kilometres south of Cape Town's city centre.
Ponte City
Ponte City Apartments is a cylindrical residential skyscraper in the Hillbrow neighbourhood of Johannesburg, South Africa. Completed in 1975, the 54-storey building was designed by architects Manfred Hermer and Rodney Grosskopff.
Kalk Bay is a historic fishing village on the False Bay coastline of Cape Town. It retains a working harbour where small-scale fishers still operate, alongside a main road lined with independent businesses.
Main Street
Main Street Mining District is a historic corridor in central Johannesburg where the city’s gold-rush origins remain visible in streets, buildings, monuments, and public art.
Chancellor House is a modest three-storey building in Johannesburg that served as the law offices of Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo from 1952 to 1960.
Simon's Town Historic Mile is a heritage walking route through the central area of Simon's Town, a naval town on the False Bay coast of the Cape Peninsula.
Cape Town City Hall is a historic municipal building located on the Grand Parade in central Cape Town, South Africa. Designed in the Edwardian Baroque style, it was opened in 1905.
Gandhi Square is a historic public square in central Johannesburg, named after Mahatma Gandhi who lived and worked in the city during the early twentieth century.
The Castle of Good Hope is a seventeenth-century fort standing as Cape Town's oldest surviving colonial building. Constructed by the Dutch East India Company, it represents a foundational civic-history landmark in South Africa's colonial narrative.
Groot Constantia Manor House
Groot Constantia is a historic wine estate in Cape Town’s Constantia Valley. With origins in the seventeenth century, it combines a working vineyard with Cape Dutch heritage, wine experiences, and grounds suited to a slower half-day visit.
Cape Point S.W. Lookout
Cape Point is the dramatic headland at the southern tip of the Cape Peninsula, within the Table Mountain National Park. It forms part of the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve and represents one of Cape Town's signature natural landmarks.
Bo-Kaap is a historic residential neighbourhood on the slopes of Signal Hill above central Cape Town.
Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens
Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden is a celebrated indigenous botanical garden situated on the eastern slopes of Table Mountain in Cape Town.
St George's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral on Wale Street in Cape Town city centre and the seat of the Archbishop of Cape Town.
Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA)
Zeitz MOCAA is a museum of contemporary African art housed in a converted historic grain silo at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town.
Company's Garden is a historic public park in central Cape Town, established in the 1650s by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) as a vegetable supply garden for ships rounding the Cape.
Iziko South African Museum is South Africa's national natural-history museum, situated in Cape Town's historic Company's Garden. Established in the nineteenth century, it holds the status of a flagship heritage institution under the Iziko Museums of South Africa network.
Satyagraha House is a historic residence in Johannesburg where Mohandas Gandhi lived during his early political activism in South Africa. The house is associated with the development of Satyagraha, his philosophy of nonviolent resistance.
Lion's Head is a compact mountain peak overlooking Cape Town, South Africa. It stands adjacent to Table Mountain and forms part of the dramatic backdrop to the city.
Iziko Slave Lodge
Iziko Slave Lodge is a heritage museum in central Cape Town, housed in one of South Africa’s oldest surviving buildings.
Signal Hill is a prominent low ridge located immediately beside Lion's Head in Cape Town, South Africa. It forms part of the dramatic mountainous backdrop that defines the city's skyline.
The Apartheid Museum is a Johannesburg museum dedicated to South Africa’s apartheid era and the country’s transition to democracy.
Constitution Hill
Constitution Hill is a former prison complex in Johannesburg that now serves as the seat of South Africa's Constitutional Court. The site transformed from a place of incarceration during the apartheid era into a symbol of democracy and human rights.
Rhodes Memorial is a mountainside monument on the slopes of Devil’s Peak in Cape Town. It commemorates Cecil John Rhodes, whose colonial legacy remains deeply contested.
Koopmans-de Wet House is a historic house museum on Strand Street in central Cape Town. It preserves the domestic world associated with Marie Koopmans-de Wet and her sister, prominent figures in nineteenth-century Cape society.
Devil's Peak is a prominent mountain summit forming the eastern flank of Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa. It rises dramatically above the City Bowl and the university precinct, creating one of the most recognisable skylines in the city.
Johannesburg Art Gallery is a public art museum in Joubert Park, in Johannesburg’s inner city.
