Big, busy, bustling Johannesburg – this economic powerhouse of South Africa is so huge that knowing how to get around is vital for both residents and visitors.

Joburg is a city that was built for the car and so its public transport system is very limited. Minibus taxis are the most widely used form of public transport, but there are also metrobus services for daytime travel and the more expensive metered taxis. The Gautrain is a state-of-the-art rapid rail network that gets you from the O.R. Tambo International Airport to Sandton in 15 minutes. However, the best way to travel around Johannesburg is to rent a car, which you can do cheaply from the airport. This gives you the flexibility to drive anywhere in the city or to explore the outlying areas. Most places can be reached in under an hour but Joburg is notorious for traffic jams, which can leave you stranded in an unmoving queue of cars. Like most big cities, the rush hour periods in the early morning and late afternoon are usually when traffic gets congested.

For first-time visitors to Joburg, the frenetic, electrifying pace and sheer size of the city can be daunting, so the first step in keeping your sanity is to buy a good quality road map at the airport or rent a car that has a GPS. The city is in the centre of a ring road system of highways, which are excellent and well maintained. From Joburg you can head off to any of the major cities, making it an easy-to-reach destination. The N1 connects to Pretoria and Cape Town, the N3 heads to Durban, and the N12 bypass leads to Witbank and Kimberley. To find your bearings look for two telecommunication towers on the skyline - locals use the easily distinguishable Hillbrow and Brixton towers as directional landmarks.

Driving in Johannesburg has something of a bad rap – taxi drivers in particular can be unpredictable as they often flout traffic laws - but if you have your wits about you, the beast of Johannesburg traffic can be tamed.