Sun City is South Africa's answer to Las Vegas. Casinos abound, but the resort's most outrageous sight is The Lost City, an enormous complex that includes a water park. Statues of gazelles leap from towers crowned with palm fronds, and pools, stone bridges, wave ponds, mock ruins and artificial grottos fill the grounds.
There's a golf course, too. Nearby,
Pilanesberg National Park covers 200 sq mi/500 sq km of extinct volcanic craters. Wildlife includes the Big Five, with rhino being something of a specialty. Night drives offer the chance to see unusual dry-country predators such as brown hyena and aardwolf. A remarkably varied birdlife reflects the Pilanesberg's transitional location to the semiarid west and moister eastern savannah.
80 mi/125 km northwest of Johannesburg.