More than twice the size of Germany, with fewer people than Berlin. Namibia is the second least densely populated country on earth — a land of ephemeral rivers, the oldest desert in the world and horizons that never end.
Between the Atlantic and the Kalahari lies a country where you can drive for days without meeting another vehicle. Namibia is our home and the starting point of every expedition: Windhoek, then the Namib, the Skeleton Coast, the Kaokoveld — and eventually Etosha, where the desert turns into savanna.
Key figures
Namibia in numbers
surface area
825,615km²
more than twice the size of Germany
inhabitants
3,022,401
2023 census — fewer than Berlin
people per km²
3.6
the second least densely populated country on earth
years old — the Namib
55M
the oldest desert in the world
of coastline
1,572km
about 500 km of it Skeleton Coast
days of sunshine a year
>300
and nights without light pollution
Highlights
Where the highlights are
Hover over a place to find it on the map, click it for the full story.Tap a place for the full story.
Namibia
Sossusvlei
Skeleton Coast
Etosha
Epupa Falls
Twyfelfontein
Spitzkoppe
Hoanib
Ongongo
NNamibia · 9 highlights
NamibiaHighlights
01Dunes over 300 metres high
Sossusvlei & the Namib Sand Sea
Star dunes the colour of rust, a white clay pan and the dead camelthorns of Deadvlei. The Namib Sand Sea is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the oldest desert on earth.
Dead camelthorns in Deadvlei
02Where the desert meets the Atlantic
Skeleton Coast
Fog banks, shipwrecks and seal colonies. The Benguela current keeps the coast cool and the dunes run straight into the surf. We reach it on the tracks north of the Ugab.
Shipwreck in the coastal fog
03A salt pan you can see from space
Etosha
The Etosha pan covers 4,760 km². In the dry season the waterholes on its edge draw elephants, lions, black rhinos and giraffes — some of the best game viewing in Africa, from your own vehicle.
Zebras and springbok in Etosha
04The last great wilderness
Kaokoveld & Epupa Falls
Van Zyl’s Pass, the Marienfluss and the Kunene at Epupa, where the river drops between baobabs and makalani palms. Home of the semi-nomadic Himba — and of some of the toughest 4x4 tracks in Africa.
05Rock art and desert elephants
Damaraland & Twyfelfontein
The Brandberg, Namibia’s highest massif, table mountains, the petrified forest and the 2,500 rock engravings of Twyfelfontein, a UNESCO site. In the dry riverbeds, desert-adapted elephants dig for water.
06The Matterhorn of Namibia
Spitzkoppe
1,728 metres of granite rising from the plain, 120 million years old. We camp among the boulders; at dusk the rock turns from ochre to red.
07Hoanib, Hoarusib, Khumib
The dry rivers of the Kaokoveld
Ephemeral rivers that flow a few days a year — and then mostly underground. Their linear oases of ana trees feed elephants, giraffes, oryx and, with luck, desert lions.
08A waterfall in the desert
Ongongo
Tucked into the hills near Sesfontein: a spring-fed pool below a travertine wall. After days of dust, the first swim.
09Sculptures nobody signs
The Lone Men of the Kaokoveld
Somewhere in the Kaokoveld, figures of stone and iron stand at the roadside — a rain-gauge reader, a hitchhiker, a man with a bicycle. Officially, nobody knows who puts them there.
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Kaokoveld & Epupa Falls
Namibia
Good to know
Independence
21 March 1990. English is the official language; German and Afrikaans are still widely spoken.
Conservation in the constitution
Namibia was the first African country to write environmental protection into its constitution. 86 communal conservancies cover roughly a fifth of the country.
Currency
Namibian dollar, pegged 1:1 to the South African rand — rand is accepted everywhere.
Time zone
CAT, UTC+2 — one hour ahead of Central Europe in winter, level in summer.
Getting there
Direct flights Frankfurt–Windhoek take about ten hours. All our journeys start and end in Windhoek.
Driving
Left-hand traffic. Only around 15 % of the roads are tarred — the rest is gravel, sand and riverbed.
When to go
The year at a glance — Namibia
Month by month: when each season runs, and what it means on the road.
Green seasonDry seasonGreen season
JanJJanuary: Green season
FebFFebruary: Green season
MarMMarch: Green season
AprAApril: Green season
MayMMay: Dry season
JunJJune: Dry season
JulJJuly: Dry season
AugAAugust: Dry season
SepSSeptember: Dry season
OctOOctober: Dry season
NovNNovember: Green season
DecDDecember: Green season
Now
May – October
Dry season
Cool nights, clear skies, wildlife at the waterholes. Our main travelling season.
November – April
Green season
Short, dramatic thunderstorms, rivers that flow for a few hours, the desert in bloom. Hot — and empty.
Signature journeys
Every route can be tailored — tell us what you have in mind.
Star dunes the colour of rust, a white clay pan and the dead camelthorns of Deadvlei. The Namib Sand Sea is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the oldest desert on earth.
Fog banks, shipwrecks and seal colonies. The Benguela current keeps the coast cool and the dunes run straight into the surf. We reach it on the tracks north of the Ugab.
The Etosha pan covers 4,760 km². In the dry season the waterholes on its edge draw elephants, lions, black rhinos and giraffes — some of the best game viewing in Africa, from your own vehicle.
Van Zyl’s Pass, the Marienfluss and the Kunene at Epupa, where the river drops between baobabs and makalani palms. Home of the semi-nomadic Himba — and of some of the toughest 4x4 tracks in Africa.
The Brandberg, Namibia’s highest massif, table mountains, the petrified forest and the 2,500 rock engravings of Twyfelfontein, a UNESCO site. In the dry riverbeds, desert-adapted elephants dig for water.
Ephemeral rivers that flow a few days a year — and then mostly underground. Their linear oases of ana trees feed elephants, giraffes, oryx and, with luck, desert lions.
Somewhere in the Kaokoveld, figures of stone and iron stand at the roadside — a rain-gauge reader, a hitchhiker, a man with a bicycle. Officially, nobody knows who puts them there.
Every route starts with a conversation — tell us what you have in mind.
No 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.
No 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.
