Now that I no longer live in Johannesburg, each visit gives me the chance to experience the city from a visitor’s perspective. I am always looking for places that feel unexpected, unusual, and genuinely memorable. However, searches for things to do in Johannesburg often produce the same predictable landmarks and well-worn tourist recommendations.
This guide takes a different approach. Instead of focusing only on the city’s most familiar attractions, it highlights quirky outings, hidden discoveries, and distinctive experiences in Johannesburg and the surrounding area.
1. Dinner in the Sky
Forget the usual restaurant table or another meal inside a shopping centre. For a dining experience that is far more dramatic, try Dinner in the Sky—where guests are securely seated around a table lifted high into the air by a crane. It is the kind of bold experience that belongs on a list of unusual city adventures, much like searching for things to do in cape town beyond the standard attractions.
I experienced Dinner in the Sky when it operated at the Indaba Hotel on Johannesburg’s outskirts. It has since relocated to St Stithians, where the elevated setting should offer even better views of the city after dark.
2. Lindfield Victorian House Museum
Lindfield House Museum in Auckland Park is a wonderfully eccentric Victorian home with far more inside than its exterior suggests. What appears to be an ordinary house opens into a maze of connected rooms, each packed with antiques, historical objects, and curious treasures. It would make an excellent setting for a game of sardines—where one person hides, and everyone who finds them squeezes into the same hiding place.
The museum is run by Katharine, whose family has lived in the house for three generations. After her mother died, she chose to open the residence to visitors and turned it into a living museum filled with items from the late Victorian and early twentieth-century periods.
Katharine is known for occasionally leading tours in Victorian dress, although she was not wearing it during my visit. She did, however, show us her crinoline. Her tour is entertaining as well as informative, covering everything from social etiquette and calling cards to the rather questionable ways Victorian families raised children.
The miniature dollhouse is especially impressive, while the cabinet of curiosities is unforgettable in a slightly unsettling way. After the tour, visitors can enjoy tea on the verandah.
A private home tour can sound intimidating, especially when the guide has such a personal link to the place. But Lindfield feels warm, fascinating, and completely unlike a conventional museum. It is well worth adding to your Johannesburg itinerary.
3. Northwards House
Another historic home worth visiting is Northwards House. Microadventure Tours offers guided visits to this grand 1904 Herbert Baker residence, which has 52 rooms.
Although parts of the property are now used as offices, several original spaces have survived beautifully. Visitors can still see the dining room, withdrawing room, billiards room, and an impressive ballroom with a musicians’ gallery and Steinway piano. A large portrait of former resident Jose Dale Lace hangs above the fireplace.
Neil, the property’s caretaker and guide, brings the house to life through its architecture, history, and stories of the people who lived there. The tale of Jose Dale Lace is particularly gripping. She was a colourful social figure with an acting career, complicated romances, two marriages to the same man, a zebra-drawn carriage, and possible links to royalty. Her life sounds tailor-made for a television drama.
Afterward, guests are welcome to relax with a picnic in the landscaped gardens.
4. Soweto Towers
A trip to Soweto may be more familiar to visitors, but it remains one of Johannesburg’s most exciting experiences. The brightly painted Orlando Towers are among the city’s most recognisable landmarks. I like to think of them as Johannesburg’s wonderfully mismatched socks.
You can visit the towers for the views and enjoy shisa nyama nearby—a distinctly South African style of barbecue. More adventurous visitors can take things further with a bungee jump from the bridge connecting the two towers. I will happily stick to the food, but thrill-seekers may feel differently.
5. Sterkfontein Caves
Located in the Cradle of Humankind, the Sterkfontein Caves are remarkable limestone caverns with enormous archaeological importance. As a World Heritage Site, they have produced some of the world’s most important early hominin discoveries, including the famous fossil skull known as Mrs Ples.
Mrs Ples, believed to be between 3.4 and 3.7 million years old, was once thought to be female but has since been reassessed by some scientists. Excavations at Sterkfontein began in the 1890s and are still taking place today, making the site one of the richest sources of early human ancestor fossils anywhere in the world.
The caves are striking, educational, and unlike a typical tourist attraction. Visitors even get a hard hat for the underground journey, which adds to the sense that you are stepping into a real excavation site.
6. Maropeng Visitor Centre
Maropeng is one of Johannesburg’s better-known attractions, alongside places such as the Apartheid Museum and sightseeing buses. Still, it has its own wonderfully unusual personality.
For one thing, the building itself looks like a giant grass-covered mound—almost like an odd, oversized landscape sculpture. Inside, the museum explores human origins, evolution, and the future of the planet through creative and thought-provoking displays.
It is also where visitors may learn more about the fossils discovered in the Cradle of Humankind, including the remains associated with Mrs Ples. Beyond the jokes about mistaken identity, the museum offers a fascinating reminder of just how far back the human story goes.
7. Nirox Sculpture Park
If you are already exploring the Cradle of Humankind, make time for Nirox Sculpture Park. The park combines wide-open natural scenery with unusual contemporary artworks placed throughout the grounds.
It is ideal for a relaxed walk, a dose of art, and perhaps a few playful photographs with the sculptures. If your idea of a good day involves strange installations, fresh air, and enough walking to meet your step target, Nirox is a great choice.
8. Hotel Sky and Its Robots
I have only personally stayed at the Cape Town branch of Hotel Sky, but Johannesburg’s version also has robot staff members that can interact with guests.
If you meet one, do not settle for a simple greeting—ask it something unexpected and see how it responds. It is a small but entertaining detail that makes an ordinary hotel stay feel a little more futuristic.
9. 27 Boxes
Johannesburg has no shortage of shopping centres. In fact, the city seems to have a mall for every possible occasion. But 27 Boxes in Melville is different because it is built from shipping containers.
The unusual structure gives the centre a creative, independent feel, and many of the shops offer products that are just as distinctive as the setting. You may come across unusual treats, including cronuts—the delicious hybrid of a croissant and a doughnut.
10. The Playground Market
Johannesburg’s CBD has a reputation that makes some visitors cautious, but the Maboneng precinct offers a very different atmosphere. Over the years, it has developed into a creative neighbourhood filled with cafés, art, design, and urban energy.
The Playground Market is one of its most memorable stops. Set in an underground parking area, it brings together vendors selling vegan street food, crafts, fashion, plants, and all manner of beautifully overpriced handmade décor beneath strings of lights and colourful bunting.
It is quirky, lively, slightly chaotic, and definitely not your average market experience.
