Namibia Travel Guide

Namibia is a stunning place, extraordinary landscapes, safari parks and people!

Plenty of wildlife and gorgeous scenery, and few people. Roadways are easy to navigate.

If you are searching for diversified wildlife within different landscapes Namibia is the right place. Friendly people, exceptional accommodations and stunning sights make every visit of this beautiful country unforgettable.

Totally superb and the holiday of a lifetime

We went on safari with Wild Dog Safaris to Etosha and Okonjima in Namibia. Our Guide was Tembo. The Wildlife, Scenery, Weather, Accommodation, Transportation and our Guide, Tembo, were all absolutely fanstastic. We could not fault anything and will definitely be returning to Namibia with Wild Dog Safaris as soon as possible.

Natural environment, not too many people (as are found in Chobe or Kruger), lots of birds & animals, conservation efforts are apparent

Namibia is definitely a place to visit soon, before his beauty attracts more people and become a "tourist destination" like South Africa. Namibia is wild and beautiful. First time I was there (in 2005) it was like we were the first persons to land here, we sometimes drove hours before seeing another car. This is what I loved about this country, the feeling of "discovering" the place.

Namibia has a desolate beauty - a land of windswept sand, wild ocean, and vast rocky canyons.

Namibia is such a unique travel experience! Remote outposts house delightful German bakeries. Desert wastes hide elusive elephant herds. Cape fur seals birth pups in a cacophony of noise and stench and life. The vast white pans of Etosha in contrast with lush wetlands of the Zambezi Region offer stunning wildlife encounters.

Community based tourism is flourishing here. Local groups are represented in management decisions, and profit directly from tourism income. There are well-appointed local camps and cultural tours throughout the country. These offer an intimate look at local habitat as well as traditional cultures, rituals and wisdom.

All the convenience of South Africa without the crowds

Namibia is a great destination for either an organised safari or a self-drive holiday. The roads and infrastructure are nearly as good as in South Africa, and everything is just as reasonably priced. Wildlife is just as good as South Africa, with all the big five represented.
Etosha is probably the most famous park in Namibia, and is where most visitors head. However, there are other good parks for wildlife viewing. I like Waterberg Plateau. It is ideally located between Windhoek and Etosha and has a resort feel with a nice pool and good self-catering rooms. Great for unwinding if you don't fancy a trip to the nice seaside town of Swakopmund. The seal colony at Cape Cross north of Luderitz is a nice little side trip.
Overall, Namibia is well worth a visit if you're into your wildlife. I like the fact that you can drive the main roads and spot unfenced wildlife all over the place. You don't have to visit the parks to see beasts.

German beer, sandy scenes, blue skies

Our first night in Namibia was spent in the coolest campsite in Ngepi. OK, it had a swimming cage, so you didn’t get eaten by Hippos or crocs but the bathrooms were something else. All individually designed and to a theme – such as a throne that overlooks the river – very bizarre. From there,we headed straight to Etosha National Park. We spent three nights here in a couple of different (very comfortable) campsites – actually they were really resorts with campsites tagged onto them. Etosha is a lovely place, with loads of different wildlife. We were there though just after some heavy rain so the animals didn’t need to venture to the waterholes as they could get water elsewhere – The National Park had made a number of waterholes, with each resort having its own next to a viewing platform. On the last day in the park we decided to get up early and sit at the waterhole for a couple of hours. There wasn’t loads of activity compared to what we had been used to but it was really interesting to spend a decent amount of time watching the animals interacting – their social characteristics etc. I also managed to get a really good photo of a pair of young kudu interlocking horns, but unfortunately we have since lost the camera and Gem had gone back to bed so cannot verify that!!
The next morning we got up early (again) to make our way to Swakopmund, stopping off at cape cross to see a seal colony – thousands upon thousands of very smelly seals on a rock. Increasingly the terrain looked more desert-like as we approached Swakopmund. Now this town is very odd. It is a kind of german-themed seaside resort, at the end of the desert. Namibia is a former German colony (or at least West Africa was) so it is still populated by German holiday makers, german speaking black-africans, beer-halls and bakeries.
We left Swokopmund (reluctantly got on the truck as it was nice to have a few days ‘off’) early and had a long days driving through the Namib desert – we stopped for lunch at a funny little place called Solitaire. It was in the middle of absolutely nowhere and it looked like a town from the wild west – we had lovely apple pie there though!
Later in the afternoon we met a guide who took us (in the back of the smallest pick up in the world) to the dunes. We walked to Deadvlei which was the ‘dead’ part of the dunes that the river no longer flowed to. It was amazing and quite eerie (especially with the rain coming in). The guide was hilarious and kept on giving us lectures on how to be good wives! He was a good dancer though!

Diverse, absolutely incredible, and a very differnet safari destination

Having already enjoyed safaris in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and South Africa, we were looking forward to a different experience in Namibia, and we certainly weren’t disappointed.

Just like South Africa, it’s easy to do a self-drive trip in Namibia. The roads are good, there isn’t a lot of traffic, and the parks are relatively quiet in comparison to some of the other countries we had visited. We travelled in January, the ‘rainy season’, which meant even fewer visitors, quiet campsites, and some fantastic experiences. In hindsight, perhaps a bushcamper would have provided a little more comfort during some of the storms, rather than our Toyota Hi-Lux with rooftop tent, but did we regret it ? Not one bit !

We had some incredible experiences in Etosha National Park, coming close to cheetah, lion, and the most spectacular sight, a Leopard stalking a Kudu within a few feet of us. It was just us, there was no one else around, and there she was right at the side of the road, we sat with her for over half an hour, but in the end, she knew that the terrain wasn’t right and walked right past us.

But it wasn’t just big game, out on the Skeleton Coast at Cape Cross we saw thousands upon thousands of eared seals, some just born, huddled at the waters edge, and basking in the sunshine. The smell was overpowering, but after a while, we didn’t seem to notice. We left the seals and drove along the coast passing shipwrecks along the way to the famous dunes of Swakopmund.

From here it was another journey further south to the even bigger dunes of Sosssusvlei. Our trusty 4x4 was a significant advantage here, there was no need to take a shuttle to the furthest dunes, we could drive ourselves and enjoy a picnic under the ancient trees.

Namibia is a diverse and beautiful country, the oldest sand dunes in the world, the Atlantic Ocean, national parks, and the Big 5 game, all combine to make this a great place to do a self-drive safari.