African Explorers is a small company from Windhoek: Marcel Meier, six classic 4x4s and routes the guidebooks leave out. On the road since 2019, a registered Namibian tour operator since 2021.
Home About us
African Explorers began in 2019, after years of freelance guiding across Namibia, and became a registered tour company in 2021. The idea was simple: travel the parts of Southern Africa most travellers never see, and do it in vehicles with a soul.
It has grown into a family business that stays small on purpose: six vehicles, small groups and journeys built by hand for the people travelling them. Our guests come from every corner of the world, and most book about a year ahead.
Marcel Meier · Founder & Lead Guide
About us
The concept
We travel beyond the gravel-road circuit: into isolated regions, across the great ephemeral rivers, along routes ordinary rental vehicles are never permitted to attempt.
Fully equipped and self-reliant, every journey carries a nostalgia the modern safari has lost.
Every vehicle carries what days without resupply require. That is how we reach the places where the map runs out — and stay as long as it is beautiful.
Drive yourself in convoy behind the guide, or be driven. One of only a handful of fleets that makes these routes possible either way.
Six vehicles, one family. Every journey stays exclusive and individual, and we travel in a way that supports the small businesses and communities along the route.
1989Built
The expedition classic: aluminium body, ladder frame and a V8 that feels at home in the dry riverbeds of the Kaokoveld.
1993Built
The 80 series: indestructible, roomy, with the straight-six that has been Africa’s benchmark for decades.
2019Founded
After years of freelance guiding across Namibia, Marcel Meier starts African Explorers — to travel the parts of Southern Africa most travellers never see, in vehicles with a soul.
2021Registered
African Explorers becomes a registered Namibian tour operator: Namibia Tourism Board no. TFA01322, based in Windhoek.
2026Today
A family business with six vehicles and small groups, fully booked about a year in advance. The routes keep growing north — Malawi, Tanzania and Kenya are in the planning.
The fleet
Fully equipped for off-grid travel — and one of only a handful of fleets that lets you explore these routes guided, or as a guided self-drive.
3vehicles
The expedition classic: aluminium body, ladder frame and a V8 that feels at home in the dry riverbeds of the Kaokoveld.
3vehicles
The 80 series: indestructible, roomy, with the straight-six that has been Africa’s benchmark for decades.
How we travel
Journeys are camping-based, in wild and remote sites — with the occasional lodge or community-owned guesthouse where the route allows. Off-grid is not a compromise. It is the point.
Who travels with us
Families with children from six, seasoned explorers, and the fit and curious well into their seventies. If you love the outdoors and the feeling of being truly alive, you belong out here.
Where we travel
Namibia is home, Botswana the second home. Then Angola and Zimbabwe, where we also touch Zambia at the Victoria Falls — and the routes keep growing north.
The parks we cross
Lions through camp, elephants at arm’s length — wilderness without the crowds.
Up next Malawi, Tanzania and Kenya are in the planning.
Lead time
≈ 1 year
booked in advance
Fully booked, year-round — with guests from every corner of the world.
Partners & demand
International partners
On the road
Defender in the dunes
Plan a journey
Write to us, call, or send an enquiry right here. You always speak to us directly.
Send an enquiryNo booking yet — just a first conversation. Tell us roughly what you have in mind; we reply within two working days with an honest assessment and a first route.
tuye@african-explorers.comWhatsApp +264 81 292 4206
Thank you
Your email app should now open with your enquiry. If it doesn’t, write to tuye@african-explorers.com — we reply within two working days.
