Travel queen! Find your inner royal at The Palace of the Lost City

I’m not one to celebrate birthdays. Since the pandemic chaos I decided to let them pass like any other day. But when a trip to a revamped Sun City resort lands on your lap in your birth month, you ditch those negative thoughts and say: “Yes!”

So, just two-and-a-half hours after leaving Joburg, I was at the entrance to The Palace of the Lost City Hotel in Pilanesberg in North West, whose more than 300 rooms and suites recently underwent a facelift to mark 30 years of opulence for guests from all over the world. It was also fitting for me to be there as I had just turned thirtysomething.

The amazing lobby boasts a hand-painted dome, with marble flooring made up of thousands of pieces that were hand-placed during the initial interior decoration, executive floor manager Darryn Pypers tells me.

The huge chandelier above the Crystal Court restaurant catches my eye as I make my way to my suite. This beautiful piece, I'm told, comprises 10,000 pieces of rock crystal from the Czech Republic. 

Inside the Palace, the service is the best I’ve experienced. The staff have a way of doing things that makes you feel like royalty. It made sense that Michael Jackson, Elton John, Adam Sandler, Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman, Celine Dion and Brazilian footballer Neymar da Silva Santos Jr made Sun City and, specifically, The Palace their home when in the country.

SO WHAT'S NEW AND WHY?

“Fashion and trends have changed since The Palace opened in 1992,” interior architectural design specialist David Muirhead explains. “Then, bedrooms were not as important a focus. We changed the colour of the carpets to a blue-green tone, but kept the same pattern.

“We have used FibreGuard fabrics for scatter cushions on the beds, sofas and curtains, which are eco-friendly and recyclable. No harmful chemicals were used in their manufacture. They are also child-friendly, with stain-free technology. We used luxury African lifestyle brand Ardmore Design for the accent cushion on the bed.”

Now I love me some TV, at home and on holiday, to keep up with whoever has escaped from prison or the latest Beyoncé tour. This usually sends me to sleep and it was no different at The Palace. What was different was the phenomenally comfortable bed, beautiful lamps and that all-important port to handle our ever-changing chargers.

“The original bedside lamps were recovered while the original armoire TV cabinet had its height reduced so it doesn’t overpower the room. The four-poster bed is one of the original hand-carved pieces, as is the dining-room table. Certain artworks were reused and the horned accent tables are also from the original design,” Muirhead says.

The mahogany tea and coffee station is a new feature in the room, developed and designed locally, along with the standing lamps “which provide the feel of an African sculpture and add a luxurious ambiance”.

But what about the bathrooms? I don’t spend a lot of time here, but I love mirrors. 

Muirhead says the bathrooms were rebuilt in rainforest green marble, with diagonally patterned porcelain tiles on the floor. 

“A new timber vanity and new sanitary ware and accessories in brushed bronze by Kohler complete the look, with new works by local artists Jenny Mallon and Sue Martin. The original mirrors above the vanity were retained.”

“As The Palace of the Lost City is an iconic destination, it was essential that we kept the hotel’s integrity and the vision of its founder, Sol Kerzner, intact, while being sensitive to the brand’s history. Our job was to capture its essence — the fantasy of a lost African city and evolve it,” says Muirhead.

IT'S A PLAYGROUND OUT THERE

Beyond The Palace, Sun City offers a myriad activities perfect for winter. These include a heated pool at Sun Vacation Club, tennis courts, a 2km zip slide and archery. You can watch the latest Hollywood blockbuster at Sun Movies or enjoy a game drive with Mankwe Gametrackers in the Pilanesberg Game Reserve.

I like the outdoors, so chose to glimpse the animals.

Warm fleeces are provided on the vehicles should you feel underdressed. The three-hour game drive was filled with laughter, amazement, education and pure fun. We did not mind two giraffes crossing our path and I got to see at least four of the big five.

After that, I was a bit tired and needed to relax. I was directed to the new Royal Spa. Don’t they just think of everything? 

0 of 2

There are many treatments to choose from, so I asked manager Lena Manamela about them. 

“Our most requested are massages and couples’ treatments, which indicates people are looking for relaxation and stress relief. The Royal Spa Signature Massage, which combines hot-stone, Kahuna, Balinese and Indian head massage techniques, incorporates our signature massage candle to relieve tension and nourish the skin, and has been in demand,” she says. 

My treatment was so relaxing I blissfully passed out. 

FOOD, GLORIOUS FOOD

Another thing that makes me happy on any holiday is food. If I couldn't try every dish, I was determined to try most of them.

I was introduced to executive chef Wesli Jacobs, who served in the same position at Sun International’s The Table Bay Hotel in Cape Town before he moved to Sun City this year. 

