11-Day Northern Namibia Self-Drive Adventure

After your arrival at Windhoek airport, you are met and taken to the rental car depot to collect your vehicle. Following a safari briefing, make your way to your accommodation for dinner and to settle into the area. Windhoek, in central Namibia, serves as the country’s capital and carries a clear colonial legacy in its many German eateries, shops and widespread use of the German language. The city mixes historical and modern architecture, including the Alte Feste, an old fort, the 1896 Christuskirche, and the more contemporary Supreme Court building.

Distance: Airport transfer and car collection in Windhoek

Activity: Arrival and orientation

Accommodation: Guesthouse in Windhoek

Meals: Breakfast, lunch and dinner not included

After breakfast, set off for Sossusvlei, where you stay for two nights. The drive takes around five hours on a good gravel road. Settle in and enjoy your first sundowner drink in Namibia before dinner, then take in the remarkable night sky once darkness falls.

Distance: Self-drive from Windhoek to Sossusvlei, approx. 5 hours

Activity: Travel day

Accommodation: Lodge or camp near Sossusvlei

Meals: Breakfast, lunch and dinner not included

Wake up early and drive into Namib-Naukluft National Park just as the sun rises, to see the spectacular colour change across the iconic dunes as the light climbs higher in the sky. Some of the dunes rise to almost 400 metres, among the highest in the world. Once the sun is up, climb Dune 45 and visit Big Mama, Dead Vlei and, time permitting, Sesriem Canyon on the way back (a 4x4 shuttle, available on the spot with no pre-booking required, covers the final stretch to Dead Vlei from the parking area). The clear blue skies against the giant red dunes make this one of the most scenic natural wonders in Africa and a genuine photographer’s dream.

Distance: Full day at Sossusvlei

Activity: Sunrise dune visit, optional Dune 45 climb and Sesriem Canyon

Accommodation: Lodge or camp near Sossusvlei (second night)

Meals: Breakfast, lunch and dinner not included

After breakfast, check out and continue north through ever-changing landscapes all the way to the coast, where you stay for one night in the German town of Swakopmund. Along the way, stop at a giant welwitschia plant. The drive takes around four hours without stops. Once in town, take a stroll and perhaps a walk along the beach, looking out over the rough, cold waters of the Atlantic, before enjoying a German meal at one of the town’s many restaurants in the evening.

Distance: Self-drive from Sossusvlei to Swakopmund, approx. 4 hours

Activity: Travel day with a welwitschia stop

Accommodation: Hotel in Swakopmund

Meals: Breakfast, lunch and dinner not included

Leave Swakopmund early, around 8am, and drive up the Skeleton Coast to Cape Cross for a quick look at the world’s largest seal colony, before turning inland toward the Twyfelfontein area. The drive takes around six hours. Set in the Kunene Region of northwestern Namibia, Twyfelfontein is a spectacularly scenic area holding one of the largest and most important concentrations of rock art in Africa. The name translates to "Fountain of Doubt," referring to the perennial spring in the impressive Huab Valley, flanked by the slopes of a sandstone table mountain.

Distance: Self-drive via Cape Cross to Twyfelfontein, approx. 6 hours

Activity: Cape Cross seal colony stop en route

Accommodation: Lodge near Twyfelfontein

Meals: Breakfast & dinner, lunch not included

In the morning, head out on a nature drive in search of desert-adapted elephant, and in the afternoon explore the rock paintings, Burnt Mountain, the Organ Pipes and the petrified forest. Both excursions are also offered as guided trips from the lodge and are worth pre-booking at an additional cost.

Distance: Morning nature drive, afternoon rock art and geology excursion

Activity: Desert elephant search and rock art exploration

Accommodation: Lodge near Twyfelfontein (second night)

Meals: Breakfast & dinner, lunch not included

Enter Etosha National Park through the western Galton Gate and set off on your first game drive, continuing on to a camp in the southern section, where you stay for two nights. Spend the afternoons and evenings watching one of the country’s best waterholes, lit up at night for wildlife viewing.

Distance: Self-drive entering Etosha via the Galton Gate

Activity: Arrival game drive

Accommodation: Camp in southern Etosha National Park

Meals: Breakfast, lunch and dinner not included

A morning and afternoon game drive in your own vehicle through the southern section of Etosha National Park, with the chance of spotting lion, leopard, cheetah, giraffe, elephant, rhino, wildebeest, oryx, zebra, warthog, springbok and a wide range of other plains game.

Distance: Self-drive morning and afternoon game drives

Activity: Full day of game viewing

Accommodation: Camp in southern Etosha National Park (second night)

Meals: Breakfast, lunch and dinner not included

After breakfast, check out and drive toward the eastern section of the park, along the vast salt pan, which covers an impressive 5,000 square kilometres and forms a large part of the park’s eastern side, visible even from space. The flat, open terrain makes wildlife easy to spot. Stay for one night at a camp just outside the eastern gate.

Distance: Self-drive across the eastern section of Etosha

Activity: Game viewing en route across the salt pan

Accommodation: Camp near the eastern gate of Etosha National Park

Meals: Breakfast & dinner, lunch not included

Take a final early morning game drive in the park before heading south to a private nature reserve, where you stay for one night and enjoy an included leopard tracking activity in the afternoon. The drive takes around four hours from your previous camp.

Distance: Self-drive south to Okonjima Nature Reserve, approx. 4 hours

Activity: Final Etosha game drive, then leopard tracking

Accommodation: Lodge in Okonjima Nature Reserve

Meals: Breakfast & dinner, lunch not included

After breakfast, drive to the airport, drop off your rental vehicle, and board your flight home, bringing the self-drive adventure to a close.

Distance: Self-drive to Windhoek and car drop-off

Activity: Departure

Accommodation: N/A, end of trip

Meals: Breakfast, lunch and dinner not included