Highlights

Windhoek, Kalahari Desert, Fish River Canyon, Tiras Mountains, Sossusvlei, Deadvlei, the Namib Desert, Swakopmund, Skeleton Coast.

Information

Tour Program

This tour program is intended as a suggestion, and depending on your wishes, schedule and budget, we will be happy to put together a tailor-made program for you.

BB = Overnight stay | Breakfast

DBB = Dinner | Overnight stay | Breakfast

FB = Lunch or lunch packages | Dinner | Overnight stay | Breakfast, activities and activity

Day 1: Overnight: Hotel in Windhoek Overnight BB

Arrival in Windhoek (Hosea Kutako Airport). Pick up your rental car. Approx. 30 minutes drive to your accommodation in Windhoek. For the first and last evening in Windhoek you should book the desired restaurant in advance (we will be happy to give you some recommendations).

Optional: Guided Katutura Tour, city tour (also on your own).

Day 2: Overnight: Lodge in the Kalahari DBB

After breakfast, drive into the Kalahari Desert. Behind the Auas Mountains, the vastness of the land opens up like a picture book. Endless dunes stretch linearly across the limestone soil of the Kalahari. Optional: afternoon guided drive in the red Kalahari dunes with sundowner. It is a tour to get to know the Kalahari with unforgettable viewpoints on the red dune ridges (duration approx. 2.5 hours)

Optional: Explore the Kalahari on foot and on your own.

Days 3: Overnight: Camp in the Keetmanshoop area DBB

After breakfast, you can take part in an optional activity to meet the Bushmen. Here you will learn more about their way of life. Afterwards, continue into the arid, almost barren region along the edge of the Kalahari to Keetmanshoop. This afternoon you can take part in a guided fossil tour (optional). We call this area the Quiver Tree Forest in the Giants’ Playground, because it really does give the impression that giants carefully stacked the rocks here and then decorated them with beautiful trees.

Day 4: Overnight stay: Lodge on the Fish River Canyon DBB

After breakfast, the journey continues south. It is worth taking a break at the Naute Dam. A distillery (distillate project) is operated here. The 650-kilometer Fish River is the longest river in Namibia. A very long time ago, it set off from the Naukluft Mountains in search of the Orange River in the south of the country. But mountains stood in its way and so, over 120 million years of painstaking work, it created the largest canyon in Africa, the Fish River Canyon. Your accommodation today is not far from this enormous canyon landscape, in a direct line to the viewpoints.

Day 5: Overnight: Lodge at the Fish River Canyon DBB

Today, after breakfast, drive on your own to the viewpoint of the second largest canyon in the world. Looking down to a depth of 550 m, you get the feeling of being on the edge of eternity. Few places in the world reveal the layers of the earth as dramatically as the Fish River Canyon. The lodge also offers optional morning and afternoon drives, sundowner drives and guided hikes.

Day 6: Overnight stay: Lodge near Aus DBB

After breakfast, continue westwards to Aus. You cross hilly landscapes and reach your accommodation at lunchtime with a fantastic view of the endless desert.

Day 7: Overnight stay: Lodge near Aus

In the morning, drive towards Lüderitz with a visit to Kolmanskop. The first diamond was found by chance in 1908. The resulting boom led to the rapid growth of this settlement on the northern border of the restricted diamond area, which was initially only intended as a diamond prospecting camp. The wealth of the inhabitants, based on diamonds, gave rise to Kolmanskop. The houses deteriorated rapidly and sand piled up meters high in the ruins. Some of the interior furnishings were destroyed or taken away. Kolmanskop finally became a ghost town.

Continue to the small harbor town of Lüderitz, which was built on bare rock. On the way back to Aus you might spot wild horses at the Garub waterhole.

Day 8: Overnight: Camp in the Sossusvlei area DBB

Today you drive through a geologically beautiful area into the southern Namib Desert. The rugged Tiras Mountains rise like a chain of islands from the endless expanses of red dunes and yellow grasslands. In the afternoon you reach your camp, which is situated near the famous Sossusvlei.

