Fun in the sun at Sun City (Hotels in Pretoria)

Member Name: auntyanty

Product:	Hotels in Pretoria
Date:	21/08/01 (87 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: fun

Disadvantages: none

Having lived in South Africa for most of my life, I had the privelege of going to Sun City on many, many occasions.

Sun City is situated about 80km outside of Pretoria. It is a holiday resort that is rated as one of the best in the world. This resort was Sol Kersners dream and boy, what a dream! The main attraction is The Palace hotel. This hotel and gardens has been modelled on a forgotten tribe of extremely wealthy Africans. The palace is definately the very best hotel that I have ever stayed in. The rooms all overlook incredible gardens and the decor has an African theme that is tastefully done. The ceiling in the hotel are painted with elephants, lions, giraffe and other African animals, as are the carpets full of intricate designs of African animals. As you walk along the corridors, there are cave paintings and waterfalls. It is truely beyond your wildest dreams. The Palace of the Lost City's gardens have two enormous swimming pools, one of them is heated and a few fantastic cocktail bars. As you wend your way through the gardens, crossing over a spider-web bridge, you come across a hippo pool where the hippos peep out at you and blow water through their nostrils. A little further on is a pool full of crocodiles that eye you with glassy eyes. You eventually come to an ancient amphitheatre, where plays are held occasionally, usually for business functions and team building exercises.

Once you get through these gardens a real treat is in store for you and your whole family. The Valley of the Waves. This is fabulous fun for the entire family. There is a wave pool, which looks as if it has been cut out of a tropical island and placed there just for your entertainment, salt water, sand and palm trees. The Lazy River is wonderful to float around and around on tubes that are provided at no extra charge. You do however get rather wet when you go through the cave part and where the elephant sprays water at you through his trunk :)
The part where the rapids are is really good for the cellulite ladies :) There are enormous water slides, that go vertically down if you are brave enough and enjoy a good adrenalin rush and for the kiddies there are water slides that go down the centre of the mountain and a play area for small kiddies which has small water slides and giant plastic snakes to float on and cute elephants that also squirt water out. This place is what great childhood memmories are made of.

When you leave the valley of the Waves through gigantic old wooden gates and cross over the bridge to the entertainment centre, the bridge shakes when the volcano errupts.

The entertainment centre is what most people in the days gone by used to go to Sun City for...gambling. It is also magnificently done and as for the machines...well they are magnificent too :) Numerous restaurants are situated here, but one which is well worth a visit is Leonardos. Leonardos is an italian restaurant which serves fantastic food...just what you need after all the swimming and sun. They also make a fabulous Sangria, this is a red wine which has fruit and a bit of fruit juice in. Just to give you a bit of a lift to get you through to the wee hours of the morning at the blackjack table :)

The next best hotel at Sun City is called the Cascades. This hotel is a very good second option to The Palace. It too has a fabulous garden and wonderful swimming area, but of course nothing like The Palace and the Valley of the Waves. In the garden of the Cascades you can relax in a natural jacuzzi outdoors, covered only by the tree tops. The gardens are tropical and have a huge variety of ferns, cycads and many, many other plants. These gardens take you to a bird avery which is well worth a visit.

As you go through the Cascade gardens you reach the world famous Gary Player golf course. So for all you golfing enthusiasts, don't forget your golfclubs.

The next hotel was the
first hotel built at Sun City, simply called the Sun City Hotel. This is too a great hotel although you have to be careful which rooms you stay in as their is a casino here too that goes on all night and can get a bit annoying if you have a young child who is tired and can't get to sleep or gets woken up easily. The main casino which is called Raffles is situated here. You have numerous blackjack tables, roulette, and many other tables which I do not know anything about. The higher denimination machines are situated in here too.

There is a pool at this hotel too, and a little further down the hill is the last place where you can stay at SunCity. It is called the Cabanas. This too is quite nice and if you are on a tight budget, this would be the place to stay at. In the gardens of the Cabannas you have a pool, a wonderful childrens zoo,club Kwena (a day time creche for your kiddies, which is definately recomended if you are going there for a few days...they have a wonderful time) and the water sport centre. The zoo very often has baby lions for the children to feed and stroke. The water sport centre has all types of boats, and you can para-sail, water-ski or windsurf. Great for the water-sport mad.

Sun City has a crocodile farm and a horse stable too. Adjacent to Sun City is a fabulous game reserve called the Pilanesburg Game Reserve. Sun City offer early morning trips, which may sound like a real bind having to get up at 5am when you are on holiday, but I can assure you that you won't be dissapointed.

I hope that this opinion has made some one feel the wonder lust (like I so often do) for a wonderful break from reality in this marvelous holiday resort.

Happy holidaying :)

Summary: