Johannesburg City Centre Walking Tour

Great experience learning more about the history of Joburg, its CBD, Soweto, and how it evolved and changed over time. Katlego was a greatguide.

Be aware that the description of this tour on Viator is misleading. It states that as part of the tour we would get great city views from the top of a skyscraper and also that we would enjoy a South African braai (BBQ) lunch. Neither of these were true. However, despite these two disappointments, we enjoyed the tour very much. Our guide was amazing. He was very knowledgeable and we learned a great deal from him. All in all, we had a very good day exploring downtown Jozi!

This is a can’t miss experience. The tour covers downtown Johannesburg and you learn the rich history of the city in an engaging way. Refiloe is one of the best guides you could ask for on a history tour. Not only is he unbelievably knowledgeable, he makes the stories so entertaining. He also added some fun bonus experiences!

My visit to Johannesburg was short and the tour took in all the interesting parts of the CBD area to see. The guide shared lots of interesting info about the various buildings and the city’s history. It was a great tour👍

This is an excellent walking tour. It is definitely worth experiencing. Mulalo our tour guide has a wealth of knowledge and showed us a lot of places with much historical background to it. This gave us a better understanding of the CBD area. Mulalo was also very friendly personable and easy to talk to and answered all questions. We certainly enjoyed the tour and would highly recommend it. Thank you Mulalo.

Experienced different facets of Jozi downtown, felt safe at all times and the guide Mulalo was great.

execellent trip...the guiide Refiloe was young but very firendly and exteremly knowledable. would recommend.

Sites are very interesting. Unfortunately the guide gave just minimal information. Highly recommend a visit to joburg

I had my best City Walk in Jo'burg with my guide Refilwe. It couldn't be a perfect tour without him. Refilwe is a passionate person full of energy. He is super friendly, knowledgeable and excellent story teller. He remembers almost all buildings' histories in the city center, and he has his own point of view in many historical places. He is not a audio Wikipedia but he is indeed an intelligent person who put a lot of thinking and emotions in the oral reconstruction of the city's history. I came as a person having no idea at all about Jo'burg, while after such a long walk tour, I would be happy to say, I am starting to know this city!

Our guide was a wealth of information, he was passionate about the history of Johannesburg and his enthusiasm made for a great tour!

Interesting tour with a fun and knowledgeable guide! Got to see some things I hoped to see (abandoned skyscrapers, colonial architecture) and some I didn't expect to find (a bustling shopping street). I really enjoyed to finally see the CBD, learn more history and get a feeling of the area, especially since I stayed with friends further out in the suburbs.

The Joburg CBD gets a bad wrap. With Refilwe, we asked the city for four hours, soaking up the sites and sounds. Would recommend as an introduction to the city.

I spent an amazing afternoon with lead guide Mulalo Mphuma and Sihle Bontle (who was fantastic - shadowing Mulalo while training to be a walking guide) - I would thoroughly recommend to any visitor to Johannesburg. As a tourist from the UK in S Africa for work/ holiday - in Johannesburg for a few days, what I wanted from the walking tour was to connect in a meaningful way with Soweto (like a city in itself - 1.5million people) that wasn’t limited to a sanitised, tourist-orientated experience. I got this from this walking tour - an informative, respectful (to Soweto) and enjoyable afternoon spent with Mulalo and Sihle who are both from and still live in Soweto. The tour was personalised around what I wanted to experience - which was to get a feel for and understanding of Soweto. Mulalo gives an unflinching and honest overview of the history of Soweto in a way that ensured I could see the human side of historical facts - the racialised, racist laws that brought it into being, the struggles by the Black African majority population for freedom, the site of the courageous peaceful protest by Soweto children in 1976 that gave rise to a murderous, violent response from S.African police, as well as passing Nelson Mandela’s and Desmond Tutu’s family homes. We visited different sides of the township, from the more prosperous neighbourhoods, to the informal side settlement where people who experience the most structural barriers battle with ingenuity and resilience to make a future for themselves and their wider community. We stopped at a snack stop where I attempted to fit into my mouth a fabulous yet somewhat daunting open Sandwich - made of a tall slice of bread, chips and various bbq meats slathered in delicious sauces- larger than my head! Mulalo recommended eating through some of the chips first to reduce the enormity of the task… I did my best to devour it all. From a high point we overlooked the surrounding hills, on one of which was the Cape Town University Soweto campus, where Soweto students can attend without having to travel great distances from home. We also passed through an enormous, bustling shopping mall - full of every modern/ luxury item you could want - frequented by the shoppers all from Soweto. Mulalo and Sihle were keen to pass on an insight into a Soweto as a nuanced, varied place that is energetic and creative despite all the structural barriers they still face. I can’t recommend enough! Thanks both of you for an unforgettable afternoon.

