Date of Travel: 29 July – 4 August

Africa was always a continent we wanted to explore but it never came across our mind (at least not mine) to make it our honeymoon destination. I had planned for almost 2 years to travel to New Zealand but when our visas didn’t go through, Kanika quickly decided we should instead go to South Africa. At first I was quite disheartened and not wanting to travel or go through the process of filling out ridiculous visa forms…but then I told myself, no, this is life. You have to get back at it. Things always happen for a reason and boy it sure did!

As we made last minute changes to our honeymoon trip, having less than a month to plan, we also added Seychelles to the list since it was a visa-free country. Now we didn’t have a lot of planning time so we looked for travel agencies that could help us. After a day of searching, Kanika came across DTC travel and on their list of packages was SOUTH AFRICA…in capital letters too! It was almost meant to be!

Since this was our honeymoon we didn’t want to take pre-planned or group tours so we gave the owner, Tom Bishop a call and told him about your situation and what we were looking for. After giving our budget and travel plans, within 2 weeks he had finalized our entire trip in a compiled package – including tickets, hotel bookings and activities. Without him, I honestly don’t know if our trip would have been possible or if we would have had some of our best experiences.

Here’s the highlight of our trip that you can enjoy before or after reading this post.

The Trip Overview

We booked all our flights through Kenya Airlines, so fortuitously we were able to add Kenya to the list of countries we got to visit (albeit only a one night transit).

Our travel plans looked like this:

Bangkok – Nairobi – Johannesburg – Sun City (5 nights) – Johannesburg – Nairobi (overnight) – Seychelles (4 nights) – Nairobi – Bangkok

It looked overwhelming at first since this was our first multi-country trip but we were also excited beyond a doubt.

Traveling by Kenya Airlines was quite comfortable and we were pretty impressed with the service and quality – from the staff to the food to the variety of channels we got on TV. The only thing that bothered us a little was the two sets of delayed flights we had to experience but other than that it was all spectacular.

South Africa

From air, the country didn’t look like much but once we landed and drove to resort, South Africa turned to be an absolutely beautiful place, despite the news you hear about crime in the cities. We were undeterred from all the bad press but still played it safe by choosing to stay at a well-known and established place.

Sun City was our choice of destination and if you don’t know what that is, perhaps if you’ve seen Adam Sandler’s Blended, it will jog your memory.

This high-end resort is just a few kilometers away from the southern entrance of the Pilanesberg National Park, about a 2 hour-drive from Johannesburg airport (although the driver decided to take us a on joyride through the city and took us almost 4 hours).

Sun City is a massive place encompassing a collection of 4 different types of hotels complete with restaurants, entertainment complexes, thrilling activities and so much more that it is literally a one-stop place for all types of travelers. Well ok, not all, especially if you prefer to travel like a local or with a low budget and a part of me wishes we did travel across South Africa a bit more.

The Hotels

There are 4 hotels here and 1 vacation club, each with their own qualities. There’s the Sun City Hotel, the Cabanas, the Cascades (where we stayed) and the most luxurious, Palace Of The Lost City.

We had selected the Cascades because we were intrigued by it was central to everything in the resort and we had read good reviews about it. It was also perfect for our budget. Our rooms at the hotel were very spacious and comfortable with a large balcony that overlooked a tiny forest against a stunning backdrop of tranquil mountain landscape, surreal sunrises and the sound of waterfall trickling. At this time (July-August), the weather was also very cold, which was a pleasant change from the hot and humid weather we get in Bangkok so we tried to spend a lot of time on the balcony rather than in the room.

View from our balcony overlooking the resort

Now South Africa and Thailand only has a 5 hour time difference but we’re quite new to International traveling. The furthest I had gone in my life was Saudia Arabia and Kanika had been to United States when she was younger but this was different. We barely had time to adjust to the time difference and we were severely jet lagged for most of the stay.

We would be asleep by 9 or 10 pm and awake by 4 or 5 am when the sun wasn’t even out! So I would wait for 6 am for the gym to open, brave the chilled winds and train for about an hour before being famished. Kanika would be ready by the time I got back and we would hit the buffet breakfast. Oh, how we miss the breakfast! The spread was nothing like we’ve ever seen. There were massive tables with a huge variety of fruits, cereals, juices, cold cuts, live egg station, cooked food (sausages, eggs, bacon, beef) and so much more! It was just fantastic. Rarely do you find a hotel with as much variety that is equally matched with quality (too bad I don’t have any pictures, you’ll have to take my word on it).

 Activities

So what’s there to do at Sun City? Well so much that you don’t even have to leave the resort (except for the safari).  Here’s everything we did here.

Swam in freezing cold man-made wave pool at Valley of the Waves. Here they generate waves in a large ocean-like pool that go high above your head, if you’re standing close to the wall. Since it was winter, it was ice cold but that didn’t seem to bother most of the caucasians. Even the lifeguards told us that they would prefer not to go in the water (I hope they do though in case of emergency).

We also went on two safaris. This was the major reason Kanika had selected Africa as our go-to place. She loves animals and in some ways so do I. We have seen safaris in Thailand but they are still sort of caged. It’s not the real thing like in the wild. We opted for two safaris, one morning and one evening.

Now if you’re not used to the cold, make sure you travel to South Africa anytime other than June-August because it gets very, very cold. Temperatures on some nights dropped to -1°C. So imagine when we wake up at 6 am for the morning safari and it is about 1°C with piercing winds. We were given blankets (while wearing 3 layers) and still we were freezing.

Good thing we starting seeing some wildlife early to make us forget about the weather. We came across a few lionesses (although far and camouflaged), zebras, hippos, rhinos, giraffes, elephants, wilder beasts and even a warthog. I was disappointed not seeing a lion or a cheetah though.

Tip: When traveling for safaris, bring a professional style camera because your mobile phone won’t be cut it, which is a mistake we made. Also don’t forget to carry a pair of binoculars. In addition, always check with the tour operators what you should wear and bring for the period you’re visiting.

We went exploring as we zig-zagged our way through Maze of the Lost City after which we drank cold draft beers to reward ourselves for getting through the maze as we watched the sunset. They had a beer tasting promotion where you get 8 beers to try out, from which you select the one you like for a whole pint. The maze plus the beer tasting will cost you about 150 Rands (approx. US $12) per person. NOT BAD AT ALL, right?

At night, we spent our time playing arcade games at the entertainment complex or trying our (un)luck at the Casino.

One of the days we also visited the Crocodile sanctuary where learnt about crocodiles in Africa and even got to hold one!

The Culture & People

Don’t think for a second that just because we were at a luxury resort that there’s no touch of culture here. We were ecstatic to find out about the Cultural Village where they had set up daily shows and interactions for guests to enjoy. After we payed about 12 USD each for a ticket, we were greeted by (I’m supposing actors) who are dressed as tribes people of South Africa. They explained us about the 8 tribes that live(d) in the country and their customs.

After that the show starts where they all sing and dance in a very dramatic fashion. Very impressive too if I might add. Both Kanika and I were pulled in to join their traditional dance, truly took our trip to the next level as one of the best experiences we’ve had. It was refreshing to do something different from the normal tourist-y stuff.

Once the show was over, we went over to a Shebeen, which was basically a shack-like restaurant serving local food and beers. Again, this was a pleasant change as I was dying to take a break from sandwiches, burgers and fast food. I had the shebeen chicken curry, which basically reminded me of Pakistani food.

All in all, Sun City was a superb location and we were quite sad to leave (the weather, the people, the amazing breakfasts) even though we knew our trip wasn’t over yet.