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Southern Namibia Adventure Self-Drive
Discover the delights of southern Namibia on this 12-day itinerary. If you love epic landscapes and remoteness, this is the trip for you. Combine the traditional highlights of Sossusvlei and Swakopmund with destinations off the tourist trail, where you’ll feel like you have Namibia all to yourselves. Experience the desertscapes of the Kalahari and Namib Deserts, gasp at the majesty of Fish River Canyon, explore the German colonial towns of Swakopmund and Luderitz, and be rewarded with the best night skies you’ve ever seen.
£4,450 - £4,650pp including international flights
Itinerary overview
Day 1
Arrival in Windhoek
Welcome to Namibia. Upon arrival in Windhoek, a driver will transfer you to your accommodation fo...
Day 2
Windhoek & Kalahari
Head south from the capital to reach the Kalahari Desert, where you will spend the night, surroun...
Day 3
Kalahari & Fish River Canyon
Drive to Fish River Canyon and check in to your eco-friendly lodge, located right on the rim of t...
Day 4
Fish River Canyon
Adventurous travellers will love hiking down into the depths of Fish River Canyon on a full-day t...
Day 5
Fish River Canyon & Luderitz
Today’s destination is located on the Namibian coast. Luderitz is squeezed between the desert and...
Day 6
Luderitz & Tiras Mountains
Before you leave the Luderitz area, we recommend a visit to Namibia’s most Instagram-worthy landm...
Day 7
Tiras Mountains
Keen landscape photographers will be in their element here as the reserve is blessed with three d...
Day 8
Tiras Mountains & Sossusvlei
Today you’ll drive to the Namib, the world’s oldest desert. Check into your lodge and spend the a...
Day 9
Sossusvlei
Discover the wonders of the Namib Desert today, either on your own or on optional guided excursio...
Day 10
Sossusvlei & Swakopmund
Before continuing to Swakopmund, you may wish to enjoy an early morning optional hot-air balloon ...
Day 11
Swakopmund
Today is a free day for optional activities, letting you take advantage of either Swakopmund’s ma...
Day 12
Swakopmund & Departure
Today your Namibia adventure comes to an end; enjoy breakfast at leisure and relax before departi...
Highlights of trip
The Kalahari bushman experience
Experience the ancient culture of the Khoisan community, semi-nomadic bushmen whose ancestors have roamed the Kalahari for over 20,000 years. At Bagatelle Kalahari Game Ranch, they have developed close ties with many of the local bushmen families and now work with them to run respectful tours of their villages. This helps provide income for the Khoisan community and gives visitors a glimpse into their traditions, beliefs and lifestyle. The experience starts with a morning walk to the village, accompanied by the Khoisan bushmen, who’ll show you around their traditional grass-and-mud rondavels. During the tour, you’ll collect water in ostrich eggs, watch the villagers set animal traps and see how women make beautiful pearl and ostrich jewellery. A favourite part of the tour is learning how the Khoisan forage plants and identify which ones to use for food and medicine. Guests really enjoy this cultural experience and the chance to learn about Namibia’s heritage. The Khoisan community are descendants of the oldest people on earth, so it’s incredible to come face-to-face with this historic way of life, hear the villagers’ distinctive clicking language and discover how they’ve survived in this barren desert landscape for centuries.
