SUN CITY AWARDS & ACCOLADES:
Sun City Resort continually strives to raise the level of service excellence that is offered to our guests not only on the resort but also within the Hospitality industry. We are proud of the accolades that have awarded to the resort over the years, a living testiment to this commitment.
2005
12th ANNUAL WORLD TRAVEL AWARDS
Royal Opera House, London
Best Resort in Africa - Sun City
Best in Africa - Sun City
2001
WORLD TRAVEL AWARDS IN THE AFRICAN CATEGORY
Africa's Leading Hotel Group - Sun International
Africa's Leading Resort - Sun City
Africa's Leading Casino Resort - Sun City
Africa's Leading Conference Hotel - Sun City
Africa's Leading Hotel - The Palace of the Lost City
2000
WORLD TRAVEL AWARDS IN THE AFRICAN CATEGORY
Africa's Leading Hotel Group - Sun International
Africa's Leading Resort - Sun City
1998
GARY PLAYER GOLF COURSE
Best Golf course in South Africa
Golf Digest
January 1998
MARKETER OF THE YEAR AWARD
Sun City Vacation Club
SPECIAL RECOGNITION AWARD
Sun City Vacation Club
Reservations Department
For Excellence and Consistent Service
GOLD CROWN STATUS
Sun City Vacation Club
1997
CONDE NAST
6th Best in the World
CONFERENCE & EXHIBITION VENUE AWARDS
1996
VALLEY OF WAVES
A Member in Good standing of the World Water Park Association
November 1996
CLASSIFIED AS DELUXE HOTEL
Official Hotel Guide
The Palace Hotel
SUPER STAR SERVICE
Awarded to the Palace
SACTA
Recommended Hotel
The Palace Hotel
ASSOCIATE OF THE MONTH
Awarded to the Palace
1994
READERS CHOICE AWARDS
The Palace, Sun City
Most Dramatic Architecture
PLATINUM AWARD
The Palace, Sun City
Most Outstanding Entry in the Hotel Category - 1994
RAPPORT - IMPRINT AWARD
The Lost City
Advertisement of the Month
VALLEY OF WAVES
A Member in Good standing of the World Water Park Association
November 1994
THE HISTORY OF SUN CITY RESORT:
Deep in the rugged bushveld, in the heart of an ancient volcano, lies the world’s most unique resort, internationally acclaimed Sun City. There are four world-class hotels including the magnificent Palace of the Lost City that glitters like a jewel beneath the African sun, brilliant in its rain forest surroundings and luxurious in its detail and design. The history of this exotic resort is full of colour.
In the mid 1970's when the idea was born to build a luxury resort and casino in the heart of the African bush, it was inconceivable that the idea would actually take root and lead to fruition. It certainly took a mastermind to envisage any kind of Resort and certainly not the breadth and scale of what stands testimony today.
Work started on 15 July 1978 and the R 30-million complex opened 17 months later on 7 December 1979 and South Africa celebrated the opening of the Sun City Hotel. Facilities included the “championship golf course”, Waterworld: a manmade lake, tennis courts, a 55 metre swimming pool and a Vegas style casino with 50 gaming tables and hundreds of “one-arm-bandits” slot machines. The Sun City Hotel was the epitome of style, sophistication and glamour. From the moment you entered the foyer your senses were assaulted by the bold design aspects and dramatic setting. The central lobby was a jungle of lush foliage, cascading water and life-like boulders, encircling 400 fast moving slot machines. Flamboyant interior of the Sun City Hotel were conceptualized by Trisha Wilson of the dynamic, American-based interior design company, Wilson & Associates.
The Casino was a study in Glass and mirrors and the elegantly attired croupiers added to the glitzy occasion. Inside the casino was the celebrated Raffles Discotheque where Saturday Night Fever tore up the boards and Gloria Gaynor survived yet another night.
One week after the opening, the curtain went up on the Extravaganza Theatre situated in the Sun City Hotel and Southern Africa was introduced to the fast-paced showgirl extravaganza. It was glitter, sequins, scanty costumes, leggy dancers and cabaret never seen before and the audience loved it.
The arrival of Sun City was such an overwhelming success that expansion was immediate and exactly one year later, 7 December 1980, the Sun City Cabanas opened, offering families a new dimension in hotel accommodation.