Mandela House is Nelson Mandela’s former home on Vilakazi Street in Orlando West, Soweto. Mandela lived in the house before his imprisonment and returned there briefly after his release in 1990.
Gold Reef City is a major theme park and reconstructed gold-rush attraction situated on a historic gold mining site in Johannesburg. It combines amusement park rides with heritage attractions that recreate the atmosphere of the 1886 Witwatersrand Gold Rush.
The District Six Museum is a community museum in Cape Town that preserves the memory of District Six, a vibrant multiracial neighbourhood demolished under apartheid-era forced removals.
Liliesleaf Farm is a liberation-history museum in Rivonia, northern Johannesburg. The property served as an underground headquarters for the African National Congress during the early 1960s.
The Hector Pieterson Museum is a memorial museum in Soweto dedicated to the 1976 Soweto uprising.
Museum Africa
Museum Africa is a museum in Newtown devoted to the social, cultural, and urban history of Johannesburg and Africa. It places the city within wider African stories of movement, work, community, political change, and cultural expression.
Sandy Bay Beach
Sandy Bay is an isolated Atlantic beach on the Cape Peninsula, situated on the western coastline between Llandudno and Hout Bay. The beach lies below steep mountain slopes and is accessed via a walking path.
Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve is a broad highveld grassland landscape southeast of Johannesburg. Its rolling hills, open views and natural vegetation create a clear change of pace from the metropolitan area.
Walter Sisulu National Botanical Gardens
Walter Sisulu National Botanical Garden is a major nature destination in western Gauteng, managed by the South African National Biodiversity Institute. Its landscape combines indigenous vegetation, open grassland, rocky cliffs, walking trails, wildlife habitat, and a prominent waterfall.
Artscape Theatre Centre stands as Cape Town's principal city-centre theatre complex, serving as a substantial venue for opera, dance, and South African performance.
Chavonnes Battery Museum
The Chavonnes Battery Museum preserves exposed eighteenth-century fortifications of the Dutch East India Company at Cape Town's V&A Waterfront. The site reveals original defensive walls and archaeological remains of a coastal battery built to protect Table Bay.
The Market Square
Market Theatre is a landmark performing-arts venue in Newtown, Johannesburg. The theatre became known during apartheid for providing a platform for protest theatre and multiracial audiences when such gatherings were restricted.
Arderne Gardens is a historic public garden in Claremont, Cape Town. Established in the Victorian era, the garden preserves a heritage landscape within a lived-in southern suburb.
Johannesburg Zoo is a long-established urban zoo located in Johannesburg, South Africa. It stands as one of the city's foremost family attractions, drawing visitors across generations.
Melville Koppies Nature Reserve is an ancient quartzite ridge preserved inside Johannesburg. It gives travellers a close view of Highveld grassland, rocky outcrops and indigenous vegetation within the city.
The Wilds Nature Reserve
The Wilds is a restored inner-city ridge park in Johannesburg. Its elevated ground lifts visitors above surrounding neighbourhoods and creates a strong sense of open space within the city.
Wits Art Museum is the public art museum of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. The museum collects, preserves, and exhibits African and South African art within a university setting.
Baxter Theatre Center
The Baxter Theatre Centre is the University of Cape Town's premier performing arts complex. Established as a cultural landmark, it serves as a major venue for theatre, dance, and music productions in the city.
Goodman Gallery Johannesburg is an influential contemporary-art gallery with a major role in South African and African art discourse.
Blaauwberg Nature Reserve
Blaauwberg Nature Reserve is a protected coastal landscape in the northern Cape Town metropolitan area. It brings together Atlantic shoreline dunes and lowland Cape fynbos, creating a distinctly open setting close to the city.
James Hall Museum of Transport
The James Hall Museum of Transport is a Johannesburg museum devoted to the history of transport in South Africa.
Johannesburg Botanical Gardens
Johannesburg Botanical Garden is a large metropolitan green space beside Emmarentia Dam. The garden combines landscaped planting areas, broad lawns, and water-side scenery, creating a slower outdoor contrast to Johannesburg’s built-up districts.
Klipriviersberg Nature Reserve is a large protected Highveld landscape in southern Johannesburg. Rolling grassland, indigenous vegetation and archaeological evidence give the reserve a character that feels far removed from the surrounding metropolitan development.
