Family Self-Drive Adventure in Namibia

Eleven nights across Namibia, self-guided, in a 4×4, arranged for a family.

Namibia suits families better than most African destinations: the driving is straightforward, the lodges are used to children and the landscape is dramatic enough that nobody asks how far is left.

Windhoek opens it, then Okonjima, where radio-collared leopards are tracked on foot or by vehicle with the AfriCat Foundation’s guides, and a nocturnal hide gives a chance of porcupine, honey badger and caracal. Etosha follows for two days of waterhole viewing, with elephant, rhino, zebra and lion all possible. Damaraland comes next, with quad biking, riding and walking, time with Damara, Himba and San hosts, a ranger-led desert elephant trail and the rock art at Twyfelfontein, staying at Camp Kipwe among red basalt boulders. Swakopmund follows, with kayaking among Cape fur seals and dolphin trips, then Sossusvlei, where the dunes can be climbed and boarded back down and the salt pans crossed by fat bike or quad, with Deadvlei nearby.

The 4×4 and the accommodation throughout are included; international flights, fuel and most of the activities, including the balloon rides, camel rides and catamaran cruises, are optional extras, so the quoted price covers rather less of the programme than it first appears. The price shown is per person excluding flights. No wildlife sighting can be promised, on the leopard tracking least of all. The dry season from May to October is the window, when the game concentrates round the waterholes and the gravel roads are at their best. Twelve days arranged this way gives a family the dunes, the coast, the game parks and the rock art without any single drive becoming an ordeal.