South Africa's Sun City - a Family Trip to South Africa's Gambling Mecca

We left for Sun City on a Thursday morning. It was the first of my son's 28 flights (what? he's nearly 13 months already!), where I was certain that he was aware of the fact that we were aboard a moving object. I had him pat his lap while we were taxiing down the runway, and then raise his arms as we took off. It was really cute. Four hours later (2 hours on the plane, two hours in the car), we arrived in Sun City (via Johannesburg, which by the way, is one of the world's most dangerous cities... so, we stuck to the highways as though our lived depended on it... literally).

Because you have to drive through ghettos to get to this make-believe "lost palace", it adds to the experience. Imagine, if you can, driving for two hours, first through the world's most dangerous city, and then through various ghettos, to get to a Disney or Universal Hotel. Wouldn't you appreciate it just a little more? And so it was with us.

Despite only sleeping for a half hour on the plane, the baby did great on the two hour car ride (thank heaven - it's taboo to say the "G" word here in South Africa - it's even bleeped out on TV!). But we arrived not a moment too soon. When we arrived, we were treated like royalty. Car doors were opened, a hostess accompanied us to our room, giving us a tour of the hotel along the way, and our room was just simply over-the-top. My son was fascinated by the animal mosaic on the ceiling and floor of the lobby, as well as the waterfalls in every corner.

We had lunch at the little restaurant next to the pool. Food and drinks cost as much as the do in Europe or America in Sun City (which is A LOT for S. African standards!!!), unless you go to the fast food places... which we avoided. Then we headed back to our room and got ready for dinner. We decided on a restaurant in a neighboring hotel, called the Butcher's Grill. My husband had the steak and I had ostrich. Both the food and the service were good, and the baby slept through dinner, which made things much easier on us.

View of the Palace of the Lost City from the Gary Player Golf Club

Credit: Tobi Kraft

Copyright: Tobi Kraft