Travel Tips & Advice Guides
Expert Advice, Insider Tips, and Inspiration for Your Ultimate Adventure
Camping or Lodges on a Namibian Self-Drive?
Scroll Travel Tips & Advice Camping or Lodges on a Namibian Self-Drive? Camping saves the most for groups of three or four, and less than people expect for a couple. NWR charges for campsites per person, and lodge rooms are priced per person sharing, so the saving grows with the size of your group. Book…
Camping or Lodges on a Namibian Self-Drive?
Is the Caprivi (Zambezi Region) Worth the Drive?
Scroll Travel Tips & Advice Is the Caprivi (Zambezi Region) Worth the Drive? Worth it if you have several extra nights and want rivers, buffalo, hippo and birdlife rather than more desert. The drive is long: forum travellers put Etosha to Divundu on the Okavango at more than 600 km, about eight hours. Most who…
Is the Caprivi (Zambezi Region) Worth the Drive?
Is Damaraland Worth It, and How Many Nights?
Scroll Travel Tips & Advice Is Damaraland Worth It, and How Many Nights? Yes, for most self-drive routes between the coast and Etosha. One night covers the Twyfelfontein rock engravings, which take about an hour with a guide. A second night gives time for an elephant drive or the guided walk to the White Lady…
Is Damaraland Worth It, and How Many Nights?
Big Daddy or Dune 45: Which Dune to Climb at Sossusvlei
Scroll Travel Tips & Advice Big Daddy or Dune 45: Which Dune to Climb at Sossusvlei Climb one dune, and climb it early. Dune 45 stands beside the main road, is short and steep, and is busiest at sunrise. Big Daddy is a longer, quieter climb that ends with a run down its face into…
Big Daddy or Dune 45: Which Dune to Climb at Sossusvlei
Windhoek to Sossusvlei: Which Road, and Which Pass?
Scroll Travel Tips & Advice Windhoek to Sossusvlei: Which Road, and Which Pass? Most travellers drive the tarred B1 south to Rehoboth, turn west onto the gravel C24, and come down the escarpment on the Spreetshoogte or Remhoogte pass to Solitaire, where they refuel. The C26 over the Gamsberg is the road GPS often picks,…
Windhoek to Sossusvlei: Which Road, and Which Pass?
Do You Need an International Driving Permit for Namibia?
Scroll Travel Tips & Advice Do You Need an International Driving Permit for Namibia? If your driving licence is in English and carries your photo and signature, Namibia’s own sources say it is enough on its own. If it is not in English, you need an International Driving Permit (IDP) as well. German, Austrian and…
Do You Need an International Driving Permit for Namibia?
Night Driving in Namibia, and What It Does to Your Cover
Scroll Travel Tips & Advice Night Driving in Namibia, and What It Does to Your Cover Don’t drive between towns after dark in Namibia. The UK, US and German governments all advise against it, and some hire contracts put night-time incidents on you: African Tracks makes incidents on B and C roads outside sunrise to…
Night Driving in Namibia, and What It Does to Your Cover
Taking a Namibian Hire Car to Botswana, Zambia or Zimbabwe
Scroll Travel Tips & Advice Taking a Namibian Hire Car to Botswana, Zambia or Zimbabwe Ask the hire company for cross-border permission when you book, not at the counter. Botswana is allowed by most of the firms we checked; Zambia and Zimbabwe come with more conditions, and some firms don’t allow Angola at all. At…
Taking a Namibian Hire Car to Botswana, Zambia or Zimbabwe
Swakopmund Fog: When It Clears and Why It Is There
Scroll Travel Tips & Advice Swakopmund Fog: When It Clears and Why It Is There Swakopmund’s mornings are often grey because air cooled by the cold sea is trapped beneath warmer air, and its moisture hangs as fog. Fog on the Namib coast is most common in the mornings and evenings and generally clears during…
Swakopmund Fog: When It Clears and Why It Is There
Solo Self-Drive in Namibia, Including as a Woman
Scroll Travel Tips & Advice Solo Self-Drive in Namibia, Including as a Woman Travellers who have done it say solo self-drive in Namibia is entirely doable, including for women driving alone. Official advice places the main crime risk in towns, at fuel stops and around unattended vehicles, not on the open road. The bigger challenges…
Solo Self-Drive in Namibia, Including as a Woman
Botswana Safari: Where to Go, When, and What It Costs
Scroll Travel Tips & Advice Botswana Safari: Where to Go, When, and What It Costs A Botswana safari is built around the Okavango Delta and the Chobe River, the country’s two great game areas. Go between May and October for the best game viewing and the Delta’s flood, or between December and February for the…
Botswana Safari: Where to Go, When, and What It Costs
Sandwich Harbour 4×4 Tours: Half-Day, Full-Day or Sunset?
