Features around the Palace

The Palace at the Lost City is surrounded by a lot of different features, all of which ads to the theme and atmosphere.

The Palace is set is a man made forest with lots of streams, waterfalls and cascades. Just below the swimming pools in the forest is a suspended rope bride over beautiful cascades.

At the bottom of the gardens just above the Valley of the Waves is the pool deck overlooking the wave pool. On the deck level there is yet another swimming pool surrounded by "ruins" and an amphitheatre.

Right in front of the main entrance to the Palace hotel is a fountain with bronze sculptures of two cheetah chasing some impala. It depicts an action scene and is extremely well done.

In one of the courtyard of the Palace stands the life size bronze sculpture of a bull elephant. It is an absolutely awesome sculpture. Unfortunately there was nobody around when I was in the courtyard to get a photo that shows the scale of it.

The Palace of the Lost City

The Palace of the Lost City is an ultra luxury hotel situated in Sun City. The Palace was designed as the royal palace of the ancient civilization that used to live in the Lost City. It is surrounded by Fantastic gardens and a man made forest with all kinds of features.

The Palace Towers at night

The Palace as seen from one of the forest paths with one of the cascading streams in the foreground

The main swimming pool area

Palace fountain

Lost City at Sun City

The Lost City at Sun City is a fantasy development which recreates an African themed lost city which was inhabited by an ancient civilization complete with ruins of lost temples, statues and carvings of animals, caves, lakes and much more.

It all starts on the Bridge of Time. Lined with elephants and surrounded by cliffs carved with wild animals, the Bridge of Time moves and rumbles every hour as if a volcano is about to erupt, smoke and all...

The Kong Gates open up on the Monkey Spring Plaza with magnificent view to the Palace of the Lost City in the background and the Valley of the Waves below.

The Valley of the Waves is an awesome playground with a wave pool creating surfable wave washing onto the man made beach. Other activities in the valley includes several ault slides, tube rides and the Slide of Courage, a near vertical slide that will leave your heart (and stomach) in your throat. The Valley creates an amphitheatre of fun and relaxation.

Gardens at the Cascades Hotel

The gardens behind the Cascades Hotel at Sun City is absolutely awesome. Not gardens in the traditional sense, but a man made forest garden with streams, ponds and waterfalls. At the bottom of the garden there is a small lake with an aviary next to it, so there are bird sounds all the time. Everything is super green as there are so much water around.

On the walk through the gardens visitors will come across several more secluded paths as well as a suspension bridge.

The cascading streams and waterfalls make for some wonderful photo opportunities. Personally I love the sound of water running, so it is great that you can open your hotel room's windows and get the sound of water coming into your room.

Gary Player Country Club

Just beyond the Cascades Hotel in Sun City is a golfer's paradise. The Gary Player Country Club is one of the country's premier golf courses.

The course is one of the world's longest golf courses and stretches over 7000 meters. It borders the Lost City golf course (also designed by Gary Player) as well as the Pilanesberg National Park.

In 2008 Compleat Golfer awarded it the #1 position on their Top 10 Courses in South Africa list. It is home to the annual Nedbank Challenge (previously known as the Million Dollar Challenge), an invitation 12 player event which features some of the biggest names in world golf every year.

The clubhouse is situated between the Cascades Hotel and the Sun City Hotel (top). I did not get to play it (I don't really play golf), but the bit I did see of it made me want to have a round to be able to say I did. Maybe one day.

Sun City - Cascades Hotel

Sun City is situated about two hours away from Johannesburg in the North West Province. The resort was opened in 1979 and was developed in the old independent black homeland of Bophuthatswana. The reason was because it contained a casino and gambling was illegal in South Africa. As was topless revue shows which was very popular at the time. Today the resort is a world renown holiday destination with 4 hotels, three of them 5 star. It also has casinos, the Super Bowl arena for shows and exhibits, some awesome "forest" gardens, a wave pool with slides and two Gary Player designed golf courses. The centre piece of the resort is the Palace of the Lost City Hotel. I got to spend four days in the resort earlier this week and over the next couple of days will show off some of the sights and sounds of Sun City.

I got to stay in the Cascades Hotel which is very centrally located in the resort. The hotel is named after all the (man made) streams and waterfalls flowing through the gardens around the hotel. These gardens I will feature another day.