Fun in Sun City South Africa

Holidays for all ages

by Marco Monteiro-Silva, 1 March 2007

Growing up in Johannesburg there are only a few ways to survive an intense highveld summer. If you're lucky, you have a pool in your backyard. In this case weekends are spent eating watermelon, rubbing chlorine-reddened eyes, and arguing with mom over the two-hour no swimming-digestion rule.

If you're really lucky, you would get out of the urban chaos altogether. For some this meant Cape Town or Durban, trips that required serious planning and painfully long family road trips. Yet less than a two-hour drive away from Johannesburg a fantastical place lay in wait. An empire built on a single solid principle: to be a place where only one thing matters - entertainment.

The first time

My earliest memory of Sun City was being dragged along to some Swedish rock band that my sixteen year old cousin was obsessed with. I was about ten years old. Halfway through the concert, seeing my disgust, my mother grabbed me by the hand and ushered me out of the Super Bowl, Sun City's enormous indoor concert hall. She handed me a wad of money and told me to stay near the entertainment areas and arcade machines scattered around the giant main hotel building. Then she went back inside.

As I watched my mom disappear behind the large swinging doors, I experienced a strange feeling: half fear and half excitement. For the first time in my short life, I had been left completely alone, free to do whatever my imagination, and the wad of cash quickly sticking to my sweaty palms, could come up with.

Running free

The parental leash only grew slacker with each visit to Sun City. I soon discovered that although they were dictatorial and neurotic about my movements anywhere else in the world, my parents felt safe to leave me be at Sun City.

I was allowed to swim to my heart's content in any of the enormous swimming pools watched over by lifeguards in bright red shorts. I could run amok, losing myself in the sprawling botanical gardens at The Cascades (on condition that I first suffered the humiliation of mom slathering me with sun screen).

I explored every inch of this massive citadel with delight. Gardens, hidden bridges, pathways, waterfalls, aviaries, tennis courts and dams, I saw them all and I discovered them myself.

A Valley runs through it

In the Valley of the Waves, I would set myself goals (100 rides in one afternoon, go down backwards with my eyes closed, spin the tube 360 degrees around corners), and would brave the various water park rides with names like the Temple of Courage and the Tarantula.

After a long day of running up hills and throwing ourselves down slides, my brother and I would prop our weary, sunburnt bodies atop a tube, and drift in and out of daydreams as we drifted down the Lazy River. I distinctly remember my 8 year old brother asking me, "Marc... you think mom and dad would move to Sun City?”

The Wonder Years

Many of the wonders and delights of childhood are lost as kids become teenagers - awkward, difficult and easily embarrassed. Yet through my teenage years a weekend at Sun City was the only thing my parents and I could agree on.

Only later in life did I realise my frazzled parents needed the break as much as I did. At some point in our numerous trips to Sun City we had entered into an unspoken contract: to go on holiday to a place where we could enjoy brief moments of company - breakfast and dinner - and then were left to do whatever we felt like.

My brother and I were each allowed to invite a friend or two, and in turn my parents invited their friends too. Dad would play golf with the boys, and the moms would go for spa treatments and lie by the hotel pool sipping cocktails.

My younger brother and his sidekick would set off to nurture a lifetime obsession with video games. I, with my best friend (a skinny kid named 'Porky'), would brave the scariest of all Sun City's attractions. We would walk the hallways, stroll through arcades with disaffected airs, and try to talk to girls.

Man about Town

A trip to Sun City these days is a less emotional but definitely more restful experience. Nights of playing arcade games and obsessing about girls have been replaced with a spectacular round of golf, some drinks with old friends at the nineteenth, and enjoying some time away with a loved one.

The Valley of the Waves is a much less exhausting experience. I laze on the beach with a good book, have a swim, then a well-deserved rum and cola. When the sugar does kick in, I'm still prone to small fits of frenzied tube riding and waterslides. You can't grow up altogether, after all.

Where to stay

There are four hotels at Sun City, each suiting various needs and budgets. Families usually stay at The Cabanas, where the grassy lawns and informal atmosphere are perfect for noisy little kids. The Cabanas are also right next to Water World - a dam that offers everything from parasailing and boat cruises to jet skiing and tube rides.

Every family has their favourite hotel. For us it was The Cascades. A long, meandering pool complete with waterfalls, bridges, and a water slide, set in gardens that exhaust you before can explore them all. Of course, there was also the Jacuzzi next to the pool in which we went for midnight dips, not to mention the inquisitive baboons that often visit the hotel. An open door has led to a surprise guest sitting at our coffee table at least once.

The Sun City main hotel has an exquisite pool, and is very conveniently located close to the Gary Player Country Club. (Although 'inconvenience' at Sun City, generally only means a quick walk or fast shuttle between hotels.)

Last, but by no means least, is The Palace of the Lost City. Built just over a decade after Sun City opened, The Palace is the quintessential five-star experience. Outlandish, extravagant, and very, very impressive.

The high life

I've stayed a night or two at The Palace, but even my most lavish Sun City holidays have been upstaged by Pieter, one of our top consultants. Through a strange series of events, Pieter landed up with an opportunity to experience the absolute cream of what Sun City has to offer.

Pieter's luxurious weekend away to Sun City began aboard a private Lear Jet at Cape Town airport. As Pieter and his fiancé tucked into snacks and champagne they apparently tried to convince the pilots to take the long, scenic route to Sun City.

Once at the Palace, the lucky, slightly tipsy couple were shown to the African Suite, the most expensive and prestigious of all rooms at Sun City. How expensive, you might ask? Expensive enough to make even the most impulsive luxury traveller take a moment to think about it.

With a Jacuzzi set on a massive private terrace that runs almost the entire length of the palace, this giant two-bedroom suite comes complete with its own bar, dining room, butler's kitchen, sauna, lounge and, according to Pieter, a shower you could fit 600 people into.

Pieter's What to Do in the Presidential Suite of The Palace

1. Sit in the Jacuzzi immediately on arrival with some drinks.

2. Phone down to reception from the Jacuzzi and request some ice, then watch a porter walk into your room with five buckets full.

3. Walk through your room dripping wet, wearing nothing but a small towl, and be surprised by the 20 maids it takes to give your suite an afternoon tidy and turn down.

4. Put much too much bubble bath in the indoor Jacuzzi (located next to your own sauna) and create a bubble bath room that lands up spitting foam out of the windows, making the top of the palace look like an exploding cappuccino.

5. Get driven to your golf game in a luxury Mercedes Benz even though it's only a two-minute drive.

6. Best of all, flash your room card around and watch people's faces as they try to work out which celebrity you are.

The future

It's remarkable to look back and realise I've experienced so many different parts of my life in a man-made theme resort. And still, I wouldn't hesitate to spend the next stage of my life taking my family to Sun City.

Perhaps it's the promise the city was built on: the intention to entertain, the potential to go somewhere and, given the right circumstances, experience the most memorable weekend away.

Whether it's embarking on new friendships, getting consumed by whirlwind weekend romances, or simply reconnecting with old friends or flames, Sun City in all its over-the-top glory, offers a range of human experiences you just can't get anywhere else. Not in one place, anyway. For that reason alone, I'll always keep coming back for more.

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