Gold Reef City
Gold Reef City
4
9:30 AM - 5:00 PM
Wednesday
9:30 AM - 5:00 PM
Thursday
9:30 AM - 5:00 PM
Friday
9:30 AM - 5:00 PM
Saturday
9:30 AM - 5:00 PM
About
Gold Reef City is a premier entertainment destination in the south of Johannesburg, reminiscent of an authentic turn-of-the-century mining town which is conveniently situated close to the centre of Johannesburg or just 20 minutes from OR Tambo Airport. The resort offers a variety of entertainment for both the young and young at heart which includes a state of the art casino, two 4-star hotels, conferencing and teambuilding facilities, a thrilling theme park,a spectacular theatre featuring live productions and a variety of restaurants and fast foods for every taste. Also located on the premises is the world renowned Apartheid Museum and the Red Bus City Sightseeing Tours.
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Detailed Reviews: Reviews order informed by descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as cleanliness, atmosphere, general tips and location information.
Popular mentions
4.0
1,874 reviews
Excellent
686
Very good
758
Average
315
Poor
61
Terrible
54
Venture28475133473
2 contributions
Feb 2023 • Friends
The games are so amazing, we really enjoyed.Our parcel were in a safe parcel counter.We enjoyed.There are more activities which is 👍
Written 30 August 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
DianaG
Cape Town Central, South Africa210 contributions
Jul 2023 • Family
54yro mom, with 27yo son and 15yo daughter - we had an absolute blast!!! Queues were practically non Existent (we went on a Tuesday which is a day they are normally closed but open during school holidays) so we managed to do all the rides in one day and a few were done more than once. The games are bit expensive, R40 for one round or R100 for 3 or 4. The selection of food was good, we went for the 2 large pizzas for only R180
Written 9 July 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Mark H
1 contribution
Jul 2023 • Family
The queues to get in are horrendous. It has been like this every time that I have been here since the 1990s and makes the visit unpleasant right from the start. They force you to book tickets online as a way of locking you in so that you can't leave due to the queues being too long. We got here at 10am. It is now 11:45am and my wife has advance 10 places in a queue of 50. At this rate we would be lucky to get into the park by 2pm since the ticket office staff are due to take lunch. In the modern day with this being part of the high tech casino next door you would expect over the past 30 years to have used technology to speed up the queues into the park. Sadly no. Not recommended as an entertainment
Written 2 July 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
pmkamanga
Mombasa, Kenya90 contributions
Jun 2023 • Couples
Beautiful experience ever ,one has to go extremely early to avoid lines ,I recommend 9am start off ,and the rides are all exiting,try catch each And every one of them
Written 24 June 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
pandora m
Singapore, Singapore234 contributions
Jun 2023 • Family
Short queues during winter and had a good time (thur - sat)! Only problem was some rides required a minimal number to start. So instead of waiting at queues (during summer), we were waiting on the ride itself waiting for it to be filled up, esp on thur and friday. Rides are located quite close to each other so minimal walking (park is small).
If have very young children, a lot of school children especially primary school at the kiddie rides when we were there (mid jun) - so must go early to avoid the crowd, and go to the lost reef (also kiddie rides but the sch children dont go there).
Beware that you will definitely get wet for the rapids ride at thunder mountains - might want to save it for your last ride! .
Overall, my kids had a great time (age 8 to 13).
If have very young children, a lot of school children especially primary school at the kiddie rides when we were there (mid jun) - so must go early to avoid the crowd, and go to the lost reef (also kiddie rides but the sch children dont go there).
Beware that you will definitely get wet for the rapids ride at thunder mountains - might want to save it for your last ride! .
Overall, my kids had a great time (age 8 to 13).
Written 13 June 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
jmca2000
Bengaluru, India186 contributions
Apr 2023
We only visited the gold mine tour and not the amusement park. It was good. Staff are friendly. You experience first hand what it feels like to enter a gold mine and extract gold which is explained using many props and posters. There are also some heritage houses which are well maintained.
Written 9 May 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
lewy11
United Kingdom94 contributions
Apr 2023 • Solo
Great theme park. Great places for food and drinks. Did go and it thunderstormed but still found things to do despite the rides being stopped. Clean
Written 9 April 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
joe2007Dorset
Kingston upon Thames, UK10 contributions
Nov 2022 • Couples
Me and my partner have visited over 100 theme parks around the world, in areas including North America, Europe and Asia, all of various sizes. And I can honestly say, without a moment’s hesitation, that Gold Reef City massively exceeded our expectations and is one of the best we’ve done.
