Gold Reef City Theme Park Hotel

Visitor from the UK. Wanted a nice, safe hotel for our 3 night stay and definitely got that. Great location obviously being in the theme park of which we had one full day going on the rides (a Friday to avoid the wkend crowds which it was substantially busier on the Saturday). All the rooms facilities were great. Breakfast was really good. Had one evening meal at Barney's. The food was really nice but definitely not the quickest of meals. Spent other evenings at the gold reef casino hotel with all its restaurants there. Walked over the bridge early evening and then got picked up in the shuttle to bring us back. Can't fault the hotel, facilities or the staff.

This is our third stay at this hotel to ride the 94.7 Ride JHB cycle race. The new mamangement have really made a big difference to the facilities and the general attitude of all the staff. Perfectly situated within easy riding distance of the start/finish at FNB stadium about 5 km. Nice refurbishment of the rooms and in particular Barneys Restuarant. Breakfast were excellent as were lunch and dinners. Was very busy at lunch on Sat as the theme park was really busy but they coped, and a little patience was all that was needed as the food quality did not suffer as a result.

We started at the Gold Reef City Theme Park Hotel in November, and the first noticeable and pretty unique thing about this hotel is that, unlike most theme park hotels which are outside the parks’ gates, this one is literally in the middle of the theme park. This makes it an ideal location to enjoy the park and not have to faff around with taxis, monorails or the other methods of getting into other theme parks around the world. Entry to the park is free for hotel guests. You go the reception every morning and they give you a wristband which get you on to all the rides. This is a nice little extra which also makes it exceptional value for money. We have stayed at theme park hotels at parks in Europe and the US, where you get charged extra for park tickets so it was great to see that wasn’t the case here. The theme park itself is stunning and I’ve written a separate review just of the theme park. There’s also a casino on site with various chain restaurants and the Apartheid Museum which are both easy walking distance, or the staff are more than happy to take you in the mini bus or golf buggy, just ask at reception, they did this several times for us. The room felt a bit dated. The bed was comfortable enough, but the room just felt a bit bland and like it needed modernising. The front door to our room was very thin and that could do with being replaced. The light in the bathroom also stayed on permanently which was kind of annoying. The hotel grounds are very nice. They have gardeners everywhere and they do an amazing job at keeping the gardens looking nice. We didn’t bother eating at Barney’s restaurant in the evening but we did have breakfast there which was also included (again, making it a great value experience). The breakfast was pretty good, but at dinner time the restaurant looked too bright and didn’t look to have much atmosphere, so we instead ate at the restaurants over in the casino building which were ok, but nothing amazing. There’s also a small pool at the hotel which had some table and chairs around it but surprisingly no sun loungers so we only sat by the pool once in the evening, when Barney’s bar was busy with a corporate function. It looks like some new rooms are being built, and so perhaps the hotel are in the process of updating all the rooms. Either way, I’d still return here. The location of the hotel, the helpfulness of the hotel staff, especially the reception team who were very kind and friendly, and the overall experience we had were all pretty excellent, so I’d definitely return and I’d recommend this hotel to others. The hotel also offer an airport transfer service, our driver was very friendly and took us all the way to the hotel reception, which was very handy for us as we’d not visited before so would probably have got lost otherwise. It’s also worth mentioning that the site is kept very safe. It’s gated and security staff are everywhere, as well as safes in the hotel rooms for valuables.