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Hiking in Fish River Canyon
Adventurous travellers will love hiking down into the depths of Fish River Canyon. You'll be guided on a full-day trek through the aptly-named Jelly Legs Gorge, a trail that takes you past epic viewpoints. It’s a challenging hike that involves traversing rock-strewn slopes and scrambling over boulders, but the reward is getting to experience the world’s second-largest canyon. When you hike, you can see the changing layers of sediment up close, the different rock colours and elephant skin weathering. Along the way, there’s a chance of spotting some of Fish River Canyon’s endemic wildlife, including oryx, kudu and springbok, Hartman’s mountain zebra and the shy rock hyrax. You’ll also notice birds swooping above, including black eagles. The main focus on the walk, though, is the views and the geology. You'll also learn about the flora, which includes over 100 types of succulents and quiver trees which can be up to 300 years old. Eventually, you will reach the rock pools at the bottom, where you can cool off with a swim in the heart of the canyon. Enjoy a picnic lunch before making the long climb back up to the lodge – it’s a strenuous eight-to-ten-hour journey all together. If you don’t want to tackle the climb, there are flat canyon rim walks you can take instead from the lodge. Walk them in the morning and late afternoon when the light and shadows play across the rocks, it’s spectacular.
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Scenic drives in the remote Namib Desert
Explore the remote Namib Desert on a scenic drive. You’ll travel with a guide in a converted Toyota land cruisers. Head out at sunrise or sunset for three hours to the reserve’s top spots. Along the way, you’ll be surrounded by vast grasslands, the Tiras Mountains and rolling sand dunes and you’ll rarely see another vehicle. The landscapes are the main draw here but you’ll also spot desert creatures as you drive. You’ll stop at waterholes where oryx, springboks and ostriches sometimes gather. If you head out for sunrise, you’ll enjoy coffee and rusks at a scenic viewpoint or sundowner drinks and snacks in the late afternoon. Watching the sun rise or set over the desert is an incredible experience; the sky turns pink and orange and the landscape glows. You can also take scenic dune drives, which take place on the other side of Kanaan Desert Retreat. The landscape here is covered with shifting sand dunes – the Namib Desert has some of the oldest dunes in the world – dotted with petrified trees. Guests love the adventure of bumping over the dunes in a 4×4. If you’re keen to see the desert after dark, take a night drive which allows you to experience the star-studded night skies and spot nocturnal creatures such as foxes, owls, and striped polecats.
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Hot Air Ballooning over Namib Naukluft Park
The Sossusvlei region of Namibia is the perfect place to do balloon safaris. Take a 10-minute drive to the launch pad, where you can enjoy the spectacle of the balloon inflating and taking shape – a very magical event just before sunrise. After a briefing with your pilots, take to the air. It’s an hour in the sky travelling wherever the wind takes you over oceans of sand and dramatic mountains. You will typically cover an average of 10 kilometres although some days as much as 30 kilometres depending on the strength of the wind. Meanwhile the crew sets up a beautiful champagne breakfast for when you land, including homemade breads, cheeses, smoked fish, salami pancakes, cereals and yogurts.
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Living Desert Tour
Meet the unique creatures of the Namib Desert on this educational tour. The aim is to get people to see the dunes with a different eye and realise they’re not just a pile of sand, they’re home to incredible wildlife. Departing from Swakopmund, you’ll be taken in a 4x4 to the coastal dune belt just outside of town. This area is part of a protected national park. During the drive, your guide will be looking for tracks and signs in the dunes. Looking for scorpions, spiders and the group informally called the little five: the palmato gecko, sand-diving lizard, fog-basking tok-tokkie beetle, sidewinder snake and chameleon. These secretive animals are tough to spot without the help of an experienced local guide. When something is spotted, you’ll get a closer look as your guide tells you all about the special adaptations each creature has to survive in this inhospitable environment. You never know what you’re going to encounter in the desert though. End the trip with some exciting big dune driving in custom-built safari vehicles, it’s like a rollercoaster ride.
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Sandboarding
Soar down the Namib Desert’s dunes on this sandboarding adventure. The tour starts in Swakopmund, where you will be driven eight kilometres into the desert. The landscape is incredible, with dune-top views of the world’s oldest desert on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other. It’s brilliant for photos; sometimes, you’ll even spot palmato geckos, beetles and chameleons hiding in the sand. Expert instructors start with a safety briefing and then teach you the techniques for lie-down and stand-up boarding, which is a bit more technical. Quality snowboards that have been customised to glide perfectly across the sand are used. It’s an exhilarating feeling, rocketing down the dunes - when you’re lying down, you can even reach speeds of 50km an hour! Afterwards, head down to the beach to watch the waves and have a picnic. You’ll enjoy cold Namibian beers, sandwiches and a lunch platter. As well as an adrenaline rush, the tour also gives you the rare opportunity to get out of your car and immerse yourself in the extraordinary scenery of the Namib Desert.
