Namibia is a dune sea with a coast attached.
Which Sandwich Harbour drive runs with the tide. What a seat on an Etosha game drive costs. Whether Sossusvlei is worth the road hours out of Windhoek. Reviews of every tour you can book in Namibia.
Four days a Namibian week gets built around.
A dune drive that waits on the tide, seals at Pelican Point, springbok at a waterhole, and a morning in Katutura. What each one costs, and what it actually involves.
01The drive everyone flies in forWalvis Bay and Sandwich Harbour TourBetween the slipface and the surf, on the last of the falling tide. Book it for a day early in the trip: it gets cancelled by the water, not by you.
02The morning on the waterPelican Point Kayaking Half-Day TourKayaks off Pelican Point into a colony that swims out to meet the boats. Goes at first light, before the south-wester gets onto the lagoon.
03The wildlife leg3 Day Etosha Budget Camping SafariThree days up to the pan and back, sleeping in camp. In the dry months the animals come to the water instead of hiding from you.
04The half day in the capitalCity and Township TourChristuskirche and the parliament gardens, then Katutura, with lunch where the city actually eats. The cheapest good morning in Namibia.
Sandwich Harbour, Sossusvlei, or a 4x4 day out of Swakopmund.
The dunes are the reason for the flight. Three ways onto the sand, what it costs to get on it, and which town each one leaves from.
Windhoek, Swakopmund, Walvis Bay, then north to the pan.
Four bases within a day’s drive of each other, plus the two landscapes people cross the world for: the red dune sea at Sossusvlei and the tidal track into Sandwich Harbour.
The Namibian coast is a desert with a seal colony on it.
The Benguela runs cold the whole way up this coast, which is why the colonies are enormous, the dolphins stay all year and fog sits on the bay most mornings. Catamarans leave the Walvis Bay waterfront; kayaks launch off the point at dawn.
The days out most of Namibia ends up taking.
The whole shelf of reviews →These carry more travellers than anything else in the country. Prices, ratings, and what each morning actually involves.
1
Marine Big 5 Luxury Catamaran Tour
Join Catamaran Charters from Walvis Bay Waterfront for a 210-minute marine safari with guides such as Bertie, Steven, and Raymond. Expect Cape Fur Seals, pelicans, dolphins, seasonal whales, oysters, sparkling wine, snacks, and wide views of Pelican Point.
From · $76
Read our review →
2
Desert Dunes Quad Biking with Optional Sandboard
from $36
3
Walvis Bay and Sandwich Harbour Tour
from $140
4
4×4 Desert Excursion to Sandwich Harbour Bay
from $153
5
City and Township Tour
from $40
6
Sandwich Harbour Half-Day 4×4 Scenic Excursion
from $130
7
Pelican Point Kayaking Half-Day Tour
from $79
8
Scenic Sandwich Harbour Tour
from $158
Etosha: the waterhole does the work.
From about June the country dries out and the animals give up hiding, because the water is the only water. A game drive here is mostly sitting still at a waterhole while the pan glares white behind it. Camps and 4x4 seats go months ahead for the dry season.
- 1Full or Half-Day Game Drivefrom $123
- 2ETOSHA PARK SAFARI with local guides in 9-seater 4x4sfrom $127
- 33 Day Etosha Budget Camping Safarifrom $634
What a day out in Namibia actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. This country is cheap by the hour and expensive by the week: the difference is whether somebody is driving you for six days.
Township walks, capital mornings, a bike out to the dune belt and the short desert runs.
The half-day standards: the Sandwich Harbour 4x4, seal kayaking, the Living Desert and a game drive.
- 1Marine Big 5 Luxury Catamaran Tourfrom $76
- 2Walvis Bay and Sandwich Harbour Tourfrom $140
- 3Sandwich Harbour Half-Day 4×4 Scenic Excursionfrom $130
Multi-day camping runs to Sossusvlei and Etosha, private guides, and the long loops north.
Three Namibian days with no equivalent anywhere.
Sand and safaris exist all over Africa. A granite island older than the Alps, a beetle that drinks fog for a living, and a township tour run by the people who live in it do not.
The Spitzkoppe
A cluster of granite domes stands out of flat gravel plain about two hours inland of Swakopmund, weathered into arches and hollows. Bushman painting survives under the overhangs, and the guides who take you round are usually from the community that holds the concession. Go late: the rock turns orange for the last hour of light and the campsites there have no fences and no electricity.
- 1Spitzkoppe Day Tour from Swakopmund★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 11 reviews
- 2Spitzkoppe Guided Tour from Swakopmund or Walvis Bay★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 9 reviews
- 3Swakopmund/Walvis Bay: Spitzkoppe Mountains★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 4 reviews
The Living Desert
The dune belt between Swakopmund and Walvis Bay looks empty and is not. A guide reads the tracks off the surface and digs out what made them: a palmato gecko, a sidewinder, a shovel-snouted lizard, a beetle that stands on its head in the morning fog and drinks what condenses on its back. It is a two-hour drive with a lot of stopping, and it changes how the rest of the desert looks.
- 1Living Desert Eco Dune Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 113 reviews
- 2“UP CLOSE” Living Desert E-FatBike Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 11 reviews
- 3LIVING DESERT TOUR (Little 5 tour)★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 7 reviews
Katutura
Katutura was built to move black Windhoek out of town in the 1950s, and the name says what people thought of that. Today it is where the capital eats, drinks and does business: the Single Quarters meat market, kapana grilled in front of you, shebeens with their own names painted on the wall. The tours are led by residents and they end at a table, not a viewpoint.
- 1City and Township Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 430 reviews
- 2Half-Day Windhoek City and Township Cultural Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 187 reviews
- 3Mondesa Township Day Tour Experience★★★★★★★★★★ 3.8 · 25 reviews
Four Namibian bookings that will not wait.
Most of this country can be arranged from a lodge veranda the night before. These four answer to tides, gate times and a dry season that fills every camp months out.
- 01Walvis Bay and Sandwich Harbour TourThe track south only exists on a falling tide, so departure times move with the water each day and each vehicle carries a permit for the concession.
- 023 Day Sossusvlei Budget Camping SafariThe dunes are a long drive from anywhere and the park gate opens at sunrise. Overnight runs leave Windhoek on set days, not on demand.
- 03Full or Half-Day Game DriveDry season, roughly June to October, is when the animals are at the water and the camps are full. Seats and beds go months ahead.
- 04Pelican Point Kayaking Half-Day TourKayaks launch early because the south-wester gets onto the lagoon by the middle of the day. That leaves one usable slot each morning.
When the fog sits on Swakopmund until eleven.
Cold water offshore puts a grey lid on the coast most mornings, and it is genuinely cold under it. Drive twenty minutes inland and you come out the top into sun on the dune belt. That is the whole trick of a coastal week: the desert in the morning, the town in the afternoon.
- 1Desert Dunes Quad Biking with Optional Sandboardfrom $36
- 2Scenic Desert Tour by Bikefrom $29
- 3Living Desert Eco Dune Tourfrom $60
By place — coast, capital and the north
By kind of day — sand, water, wildlife or town
Windhoek, Sossusvlei, Swakopmund, Etosha: the loop almost everybody drives first.
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