Itinerary · 12 days · 47 places
12 Days in Namibia
Twelve days by hire car from Windhoek via the red dunes of Sossusvlei to the coast at Swakopmund and Walvis Bay, then on through Damaraland to the waterholes of Etosha. The last night in the Okonjima reserve is deliberately close to the airport.
Open in the appThere you can adjust the plan to your dates, your pace and your interests.
Photo: Hub JACQU · Pexels
The route on the map
The plan, day by day
Day 1Arrival in Windhoek
Arrival in Windhoek
Hotel check-in
Klein Windhoek, east of the centre, is the city's quiet guesthouse district: leafy streets, a short walk to the restaurants and five minutes by car to downtown.
View over Windhoek from Heinitzburg hill
From the terrace of Heinitzburg Castle, built in 1914, you look out over the whole valley basin to the Auas Mountains, which glow red at sunset.
Day 2Windhoek between the Christuskirche and Katutura
Christuskirche
The sandstone church, consecrated in 1910, stands on a traffic island above the city; inside, brass plaques commemorate the German soldiers killed in the colonial wars.
Independence Memorial Museum
Three floors on resistance and the liberation struggle, from the Herero and Nama genocide to independence in 1990 — the glass lift leads up to the panoramic restaurant on the top floor.
Post Street Mall with the Gibeon meteorites
In the pedestrian zone, 33 fragments of the Gibeon meteorite, the largest find of its kind in the world, stand on pillars; next to them traders sell semi-precious stones.
Namibia Craft Centre
In the old brewery on Tal Street, around forty cooperatives sell Ovambo basketwork, San ostrich-eggshell jewellery and karakul rugs.
Heroes' Acre
The national memorial cemetery at the foot of the Auas Mountains with an obelisk and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier; from the terrace you look 10 km across the highlands towards Windhoek.
Single Quarters Market in Katutura
The township's meat market is liveliest in the late afternoon: kapana, thinly sliced beef, is grilled over open coals and eaten with spicy seasoning salt.
Evening: Warehouse Theatre in the Old Breweries
The stage in the old brewery courtyard has been the place for Namibian live music for decades, mostly Afro-jazz or kwaito; tickets are sold at the door.
Day 3Over the Spreetshoogte Pass to Sesriem
Onward to Sesriem
Hotel check-in
Sesriem Canyon
Here the Tsauchab has cut a 30 m deep gorge, in places only two metres wide, into the conglomerate rock, and you can walk a kilometre along its floor.
Sesriem Gate: park permit and last fuel stop
At the gate to the Namib-Naukluft Park you buy the permit for the dune road and fill up at the Sossus Oasis filling station — the next pump is 80 km away in Solitaire.
Elim Dune
This solitary dune 5 km past the gate can be climbed in twenty minutes and at sunset gives views across the gravel desert to the Naukluft Mountains.
Evening: starry sky over Sesriem
Sesriem lies on the edge of the NamibRand Dark Sky Reserve, one of the darkest places on Earth: the Milky Way really does cast a shadow here.
Day 4Sossusvlei: Dune 45, Big Daddy and Deadvlei
Dune 45
The 80 m dune at kilometre 45 of the park road is the most photographed in Namibia; you climb barefoot along the crest in half an hour.
Sossusvlei pan
At the end of the tarmac road you switch to the 4x4 shuttle for the last 5 km of deep sand to the white clay pan, which holds water only every few years.
Big Daddy
At 325 m the highest climbable dune in the valley; the ascent along the crest takes a good hour, and you run down in five minutes straight into Deadvlei.
Deadvlei
On the cracked white clay pan stand 900-year-old camel thorn trunks, too dry to rot — black against the orange dune and the blue sky.
Evening: desert terrace at Sossusvlei Lodge
From the deck above the lodge's own waterhole you watch oryx and springbok come to drink in the evening, while the Naukluft Mountains fade from red behind them.
Day 5Over the Kuiseb Pass to the Atlantic coast
Onward to Swakopmund
Hotel check-in
The Mole and beach promenade
The harbour mole built in 1899 silted up after just two years and is now the town beach; behind it the promenade runs past the lighthouse and palm trees.
Swakopmund Jetty
The iron jetty from 1912 replaced the wooden landing stage for troop ships; today you walk 250 m out over the surf and watch anglers and seals.
Woermannhaus with the Damara Tower
The Woermann Line's 1905 office building has a lookout tower from which people once watched for ox wagons and ships — today you see over the tin roofs to the dunes.
Evening: Tiger Reef Beach Bar
The beach bar at the mouth of the Swakop sits right on the sand, with fire baskets and views of the surf — the classic for your first evening on the coast.
Day 6Swakopmund: desert life and colonial buildings
Living Desert tour in the dunes
In the dune belt south of town the guide digs palmato geckos, dwarf adders and the shovel-snouted lizard out of the sand — creatures you'd never find without reading tracks.