By mid - 1981, Sun City Rocked! The new R 30-million Entertainment Centre at Sun City took centre stage when Frank Sinatra opened the Superbowl on 24 July 1981. Ol’ Blue Eyes gave the performance of a lifetime, and the awestruck audience loved it. This was merely the beginning, Superstars of the caliber of Queen, Elton John Rod Steward, Joe Cocker and Sting graced the Superbowl and Sun City knew no limits when it came to providing world-class entertainment.
Another shining triumph in 1981 was the inauguration of the Million Dollar Golf Challenge. There were only five contestants: John Miller, Steve Ballesteros, Jack Niclaus, Lee Trevino and Gary Player, Miller beat Ballesteros to lift the title and claim to the $ 500 000 first prize.
December 1984 saw the opening of the luxury 242 room Cascades Hotel. The Cascades cost R 50 - million to build, and was set against lush botanical gardens, with incredible lawns, flower beds and trees. The adjoining aviary offered an exotic retreat. Hundreds of birds from around the World made their home in the aviary. Starlings from East Africa, Robins from China and the screetching Parrots from the Far East, the indigenous birds like the azure blue Cranes to the tiny Waxbills flittered among the foliage of this walk-in wonderland.
The Cascades intimate atmosphere appealed to guests. From the beautifully designed rooms and reception areas to the magnificent tropical gardens, to the extravagance of the Peninsula Restaurant, the inspirational decor created by Trisha Wilson of the dynamic, American-based interior design company, Wilson & Associated, became the talk of the town.
Sun City was riding the tidal wave of success. Throngs of local and international guests flocked to this incredible bushveld resort. Not only did Sun City offer entertainment with an international flavour, incredible accommodation and extraordinary golf. It was also situated adjacent to the Pilansberg National Park, which opened its gates in 1979. Sun City initiated a preservation project to ensure that the park was amply stocked and maintained, and that Africa’s famous Big 5 was a dominant feature. Sun City was also instrumental in effecting a community of wild animals in the Pilansberg of which the black rhino, cheetah and lion were introduced into the park. This was an inspired project on Sun City’s part as they advanced their international position as an eco-tourism destination and played a major role in conserving South Africans’ wildlife heritage.
In January 1986 Southern Africa’s first monorail, the Skytrain, began operating. Its three coaches could carry 100 passengers and they ran between Sun City car park and the Entertainment area.
Guests could now take a walk on the wild side in more ways than one. At this stage the casino at Sun City was the only legislated casino in southern Africa, and attracted thousands of players who wished to pit their skills against lady luck. An incredible introduction was the Dream Machine, launched in 1987 with a record-breaking payout of R 200 000.
Another fascinating facet of the casino was the celebrated international junkets that took place in the International Room. The private gambling club played host to numerous junkets and only high-stake table players were invited to play.
In 1990 construction began on the most ambitious endeavour in Sun City’s illustrious history. The Lost City opened in December 1992. The Palace of the Lost City recreated the mysteries and marvels of an age-old, mythical civilization and fabled to the royal residence of an ancient king.
The Lost City cost R 830-million to construct and the project was completed in only 28 months, a remarkable feat considering the complexity of the project. The immense project including building the Palace Hotel, the surrounding jungle gardens, a mammoth water park, and a championship golf course. The brilliance of the project was the creation of a legend that determined the actual architectural design and stemmed to numerous fantasy facilities.
The exterior architecture of The Palace is dominated by soaring towers, topped by domes with palm fronds, imitation elephant tusks and wildlife carvings. Sculptured cranes are featured in ornate detail on the towers and elephants guarding triumphal stairways, and bridges and life size bronze model of one of Africa’s most famous elephants reigns supreme in the Elephant Courtyard. Shawu, was one of the Kruger Park’s magnificent Seven and South African Sculptor, Danie de Jager reincarnated this awesome tusker.
The entrance to The Palace proclaimed its grandeur. The Porte Cochere is dominated by an amazing sculptured bronze “Cheetah Fountain” by Danie de Jager which support the Porte Cochere with its guardian leopards at the four corners.
This breathtaking scale also characterized the interiors. The lobby is a rotunda 25 m high and 16 m in diameter held aloft by six columns. The domed roof has oculus at the centre encircled by a painting in six segments depicting a fantasy jungle.
