The gym at the Gary Player centre was fine, though small considering the size of the complex. If one was a golfer the course seemed good. The sun City hotel is a better casino (though very small) and the Orchid Restaurant was ok. The Entertainment Centre is awful, and full of poor fast food places. A maximum of 2 nights would be more than enough. We were due to spend 5 nights there, but knew that was too long when the chap who took our bags seemed surprised we would stay that long. Though the expensive Villa restaurant was good. Room housekeeping was erratic and inconsistent. We had to ask 3 times to get the minibar stocked, queued for about 40 minutes to get to breakfast and about as long to check out. The hotel is manically busy, as is the resort, but to do so is clearly attracting a budget crowd.

Though it is evident once here and looking at rates locally much less expensive for locals.

It was also, as a foreign visitor, a very expensive place to stay for accommodation. It is a grand building inspired by Las Vegas (and you see the gem of an idea that Sol Kerzner who created Sun City would later turn into the much more ambitious Atlantis resorts). The Palace is a very large and ambitious complex, having created impressive gardens and waterfalls in the African bush.

This complex although packed, was great fun. The saving grace was the brilliant Valley of the Waves water park which had 5 great water rides and a remarkable wave pool. But as we soon discovered on arriving at Sun City, the concept of “up-market” and Sun City are not entirely linked!Īdmittedly it had some glamour factor as Oprah Winfrey was also staying there, but overall I found Sun City and the Palace Hotel as overall unpleasant a place to visit and stay. The Palace of the Lost City hotel at Sun City in South Africa (which is about 2.5 hours drive from Johannesburg) is positioned as the most up-market of the 4 hotels that form the complex.

Sun City Palace of Lost City Room 476 (1), originally uploaded by garybembridge.

Hotel the palace of the lost city