As an industrial and business centre, one might not expect to find many attractions geared towards children. However, South Africans place great emphasis on the family, so there are facilities for children wherever you go and a surprising number of attractions specifically for them. Visitors should have no qualms about bringing their children along when visiting Johannesburg. Here are just some of the attractions they can enjoy:

Gold Reef City
Located just south of the city centre on the site of an old gold mine, Gold Reef City is one of the city’s premier attractions. A recreation of a Victorian town in the gold-rush period, it is home to hotels, a theme park with a funfair, a casino, restaurants, nightclubs, museums and displays of historical interest. You can even go down a mine shaft and experience what it is like to be a mineworker. Then you can see real gold being poured and minted. Most visitors schedule a full day for a visit to Gold Reef City, but you could easily spend a whole weekend here.

Johannesburg Zoo
Located in the northern suburbs, the Zoo offers children the chance to view the continent’s animals, including elephants, rhino, lions and 3000 other animal species in a park setting. Established in 1904, it was never segregated during the apartheid era, so has remained a bastion of inter-racial harmony. An enterprising management have regular shows and programmes to keep the young ones entertained and it is certainly one of the more popular attractions in the city.

Lion Park
If you can’t get to one of the game reserves and want to give your children a preview of the country’s wildlife, the Lion Park is a superb attraction. Located about 45 minutes from the city centre, it offers visitors the opportunity to see lions and other carnivores up close. There is also a “cub world” area, where children can feed giraffe and touch young lion cubs. There are over 80 lions in the park, including the rare white lions.

Rhino & Lion Reserve
A similar park is the Rhino & Lion Nature Reserve, which is home to free roaming buffalo, zebra, wildebeest and antelope as well as lions and rhinos in enclosures. Nearby, you can watch traditional tribal dancing at the Heia Safari Ranch.

National Museum of Military History
Young men will be entertained at this museum which provides displays of tanks and aircrafts as well as a submarine, swords, guns, uniforms and medals from WWI and WWII. There are also many items from South Africa’s civil wars on display.

Melville Koppies Nature Reserve
You can escape the bustle of the city with a trip to this stunning nature reserve. Highlights include a leafy footpath which leads to an Iron Age settlement and a beautiful botanical garden which is surrounded by the biggest rose garden in Africa.

Paintball
If you find that your children are dying to break free from their hotel room, then you can take them to one of the paintball operations. Here they suit up in protective overalls and masks to shoot each other with paint bullets. The African bush setting gives the game a particular edge.

The complex history and culture of Johannesburg is documented in many of the museums in the city, while the art galleries have a selection of important African artworks.

Apartheid Museum
For those even with a passing interest in the history of South Africa, this museum is vital in that it documents the policy that dictated the country’s history for many decades. Located south of Johannesburg, the museum graphically portrays the apartheid story using enlarged photos, artefacts, newspaper clippings and film footage. As visitors, carrying their entry card which identifies them as either "white" or "non-white", move through the rooms they are assailed by the sights and sounds of the apartheid era. Paths follow the country through decades of oppression to the birth of democracy.

Museum Africa
This museum was opened in 1994 and is built inside the old Market Building. The museum documents South Africa’s turbulent history and offers information on many political subjects such as ‘Tried for Treason’, which covers the Treason Trial of 1956-1961. It was after this trial that Nelson Mandela was put in jail at Robben Island. It is an excellent museum and highly recommended.

Hector Pieterson Museum and Mandela House
The Hector Pieterson Museum is dedicated to the first black scholar who was shot dead during the Soweto riots in 1976. It became one of the first museums in Soweto, which is Johannesburg largest township. The museum covers the events leading up to, and during, the anti-Afrikaans Soweto Uprising. A companion museum nearby is Mandela House, the former home of Nelson Mandela and his family, which has been run as a museum since 1997.

Johannesburg Art Gallery
Besides an excellent collection of Flemish and Dutch art, this gallery boasts the impressive Brenthurst Collection of African Art. This collection is made up of curios taken by European explorers in the 19th century and traditional southern African artwork. It was built up by the Oppenheimer family, who head the country’s biggest gold mining company. There is also a fine selection of sculptures by Venda artist Jackson Hlungwani and paintings by Helen Sebidi, Alfred Toba and Gerard Sekoto. The location of the gallery is Joubert Park. As the area has deteriorated in recent years, you are advised to take an organized tour or be accompanied by a guide.

Lesedi Cultural Village
For a unique feel of an African village, head for the Lesedi Cultural Village, a 45 minutes drive from Johannesburg. It is made up Zulu, Xhosa, Pedi and Basotho families who all live together allowing visitors a glimpse into their cultures. Take a guided tour of the village and then enjoy a traditional African meal.

The Cradle of Humankind
The Cradle of Humankind is a World Heritage Site first named by UNESCO in 1999, about 50 kilometres northwest of Johannesburg. One of the world's most productive and important paleo-anthropological sites, it contains a complex of limestone caves. This includes the Sterkfontein Caves, where the 2.3-million year-old fossil "Mrs. Ples" was found in 1947.

