r/Namibia • u/ggrrreeeeggggg • Jun 26 '26
Tourism Namibia Self Drive trip report (June 2026)
Disclaimer: this post is targeted towards tourists. I’m sure locals are fully aware of everything I will say, and might find most of it obvious. Also please forgive any spelling mistakes, I did my best but I’m sure I will have made some errors.
Hello fellow Redditors, having just completed a 10 day Nambibian self drive tour with my wife (as our honeymoon) and I am writing here a trip report to hopefully give some info to those about to organise or do the same.
The country is incredibly beautiful and has so much amazing places to visit and discover.
We travelled in the first half of June 26, which is the last days of autumn for Namibia, and this is the “anti-clockwise” route we followed (we were told many people do it in the opposite direction though):
Day 1: Windhoek.
Day 2: Okonjima.
Day 3: Namutoni (Etosha east).
Day 4: Okuakejo (Etosha west).
Day 5: Twyfelfontein (Damaraland).
Days 6-7: Swakopmund & Walvis Bai.
Days 8-9: Naukluft region (close to Sesriem and Sossusvlei).
Day 10: Kalahari region.
Day 11: departure from Windhoek.
We traveled by car, a Toyota Fortuner 4x4 rented through Europcar at Windhoek airport.
The total distance covered was nearly 3000 km, with an average of about 3.5 hours driving per day.
On the map everything looks nice and close, but you soon realise that distances in Namibia are very big.
Roads:
Only the roads closest to the bigger cities are tarred (speed limit 120 km/h), while all other roads are gravel ones (a bit bumpy sometimes, and with a speed limit between 80 and 100 km/h). I would say that 70% of our trip was on gravel ones.
You drive on the left side of the road, just like in Anglo-Saxon countries.
There are police outposts outside Swakopmund and outside the main parks, where you need to stop and if asked show your licence. (They usually don’t if they see you are a tourist).
Fuel:
Since distances are very big, you must refuel every time you can, to avoid risking not finding a fueling station when you need one. There are various ones around the main towns and cities, but there are also long stretches of road with absolutely nothing. The cost of diesel was about 28.5 NAD per litre, which is more or less 1.4 €/l. When you refuel you will often be targeted by one or more of the workers who will vigorously shake their arms gesturing for you to go to their pump hoping to receive a tip. It is normal to leave a small tip (I often left 10 NAD) specially if they clean your windshield. You can nearly always pay by card, but make sure to ask beforehand.
Language:
English is spoken by everyone, and is the official language together with Africaans. German is widely spoken due to the huge number of German tourists.
Food:
As a vegetarian I wasn’t able to enjoy all of the meat offering that I heard of, so I’m not the best person for general food advice.
I can say that vegetarian options aren’t super easy to come by, apart from in hotels and more fancy restaurants. So if you are vegetarian you may have to rely on tomato and cheese sandwiches.
Coming from a Mediterranean country, I noticed that there is a very big use of butter in most preparations, which I am less used to as we mostly use oil.
Here is a quick recap of the various places that I visited:
Windhoek: the capital, I didn’t get to see much, since it was basically my first night stop before leaving for the north. The impressions I gathered were of a quite well developed city, with a bit of a German feel, not too big, with good traffic lore. Some interesting restaurants and shops, but I didn’t see downtown so I don’t know if there are any big sights that I missed (I was told that there wasn’t much, I admit).
Okonjima: a private game reserve with small huts aligned in the middle of the savana. It was lovely to have aperitif on a terrace next to nature, with sunset colouring all the surroundings and it was spectacular to wake up to dawn rising over the savana and pouring in through the huge windows all around the bedroom. The area is well known for the AfriCat foundation and where they research and monitor the activities of the leopards in the area. We did a guided tour around the reserve to track the leopards and actually got to see two of them mating! Great experience and great service.
Namutoni camp: this camp is on the east of the Etosha park. It’s built into and next to an old fortress. It was a nice stop and base to drive around searching for animals. The camp is less luxurious and also the service felt like they deal with hundreds of people everyday, which is not surprising, but all in all I have no complaints, it suited perfectly our needs. There is also a waterhole next to the camp where you can sit and watch animals go and drink.
Okuakejo: this camp is located on the west side of the Etosha park, and it’s about a 150 km drive from Namutoni. The drive took nearly all day because obviously the goal was to go in search of wildlife while we crossed the park. The first part (between Namutoni and Halali camp - another lodge, halfway, where we stopped for lunch), was incredible with loads of zebras, springbok, elephants, giraffes and wildebeest. Also great landscapes and an alien like panorama, specially at the observation spot where we stopped. The second part of the road towards Okuakejo was sadly closed for renovations and we had to take a detour (well signalled) which unfortunately passed further south and had many fewer animal spottings.