Simonstown Museum
Simon's Town Museum is a local heritage museum in Simon's Town on the eastern side of the Cape Peninsula, about forty kilometres south of Cape Town's central business district.
The South African Jewish Museum in Cape Town presents the history and influence of Jewish communities in South Africa. Beside the historic Gardens Synagogue, it connects community memory, migration and religious life with the wider story of the country.
Two Oceans Aquarium is a public aquarium situated at Cape Town's V&A Waterfront. The facility takes its name from the unique marine environment at the southern tip of Africa, where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans converge.
Carlton Centre is a landmark skyscraper complex in central Johannesburg, associated with the city’s mining-era commercial growth. The Top of Africa viewing deck provides the visitor focus, taking travelers above the inner city for a broad perspective across Johannesburg.
Nizamiye Mosque
Nizamiye Mosque is a large contemporary mosque complex in Midrand, within the Johannesburg metropolitan area. Its architecture is modelled on Ottoman traditions, giving the building a distinctive profile among South Africa's religious landmarks.
Delta Park is a large northern-suburbs park and wetland reserve in Johannesburg. It protects an area of open landscape within the metropolitan environment, combining public recreation with conservation.
The South African Naval Museum is a military heritage institution located in Simon's Town, the historic home of South Africa's naval base. It occupies buildings within the naval dockyard complex, reflecting the area's longstanding maritime military significance.
Regina Mundi Roman Catholic Church
Regina Mundi Catholic Church is an active Catholic church in Rockville, Soweto, and one of Johannesburg's most important places connected with the anti-apartheid struggle. The church sheltered activists from security forces and provided space for community meetings and political organisation.
Rietfontein Nature Reserve is a northern Johannesburg green space shaped by Highveld grassland, walking trails and birdlife. It gives visitors a chance to leave the city's built-up rhythm without travelling far beyond the metropolitan area.
Greenmarket Square is a historic central square in Cape Town, South Africa. It has served as a public gathering space since the seventeenth century and remains one of the city's most recognisable urban landmarks.
Nelson Mandela Square is a pedestrian public square in Sandton, Johannesburg, centred on a prominent bronze statue of Nelson Mandela. The square is surrounded by restaurants, cafés and retail spaces, giving the open plaza a distinctly urban character.
Bo-Kaap Museum
The Bo-Kaap Museum is a historic house museum located in the Bo-Kaap neighbourhood of Cape Town. It occupies one of the area's characteristic nineteenth-century houses, preserving the domestic heritage of a community historically associated with the Cape Malay culture.
Modderfontein Reserve is a large green area in the eastern metropolitan part of Johannesburg. The reserve combines Highveld grassland, open natural space and a historic estate landscape linked to earlier industrial and agricultural use.
Origins Centre Museum is a museum at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. The museum explores human origins, archaeology, rock art, indigenous knowledge, and southern African heritage.
Fish Hoek Beach
Fish Hoek Beach is a broad, sheltered coastal beach on the False Bay shoreline of Cape Town's southern peninsula.
Norval Foundation is a contemporary art museum and sculpture garden in Steenberg, in Cape Town’s southern suburbs. It brings indoor exhibitions and outdoor sculpture together in a landscaped setting, making the visit feel different from a conventional city gallery.
Soweto Theatre is a contemporary performing-arts venue and architectural landmark in Jabulani, Soweto, Johannesburg. It brings theatre, music and dance into a purpose-built cultural setting within one of the city’s historically important communities.
Melville is a walkable neighbourhood in Johannesburg known for its concentrated local character along 7th Street. The area functions as a social and commercial hub defined by independent businesses rather than formal tourist infrastructure.
Kwa Mai Mai Traditional Market
Kwa Mai Mai Traditional Market is an inner-city trading hub in Johannesburg specialising in traditional medicine, food, and township commerce. It represents a living cultural space where traditional healers, herbalists, and vendors conduct daily business rooted in indigenous practices.
Sandton City is a major shopping and dining centre in Sandton, Johannesburg's northern commercial hub. It gives travellers a concentrated indoor setting for retail, food and the everyday energy of a prominent business district.
27 Boxes is a retail and dining precinct in Melville, Johannesburg, constructed from repurposed shipping containers. The development represents an adaptive-reuse architectural approach, converting industrial materials into commercial space.
Bloubergstrand is a coastal suburb and beach area on the northern outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa. It faces Table Bay and offers direct views across the water toward Table Mountain and the city centre.
