For LGBTQ+ visitors to South Africa, it’s Cape Town, with its reputation as being a queer-friendly party-oriented beach city, that’s at the top of everyone’s to-do list, right up there with going on a safari. Meanwhile, the Rainbow Nation’s biggest city, Johannesburg, is often treated as somewhere to spend a night or two between legs of a larger trip.
But Jo’burg, which has a metro population of about 6.2 million, has a few tricks up its sleeve for queer travellers. It’s just a matter of navigating its sprawl of neighbourhoods and satellite cities to find the good stuff. And with its artsy and active queer community, there’s lots of good stuff to find.
Unlike many other gay-friendly cities, it’s not a matter of walking around, looking for Pride flags. Jo’burg is car-oriented, with attractions, restaurants, bars and boutiques scattered here and there, sometimes in unlikely places. Though the city has a reputation for petty crime, that’s usually not an issue for pragmatic visitors; transportation will mostly be in a taxi or rideshare, primarily because of the long distances and the way the metropolis’ districts are spread out and bisected by highways. Even the most fearless pedestrian won’t find themselves walking much from venue to venue.
For example, Soweto, the former Black township best known for its 1976 anti-Apartheid uprising, now a key stop for visitors interested in Apartheid history, is part of the Greater Johannesburg metropolitan area. Though reachable by public transit, which can take a couple of hours, it’s much faster and easier to hail a ride there or, even better, book a tour with a guide who can point out the notable sites, including the homes of millionaires in what used to be dirt-poor neighbourhoods. Being pragmatic increases the sense of security. Much of Jo’burg’s best shopping and dining takes place in complexes—from funky repurposed industrial districts to megamalls—that have security guards.
Jo’burg was founded in the late 19th century, when gold was discovered beneath the rolling hills of Gauteng province. So while geography is what made Cape Town famous, geology fueled Jo’burg’s claim to fame. Or more bluntly, the drive to get rich from the geological riches in those hills is what built the city. Most major national companies and banks, as well as international companies doing business in South Africa, have their headquarters here. Thus, so many of Jo’burg’s pleasures—food and drink, fashion, art, beautifully designed restaurants and hotels—are things that, indeed, money can buy. And because of a favourable exchange rate for most international visitors, those pleasures come at a very good value. Jo’burg is a great place to splurge on a fancy hotel room or dining experience.
On the surface, the city seems more stratified by wealth than by race or ethnicity—while dining at a high-end restaurant, you’ll see high-income Black South Africans who perhaps only became well-off following the end of Apartheid in 1994, seated alongside those who came out of that era with more privilege. The city’s only gay bathhouse attracts an ethnically mixed clientele of men with the disposable income for admission and a few glasses of wine.
On the downside, Jo’burg lacks historic architecture, the public buildings and the public spaces that can be found in, say, Pretoria, though the country’s capital is just an hour’s drive north, making for a nice day trip. Sandton’s Nelson Mandela Square, which has a large-scale statue of the anti-Apartheid activist and former president, is a semi-public space surrounded on three sides by a shopping mall of the same name.
LGBTQ+ venues, as well as gay-friendly hotels, restaurants, bars and boutiques, tend to be found in the posher suburbs north of the central business district, particularly Melville, Illovo, Rosebank and Sandton.
Here’s a quick, dirty guide to South Africa’s mega city.
Pride
Johannesburg Pride, October 2025. South Africa’s biggest city, with a metro population of 6.2 million, has the largest Pride festival in the country—and in Africa—with more than 20,000 taking part. At the most recent festival, main events were held in DP World Wanderers Stadium (Corlett Dr., Illovo, Sandton) with all sorts of entertainment. As part of the organization’s broader Pride of Africa project, there was also an empowerment summit, a gala fundraiser and a “secret venue” event.
What to see and do
Apartheid Museum (Northern Parkway and Gold Reef Road, Johannesburg). Both comprehensive and astutely curated, this museum dedicated to the bizarroland policy of Apartheid, which lasted from 1948 to 1994, is angering and moving and inspiring in all the right ways. The LGBTQ+ contributions to the anti-Apartheid movement are well documented, with photos of placards with slogans like “Black Gays are beautiful,” “Negotiate gay & lesbian rights too” and “I want to marry my man legally.” No photos are permitted inside the museum.
Toura Travel Therapy art tour by Thabo the Tourist (various locations around the city). Johannesburg has a thriving art scene that’s scattered in private galleries around many of its hipper neighbourhoods. Thabo Jacob Modise, better known as Thabo the Tourist, knows what current shows are hot at any given moment and who’s throwing an opening party. He can provide custom tours of galleries and other art projects. Notable galleries in the best-known art district, Keyes Art Mile, are BKhz (19 Keyes Ave., Rosebank, Johannesburg), the only Black-owned gallery in the district; Everard Read (6 Jellicoe Ave., Rosebank, Johannesburg), Africa’s oldest commercial art gallery, founded in 1913; and Circa Gallery (2 Jellicoe Ave., Rosebank, Johannesburg), the Everard Read spinoff dedicated to emerging artists (it also has a lovely rooftop bar). The emerging Maboneng Precinct, taking shape in a revitalized manufacturing area just east of downtown, also has galleries and street art worth checking out.
Maropeng/The Cradle of Humankind/Human Origins Tour at Cradle Boutique Hotel (various sites, about an hour’s drive outside Johannesburg). There are several ways to visit this 47,000-hectare World Heritage Site, where some of the earliest fossils of hominids, the ancestors of modern humans, have been discovered. The Maropeng Visitor Centre is a good place to start, with its museum-style introduction to local fossils and the origins of human history—they’ve got stone tools that date back one million years. Cradle Boutique Hotel offers a fascinating guided tour around their 9,000-hectare privately owned portion of the site, a reserve where visitors might also see leopards, hyenas and antelopes.
