South Africa – Sun City – Lost City
Sun City, the flagship of the renowned Sun International tourism group, is the largest entertainment center in the southern hemisphere and the South African answer to Las Vegas. The city of plastic, glass and marble is located 200 km northwest of Johannesburg in a valley on the southern edge of the Pilanesberg Game Reserve.
It was built during the apartheid era in what was then the homeland of Bophutatswana by Sol Kerzner, a millionaire hotel magnate from Johannesburg. At that time, gambling and nude revues were forbidden in Calvinist South Africa, so this “alternative” offered itself. Since that time, Sun City has also been popularly called “Sin City” (= Sin City).
Today, Sun City is the second most important source of income in the Northwest Province, because it is a mixture of nature, sports experience and casino world and attracts tens of thousands of tourists and gamblers every year. Golfers can choose between two of South Africa’s best golf courses, the Gary Player Country Club and the Lost City Golf Course. The former hosts the famous Million Dollar tournament every year. Sun City has four hotels, the relatively inexpensive Cabanas, as well as the 5-star Main Hotel, The Cascades and The Palace of Lost City. A suite in the Palace costs about 3000 DM per night.
But you also get an exciting mix of pure luxury and African fantasy with battlements, towers, a 65m long pool, a 25m high entrance hall and mosaic floors. 700 employees read every wish from the guest’s eyes. The Palace Hotel is the heart of Lost City, which is intended to be a “sunken city” reminiscent of sunken African cultures. Of course, there are also several elegant restaurants of the highest quality on the premises, e.g. the Peninsula in the Cascades Hotel or the Villa de Palazzo in the Palace Hotel. <
Due to the gambling ban in South Africa and the proximity to the densely populated Gauteng, the rush of visitors was very large from the beginning and so two more luxury hotels were built at the beginning of the 80’s. In the beginning, of course, the games of chance, the revues with scantily clad ladies and the cinemas with their soft were particularly popular.
All this had never been seen anywhere in the rest of South Africa until then! The huge wave pool with a sandy beach, Valley of Waves, can create artificial waves big enough for surfing competitions. There are also riding stables, bowling alleys, tennis and squash courts, circular rivers, artificial rainforest with rope bridges, ponds and weirs. Theatres and concert halls, bars and shops complete the impressive picture of Sun City. Huge cascades can be found everywhere.
