If you're flying into O.R. Tambo and want to experience safari right at the start of your trip — or, the other way round, want to spend your last night close to the airport before flying home — Pilanesberg and its surroundings offer a ready-made one- or two-night module, and it combines well with SunEden, just a short distance away near Pretoria.
Pilanesberg: the Big Five in the crater of an extinct volcano
Pilanesberg sits inside the crater of a volcano that was active around 1,300 million years ago and left behind one of the largest alkaline volcanic complexes in the world — a smaller but geologically related counterpart to Kruger. Following Operation Genesis in 1979, which fenced off the area and reintroduced dozens of species, the park today holds more than 7,000 animals across just under 580 square kilometres, including the full Big Five and more than 300 bird species. It's also malaria-free and lies only about two hours from Johannesburg and an hour and a half from Pretoria, so you can head out on a game drive without a long drive to get there.
Sun City: the Lost City and the Valley of the Waves
Right next to Pilanesberg, the Sun City resort has been drawing visitors since 1979. At its heart is the Lost City, with the Palace of the Lost City hotel and two eighteen-hole golf courses designed by Gary Player. The Valley of the Waves water park adds the Roaring Lagoon, an artificial lagoon with a 1.2-metre wave every ninety seconds, the roughly seventy-metre Temple of Courage slide, the calmer Sacred River Ride for families with children, and the Bridge of Time, with its elephant statues and model volcano, which connects the Lost City to the water park. A good choice for a day of rest between two safari stretches.
Sterkfontein and Maropeng: the Cradle of Humankind
On the way back to Johannesburg, roughly fifty kilometres north-west of the city, lies an area inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List back in 1999 as the Cradle of Humankind. The Sterkfontein Caves have yielded some of the most important fossils in the history of palaeoanthropology — the "Little Foot" skeleton and the "Mrs Ples" skull. The Maropeng visitor centre then walks you through the whole story of human evolution with an interactive exhibition, including the "Almost Human" section on the 2015 discovery of Homo naledi in the Rising Star cave. The cave tour itself takes about 45 minutes, runs every hour (last tour at 16:00), and in places requires stooping or crawling through a lower passage — so it's not quite for everyone, but it's worth the experience.
This module works great as the start or finish of a longer South African trip, and it combines well with SunEden, just a short distance away near Pretoria. You can also extend the programme with the Panorama Route and Kruger.
Want to add Pilanesberg, Sun City or Sterkfontein to your programme? Let us know how many days you have, and we'll put together a specific route.