Day 9: Overnight: Camp in the Sossusvlei area DBB

Drive into the park in the morning, as a dune landscape in the morning light offers an unforgettable landscape. Sossusvlei is surrounded by the highest dunes in the world, which suck the last bit of strength out of your legs as you climb them. Once at the top, you are richly rewarded with a fantastic view. Dune 45 is the most popular dune to climb. Afterwards, you can pay a visit to the smaller Sesriem Canyon.

Day 10: Overnight: Lodge in the Namib Desert DBB

Continue via Solitaire and through the enchanting landscapes of the Namib Desert. Upon reaching Solitaire, visitors first notice the many car wrecks picturesquely draped along the roadsides. As you drive on, the gravel plains of the Namib spread out before you, with a mountain here and there on the shimmering horizon. Today’s drive is not too far, and halfway between Sesriem and Swakopmund is the next lodge in the middle of the Namib Desert. Here you can relax extensively and also go on hikes in the surrounding area.

Day 11: Overnight: Hotel in Swakopmund BB

After breakfast, drive via Walvis Bay to Swakopmund. Arrival in the coastal town of Swakopmund at midday.

Optional activities: quad biking, camel riding, visit to the museum, aquarium, crystal gallery, horseback safari, flight over the Skeleton Coast or Sossusvlei.

Days 12: Overnight: Hotel in Swakopmund BB

This morning you can consider an optional catamaran cruise or desert tour.

Catamaran cruise: Between Walvis Bay and Swakopmund, on the rugged coast of the Atlantic Ocean, you will experience the unique nature and wildlife of the Walvis Bay lagoon on board a spacious and comfortable catamaran. The four-hour trip takes you from the industrial harbor across the Walvis Bay oyster beds out to Pelican Point, home to a large colony of fur seals. The tour offers many highlights. Among other things, pelicans are hand-fed in flight. You will learn many interesting things about these animals and with a bit of luck, depending on the season, you may also see whales, leatherback turtles or moonfish (mola-molas). Shortly before the end of the tour – and this is the culinary highlight – fresh oysters and champagne are served as well as snack platters and cool drinks.

Desert Tour: also known as the Living Desert Tour, this is a unique experience in four-wheel drive vehicles that aims to show our visitors the impressive beauty of the Namib Desert and demonstrate life in the desert. The coastal dune belt, which may seem barren and lifeless to some, is home to a fascinating variety of small animals that have adapted to the desert. They survive thanks to the fog that regularly rolls in from the cold Atlantic Ocean.

Come and admire the “dancing white lady” (Carparachne aureoflava), a spider that spins its wheel down the dunes at 44 revolutions per second to escape an enemy. Marvel at the transparent desert gecko (Pachydactylus rangei) with toe fins that fulfill the function of snowshoes. Learn about the different beetles and insects and how they survive in the desert. Follow the tracks of the legless lizard (Fitsimmon’s Burrowing Skink), watch Anchieta desert lizards (Meroles anchieta) diving into the sand and dancing on the glowing sand, the side-swiping otter (Peringuey otter), desert chameleons and countless other awe-inspiring creatures. Familiarize yourself with the geological structures of the desert and enjoy the endless beauty of the landscape during a tour of the dunes. It’s sure to be a lot of fun and an adrenaline rush.

A unique opportunity to experience the desert up close.

Day 13: Overnight: Lodge in the Twyfelfontein area DBB

Continue north on the salt road towards Henties Bay. Here you can continue to Cape Cross, where, in addition to the cross of the Portuguese navigator Diego Cao, there is a colony of dwarf fur seals. It is one of the largest colonies in the world and is also open to visitors. From Henties Bay, you continue north via Uis towards Twyfelfontein.

Both regions in the northwest are characterized by lonely expanses and barren desert landscapes, which are interrupted by green oases and are home to the famous desert elephants.

