North West Province

Madikwe is the country’s fourth-largest reserve and one of its best, covering 760 sq km of bushveld, savannah grassland and riverine forest on the edge of the Kalahari. It offers Big Five wildlife watching and dreamy lodging among striking (and malaria-free) red sand and clay-thorn bushveld. Madikwe does not allow self-drive safaris or day visitors, which means you must stay at one of its upmarket lodges to explore the reserve, but you get what you pay for at these exclusive bush hideaways.

Madikwe’s second-oldest lodge is also the reserve’s only non-five-star option, but Mosetlha’s relatively low rates are not its only attraction. With nine open-fronted cabins around the campfire, Mosetlha is truly off the grid – it has no electricity or running water. But staying here is romantic rather than rough.

Occupying an eroded alkaline crater north of Sun City, in a transition zone between the Kalahari and wet lowveld vegetation, the 550-sq-km Pilanesberg National Park is a wonderfully scenic place to see a stunning variety of South African wildlife. Conceived in the late 1970s as a back-to-nature weekend escape for nearby city dwellers, Pilanesberg remains a haven where lions, buffaloes and day-trippers still roam

At Sun City, the legendary creation of entrepreneur Sol Kerzer, Disneyland collides with ancient Egypt in Africa’s version of Vegas. Filled with gilded statues of lions and monkeys, acres of artificial beaches, a golf course, a water park, 1200 hotel rooms and line upon line of clinking slot machines, it serves no other purpose than to entertain. Yet although there’s no question that this gambling-centric resort is almost grotesquely gaudy, a visit here can also be pretty damn fun.

Just east of Schoemansville is this cable-car ride that thrived for two decades before closing in 2005, only to reopen after an extensive refitting in 2010. It deposits you atop the Magaliesberg, where you can take in magnificent views of the surrounding region. There’s a restaurant at the base station; at the top is another eatery plus a pizza shack-cum-bar and a kids’ playground.