Jacobs has a big job. He leads a team that caters for the 30-seater Tusk Bar, the 240-seater Crystal Court breakfast buffet, the 300-seater banqueting space, the 50-seater Croc Lounge at the golf course and the 70-seater Grill Room. But Jacobs made us feel at home and served some soul food, including pork belly, sweetcorn, mogodu, beef brisket, samp and dumplings.

Did I mention the melting butter that looks like a candle? I'm not saying this was a dig at load-shedding, but it was sublime.

I ended the evening at The Shebeen, which specialises in shish'nyama and laid-back vibes. Those who know me know I am Xhosa and that we are meat lovers. They prepared a special table for me and I have never felt more at home.

• Check for rates and specials online at suninternational.com.

• Malingo was a guest of Sun City. 

POSH PLATES

Having not changed its menu in “a couple of years”, according to executive chef Wesli Jacobs, the food maestro and his two “right-hand men”, executive sous chefs Angelo van Wyk and Mandla Nontso, in June unveiled months of work with new dishes at The Palace’s signature steakhouse, The Grill Room, as well as the Tusk Bar, hotel pool and in-room dining.

In the planning, the brief from general manager Nico Myburgh was clear: to design a menu showcasing what people in the North West traditionally eat, “but presented in a manner which is world-class and five-star”.

The result is what Jacobs calls Afro-Asian grill-style cooking, using exotic mushrooms, miso paste and sesame in many dishes. “I love Asian flavours and I have incorporated my Durban heritage with the food found around Sun City to create what we hope guests will love.”

With the North West producing about one-third of the country's maize, guests can expect corn cooked in a variety of creative ways. “From chargrilled corn to creamy truffle samp and caramel corn, this is the mielie as you might not have previously known it,” says the chef, who sources locally as far as possible, including free-range pork and duck.

Dishes include seared biltong-crusted kudu, dukkah-spiced duck-breast salad, locally farmed kabeljou ceviche, beef tartar using quail eggs, seared kudu lion, braised springbok and a cumin-spiced free-range lamb rack. Vegetarian dishes include a barley butternut risotto and many dishes can be adapted to be gluten and dairy-free.

Desserts include contemporary takes on South African classics like milk tart and sticky toffee pudding, which is served with Amarula custard and burnt, dehydrated orange.

The pool menu offers wood-fired sourdough pizzas with toppings such as pulled beef and caramelised onion “to evoke flavours of a Sunday lunch”.

The Tusk Bar has a social menu designed for sharing. The charcuterie and a cheese board offer “something to nibble on over a beer or glass of wine, but you can also have a salad, poke bowl, sandwich, pasta, curry or steak if you’re wanting something more substantial”.

The in-room dining menu offers a large variety of dishes, from soups to salads, pastas and curries, meat and fish. Jacobs says with long-stay guests he makes a point of “getting acquainted with them to find out if we can prepare any dishes from home that they might be missing”. 

FUN FACTS ABOUT THE PALACE

The Lost City, which opened in December 1992, cost R830m to build and was completed in 28 months. Workers moved 1.75-million cubic metres of soil and blasted 85,000m³ of rock.

The hotel is surrounded by 25ha of exotic jungle and waterscapes that lead to the Valley of Waves (opened in 1996).

During the peak of building nearly 10,000 people worked on the project, laying eight-million bricks.

The six columns in the royal entrance chamber are designed as a bamboo tree resting on elephant feet, held by a protea to represent South Africa’s national flower. 

The royal entrance chamber dome ceiling is 25m high and 16m in diameter. The evocative African landscape painted on its underside took nearly 5,000 hours and nine artists to complete. 

The murals at The Palace cover 3,400m², while the painted area is a staggering 425,000m². 

The huge chandelier in the Crystal Court is made up of 10,000 pieces of rock crystal from the Czech Republic. The roof of the Crystal Court presented a challenge for developers as its 29m span has to support five floors of suites. 

All the timber doors to the bedrooms were hand-carved, including the huge 8m-high doors at the royal entrance. 

Nearly every item in The Palace was custom-made and 85% of materials were sourced within Southern Africa. This was the first time hand-carved furniture was used throughout the public areas and guestrooms of a hotel. 

Among the décor items are six elephant tusks, arched in pairs over the Tusk Lounge and Bar. They are 5.6m high and weigh two tonnes each. They were carved in Indonesia out of local suar wood (which is heavier than ivory). Because of their weight, they were made in four sections and assembled on-site. 

The atrium is dominated by a life-size bronze sculpture of Shawu, a large bull elephant who lived at the Kruger National Park. At a shoulder height of 3.4m, Shawu’s left tusk was the longest on record in the region, and the sixth longest recorded in Africa.