Kristall Galerie
Home to the largest known quartz crystal cluster, weighing 14 tonnes and recovered from the Otjua mine; the cutting workshop next door shows tourmaline and aquamarine from the Erongo.
Swakopmund Museum
The museum below the old lighthouse collects pharmacy fittings, Ovambo implements and a section on uranium mining at the Rössing mine — founded by the dentist Alfons Weber in 1951.
Martin Luther steam locomotive
The steam engine imported in 1896 broke down after just a few trips and has been rusting away on the edge of town ever since; its nickname comes from Luther's words "Here I stand, I can do no other".
Evening: Brewer & Butcher at the Strand Hotel
The brewpub in the Strand Hotel on the Mole serves its own beer and is one of the few places open late, with windows facing the Atlantic.
Day 7Walvis Bay: pelicans, flamingos and Dune 7
Onward to Walvis Bay
Hotel check-in
Boat trip to Pelican Point
From the Waterfront the boat heads to the spit with the old lighthouse, where a colony of tens of thousands of seals lies; on the way pelicans land on deck, and dolphins often join you.
Walvis Bay Lagoon
Depending on the season, tens of thousands of lesser and greater flamingos stand in the shallow lagoon; from the Esplanade you can watch them feed and take off without binoculars.
Dune 7
At 130 m the highest dune in the area, right by the road to Windhoek; the climb through the sand takes twenty gruelling minutes, and you run down in one.
Evening: Walvis Bay Waterfront
The waterfront promenade with its wooden boardwalks over the water is lit up in the evening, with seals sleeping under the planks and pelicans perched on the posts.
Day 8Damaraland: the rock engravings of Twyfelfontein
Onward to Twyfelfontein
Hotel check-in
Twyfelfontein rock engravings
Over 2000 engravings of rhinos, giraffes and a lion-man chiselled into the red sandstone, up to 6000 years old and Namibia's first World Heritage Site; visits are guided only.
Damara Living Museum
An open-air village where the Damara show how fire is made, leather tanned and perfume produced from roots — the entrance fees go to the community.
Organ Pipes in the Twyfelfontein valley
Five-metre dolerite columns that cracked into hexagons as the molten rock cooled and stand side by side like an organ; Burnt Mountain lies next door.
Evening: starry sky over the Aba-Huab valley
There's no stray light in sight in the dry riverbed valley; on the sundowner deck above the camp the guide points out the Southern Cross and the Magellanic Clouds.
Day 9Through Andersson Gate into Etosha
Onward to Okaukuejo
Hotel check-in
Ombika waterhole
The concrete-lined spring 13 km past the gate is the most reliable place for zebras and giraffes in the afternoon, often with a lioness lying in the shade of the bushes alongside.
Nebrownii waterhole
Open plain with an artificial spring where elephant herds wallow in the mud in the evening — the view is so wide that you can see them coming from two kilometres away.
Okaukuejo lookout tower
The white water tower from 1963 is the camp's landmark; from the top platform you overlook the edges of the pan and the routes the herds take.
Evening: Okaukuejo floodlit waterhole
The fenced waterhole at the camp is floodlit all night; you sit quietly on the stone benches and watch black rhinos, often several at once.
Day 10Across Etosha to Namutoni
Onward to Namutoni
Hotel check-in
Chudop waterhole
The strong spring north-west of the fort draws kudus, giraffes and elephants in the late afternoon; lions often lie in the grassy patch opposite.
Twee Palms at Fischer's Pan
Two solitary makalani palms on the edge of the seasonally flooded side pan — the most photographed motif in the east of the park, with flamingos in front of them in the rainy season.
Fort Namutoni
The whitewashed German fort from 1903 was attacked by 500 Ovambo warriors in 1904 and then rebuilt; from the rampart walk you look out over the surrounding palms.
Evening: King Nehale waterhole at Namutoni camp
The camp waterhole lies along a wooden boardwalk behind the fort and is floodlit at night; elephants often arrive here only well after dark.
Day 11From Etosha's eastern edge to the Okonjima reserve
Onward to Okonjima
Hotel check-in
Viewing deck at the Plains Camp waterhole
From the covered deck you watch warthogs, kudus and guineafowl at the water; beneath the deck a tunnel leads to a ground-level photo hide.
AfriCat Carnivore Care Centre
The centre explains how cheetahs and leopards are bought free from farms and released back into the wild; the enclosures now hold only animals that can no longer hunt.
Leopard tracking in the Okonjima reserve
With a radio antenna and an open vehicle, the guide tracks the reserve's collared leopards — the chance of seeing one in a tree or in the grass is higher here than almost anywhere else.
Evening: Plains Camp porcupine hide
The floodlit hide a few steps from the camp attracts porcupines, honey badgers and genets after dark.
Day 12Last morning at Okonjima and departure
Bushman trail in the Okonjima reserve
A self-guided circular trail with information boards on which the San explain which roots store water and how an ostrich-egg water container is buried in the sand.
Departure from Windhoek
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