Vivian Savia: In recent times, Sun City in South Africa has become a location of choice for Nigerians visiting South Africa. Listed as one of the top places to visit in Johannesburg, Sun City is a magnificent resort which offers a variety of attractions for visitors of all ages and interest some of which include water world, a golf course, hot air balloon safaris, water parks, national parks e.t.c. On her recent visit to South Africa with her family, our guest nomad spent the day in Sun City and shared a practical/relevant information with us. Twitter/Instagram: @spicyvisa
As I had visited Johannesburg a couple of years ago, the original plan was to visit Capetown with Table Mountain, hiking Lions head, relaxing at boulders beach, taking lovely photos with the colorful neighborhood of boo- kaap as my back drop were all in the schedule of activities.Sounds amazing right? Our hopes were dashed as most of the hotels/apartments in Cape Town were fully booked and travelling with a family of 8, we had specific accommodation requirements. It was summer time in South Africa i.e peak period. I’ll advice anyone intending to visit Cape Town in summer to plan and book your accommodation way ahead of time. We couldn’t even squeeze in a day’s trip to Table Mountain. However, there will always be another opportunity!
I must state that Sun City is the perfect place for travelers with young children, honeymooners or just a group of friends planning a vacation. You’ll probably need to be lodged here to take full advantage of all the activities at the resort as a day is not near enough.The resort has four hotels with rates as low as $80 (N 27,600) per person sharing. Kindly see below relevant information for Nigerians planning a trip to Sun City:
- Visa Requirements: Nigerian citizens require visas to visit South Africa. Complete your visa application form together with all supporting documents; photocopies previous UK, US, Canada and Schengen visas, bank statements, hotel booking and flight tickets/booking. The visa fees cost about N 20,600 and it takes a minimum of 10 days. If you’re traveling with kids, you will need a letter of authorization from the parents and their birth certificates.
- Flights: South African airways departs from both Lagos and Abuja airports directly to Johannesburg. These flights are on specific days so ensure to check their flight schedule.
- Hotel: Since we didn’t stay at Sun City, we got a lovely pent house apartment (self catering) in Sandwon Estate, Sandton. If you plan to stay in Sun City, click here for direct information on hotels within the premises, otherwise, booking.com is a great portal to find accommodation close to Sun City.
- Feeding: Food is pretty affordable all over Johannesburg. We tried out almost all the restaurants at the Mandela Square. Some dishes where great, others. average. However, get ready to pay 20ZAR (N600) for a bottle of water.
- Sun City Day:
– As earlier stated, our trip to Sun City was to make up for missing out on Cape Town and I am glad we made this happen. I was fully prepared as I had my bikini, shorts, tee shirt, book to read (Destiny by T.D Jakes), flip flops, Ray Bans, sun hat, Bose headpiece, and clarins sunscreen with lots of snacks and drinks for the road. Lockers, umbrellas, towels and life jackets were available for hire at the park. We left the apartment as early as 7.00am as it’s a 2 hours 30mins drive from Sandton to Sun City. The drive is so scenic dotted with the beautiful and imposing mountains of the Pilanesberg and occasional lakes or rivers (not sure which).
– Being that I love rides, theme parks and water parks, I couldn’t wait to get my adrenaline fix from the water rides. There are a variety of water activities at the park such as learning to wake board, water-ski, experience the rush of a jet ski or the fun of bumper boats. You can also kick start your adrenaline with parasailing or round off another perfect day on a sunset lake cruise.
– I was there for all the adrenaline and fun rides! I started with Sun City’s premier water theme park – the Valley of the Waves – which looks like a picture-postcard of a tropical island, complete with a sandy beach and lapping turquoise waters generated by a powerful wave machine. The valley boasts of the Roaring Lagoon – a 6 500 square meter wave pool with hydraulic mechanisms that generate waves of nearly 2 meters high every 90 seconds. Be sure to close our mouth or you will end up with lots of ‘eczema water’ (as my friends called it) in your mouth. Everyone that “sipped on” the water had near death experiences with their stomach during the night lol.
– I then proceeded to the Temple of Courage which is the highest/scariest ride in the park. This speed slide is for the brave at heart. And boy am I brave! The speed slide begins at the aptly named ruins of the Temple of Courage. I dropped a heart stopping 17 meters, equal to the height of a four-story building and slid down a 70-meter long chute, hurtled under a bridge and gradually came to gentle halt, in the chute. It was so good I did it twice. (Ah! Let me just warn you about the sun! It is scorching during summer. We forgot to use sun screen and so we all got burnt at the end of the day as we had to stand in queues for the rides and tubs. By the next day, everyone’s skin was 10 shades darker and peeling. I’m still recovering thanks to my Nature’s bar Turmeric soap….lmao.)
-Next were the Body slides named Scorpion & Tarantula. In the Tarantula slide you swirl and swoop through a pitch-dark tunnel, carved into the bowels of the earth, to emerge with a splash into the same pool as the Scorpion slide. You are sure to scream your life out as you go through the tunnel. Finally we enjoyed a relaxing and lazy trip through the spraying monkeys, squirting elephants, misty caves, the Valley crocodile and raging rapids. I couldn’t wait for this slow tub ride to come to an end.
-While we were having a good time, there was a life performance by the beach by AKA but I wasn’t interested although the screams and chants from the crowd were enticing!
– Around 4.00pm it was time to go home and rain had begun to fall. We rushed off to our waiting van but not before we had armed ourselves with huge hotdogs to chow on our way home.
– Overall it was a fun day and I would do it again sometime in the future but it was nothing compared to the rush I had on the 62m stealth ride in Thorpe Park which accelerates from 0-80 mph in 1.9 seconds!!! Well that’s a story for another day!
I hope the tips were helpful! Enjoy more photos below.
