Namibia Travel Guide

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Top Things to See

Windhoek
The attractive capital features fine German colonial architecture, with Windhoek's highlights including the Tintenpalast parliament building, Christuskirche (the city's landmark church) and the fortress Alte Feste - the city's oldest surviving building, which houses a museum of Namibian history.

Namib Naukluft Park
The Namib Naukluft, the fourth-largest conservation area in the world, is part of the extremely impressive Namib Desert, believed to be the world's oldest desert. Here, oryx stroll over apricot-, ochre- and fawn-colored dunes tufted with grasses.

Fish River Canyon
Even if you're not doing the famous hike through this, the world's largest canyon after the Grand Canyon, you can admire its scale and visit the nearby Kokerboom Forest. Kokerbooms (quiver trees) are bizarrely elegant giant aloes, once used by the San people to make quivers for their arrows, and now protected.

Skeleton Coast
By joining a nature trail across the gravel plains of the arid and forbidding Skeleton Coast region, you can observe ancient desert-adapted plant species such as welwitschia, lithops and delicate lichens.

AfriCat Foundation, Okonjima
This predator rehabilitation center (www.africat.org) cares for cheetahs, leopards, lions and endangered wild dogs. In the larger enclosures, the cats are radio-collared so guides should be able to guarantee close-up sightings. There's a luxury lodge for overnight visitors.

Cape Cross
This isolated stretch of rocky shore is home to a huge, malodorous Cape fur seal colony; around November plenty of young pups can be seen huddled next to their mothers.

Rock art, Damaraland
The Brandberg/Twyfelfontein area has some very ancient rock engravings and paintings, of which the White Lady of the Brandberg is the best known. Nearby is the Aba-Huab Petrified Forest, a collection of around 50 fossilised trees thought to be over 250 million years old.

Himba kraals, Kaokoland
Learn about tribal customs and desert survival techniques by visiting the kraal (homestead) of indigenous semi-nomadic pastoralists, the Himba, in the Kaokoland region of northern Namibia.

East Caprivi
Bordered by the Kwando, Linyanti, Chobe and Zambezi rivers, this region of swamps and flood plains has several safari lodges and offers boat trips, fishing, hiking and game viewing, particularly in the Mudumu and Mamili National Parks.

West Caprivi
Here, a good place to stop is the Popa Falls Rest Camp (www.nwr.com.na), a popular haven on the banks of the Okavango River, where crocodiles and hippos bask in the water. About 12km (7 miles) to the south is Mahango Game Reserve, with elephants, buffalo and lechwe.

Top Things to Do

Shopping in Windhoek
Hunt down African crafts and curios, splurge on local game such as springbok or kudu at the city's fine restaurants, or head for the hills to relax over a sundowner in the rose garden at the Heinitzburg Hotel.

Wildlife-watching in Etosha
Etosha National Park, one of the world's best wildlife sanctuaries, offers excellent game-viewing. Its huge salt pan is surrounded by over 22,000 sq km (8,500 sq miles) of grasslands and bush, home to vast stocks of elephants, zebras, giraffes, wildebeest and antelopes, plus hyenas and big cats.

Hiking in the Waterberg
Waterberg Plateau Park, Namibia's only mountain game park, has striking red sandstone cliffs, and harbors many rare and endangered animal and plant species. Hiking trails of one to three hours have been mapped out and are well signposted.

Climbing the dunes at Sossusvlei
At Sossusvlei, you can climb some of the world's highest sand dunes. There's a good campsite nearby at Sesriem Gate, close to the point at which the Tsauchab River disappears down a deep gorge, leaving pools of water where many animals come to drink.

Hiking the Fish River Canyon
This scenically impressive three-day endurance test is strictly for the fit and hardy. Hikers need to join an organized trip with an experienced guide, and be self-sufficient throughout the trek.

Adventure activities in Swakopmund
The delightful little German-style seaside resort of Swakopmund is surrounded by desert that is great for adrenaline sports such as quad-biking, dune buggy racing and sand-boarding.

Rhino tracking
Professional conservationists allow visitors to join them as they track black rhino in Damaraland's rugged wilderness as part of an ongoing initiative to monitor and protect this endangered species.

Birdwatching
The Caprivi Strip is considered by experts to be one of Africa's top 10 birding destinations. Its parks and reserves have the highest concentration of birds in Namibia, including some near-endemic species.

Watching desert elephants
Rare desert-adapted elephants can sometimes be seen browsing the trees in the dry beds of the Ugab and Huab Rivers in northern Namibia, or digging down into the earth with their tusks in search of water.

See ContactAddresses for further tourist information.