Beyond the rotunda the grand staircase descends into the Crystal Court Restaurant. The balustrade of the staircase is a work of art in itself, a combination of rock crystal and bronze, capped with marble. The magnificent chandelier in the Crystal Court resembles graceful palm leaves, with the ribs made from bronze and the leaves themselves carved from rock crystals, it measures five metres in diameter. Nearly everything in The Palace was custom-made and eighty-five percent of all the requirements were sourced within Southern Africa.
The Palace of the Lost City, also acquired four meeting rooms. The wood-panelled Council chamber seats 14 comfortably in hand-carved armchairs at an inlaid oval table, under bronze and alabaster chandelier. This venue is perfect for executive or director board meetings. The Protea and Orchid meeting rooms each measure 7m X 6.5 m and can accommodate 30 diners.
The Palace has a total of 338 rooms, which include standard rooms, family rooms, paraplegic rooms, luxury rooms, junior suites and superior suites. The most sumptuous of all the four luxury suites. The main luxury suite is the King’s Suite and reflects regal opulence, with walls hand-carved from maple wood and now fewer than 800 individual items, which have been custom designed and crafted.
Surrounding the hotel is a 25 hectare jungle with over 1 600 000 plants, trees and shrubs, The jungle includes an ornamental forest with palms and exotic fruit trees, a wet tropical forests, a dry indigenous forest and a royal palm forest. More than 4 000 fully grown trees including 50 metre giants, formed the nuclei of the various forests, among with 240 000 other trees, some of which were grown from seed. The rain forest emulates nature with its three layers, a 40 metre high leaf canopy, secondary trees half that height, then plants at ground level. Some extremely rare specimens of plants and trees such as the Dracaena fragrant from the Seychelles, the Euphorbias brought from Saudi Arabia and more than 40 species of palms obtained from collectors in the USA, Panama, Equador and the Philippines, to nae a few, where nurtured at the Sun City’s in-house nursery, before being planted.
In tandem with the origination of the Lost City jungle, the breathtakingly beautiful Lost City Golf Course was constructed. The presence of African myth is particularly apparent in the incredible Zimbabwe-ruins-style clubhouse and the desert style design of the golf course provides an exotic allure all of its own. Designer, Gary Player acknowledges that it is one of his favourite courses.
The Sway Bridge was devised by the King to entrap those who wished harm to the Royal Family. It creaks and sways as it spans the yawning chasm over the cascading waters below.
Guests can follow the Hippo Gorge Trail from the foot of the Royal Staircase to the Hidden Cave Falls. Th Royal Staircase links the Valley of Waves to the Palace of the Lost City via the Old east Gate Bridge. The Adventure Path links the Rain Forests across the Royal Staircase. The Gong of the Sun Lion saved the ancient people by summoning them to the safety of the Royal Arena shortly before the earthquake devastated their homes.
The Royal Arena amphitheatre creates an impressive venue for cocktail parties, product launches and theatre acts. The Royal Baths, whose tepid waters were reputed to have healing powers, were originally built over a natural spring. The Observatory bar overlooking the Lake of Peace and the Valley of Waves is a stellar retreat.
The Valley of Waves, which legend declares is the original “Valley of the Sun”, is an 18 ha aquatic playground. The Roaring Lagoon is an adrenaline junkie’s fix. Once the siren wails, be prepared for an assault on your senses. The wave pool produces waves up to 1.8 metres high with a velocity of 35 km per hour which crashes against the sandy beach.
The sacred underground river meanders around the Island of the Valley of Waves for 500 metres carrying joyful sun worshippers, gently bobbing along the ripples of water in brightly coloured tubes.
The Temple of courage is a speed slide for thrill seekers which hurtles them down a 17 metre chute under a bridge and then plunges them into the sparkling pool below. Not for the faint hearted!
The Kong Gates guarded the entrance to the mythical Valley, and can still be seen today. The Monkey Springs Plaza commemorate the troop of monkeys, which saved the ancient from starvation during the terrible drought.
The impressive Bridge of Time is guarded by mighty elephant sculptures which serves to link the Hall of Treasures in the Lost City Entertainment Centre with the Valley of Waves.
Another facet of the Lost City development was the incorporation of a superior conference facilities including the Hall of Treasures, the Royal Ballroom and the Pilansberg Conference centre.
The Hall of Treasures provided a new, multi-functional venue, suitable for anything from Banquets to exhibitions to fantasy theme evenings. Comprising of two areas separated from each other by three shallow steps and a magical rock garden dominated by three life size bronze giraffe sculptures by Danie de Jager. The Hall of Treasures was seemingly carved out of the rock, with a fibre optic starscape ceiling, creating a dramatic ambience.
