Sun City Holidays.

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Sun City Holidays

We decided to go somewhere in a very popular place, definitely not the road less traveled. Our choice was Sun City in North West in South Africa. A place where you will feel happy, amazing, luxurious and unforgettable, something to remember about hot summer days and not very far from home- only 2 hours drive from us. Thank you, that would be Sun City and adjacent Pilanesburg National Park.

What do we know about Pilanesburg National Park Complex? It was proclaimed as a reserve in 1979 and since then started to develop into popular tourist destination. Wild life was increasing as well. Pilanesburg National park Complex proudly hosting “The Big Five”: lion, leopard, black and white rhino, elephant and buffalo. Rhinos are hunted species everywhere, and as we were told even in Pilanesburg. Pilanesburg National Park Complex is fairly big, has 188 km of visitor’s roads, and has more than 6000 head of game population. The other animals you can see there are springboks, brown hyena, blue wildebeest, impala, zebra. Birds life is abundant here as well. You can have two choices: either go on foot rhino tracking, or go with Mankwe Gametrackers, which is 3 hours drive, usually early mornings or afternoons. We have chosen gametrackers in the afternoon, and I congratulated myself later with wise decision. There are so much to do and to see in Sun City, by the end of the day we were almost finished.

Sun City resort was also started to develop in 1979 with participation of Sol Kerzner as South African version of Las Vegas. It was inspired by African culture. The legend said that initially there was a residence of one of African Kings, which vanished after an earthquake. It has 2 casinos, 4 hotels, Waterworld, crocodile sanctuary, 2 golf courses, plenty of restaurants and a timeshare complex, Super Bowl Arena with its concerts and beauty pageants shows It is easily accessible from Pretoria (about 1hour and 20 minutes) and Johannesburg (2 hours drive).

One of the main hotels is the Palace of the Lost City, the most beautiful and famous hotel. When you come there and see it you embrace its luxury (not in material sense, although prices are quite high there). Its beautiful, with meticulous attention to details, culturally appropriate design will leave you gasping. Waterworld near Cabanas hotel is a main attraction in summer. Water skiing, jet skiing, parasailing, paragliding, cruising around lake- just a few activities you can do there.

The Valley of Waves is accessible to everyone, even visitors for a day. It has 5 water slides, one of them not for the faint hearted, it is called the Temple of Courage. You slide from 70 meters height, incredible experience. The other one is Tarantula waterslide, from the height of 17meters, you go through the tunnel and dive into the deep pool. Obviously, you have to be able to swim very well to go on that dive. For kids and others there is Lazy river, Sacred river slide, Mamba slide (be careful, Stephan Zwanzger said he stuck on it, and he is 85 kg guy). Entrance to the Valley of Waves lead you through the spectacular Bridge of Time.

Sun City has a zip line called Zip2000, and it is the fastest zip line in the world. It is better than bangy jumping, because there is a sliding feeling not a falling feeling. You can slide alone, or you can slide tandem. To add that Zip2000 is 2km long and you will be sliding from the height 280 meters. Hot–air balloon flying , Segway tours, helicopter rides, maize - activities available for each and every person’s taste.

Interesting to know that 2 golf courses are unique. Both were designed by famous Gary Player, both are so big, that carts are mandatory. Lost City golf course has signature 13th hole where 30 crocodiles are hidden in the water. On the 15 hole you might have interference of the nearby zebras and giraffe.

Super Bowl Arena have seen many famous musicians and artists. Queen, Frank Sinatra, Rod Steward, Michael Jackson to name but a few, they all performed there.

Quite few movies were shot in Sun City. If you remember “Who am I” with Jackie Chan, several scenes were shot in Lost City Palace hotel. Sun City is favorite place for Bollywood. At least 2 movies were shot there: “Here Pheri “(2000), “Welcome” (2007). Some scenes were shot in Sun City for “Furious7” starring Van Diesel, Kurt Russel, and Jason Statham. Most recent was “Blended” starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore.

We were in Sun City only one day. We were in Waterworld and Valley of Waves, and in the afternoon went with Mankwe Gametrackers. Unfortunately we had to go back and felt like we came out of the dream. But the good news is that Sun City is not that far from our home and we are definitely going to come back for more.Sun City holidays once a year what doctor ordered.

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