With 5 adult roller coasters, a modest selection of water rides, and a few flat rides, I’d class this as a medium sized park. If you’re expecting a Cedar Point or Energylandia sized park, with coasters everywhere, then this isn’t it. But Gold Reef City is rich in quality over quantity (although to be fair, we found the quantity of rides more than sufficient)
We stayed at the hotel which is literally in the centre of the park, where your park entry wristbands were included in the cost of your stay, making the whole trip exceptionally good value. (will do a full review of the hotel when I get a chance)
We went in November, just before South Africa’s peak summer holiday period. The great thing about that is that, because they were approaching peak time, every ride was open (I’ve heard that at quieter times, they close some rides for maintenance) but because it wasn’t quite the school holidays, it wasn’t super busy, so best of both worlds really.
We stayed at the hotel Friday to Sunday. The park was by far the busiest on the Saturday so we took it easy that day. But on the Friday and Sunday it was much quieter with most queue times not exceeding 30 mins (except for Tower of Terror which always had a long queue due to it only having one 8 person car)
The two main coasters- Tower of Terror and Anaconda are totally unique. There’s literally nothing else quite like them in the world at any of the theme parks we’ve been to.
Anaconda is the only inverted coaster made by Giovanola, and is super intense. My legs felt like jelly for most of the ride. I found it far more intense than the likes of Nemesis and Batman for example (inverted coasters made by a different manufacturer) This is the park’s most popular ride and the staff were doing a great job at keeping the queue moving quickly.
The Tower of Terror is definitely a terrifying coaster. It’s a vertical drop coaster which is said to be the most forceful of any coaster in the world. And it definitely felt it! This one gets the biggest queues due to low capacity so I’d suggest riding early.
Other notable rides were the Jozi Express and Runaway Train which were both fun coasters, and the log flume which is very long and also features a dark ride section themed around mining.
You can also pay a bit extra and take a tour down the old gold mine that this park was built on, which is well worth doing, as it’s another very unique experience.
The park is incredibly beautiful with some really well kept gardens, clean walkways and some great theming. The historic element of this park is what really sets it aside from the more fake theming that you find at other theme parks. There are some beautiful old buildings with some stunning architecture.
This park not only has great rides, it’s a really pleasant place to just spend time and walk around.
My only (very minor) criticism is that the bars in the park which we went to, were quite dull and lacked any atmosphere. They just had tv screens and were not places where we wanted to sit for that long. The drinks though, to be fair, were very good, especially the home made daiquiris at Barneys. If you’re going to Gold Reef City’s bars, I’d recommend sitting outside if the weather is alright.
The park closes quite early, at 5pm, and the ride queues close from around 4:30. To be fair to them, they do open quite early, so I guess if you want a full day, you just have to get out of bed and get to the park for opening.
Overall, an excellent park, which most people outside of South Africa don’t seem to have heard of, which is a shame, as I’d honestly recommend it to anyone.
With 5 adult roller coasters, a modest selection of water rides, and a few flat rides, I’d class this as a medium sized park. If you’re expecting a Cedar Point or Energylandia sized park, with coasters everywhere, then this isn’t it. But Gold Reef City is rich in quality over quantity (although to be fair, we found the quantity of rides more than sufficient)
We stayed at the hotel which is literally in the centre of the park, where your park entry wristbands were included in the cost of your stay, making the whole trip exceptionally good value. (will do a full review of the hotel when I get a chance)
We went in November, just before South Africa’s peak summer holiday period. The great thing about that is that, because they were approaching peak time, every ride was open (I’ve heard that at quieter times, they close some rides for maintenance) but because it wasn’t quite the school holidays, it wasn’t super busy, so best of both worlds really.
We stayed at the hotel Friday to Sunday. The park was by far the busiest on the Saturday so we took it easy that day. But on the Friday and Sunday it was much quieter with most queue times not exceeding 30 mins (except for Tower of Terror which always had a long queue due to it only having one 8 person car)
The two main coasters- Tower of Terror and Anaconda are totally unique. There’s literally nothing else quite like them in the world at any of the theme parks we’ve been to.
Anaconda is the only inverted coaster made by Giovanola, and is super intense. My legs felt like jelly for most of the ride. I found it far more intense than the likes of Nemesis and Batman for example (inverted coasters made by a different manufacturer) This is the park’s most popular ride and the staff were doing a great job at keeping the queue moving quickly.
