Madikwe & Sun City, South Africa

Malaria-free game-viewing and family fun at Sun City

• Malaria-free
• Good quality of Big Five game viewing in Madikwe
• Some lodges offer children’s safari programmes
• Remote locations far from the madding crowds
• Range of watersports and family-friendly activities at Sun City

How to get to Sun City & Madikwe
Pilanesburg and Sun City are an easy drive from Johannesburg of between 1½ to 2 hours, less if you are staying in Pretoria, however Madikwe is much more remote taking 3½ to 4 hours to drive depending on which game lodge you are staying at. For this reason many people opt to stay a night at Sun City to break the journey. However you can also take a scheduled charter flight instead which flies directly into Madikwe’s airstrip.

Sun City and Madikwe are in the summer rainfall belt with hot humid summers and dry and pleasant winters. The Pilanesberg and Madikwe game reserves are both upland areas and so can be cold at night in mid winter (June/July).

Reasons to visit Madikwe & Sun City

Malaria-free Game Reserves

If you have young children, or you don’t wish, or cannot, take anti-malaria medication, South Africa is unique in offering a number of malaria-free Game Reserves. It used to be that you had a make a trade-off between the quality of the game-viewing and the absence of malaria, but this is increasingly not the case as a number of the non-malaria reserves, Madikwe Game Reserve, the Waterberg, the Pilanesberg and the Eastern Cape game reserves, offer the Big Five (elephant, lion, buffalo, rhino and leopard) as well as plenty of general game. All of these area have witnessed a heart-warming return to wildlife conservation with a number of farms restored to natural bushveld, and the largest restocking of wildlife that Africa has ever seen. What is fair to say is that the Eastern Cape and the Pilanesberg are more accessible than the traditional safari areas. This means reduced travelling time but the greater accessibility can also translate into less of an ‘African safari’ feel. However this is not the case with Madikwe Private Game reserve and the Waterberg which lie in the far North-West of South Africa. We have visited most of the game lodges and can discuss the relative merits of each one.