Scroll Travel Tips & Advice Sandwich Harbour 4×4 Tours: Half-Day, Full-Day or Sunset? Book the full day if you have the time: six hours from the Walvis Bay Waterfront, N$3,825 per adult in 2026 with Sandwich Harbour 4×4, and most travellers who have done both say the half-day feels rushed. The four-hour half-day (N$3,095) still…
Sandwich Harbour 4×4 Tours: Half-Day, Full-Day or Sunset?
Namibia’s Green Season, Honestly: January to April
Scroll Travel Tips & Advice Namibia’s Green Season, Honestly: January to April The green season (January to April) trades hotter, wetter days and harder-to-spot game for green landscapes, newborn animals, prime birding, fewer visitors and lower prices. Namibia’s green season is the part of the year the brochures skim over, and the trade-offs are real…
Namibia’s Green Season, Honestly: January to April
Tipping in Namibia in 2026: What’s Actually Normal
Scroll Travel Tips & Advice Tipping in Namibia in 2026: What’s Actually Normal Plan on roughly N$75–150 per guest per day for a guide, N$50–150 per guest per night for lodge staff, 10–15% in restaurants and about N$5–10 for petrol attendants, in cash. Tipping advice for Namibia is everywhere, and the most-quoted guide still sets…
Tipping in Namibia in 2026: What’s Actually Normal
Tyre Pressure on Namibia’s Gravel, and the Second-Spare Question
Scroll Travel Tips & Advice Tyre Pressure on Namibia’s Gravel, and the Second-Spare Question Run about 1.8 bar (cold) on gravel, or 10–20% below your tar pressure, and reflate before you rejoin tar. A second spare earns its place on remote routes. Gravel is where Namibian self-drives go wrong, and usually in the same way:…
Tyre Pressure on Namibia’s Gravel, and the Second-Spare Question
The Sossusvlei 4×4 Shuttle and the Walk to Deadvlei
Scroll Travel Tips & Advice The Sossusvlei 4×4 Shuttle and the Walk to Deadvlei Yes. Since 2 May 2026 you can drive the final 5 km to Sossusvlei in your own 4×4 and walk on to Deadvlei; the concessionaire shuttle is optional, listed at about N$250 per adult. The last stretch into Sossusvlei is 5…
The Sossusvlei 4×4 Shuttle and the Walk to Deadvlei
What Namibian Car-Hire Insurance Does Not Cover
Scroll Travel Tips & Advice What Namibian Car-Hire Insurance Does Not Cover Namibian car-hire insurance leaves more uncovered than most visitors expect. Even with an excess waiver, rental terms commonly exclude tyres, rims, windscreen and glass, sandblast and underbody damage, and water damage, and the single-vehicle rollover, the most likely accident on gravel, is excluded…
What Namibian Car-Hire Insurance Does Not Cover
Sesriem Gate Times, Month by Month
Scroll Travel Tips & Advice Sesriem Gate Times, Month by Month The Sesriem gate opens at sunrise and closes at sunset, so the time shifts through the year, from about 07:38 in June and July to about 06:00 in November and December. The inner gate to Sossusvlei opens roughly an hour earlier. NWR publishes no…
Sesriem Gate Times, Month by Month
How to Book the Camps Inside Etosha
Scroll Travel Tips & Advice How to Book the Camps Inside Etosha You book Etosha’s rest camps directly with Namibia Wildlife Resorts (NWR). Its online portal at nwr.cimsoweb.com is working again in 2026, and you can also reserve by emailing reservations@nwr.com.na or phoning the Windhoek or Swakopmund office. Book several months ahead for the May…
How to Book the Camps Inside Etosha
Is My Namibia Itinerary Too Ambitious? What the Map Leaves Out
Scroll Travel Tips & Advice Is My Namibia Itinerary Too Ambitious? What the Map Leaves Out The most repeated question on the Namibia travel internet is some version of “is this too ambitious?” — posted with a day count and a list of places, on TripAdvisor and Fodor’s, several times a week. The answers are…
Is My Namibia Itinerary Too Ambitious? What the Map Leaves Out
Namibia eSIM and Mobile Coverage: What Actually Works
Scroll Travel Tips & Advice Namibia eSIM and Mobile Coverage: What Actually Works Four separate threads are running on TripAdvisor right now arguing about whether an Airalo eSIM works in Namibia. The travellers contradict each other, nobody cites anything, and the answer is actually knowable. Here it is, with dates on it. MTC supports eSIM…
Namibia eSIM and Mobile Coverage: What Actually Works