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Day 1
Arrival in Windhoek
Welcome to Namibia. Upon arrival in Windhoek, a driver will transfer you to your accommodation for the night. Settle in and meet a local tour representative, who’ll go over your itinerary and, if you’re taking a self-drive trip, help with advice for your route. Depending on the arrival time of your flight, you may have some free time to explore the city. Windhoek, the capital of Namibia, is a small city of many contrasts; modern skyscrapers blend with historic buildings from the German colonial era. Overnight at The Weinberg.
Day 2
Windhoek & Kalahari
Head south from the capital to reach the Kalahari Desert, where you will spend the night, surrounded by huge red sand dunes. There is a nearby waterhole where you may spot desert creatures, including antelopes, ostriches, zebras and a family of meerkats who live on the property and are great fun to watch. After dinner, you may wish to join a local astronomer and peer through one of the ranch’s state-of-the-art telescopes to see planets, star clusters and distant galaxies. The clear, star-filled skies above the Kalahari are magical. Overnight at Bagatelle Kalahari Game Ranch.
Recommended Hotel
Day 3
Kalahari & Fish River Canyon
Drive to Fish River Canyon and check in to your eco-friendly lodge, located right on the rim of the canyon and boasting spectacular views. Fish River Canyon is one of Africa’s finest geological wonders, second only in size to the USA’s Grand Canyon but with much fewer visitors. In places, it looms 27km wide and reaches a depth of 550 metres. Relax and take in the vistas, perhaps from the lodge’s rim-view pool. Late afternoon, you may wish to partake in an optional sundowner drive, stopping at two viewpoints to photograph the canyon during golden hour when the light is fantastic, before ending with sundowners and snacks watching the sun set. Overnight at Fish River Lodge.
Recommended Hotel
Fish River Lodge
Staying at Fish River Lodge is like standing on the edge of eternity – it’s the only lodge located right on the rim of the world’s second-biggest canyon.
Day 4
Fish River Canyon
Adventurous travellers will love hiking down into the depths of Fish River Canyon on a full-day trek. It’s a challenging hike that involves traversing rock-strewn slopes and scrambling over boulders, but the reward is getting to experience the world’s second-largest canyon up close. If you are looking for something less strenuous, there are also flat canyon rim walks available, as well as fat-bike canyon tours. Overnight at Fish River Lodge.
Recommended Hotel
Fish River Lodge
Staying at Fish River Lodge is like standing on the edge of eternity – it’s the only lodge located right on the rim of the world’s second-biggest canyon.
Day 5
Fish River Canyon & Luderitz
Today’s destination is located on the Namibian coast. Luderitz is squeezed between the desert and the oyster-rich waters of the Atlantic, fringed by a seal-studded coastline. The coastal town is known for its German heritage, you can discover its art-nouveau architecture and Bavarian bakeries as you wander its streets. Overnight at Nest Hotel.
Day 6
Luderitz & Tiras Mountains
Before you leave the Luderitz area, we recommend a visit to Namibia’s most Instagram-worthy landmark: Kolmanskop. In its heyday, Kolmanskop produced 12 percent of the world’s diamonds, until the riches ran out and townspeople fled, abandoning the settlement to the Namib desert. What remains is an eerie ghost town being swallowed whole by shape-shifting dunes, rooms half-submerged with sand – a dream for photographers. Next, head to the Tiras Mountains to a private nature reserve bordering the Namib Desert where you will spend the next two nights. Soak up the endless desert views from your deck, sip sundowners by the pool or explore the reserve on optional scenic drives. Overnight at Kanaan Desert Retreat.
