Johannesburg has cool and interesting nightlife for those in the know. If you're not in touch with the City of Gold's social scene, keep your wits about you and try this list.

Be footloose and streetwise

When I was backpacking through Laos, I met a Canadian couple, and for a while, we travelled together.

One night in world-heritage town, Luang Prbang, their camera was stolen from a bench they were sitting on in an open-balcony café.

I was very sympathetic.

I was less sympathetic when the same thing happened again with their other camera, the next night. But then I realised, as Canadians, they weren’t as well trained in keeping their wits about them as us people from Johannesburg.

Putting your camera down on a street-facing bench must be perfectly reasonable behaviour in Canada.

The Lonely Planet has recently updated its Johannesburg entry from “get in, get out as quickly as you can” to “Jo’burg is actually quite a fun place to be”.

It is my home town, and I like living here.

Visitors are warned to keep your wits about them, and not do stupid things, like walk down deserted alleyways flashing their R10 000 camera equipment – but the same holds true in pretty much any major city in the world (except perhaps Canada?).

I’ve always thought that the best way to see Johannesburg is to befriend a local (and we’re a friendly bunch), and to have a car. The public transport between nightlife hotspots is pretty negligible, so it’s good to be able to get around.

And plan your route carefully – you can be driving through Houghton, one of Johannesburg’s more affluent suburbs, take a wrong turn, and be driving through the nest of criminals and drug dealers crammed into tenements (albeit very pretty Art Noveau ones) that is Hillbrow.

If you don’t have a Johannesburg buddy, here is a list of the places that I would take you to if you were a first-time visitor to my city.

Bars - People from Johannesburg love to party.

There are areas where a few drinking holes are stacked fairly close together, facilitating a well-lit, driving-free pub crawl.

Melville is the best-known and most likely to deliver a good evening out. Check out Berlin for a laid-back joll with mellow indie music to see you through your Windhoek Lager, or the CandiBar, which has taken over the premises once occupied by essential meeting point, Tokyo Star.

The house tunes-funkin’ venue is great, but with a smart-casual dress code, CandiBar is trying to position itself a cut above the rest of Melville’s clientele.

Norwood’s star is sadly fading, and pub crawling on the strip is sadly limited.

But, for those brave enough to venture into neighbouring Orange Grove’s Louis Botha avenue, some of the more exciting venues in Johannesburg can be found.

The Radium Beer Hall is a stalwart Johannesburg pub – and with live music and truly outstanding food, it really is worth a visit.

The truly adventurous can also try out the Blue Naartjie a couple of blocks away, for its spaceship décor, cigarette (and other stuff) smoke-filled air and hugs from Jay, the very friendly owner.

And if you’re in the mood to don a pair of heels or closed shoes and a collared shirt, you can head to Sandon’s Fredman drive to drink with the investment bankers. You also won't go wrong with Fuel Cafe in Newtown, Gin in Greenside or Roka at 44 Stanley in Milpark

Restaurants - Johannesburg has world-class eating.

Aside from being lousy with steakhouses – all of them good – there are many gems serving interesting, delicious and innovative food around the city.

The Loft in Melville was known for its cozy ambience and delicious, hearty food with good vegetarian options.

The Loft’s fate remains undecided as the owners have opened a new restaurant, The Attic, in Parkhurst, and are unsure about their ability to manage two restaurants concurrently. Find out where owner/chef Thomas Hughes is in residence and pay him a visit.

A surprising little strip of great restaurants is springing up in Kensington. It’s a little bit out of the way, but there are Brazilian, Indian, Italian and Portuguese eateries.

The real treat is The Bell Pepper, a small, unassuming almost bistro-like restaurant, with a small menu of exceptional items – try the duck or the Thai mussels for the best they have to offer, and finishing off with the white chocolate crème brulee won’t do you any harm either.

In Parktown North, La Cucina di Ciro and Fino stand side by side serving up the best Mediterranean food on offer in Johannesburg. Fino dishes up delicious tappas, fabulous cocktails, and some good main courses for those with a man-sized appetite. Ciro’s is more eclectic, with hearty portions of good food for the discerning palate.

Any restaurant that’s a member of the Thai Africa Group – Soy, Saigon, Orient, Wang Thai – dishes up delicious, slick Asian fare in a first-date or professional environment. For Asian with an authentic, mad-cap sense of fun, try Kranx in Rosebank.

Nightclubs

The Crazy 88 in Norwood is the ultimate clubbing destination in Johannesburg. It has transcended cultural barriers and appeals to a range of music tastes, showcasing live music (the recent Goldfish CD launch is an event for the Johannesburg nightlife history books) and house DJs.

Bathrooms are a bit thin on the ground, but great entertainment, a fabulous venue and a decent pub menu keep the crowds coming back for more.

Carfax, in New Town, is more of an event venue than a nightclub, but it attracts Johannesburg’s serious partygoers.

Every Saturday night, Therapy, “the club for gay people and their open-minded friends” takes over, for possibly the most fabulous party in Johannesburg. Check out their website for listings of upcoming parties.

And if you’re still in your high heels after your pub crawl on Fredman drive, you may as well go the whole hog and check out Taboo for the classiest clubbing experience in town – that somehow still feels like you’re visiting a bordello.

Theatre

The Market Theatre in New Town remains the number one destination for Johannesburg’s dramatic arts-admiring elite.

The theatre itself is a piece of Johannesburg’s history, having staged protest plays during the Apartheid era, with signs from the Indian fruit market it once was still adorning the main theatre today.

It is set in the middle of the resurgent Newtown, and a visit to the theatre can be enhanced by a stroll around the area – there’s a lot happening there.

The Market Theatre still stages plays of social and political import, rather than relying on International musicals, or raw local humour to draw the crowds.

If raw local humour is more your cup of tea, try out the Theatre on the Square in Sandton City – bound to have something to get the thigh-slapping guffaws coming – or the Montecasino Theatre.

For big-name and international shows and productions on a grand scale the Civic Theatre in Braamfontein is the place to go.

Past productions have included William Kentridge’s The Magic Flute, The King and I and Janice Honeyman’s annual panto.

On the main stage at the moment is Le Grand Cirque - showcasing international physical performances from juggling and acrobatics to “poetry in movement”.

For something a little grittier try the Actor’s Centre. Runs include a variety of shows with some of the country’s best actors doing powerful and compelling theatre.

And the Victory Theatre in Orange Grove is currently showing The Rocky Horror Picture Show, after a very successful long run of the South African dance piece, Umoja.

Get your groove on in the City of Gold.