The Superbowl also caters for conferences and provided the larges conference area at Sun City with a capacity for 6 000 seated delegates. The Royal Ballroom also situated in the conference centre accommodates 1 200 delegates.
The Pilansberg Room proved to be the most flexible of all the conference areas and accommodates delegates ranging from 1 400 for cocktails to 750 for a sit-down dinner. The sub-divisible rooms provide ample flexibility.
The enormous accomplishments of the past do not eclipse the triumphs of the present. Today Sun city is the resort of choice in Southern Africa. It is lauded as a member of the Leading Hotels of the World and is the premier conference venue in Africa. It offers a myriad of adventure and sporting activities including Elephant back Safaris, Hot-Air Balloon Safaris, a cultural village, a zip slide, and a Kamp Kwena childrens’ facility. Several changes and additions have been made to the Kaleidoscope as Sun City continues to evolve.
There is also an enticing array of cinemas, restaurants and shops, both in the Hall of Treasures and in the original Entertainment Centre, redesigned and renamed The Jungle Casino.
Since the opening of The Lost City in December 1992, visitors have been streaming to Sun City at a rate of nearly three million a year. Sun International’s development programme has been focussed on the refurbishment of the Sun City Hotels. The Sun City Hotel has been upgraded at a cost of R 132 million and given a completely fresh identity and character. A further R 16.5 million has been spent on certain areas of the Cascades Hotel and extensive expansion and refurbishment programme was completed at the Cabanas increasing its rooms to 380.
In 1999, the Lost City Gardens were awarded the National Botanical Garden Status and walking tours through the magnificent cultivated and wild gardens of Sun City were initiated..
Top turf, the company responsible for the seven-year project felt that the tours were a consequence of intensive interest by botanical groups, in the unique collections of plants at the Lost City. All trees now have national tree numbers, and botanical names appended. National Botanical Garden status entails meticulous cataloguing and tracing of the history and origin of all the plants.
The amenities and facilities at Sun City have continued to expand over the years as did the level of entertainment including the triumphs of the golf courses. Overseas players dominated the early years of the million Dollar Golf Challenge. After Miller’s playoff-win in 1981, Ray Floyd was champion in 1982, Seve Ballesteros in 1983 and 1984 and Berhard Langer in 1985. In 198 the event was beamed to more than 700 million homes throughout the world, and what a thriller that the tournament turned out to be. The playoff between Nick Price and the then world no 1 Tiger Woods will go down as crowning one of the best ever “Millions” with the strongest-ever field gracing the Gary Player fairways. But for South African golf fans, the final tournament of the 20th century was perhaps the greatest contest of all and after patiently waiting for seven long years for their hero Ernie Els to win, he did so in style. Els’ tournament total of 25-under par, to win by 5 strokes, was the finest exhibition of golf seen yet at the Gary Player, by a South African. In 2001, the Million Dollar Golf Challenge evolved again, with the winner taking home a cool US$ 2-million dollar and Nedbank coming on board as the major sponsor.
The Million Dollar Golf Challenge was thus reborn as Nedbank Golf Challenge.
In line with Sun International’s other casino in Southern Africa, smartcard operation was introduced to Sun City slot machines at the end of February 2003. Presently all the slot machines in both The Sun City Hotel Casino as well as the Jungle Casino in the Entertainment Centre, a whopping total of 770 machines are completely Smartcard friendly.
25 FASCINATING FACTS about Sun City:
- Sun City opened on 7th December 1979 at a cost of R 30 million, a heady amount for those days. Work started on the 15th of July 1978 and the record-setting fast-track project was completed in only 16 months.
- Four concentric rings of an extinct volcanic crater encircle Sun City and are 150 kilometres in circumference. It is one of only two, such alkaline craters in the world; the other is in Russia.
- The R 100 000 first prize in the inaugural golf classic held on the Gary Player Championship Golf Course the day after the hotel opened, was won by .... Gary Player himself.
- the inaugural Million Dollar Golf Challenge was held in 1981, and won by Johny Miller. He made a brilliant recovery after a disastrous first round, which left at the back of the field and the only golfer not to have broken par.
- The recreational lake at Waterworld is 750 metres long and has a capacity of 1 300 000 cubic meters. Evaporation per annum is 250 000 cubic meters, which is constantly replaced to maintain a depth of 16 metres.
