Namibia Highlights

Twelve nights around Namibia, entirely independent, in a hire car with the accommodation booked in advance, with the price quoted on application.

This is the operator’s entry point and the one with no guide attached: the route and the lodges are arranged and the driving is the guest’s own, which in Namibia is a reasonable proposition because the roads are good and the signage is adequate.

Windhoek opens it, with the car collected at the airport. The Namib follows, where the dunes rise three hundred metres and can be climbed on foot at first light, then the Erongo Mountains, a granite massif with rock art and good walking. Damaraland comes next with its ancient engravings, then Etosha for the game drives, where the animals gather at the waterholes on the edge of an enormous salt pan, and the Waterberg Plateau at the end, which is walked rather than driven and holds species found nowhere else in the country.

A 2×4 or 4×4 depending on the itinerary and the accommodation throughout at a range of lodges and camps are included; international flights, fuel, most meals and the optional activities, which run from quad biking and sandboarding to a scenic flight and the Cape Cross seal colony, are not. The price is given on application. The dry season from May to October is the window. No wildlife sighting can be promised. For a first trip to Namibia, this is the sensible shape: the five landscapes the country is known for, in thirteen days, with nobody else’s schedule to keep to and the beds booked ahead.