You reach your lodge in the early afternoon. Damaraland offers a wealth of geological and archaeological highlights. Named after the Damara people, the region is home to Namibia’s highest peak, the Brandberg, and Twyfelfontein, one of the most important rock engravings and paintings of the San, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Day 14: Overnight: Lodge in the Twyfelfontein area DBB

Today in the morning you can consider an optional guided drive in search of the desert elephants. The afternoon is at leisure.

Optional: Visit (on your own) to the Twyfelfontein area. The Twyfelfontein area is famous for some of the best Bushman drawings and rock engravings in Southern Africa.

Day 15: Overnight: Lodge in Opuwo DBB

After breakfast, drive further north into the Kunene Region.

One of the most scenically stunning regions in Namibia. The landscape is very rocky and mountainous and you can discover cone-shaped hill ranges. Many species of wild animals live in the area, such as desert elephants, rhinos and giraffes. The Himba and Herero tribes who live here traditionally live as hunters and gatherers or as cattle breeders. The location of your accommodation offers a fantastic view of the surrounding mountain landscape.

Day 16: Overnight: Camp at the Epupa Falls

This morning, the journey continues to the 1,207-kilometre-long Kunene River, which carries water all year round. In fact, it seems like the end of the Namibian world. From Ruacana, where the Kunene meets the Namibian border, the river forms the natural border between Angola and Namibia in a westerly direction before it flows into the South Atlantic in a delta up to 30 kilometers wide.

Until the Tertiary period, the Kunene flowed into today’s Etosha Pan, which at that time formed an inland delta and Lake Ekuma, similar to the Okavango Delta. Arrival at camp around midday. The afternoon is at leisure.

Day 17: Overnight: Camp at the Epupa Waterfalls DBB

This morning you should consider visiting a traditional Himba village. Learn more about the customs and way of life of one of Africa’s last nomadic tribes. The Himba are a proud people who have adapted to western civilization minimally and only as necessary. Another optional activity here would be a late afternoon sundowner drive up a hill overlooking the Epupa Falls. The sunset activity can also be done with a local guide who will take you on a scenic walk to the viewpoint.

Day 18: Overnight stay: Lodge near Ruacana DBB

This morning, after breakfast, continue along the enchanting landscapes of the Kunene River, past small primeval villages to the vicinity of Ruacana. Here you can enjoy an overnight stay directly on the Kunene.

Day 19: Overnight: Camp in Etosha National Park BB

After breakfast, head south into the world-famous Etosha National Park. The entrance to the park is through the Galton Gate. Right from the entrance you have the opportunity to spot big game in the wild.

Overnight at your hotel with breakfast included.

Day 20: Overnight: Camp in Etosha National Park BB

You leave the camp, which is situated on one of the hilly hills, and head into the vast, completely flat plain of Etosha Park. On the approx. 200 km route through the park to the next rest camp, you can plan a detour to the “Ghost Forest” (Afrikaans “Sprookieswoud”). This detour is particularly worthwhile for botanists. It owes its name to the masses of moringa trees that grow here, which actually only occur on stony ground.

Day 21: Overnight: Camp in Etosha National Park BB

If you wish, you can leave the camp and explore the park on your own. Etosha National Park has a biodiversity that is hard to beat. A wide variety of animals gather at the waterholes, which can make for a spectacular experience.

Day 22: Overnight: Camp in Etosha National Park BB

Today you have the whole day at your disposal for another game drive on your own. Every single waterhole has a unique character. The Okondeka waterhole, for example, is one of the best for lion spotting. The predator can often be spotted here with prey. The waterhole is a natural spring and is situated a little north of Okaukuejo directly on the western edge of the pan.

Day 23: Overnight: Hotel in Windhoek BB

The last short stage to the exit through the Anderson Gate is sure to be crowned by the sighting of roaming antelopes or perhaps a rhino. On the way to Windhoek you have the opportunity to visit the largest woodcarving market in Namibia in Okahandja. Once you arrive in Windhoek, you have the opportunity to buy that souvenir you have not yet found at the Craft Center, Leder Chick or Bushmen Art.

Day 24: Return flight

Return your rental car to Hosea Kutako Airport in good time before check-in for your flight home.