The Palace of the Lost City

The Palace of the Lost City is the grand hotel at Sun City in North West Province, and we use it for one reason: the Gary Player Country Club on the same resort. The course has been ranked four times among the world's top 100 and hosts the Nedbank Golf Challenge. On The Highveld Golf Circuit you spend two nights here.

The helicopter is how we make it work. The road from Johannesburg is a long drive. Your helicopter takes forty minutes over the Magaliesberg. Non-golfers fly ahead and have the pools for the afternoon, while the golfers finish their round at Blair Atholl, have lunch and follow.

The Palace is big, with 338 rooms, and it does not pretend otherwise. It is a theatrical building, made to look like the palace of a lost African kingdom, with planted jungle around it.

You play the Gary Player Country Club in the morning with your caddie, before the heat of the day. Non-golfers spend the morning at the spa and in the gardens and join the golfers for a long lunch.

It suits golfers above all, and partners who want a pool and a spa for two days.

When you leave, your Embraer Phenom 300 flies from Pilanesberg to Malelane on the southern edge of the Kruger, for two nights near Leopard Creek.

Good to know

• The Gary Player Country Club is on the Sun City resort.
• Sun City is malaria-free.
• The helicopter from Johannesburg takes about forty minutes.

Country: South Africa