Great tour ! Walking with the nice local guide was perfect to discover the city center and feel its spirit. The tour is also full of History and architecture.

Fabulous introduction to Jozi. The guide was as much a part of the experience as what we saw. Lots of walking (obviously) so be prepared!

Mulalo, who was our guide, was very knowledgeable, he showed us several significant places in downtown Johannesburg. He’s reliable and friendly. The 3 hours of the tour went very fast, during which we’ve learnt a lot. Throughout the whole tour we felt safe. We can only recommend this tour.

Mulalo was an excellent guide, very knowledgeable about Joburg. He took us to a fun place for an authentic lunch. Highly recommend him and this tour.

Really cool way to see city with very cool and knowledgeable guide. Great way to walk about and see some cool stuff. Just do it.

This was such an informative and well thought out tour. Our guide Mulalo was impressively knowledgeable about the history of the city and South Africa as a whole. He was very professional and made us feel very safe and comfortable the entire time. Would highly recommend for anyone who is interested in a unique and immersive learning experience.

Joburg is a fascinating city with different sides to it. Starting from Gandhi Square and ending around Constitution Hill gave an insight into the history and life that is very different to the area I was staying in. Our guide Refilwe stepped in last minute to cover this tour and he was quite good and well informed and passionate about the city. It was his first time doing this tour I think and he did well! He was accommodating to our needs and what we wanted to see. Just to let others know - I would not recommend bringing and flashing your camera around on this tour. Being with a guide did give us that feeling of being safe and wouldn't be going there alone.

I went on the Johannesburg walking tour with Mulalo and would highly recommend for anyone considering! He was extremely knowledgeable on past and current events. I was able to gain a deep insight on the culture and history of South Africa. He was also extremely friendly and relatable making the tour fun as well. You can tell they are passionate about giving individuals a in depth and authentic experience

Mulalo was a great guide and brought me to visit many important areas to get a better gist of what local life in the city is like. He explained much of the history behind the buildings and parks, giving me a much better understanding. The tour started and ended on time. The itinerary on the website needs to be updated to reflect that the Top of Africa was not accessible. This accounts for the 4/5 rating.

If you are ever in Johannesburg for a couple of days, I encourage you to book this city walk of the downtown area- a great experience for a morning or afternoon….

My guide Clement made this walking tour so relaxing that it was just like strolling around chatting with a friend. We went past many sites rich in culture and history - Mary Fitzgerald Square, the Workers Museum, Chancellor House, Main Street with its outdoor mining equipment, Gandhi Square, the Carlton Centre and Maboneng street art centre to name a few. Clement gave me so much interesting background to these sites, and we talked a lot about their ongoing significance and many other topics that came up. He was really flexible and generous too - due to my error and difficulties communicating, we started late but he was kind and patient in dealing with it, and I never felt like that was a burden to him. Central Johannesburg is really worth walking around slowly to appreciate and understand, and doing it with this walking tour is definitely 100% recommended.

We did a walking tour with Mulalo. He showed us lots of diverse spots in the city and had a great knowledge of the history of Joburg! It was from the point of view of a ‘younger’ person, which was nice for us, as he showed cool and hip places as well. Would recommend it to get an overview of the city.

I had a wonderful time with Mathapelo. She shared a lot of information with me. I highly recommend the tour.

Our very nice and experienced tour guide KG gave us a good impression of Johannesburg on this great tour. We would definitely recommend the tour.

We came to Joburg with kind of mixed feelings but wanting to have an open mind. Had a fantastic experience with Mathapelo! She made the history of the CBD come alive and was so engaging and eloquent. Highly highly recommend this tour.

It was fun reliving our visits to the CBD as a child and student It was really eye opening Our guide Mathapelo was very knowledge and taught us things that we were never aware of The taxi ride to Maboneng was fun Sad to see the deterioration of the city from up close

I was the only one who signed up so I had a private tour with Matabella (sp?). We had a delightful, informative walk and saw many of the places that have been important to Joburg’s history.

