The Cabanas, Sun City

Pilanesburg / Sun City, South Africa

GENERAL SCORES /5:

Lodge/Hospitality: 3

Rooms: 3

Food: 4

Guiding: 3-4

Game Viewing: 4

OVERALL: 8/10

Vital Statistics:

Country: South Africa

Game Reserve: Pilanesburg

Management: Sun International

Year we stayed: 2008

Approx price pppn then: $80 B & B

The Cabanas Review Summary:

The Cabanas is one of the hotels in Sun City, right next to Pilanesburg game reserve. It is family oriented, next to a lake and with a large swimming pool. The rooms are fine - standard hotel rooms really. Safaris can be booked from the hotel, the quality of which seems to depend on how lucky you are. We experienced both a very ordinary game drive and an excellent walking safari. The food is good - breakfast was included and was superb - with access to many different outlets in the main part of Sun City.

The Cabanas Review

Sun City is a large complex of hotels and convention centres just about two hours drive from Johannesburg. It also happens to be right next to Pilanesburg - currently the closest big 5 game reserve to Jo'burg. The Cabanas is one of cheaper of these hotels

When we arrived parking was not easy, but we did eventually find a space and porters were on hand to help with our luggage. Check in was quite slow, but the staff were reasonably friendly and porters were once again ready to take our luggage to the rooms when we had finally got our keys - this was just as well as the place can seem a bit of a maze at first.

The hotel room blocks are dotted around a large swimming pool area on a gently sloping lawn down to a lake and some of the rooms have views of the lake, which is pleasant, but not spectacular. The rooms themselves are basic and functional. Ours were perfectly clean and had everything we needed or expected in a hotel.

Just up the slope from the swimming pool is the main restaurant where breakfast was included. This buffet was very good and had everything from croissants and fruit to a range of eggs and plenty of other hot items. The dinner buffet looked good too, or there is a range of restaurants a short walk (or complimentary bus-ride) away in the central area of Sun City. The pool is great for kids, but can be very noisy with music blaring out of the speakers and perhaps not as many sun shades as there should be when the hotel is busy. Water sports are available on the lake.

Pilanesburg is a very family-friendly reserve and it is very easy to self-drive - there are signposts at every junction. Alternatively, safaris can be booked from the reception and this is where you have to hope for a bit of luck. You might find yourself in a Land Cruiser with just a few other people or you might find yourself in a large truck of about 30. The guides we had were quite good though.

We also booked a walking safari, without much hope of it being particularly good, but were very pleasantly surprised. We had two very good guides who took us tracking white rhino, and then on a trek through an area where there were no roads - and therefore no vehicles to disturb us. It was an excellent walking safari and I would definitely recommend it to anyone staying at the Cabanas.

The Cabanas is a hotel aimed at families and as such it is fine. It has the big swimming pool and the main part of Sun City is just a short distance up the hill, with the wave pool and slides. Pilanesburg is right next door and is the perfect reserve for young families as if the kids get bored you can easily return to the hotel. The reserve might also be a good, fairly cheap introduction to safaris for adults who have not been to Africa before. Anyone who wants to experience the real Africa though, should probablylook elsewhere.