Recommended Hotel
Kanaan Desert Retreat
The Kanaan Desert Retreat was established by the N/a an ku sé Foundation in 2014, whose aim is to protect Namibia’s wild spaces and endemic animals.
Day 7
Tiras Mountains
Keen landscape photographers will be in their element here as the reserve is blessed with three different ecosystems: vast open grasslands, red-hued sand dunes and the Tiras Mountains. Optional photographic tours are led by a professional photographer, who tailors each trip to the individuals’ needs. You don’t need to be a pro; beginners are also welcome. The sunsets and sunrises here are incredible. At night, the sky is full of stars - you can even spot the Milky Way. Overnight at Kanaan Desert Retreat.
Recommended Hotel
Kanaan Desert Retreat
The Kanaan Desert Retreat was established by the N/a an ku sé Foundation in 2014, whose aim is to protect Namibia’s wild spaces and endemic animals.
Day 8
Tiras Mountains & Sossusvlei
Today you’ll drive to the Namib, the world’s oldest desert. Check into your lodge and spend the afternoon relaxing. Take in views of the desert and Naukluft mountains from the pool, sip a sundowner on the rooftop terrace and dine under the stars in the open-air boma. If you want to explore the area, there are nature walks and sundowner drives available. Overnight at Sossusvlei Lodge.
Recommended Hotel
Day 9
Sossusvlei
Discover the wonders of the Namib Desert today, either on your own or on optional guided excursions. This area boasts some of the highest free-standing sand dunes in the world, several over 300 metres high. Perhaps choose to climb one of the Sossusvlei dunes and visit Deadvlei, probably the most photographed site in Namibia, famous for its striking black camel thorn trees, providing a perfect contrast against the red dunes and the blue sky. Another option is Sesriem Canyon, a geological gem carved by the Tsauchab River over 15 million years. Overnight at Sossusvlei Lodge.
Recommended Hotel
Day 10
Sossusvlei & Swakopmund
Before continuing to Swakopmund, you may wish to enjoy an early morning optional hot-air balloon flight or scenic flight over the Namib-Naukluft National Park (weather permitting), offering unforgettable birds-eye views over Sossusvlei and the Namib Desert. The drive to Swakopmund takes you northwest through the ever-changing desert landscapes of the Namib-Naukluft National Park (approximately 5-6 hour’s drive). Resembling a small, German coastal resort nestled between the desert and the sea, Swakopmund boasts a charming combination of German colonial architecture blended with modern hotels, shops and restaurants. Overnight at The Strand Hotel Swakopmund.
Day 11
Swakopmund
Today is a free day for optional activities, letting you take advantage of either Swakopmund’s marine wildlife or the surrounding desert. Take a catamaran cruise on Walvis Bay to spot pelagic birds and the marine Big Five: whales, dolphins, sunfish, leatherback turtles and seals. Alternatively, meet the creatures of the Namib on a living desert tour, including palmato geckos and chameleons. Swakopmund is known as Namibia’s adventure capital. If you want to get your blood pumping today, take an optional sandboarding trip to rocket down dunes at speeds reaching 50km an hour. For a gentler adventure, cycle through the desert on a fat bike. Overnight at the Strand Hotel Swakopmund.
Things to do
Day 12
Swakopmund & Departure
Today your Namibia adventure comes to an end; enjoy breakfast at leisure and relax before departing for your onward flight. Fly from Windhoek Airport (approximately 4.5 hours drive), or perhaps Walvis Bay Airport which is only 45 minutes from Swakopmund and has regional flights available to Cape Town or Johannesburg.
Guide price information
Low Season
1 Jan - 30 Jun, 1 Dec - 31 Dec
£4,450pp
High Season
1 Jul - 30 Nov
£4,650pp
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