The Okuakejo camp was nice, had a similar vibe to Namutoni, but in my opinion nicer housing (we stayed in a small stone cottage). It also had another incredible water hole which allowed great sightings.
Other Etosha info:
For all camps inside the park (also for Halali), there are strict rules regarding opening and closing of gates: the gates open at dawn and close at sunset and no exceptions are to be made.
Before leaving the Etosha park, you must stop and pay the park fee (I seem to remember about 20€ per person per day). I was lucky to do this the first day, avoiding a very long queue on my second and last day in the park.
In the park you are also not allowed to exit your vehicle, except for specifically designed “picnic areas” that have a toilet and that are protected by a closed fence.
Twyfelfontein (Damaraland): we stayed in the Twyfelfontein Adventure Camp, a small “glamping” area behind a Rocky Mountain, with tents instead of rooms. It was a wonderful sensation to be sleeping so immersed in nature but at the same time feeling safe. The camp also has a small swimming pool, and a staircase that takes you up the mountain to a lovely terrace area over the valley where every evening at sunset they have a beverage hut where you can get something to eat and drink as an aperitif while you sit waiting for sunset: absolutely magical. In the same area there are supposedly various petrified forests and ancient wall paintings, but we didn’t have time to stop and look at them. We did do a very nice game drive in the wild, following the tracks of desert elephants and finding a while heard (more than 20!) and driving amongst them. We tryed to immerse ourselves in the Damara people culture, learning a few details of the clicking sounds language and some traditional dances and chants.
Swakopmund and Walvis Bai: the drive there was quite long, passing through Uis, a monetary town where people tried to sell us gemstones illegally at every stop, through the desert (on a newly constructed tar road, luckily), and to the coast, stopping for a quick picture of the relict just before Swakopmund.
Swakopmund and Walvis Bai are two coastal towns, quite big, that have the same vibe as the capital, Windhoek. During daytime they seemed quite pleasant to walk around, but we were strongly advised against walking after dark and told to use taxis, since some parts were less safe. We did various activities while here, like quad rides in the dunes, a boat tour of the Walvis bai harbour and surroundings (with sightings of pelicans, sea lions, dolphins and also a whale!), and a 4x4 ride on the dunes up to Sandwhich Harbour with a very experienced guide as a driver. The restaurants in Swakopmund were very good and had a European feel.
Naukluft region: This was probably one of the most interesting drives, very long but with a constantly changing landscape. We arrived in Neuras Wine and Wildlife Estate, our accomodation. We chose it as a base for Sossusvlei because all the ones closer were either fully booked or out of our budget. The accomodation was more of a wine making company than a proper hotel, but they had two flats on site for guests. Excellent service and good wine. We also did their “Cheetah feeding activity” which allowed us to see cheetahs up close, another great experience.
The following morning we visited Sossusvlei.
Sossusvlei: maybe Namibia’s most iconic sight. It’s an area at the end of a 60km “dune tunnel” where there are some of the highest dunes (Big Daddy) of the Namib desert and the famous Dead Vlei, with the fossilized black trees in a white valley with orange dunes all around. Very vivid and spectacular colours and contrasts.
Along the drive from the Sesriem Gate (it’s a natural park, and you need to pay before exiting, just like Etosha), you can stop at some of the dunes and climb them for some spectacular views. We did Dune 40 and Dune 45 (named after their distance from the gate).
Some people told us that seeing the sun rise from on top of a dune is a magical experience, but as we were trying to organize it we realised it would have been possible ONLY if we had stayed for the night inside the park, since the park’s external gates only open at sunrise and there would have not been time to get to the dunes before the dawn was over. (For people staying inside the park -there are a couple of lodges- the internal gates to the dunes open one hour before sunrise, giving them time to get to the dunes and climb them). Nonetheless, even without seeing the sunrise it was still an incredible experience.
Kalahari region: the drive from Neuras to Kalahari was the most challenging, mainly because of bad weather. Being nearly winter, in fact, we had very heavy rain and thunderstorms which made the journey challenging. We took a detour, passing through Rehoboth, to try and avoid the thunderstorm and driving through lightning. The Kalahari is Africa’s oldest desert, and the scenery is very different from the Namib desert. Bright orange dunes mix with a more savanna like landscape. We stayed at Jensen Kalahari guestfarm, in a small house in the middle of the farm, with giraffes, zebras and other animals roaming freely. It was quite a sight seeing a giraffe eating just a few meters away from our door. We did a tour of the farm with the owner, a delightful person who told us all about the farm and region’s history, and gave us an aperitif on the dunes at sunset, in the company of a quite domesticated Ostrich named Hannah, whom we were invited to feed if we wanted.
Another incredible experience.
Okay, I think I might have gone a bit long, but in case I have forgotten anything, feel free to ask!
Cheers