Our guide Mathapelo was really knowledgable & a great person to be with! A lovely experience, definetily recommendable! Many thanks! Tom

This tour was definitely worth the money!! Mathapelo was an exceptional guide, full of in-depth information of each of the sites we visited. She seemed to know the artists first-hand and enlightened us with interesting stories. The entire walk was delightful!

We had a fantastic, very enjoyable tour with Mathapelo seeing parts of the Johannesburg CBD and also Jewel City. At all times we felt extremely safe. Mathapelo was a great guide: clear in explaining the sights and also giving us background on the history of the city and of her experiences living in it. Lunch was also great. Would very much recommend for those who want to safely see inner city Johannesburg and learn about its history.

Mathapelo was knowledgeable, fun and the perfect host. She knew when to leave us to look round and when to step in amd provide information or context. Recommended!

This tour was very interesting and informative of Johannesburg history. Our tour guide, T, was friendly, knew a lot and was very clear in his explanations. We also appreciated him meeting us on time and making sure we were always comfortable and safe. We would definitely recommend this tour.

Tebogo was such a great guide, so knowledgeable and fun to do the tour with. Many interesting spots to see and stories to hear. Loved it!

We enjoyed a leisurely walk with Tebogo this morning in downtown Johannesburg. He was knowledgeable, patient, willing to answer questions and keen to share information about local life here. Tebogo set our expectations regarding safety at the beginning of the tour. He let us know when it was a good idea to take photos, and when it was best to have our phones tucked away. We felt completely safe on this tour however, we would not have taken this route without an experienced guide. It is easy to Uber to and from the tour starting and ending points. Overall we recommend and have already booked another tour with this company in Soweto for later during our stay.

I did the tour with Behki I loved the tour, he was very nice, intelligent and articulate. I got so much information, and it was very interesting walking around where so many people knew him. The history in the area, is complex and difficult and he answered every question. I would not hesitate to tour with him again I did a bike tour which I really liked, however, you should be really comfortable on a bike , there was some busier roads.

Mathapelo was an excellent tour guide! Authentic and honest history of South Africa and so fun to be around. I wouldn’t have gotten to know Johannesburg any other way- absolutely a must do.

Lovely walking tour in Johannesburg. Including drive with taxi, snack. We specially appreciated to hear the recent history of South Africa and stories about apartheid.

We had a wonderful walk with Mathapelo! Not only one can get a piece of colorful Joburg but also listen to the complicated history of SA. We felt taken care of and were very satisfied! We higly recommend that tour!

Very interesting and valuable tour we would not do on our own - very friendly and knowledgeable guide

By accident I booked with the same team this tour after Maboneng. If you want to have a unique experience walking around in parts of Joburg that you are usually told not to, absolutely go! The tour was informative and a lot of fun with Mathapelo who also took care of any potential scammers with ease. Really enjoyed the whole thing and only as a side note (M.’s smile would light up a day full of clouds)

Mathapelo was my tour guide, she provided in-depth information about the city while guiding us safely. I am a solo traveller and I would highly recommend this tour to gain an insight of the city and history in a safe manner. My experience was fantastic followed by lunch with Mathapelo. Can’t fault the tour.

Nice walking tour with a wonderful guide! My wife and I were the only clients, so we got special attention! January is a slow time for Johannesburg. The only strange part of the tour was having to get an Uber for a section of the trip. It was included in the price, however. Good history of Mandela's fight to end Apartheid. Also, a visit to the Workers Museum to relive the plight of the migrants was provided. We've visited Auschwitz, and the living conditions were eerily similar. All in all, an interesting tour!

Great tour, very informative and interesting. From the Workers Museum to Maboneng, there is always something new to learn. The lunch was excellent too.

We were two girls doing the walking tour with Mathapelo. It was a very good experience! We felt safe the whole time and Mathapelo was great at explaining about the history of Johannesburg.

I really recommend this tour. Mathapelo was a perfect guide and she answered all the questions I had.

Our guide, Tebogo was excellent!!! It was a very informative and interesting tour. This was our first trip to Johannesburg and we didn’t want to miss seeing and learning about some of the city areas, but knew that a local guide would be best. Tebogo walked us through Newtown, past Workers Museum & Chancellor House, down Main St, and then to Gandhi Square where he got us an uber to Jewel City and Maboneng Precinct, which were lively even for a Sunday. The music, arts & crafts, and people were awesome, and then we ended with a yummy braai meal at a local place (the chakalaka was delicious). Definitely recommend this tour & learning about local life in Johannesburg. Good luck with your studies, Tebogo!