Where is Joburg? Information

Johannesburg, perhaps more so than many other tourist destinations, is lucky to have an enormously wide variety of tourism related activities on its doorstep or within a comfortable drive away (the gateway destinations). Many visitors to South Africa are not even aware of this, as they hurry off to our mediterranean seaside resorts, or fly straight off to go on "safari". This is precisely why we are here -  to show you the opportunities that you may not realize are in or easily accessible from Johannesburg. We venture to say that if you really want to get to know and understand South Africa, you have to spend time in Johannesburg - a fascinating blend of a world class city with a myriad of cultural, historical and nature experiences on offer.

Where is "Johannesburg"?

This may sound like a silly question, but Johannesburg, with a population of over 10 million people, is spread over a vast area and is, in fact, one of the 40 largest metropolitan areas in the world. Because of this there are different interpretations as to which suburbs and municipal areas make up the area called 'Johannesburg'. We don't need to define all of these, because, from a tourist point of view, the interpretation is much more general. Nevertheles, so as to avoid confusion, we use the following naming conventions: 

Johannesburg - the tourist destination: The actual official boundaries of Johannesburg are not important to local or foreign tourists, simply because tourism destinations do not respect such artificial demarcations. For this reason "Johannesburg" is usually used in a very loose sense, to mean the tourism areas within about 1 1/2 hours easy drive from Joburg.

Johannesburg - the city (comprising areas A, B, C, D, E, F and G in the map below): This is officially a Metropolitan area which includes Sandton, Randburg, Midrand, Soweto, Roodepoort, Inner City and the other areas in the Joburg City map below. The Inner City (area F on the map below) is the city centre, comprising Newtown, Braamfontein, and other suburbs in the old business districts of Johannesburg, which are now being revitalized into a fascinating - and safe - tourism area.

At the moment we bring you in depth descriptions of 8 different tourism regions within or around the "tourism" Johannesburg, as below, and we will continue to add new areas as My Destination Johannesburg continues continue to grow.

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