Soweto. During the Apartheid era, Black people were relocated from their homes in cities to townships like Soweto. They needed to carry a passbook to be permitted to visit white-dominated cities, then had to be back in the township before curfew. Soweto was the main township that “served” Johannesburg and was also an important place in the history of the anti-Apartheid movement. It’s now a busy suburb of Jo’Burg with a population of about two million people and loads of Apartheid history. The sites are spread out, and sometimes not so obvious, so a guided tour is the best way to drink it all in. Mandela House (8115 Vilakazi St., Orlando West, Soweto), the home where Nelson Mandela lived between 1946 and 1962, has been turned into a museum and is a key stop in any tour. Vilakazi Street itself makes for a lively promenade.
Where to stay
DaVinci Hotel & Suites (Nelson Mandela Square, Corner 5th St. & Maude St., Sandton). Sandton is a particularly affluent and self-contained suburb with its own convention centre, ginormous malls and a cool food scene. It also has the advantage of being connected to Pretoria, Kempton Park and O.R. Tambo International Airport by the Gautrain. The DaVinci is a stylish hotel that’s within the Nelson Mandela Square shopping plaza, with easy access to the Sandton City shopping mall. The spa, pool and gym are good. The same hotel chain operates the also-Italian-genius-named Michelangelo Hotel, also in Nelson Mandela Square, and The Leonardo (75 Maude St., Sandown, Sandton) around the corner.
Protea Hotel Johannesburg Wanderers (corner Corlett Dr. and Rudd Rd., Illovo). This affordable and chill LGBTQ+-welcoming Marriott property is close to the two biggest gay bars and provides easy access to the districts of Illovo, Rosebank, Sandton and Melrose. Outdoor pool and fitness centre.
Melrose Place Guest Lodge & Conferencing (12A North St., Melrose, Johannesburg). No, not that Melrose Place, though there is a lovely outdoor pool for guests to create their own drama around. This affordable but comfortable small hotel is a short distance from bars, restaurants and galleries.
Where to eat
Artistry JHB (22 Fredman Dr., Sandown, Sandton). This arts-inflected multi-level resto-bar-performance space always has some sort of music or event going on downstairs. But even if you don’t want to be in the middle of the action, the rooftop patio is a great place to grab a bite and a drink. An ideal balance of cool and unpretentious.
Hallmark House/The Marabi Club (Maboneng Precinct, 54 Siemert Rd., New Doornfontein, Johannesburg). This stylish hotel complex, a reinvisioned 1970s concrete town, has a delightful speakeasy-style jazz dinner club in the basement, a 15th-floor rooftop resto-bar and a casual brunch-y restaurant, as well as an art gallery.
Beefcakes (Illovo Muse, 198 Oxford Rd., Illovo, Johannesburg). The Jo’burg sister of the Cape Town favourite, this 1950s-style resto-bar is known for its ripped, shirtless male servers and its drag shows as much as its hamburgers and cocktails. Good, cheesy fun, but expect bachelorette parties to be part of your experience.
Xai Xai Lounge (7th St., Melville, Johannesburg). Try some Portuguese-Mozambican cuisine while hanging with the artsy bohemians of the Melville neighbourhood. They host musical performances several times a week.
Where to party
Babylon The Joburg Bar (198 Oxford Rd., Illovo, Sandton). Describing itself as “the leading open-minded venue on the African continent,” Babylon is the kind of gay dance club that’s young, fun and relaxed enough that straight people come too. VIP booths, pop music, drag shows and dancing, dancing, dancing.
Liquid Blu (8 7th St., Melville, Johannesburg). Not billed as a gay bar, it definitely gets packed with queers who love their cocktails.
The Greenhouse (6 Gwen Lane and Fredman Dr., Sandown, Johannesburg). Though not explicitly a gay club, the crowd can get a little queer depending on the DJ—and they bring in some great DJs. When it’s not so music-focused, come for the cocktails and light meals in a lush green setting.
Ratz Bar Melville (9 7th St., Melville, Johannesburg). This unpretentious mixed bar has weekly karaoke nights and hosts occasional parties that are more queer.
Where gay and bi men can have fun
Rec Room Bar & Steam Room (Shop No 1, Phoenix Centre Malibongwe Drive and Tungsten Drive Union Tiles Complex, Ferndale, Randburg). Jo’burg’s only gay sauna still knows how to do it right after more than 20 years in business. Have a glass of wine at the extremely sociable bar before wandering around the maze of spaces including a patio, Jacuzzi and steam room. You might make new friends as well as have some fun.
Where to shop
44 on Stanley in Braamfontein (44 Stanley Ave., Braamfontein Werf, Johannesburg). On the outskirts of the fashionable Melville neighbourhood, this array of 1930s industrial buildings, tied together with green courtyards and arcades, has been transformed into an eat-shop-chill district with smartly curated shops and dining.
Rosebank Mall (15A Cradock Ave., Rosebank, Johannesburg). South Africans love their malls. This one has a good array of national and international fashion, plus an African craft market in the basement level.
Sandton City Shopping Centre (83 Rivonia Rd., Sandhurst, Sandton). This huge mall on Nelson Mandela Square has everything from groceries to this season’s French fashions.
The writer was a guest of South Africa Tourism and Africa’s Travel Indaba; the hosts of the trip did not direct or review coverage. The views expressed are the writer’s own.