The Tower of Terror is definitely a terrifying coaster. It’s a vertical drop coaster which is said to be the most forceful of any coaster in the world. And it definitely felt it! This one gets the biggest queues due to low capacity so I’d suggest riding early.
Other notable rides were the Jozi Express and Runaway Train which were both fun coasters, and the log flume which is very long and also features a dark ride section themed around mining.
You can also pay a bit extra and take a tour down the old gold mine that this park was built on, which is well worth doing, as it’s another very unique experience.
The park is incredibly beautiful with some really well kept gardens, clean walkways and some great theming. The historic element of this park is what really sets it aside from the more fake theming that you find at other theme parks. There are some beautiful old buildings with some stunning architecture.
This park not only has great rides, it’s a really pleasant place to just spend time and walk around.
My only (very minor) criticism is that the bars in the park which we went to, were quite dull and lacked any atmosphere. They just had tv screens and were not places where we wanted to sit for that long. The drinks though, to be fair, were very good, especially the home made daiquiris at Barneys. If you’re going to Gold Reef City’s bars, I’d recommend sitting outside if the weather is alright.
The park closes quite early, at 5pm, and the ride queues close from around 4:30. To be fair to them, they do open quite early, so I guess if you want a full day, you just have to get out of bed and get to the park for opening.
Overall, an excellent park, which most people outside of South Africa don’t seem to have heard of, which is a shame, as I’d honestly recommend it to anyone.
Written 11 February 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
lester s
1 contribution
Jan 2023 • Family
Gold reef city, overbooked and only one ride possible for the whole. Waiting time per ride is more than a hour to two hours. Games are over priced and money making with very little entertainment for a park.
Written 7 January 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Lubnah
1 contribution
Jan 2023 • Family
Not worth the money. About 1 and half hour wait for any ride. Spent an entire day and only managed to go on three rides.
There should be a limit to people allowed in the park per day
There should be a limit to people allowed in the park per day
Written 3 January 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Does the R250 ticket grant you access to all the activities ?
DianaG
Cape Town Central, South Africa210 contributions
Yes. The mine tour is extra though
Maps27635994389
Newburg, MD
Hi, Can I bring cash to use at Gold reef city
pmkamanga
Mombasa, Kenya90 contributions
Yes at all restaurants they accept cash, however gate fee only online
Can I go with my temporary id to gold reefcity
DianaG
Cape Town Central, South Africa210 contributions
You dont need an ID
If student are paying 180 at goldreef city so are they supposed to buy ticket online or at the gate using their student card?
DianaG
Cape Town Central, South Africa210 contributions
You can buy at the gate
I would like to know that at Theme Park on my birthday my husband is going to pay for him
My weight is 150kg will I be able to go on most of the rides at Gold Reef City?
Jdewitt7108
Milnerton, South Africa108 contributions
Unfortunately i dont know what the weight restrictions are you will need to call them, good luck with that we gave up after weeks
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Frequently Asked Questions about Gold Reef City
- According to Tripadvisor travellers, these are the best ways to experience Gold Reef City:
- Full-Day Soweto, Gold Reef City and Johannesburg Tour (From ₹ 8,924.35)
- Meander to South Africa's best kept secrets and experience Lesotho (From ₹ 1,77,122.15)
- Johannesburg & Apartheid Museum Tour (From ₹ 5,677.39)
- Gold Reef City Theme Park 999 (From ₹ 4,944.18)
- 1 Day: Bus & Soweto Combo (From ₹ 3,065.32)
- Hotels near Gold Reef City:
- (0.04 km) Gold Reef City Hotel
- (0.31 km) Gold Reef City Theme Park Hotel
- (6.67 km) Lucky Bean Guesthouse
- (1.03 km) 33 Melville Road
- (7.12 km) Agterplaas B&B
- Restaurants near Gold Reef City:
- (0.02 km) vida e caffè
- (0.03 km) Texan Wing Bar Gold Reef City
- (0.03 km) Wimpy
- (0.04 km) Mugg & Bean
- (0.06 km) Milky Lane
- Attractions near Gold Reef City:
- (0.45 km) Apartheid Museum
- (0.36 km) Wilro Tours & Transfers
- (0.32 km) Lyric Theatre
- (1.49 km) South Western Townships
- (4.52 km) Nhlalala Travel