- The Entertainment Centre, which was inaugurated on 24 July 1981 by Frank Sinatra, cost R 30 million and won the 1982 Steel Construction Award. Some 3 900 tons of steel was used, more than half that used in a passenger liner such as the SS Windsor Castle. The roof of the main Superbowl carries 170 tons of equipment accessed by 300 metres of catwalks. The sound output is 35 000 watts.
- The Cascades was built in 1984 at a cost of R 50 million. Its lush botanical gardens ramble over 55 000 square meters of hillside incorporating 40 700 square metres of lawn and planted area and 5 480 square metres of flowerbeds. The waterscape was created from 4 000 tons of native Pilansberg rock, 1 860 square metres of concrete rock made from natural moulds and 3 720 square metres of glass fibre reinforced concrete. Few visitors can tell the real from the faux. The waterscape covers 7 740 square metres and comprises three swimming pools, 12 waterfalls and cataracts and 1 050 metres of low weirs. Water is circulated at 8 314 cubic meters per hour by 45 pumps.
- The Lost City opened in December 1992, having taken only 28 months to complete (another record for a project of this breadth and complexity). It costs R 830 million.
- During the peak of building activity, nearly 5 000 people were employed on the site. In The Palace alone they laid 8 million bricks, 12 km of air-conditioning, 500 km of electric wiring and 3 300 tons of steel reinforcing rods measuring 2 900 kilometres. Illumination in The Palace is provided by 6 500 light fittings.
- The Royal entrance chamber has a dome ceiling 25 metres above floor level and 16 metres in diameter. The evocative African landscape painted on the underside of the dome took nearly 5 000 hours to complete.
- The beautifully decorated roof span of 29 metres in The Palace’s Crystal Court is able to support five floors of suites above.
- The tallest of the 10 Palace towers is almost 70 metres, and the tallest doors within The Palace is 8 metres high.
- The King’s suite in The Palace contains 800 custom-crafted items, including fabrics and carpeting.
- Nearly everything in The Palace was custom-made and 85% of all requirements were sourced within southern Africa.
- Among the decor items which had to come from afar are six elephant tusks, arched in pairs over the Tusk Lounge and Bar. They are 5.6 metres high and weight two tons each. They were carved in Indonesia out of local Squara wood (which is heavier than ivory). Because of their weight, they were made in four sections and assembled on site.
The Lost City used 30 million bricks, 85 000 cubic metres of poured concrete, 50 000 square metres of carpeting, 5 650 square metres of marble and 3 400 square metres of murals.
- The Lost City gardens cover 25 ha and cost around 25 million, and cost around R 25 million. More than 1.2 million plants, trees, shrubs and ground covers from some 2 300 species were laid out in nine different eco-systems. Three-quarters of them are indigenous to southern Africa, and others were sourced from Australia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Madagascar and the Comores. The surface of its artificial lakes and pools covers 70 500 square metres.
- The 18 hole, par 72 Lost City Golf Course was built at a cost of R 15 million and incorporates 28 000 square metres of water features, including a water hazard at Hole 13 which is home to Nile crocodiles.
- At the time of its construction, the Valley of Waves was one of the largest combinations of water and water park features ever built in a single project.
- Its Roaring Lagoon wave pool contains 8 million litres of water. It regularly creates ideal surfing waves, which move away from the dam wall at 35 km / h to subside onto a sandy beach, 120 metres away.
- The Sun City resort revolutionised the approach to game in South Africa, introducing for the first time the concept of value-for-money entertainment amid luxurious surroundings. The resort was also the first the introduce the concept of million Rand jackpots.
- Sun City has recently launched a new activity to its guests: The longest Zip Slide in the world. The zip Slide is situated 5 minutes away from Sun City and trips depart in regular intervals from the Welcome Centre.
- Did you know that Sun City is situated 1700 metres above sea level?
- The hydroponics farm, situated just outside Sun City and which forms part of Sun City’s Corporate Social Investment projects, grow 17 varieties of lettuce.
- The Palace foyer floor consists of 38 000 mosaic tiles.
Just when you thought Sun City had already achieved everything there was to achieve, This Kingdom of Pleasure comes up with something new and dynamic. The word is out that, despite serving up the magic for 25 years, the resort has great plans for the immediate futures. So, watch this space..... |
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