Boulders Penguin Colony is a protected African penguin colony within Table Mountain National Park at Simon's Town. SANParks records that penguins arrived from surrounding island colonies and established the mainland colony in 1983.
The Cape of Good Hope is a rugged headland within Table Mountain National Park on the Cape Peninsula.
The Cape Town Diamond Museum is a specialist museum located at the V&A Waterfront. It presents South Africa's diamond heritage through exhibits on historical mining operations and the development of diamond cutting craftsmanship.
The Cape Wheel
The Cape Wheel is an observation wheel at Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront. Enclosed cabins lift riders above the harbour precinct for broad views across Table Bay, harbour infrastructure, the city and surrounding mountains.
Casa Labia is an Italianate villa in Muizenberg on Cape Town’s False Bay coast. The historic building now serves as a cultural venue, bringing heritage architecture and arts programming together in one of the southern peninsula’s distinctive settings.
Credo Mutwa Cultural Village is an outdoor sculpture garden and cultural site in Soweto, Johannesburg.
Everard Read Gallery is a commercial contemporary-art gallery in Rosebank, Johannesburg. The gallery is known as South Africa’s oldest commercial art gallery and presents work by established and emerging artists.
Clifton Beaches are four small Atlantic coves below Victoria Road in Cape Town, numbered First through Fourth from north to south.
The Gugulethu Seven Memorial commemorates seven anti-apartheid activists killed by South African security forces in Gugulethu township on 3 March 1986.
Kloof Corner is a short, steep hiking route on the lower slopes of Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa. It serves as a viewpoint hike offering elevated perspectives of the city, coastline, and mountain terrain.
Lindfield Victorian House Museum is a preserved Victorian-era residence in Johannesburg, locally known as Lindfield House.
Llandudno Beach is a natural Atlantic cove below the mountains of Cape Town’s Cape Peninsula. Its undeveloped shoreline, sand and surrounding rock formations create a quieter coastal setting than the city’s more built-up beaches.
Muizenberg Beach is a broad sandy beach on the False Bay coastline of Cape Town, South Africa. It is widely recognised as the city's classic beginner-surfing destination, with gentle waves that attract novice surfers.
Noordhoek Beach is a long white-sand beach on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, situated below the dramatic Chapman's Peak Drive. It stretches approximately eight kilometres along the shoreline, offering an exposed open-coast landscape.
Oranjezicht City Farm Market is a farmers' market in Cape Town, situated near the V&A Waterfront area. The market operates as a community-focused food destination where regional producers gather to sell their goods.
Orlando Towers are a pair of painted former power-station cooling towers standing in Soweto, Johannesburg. These decommissioned industrial structures have been transformed into a distinctive landmark and adventure-activity destination.
Oudekraal is a small cove within Table Mountain National Park, situated along Cape Town's Atlantic seaboard beneath the Twelve Apostles mountain range.
Prestwich Memorial is a Cape Town heritage site dedicated to an eighteenth-century burial ground. It brings attention to enslaved and marginalised residents whose lives were long excluded from prominent accounts of the city.
Rosebank Sunday Market is a recurring Sunday market in Johannesburg’s Rosebank precinct. The market brings together independent sellers offering crafts, food, vintage goods and other creative products.
Source: OpenStreetMap contributors, Wikidata ·
Ten to sixteen days is suitable for one South African region or a two-hub trip. Cape Town, Johannesburg, safari areas and the Garden Route are far enough apart that flights or long road days must be part of the plan.
South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs publishes visa-exempt country information. Confirm the passport-specific rule, allowed stay and any transit requirement there before travel.
Johannesburg and Cape Town are the largest air hubs, with domestic flights connecting major regions. Parks and rural routes often require driving or arranged transfers, and urban public transport differs substantially by city.
March to May and September to November are broad shoulder periods, but Cape weather and inland safari seasons do not follow one calendar. Wildlife goals, road conditions and the chosen coast should determine dates.
South African rand (ZAR) is the recorded currency. National figures for visitor card acceptance and transaction fees are Not recorded; confirm payment and deposit terms with lodges, rental firms and remote operators.
From a mobile phone, 112 is the general emergency route; police use 10111 and ambulance services 10177. South Africa uses Type M and N plugs at 230 V, and tap-water guidance is Not recorded nationally here.
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