The dining options in Johannesburg are endless, offering a wide array of international cuisine alongside traditional African dishes. Some of South Africa’s favourite dishes include: biltong, dried and salted raw meat; frikkadel, traditional South African meat balls made of tomatoes, onion, minced beef and other ingredients; and mashonzha, fried worms similar to caterpillars in appearance. Skop is a favourite of African men. It is the boiled head of a cow, sheep or goat.

Melville offers an excellent choice of restaurants with 7th Avenue being a favourite with many. More expensive restaurants can be found in Greenside. Here you’ll find West African-inspired restaurants as well as Greek food, Indo-Pakistani fare, pizza, and numerous coffee houses. A relaxed atmosphere can be found in the Parkhurst and Parktown neighbourhoods where sidewalk restaurants and a proliferation of specialty stores are well worth browsing. You can shop for art or fine chocolates and enjoy a lazy lunch of sushi or Italian cuisine. There are also many restaurants in shopping malls, the main ones being the Rosebank Mall, Sandton Square and Sandton City.

Star-spotting can be done at a traditional African beer house and restaurant, Wandie's Place in Soweto, where most celebrities visiting the country end up dining. So, if you want to try some delicious fare alongside Richard Branson, Calvin Klein or Oprah, this is the place to go.

There is no shortage of shopping malls in the city. Wherever you go, you are bound to find a shopping centre filled with tempting stores, restaurants and entertainment venues. However, for a more African experience, you should try to get to the markets where traditional goods and eye-popping curios are on sale.

One of the most popular markets is held at the Rosebank shopping centre on Sundays, where you can find home-made goods as well as designer wear. Nearby is the African Craft Market which sells traditional artefacts and artwork from around Africa, including unusual items from Zimbabwe, Namibia and the Congo.

Newtown is home to the Bus Factory which offers some of the best crafts in South Africa. The Oriental Plaza is very close to Newton and is renowned for selling quality fabrics, cotton clothing, brass and spices. If you’re looking for art, try the Fordsburg Artists' Studios (FAS), also known as the ‘Bag Factory’, where individual artists display and sell their work.

If you have time, a visit to one of the many flea markets can be entertaining and turn up some good bargains. Among the African masks and wood carvings, there are usually some toys, beaded dolls, clothing, ceramics, jewellery and other interesting items.

If you want to make sure that your purchases benefit the needy, you can visit the Rural Crafts shop in Rosebank, which sells goods on behalf of the Crafts Association of South Africa and donates all profits back into the under-privileged communities. Other good places to buy South African art include: Everard Read Gallery in Rosebank; Kim Sacks Gallery and Goodman Gallery, both in Parkwood; and Gallery on the Square in Sandton.

Being in Africa is all about being outdoors. With a pleasant subtropical climate year round, Johannesburg and the surrounds offer beautiful and exciting days out. Johannesburg has excellent facilities for all types of sport and visitors are generally welcome.

Sports Clubs
If you are keen on a game of tennis, squash, bowls or any of the traditional country club games, you can become a guest at one of the Johannesburg clubs. Many offer daily or visitor memberships, and it is a great way to meet the local residents.

Golf Clubs
Johannesburg has some excellent golf clubs, including the championship standard Houghton Golf Club. It is relatively easy to play at any of the clubs and most concierges will have full details of daily memberships at your nearest course. Most courses offer a caddy service and very reasonable green fees by internationals standards.

Sailing and watersport
The city residents head north for the Hartebeespoort Dam and south for the Vaal River to enjoy watersport. Both are within an hour’s drive of Johannesburg and rental equipment is on offer for visitors at most resorts.

There are also exciting activities for the wild at heart. From ballooning to mountain climbing, they can be booked with one of the many tour and outdoor adventure companies in the city. Here are some of the activities offered.

Ballooning
A number of operators offer hot air ballooning, usually in the early hours of the morning. You can watch the sun rise as you gently float over the Magaliesberg Mountains or the Cradle of Humankind.

Take to the skies with Air to Air Africa .  Sun rise flights daily from Cradle of Humankind. 35km from Johannesburg. For more details, call: +27 84 602 3491.

Face-first abseiling
There’s nothing quite like stepping off a building face downwards. This is offered on two Johannesburg buildings, one with 22 floors and one with 24 floors. Training is offered on site and there’s no age limit.

Mountaineering
There are three great locations for mountaineering around Johannesburg: Northcliff, Struben's Valley in Roodepoort and the western section of Melville Koppies. These sites are regularly used and already have bolts in place.

Bouldering
Bouldering – traversing rock faces with no ropes but just metres off the ground – is practiced at Lonehill Koppie and The Wilds in Houghton. Lonehill is only open on weekends but The Wilds are open all the time. It’s best to go along with a group if you are a tourist.

Paragliding
Paragliding is offered by a number of companies, giving one a bird’s eye view of the African landscape. Essentially strapped to a rectangular-shaped parachute controlled by strings, you can run off a hill and catch air currents to fly.