Taking the family on holiday to Namibia ?

Anyone ever done jt? We have three boys, 11, 9, 5 and we’d like to do a special trip before life gets in the way for them

Done as a couple, not with kids. You’ll want to rent a 4×4 and drive/camp. It will be an amazing adventure, but the distances are vast and the roads are mostly unpaved. It will be a lot of time crammed in a car if you want to cover Etosha-Swakopmund-Sossusvlei-Luderitz.

Why Namibia? Other places in Africa are less sparse and might make for easier travelling. There are some incredible landscapes, but a whole lot of sand in between.

Just watch out for the goul there. 😉

The distances are vast, really really vast.

Check out Botswana as an alternative. Chobe national park, Okavango, stay with bushmen in the Ghanzi area, good road all the way round the Kalahari.

I’ve been twice with work, staying right out in the bush near Swakopmund and further north in Kaokoland. It’s an amazing country and fairly easy, as far as traveling on the African continent is concerned.

However, IMHO, I kind of think it might be lost on kids that age (but I’m sure that others won’t). There are so many stunning things to experience (landscape, wildlife, weather, African culture and colonial history) that, given it’s a big trip, would be more suited to teenagers and young adults. As others have mentioned, there are likely to be some long days, rough overland journeys and other minor hardships that would be tolerated better by slightly older kids too.

You know Adolf Hitler lives there, right?

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-55173605

Namibia is a great country to visit and there is real variety there from big five at Etosha, wilderness and ancient rock paintings, huge seal colony on the coast, massive dunes at Namibia-Naukluft and loads more. Very safe and friendly. But like others have said quite a bit of driving involved and they’d need to like wilderness and peace and quiet.

It’s a lovely country – We had a week there a couple of years ago as part of a longer holiday (bits of Botswana, SA, Zambia & Zimbabwe). I think it was amongst my favourite places, and probably the only one I have a hankering to go back to. Very friendly people wherever we went.

There’s a lot of space there, but the main towns are very modern with good infrastructure. Some fantastic gravel ‘pistes’ across vast areas of desert. There were lots of companies around Windhoek set up for hiring 4×4 with roof-top camping tents.

If you like long, empty gravel roads, it’s fantastic, but might be a bit dull for passengers.

Didn’t go to the game parks there, but they are supposed to be good. (We did a trip from the Namibian side on the river that borders the Chobe park in Botwsana – loads of animals to see.)

We didn’t know about ‘Fish Canyon’ before our visit, so didn’t leave enough time to visit, but supposed to be spectacular. Dunes as Sossusvlei are possible the most impressive and beautiful place I’ve been in my life.

Might post some photos later if you’re interested.

Yep Chobe, my mrs noted 28 different animals we saw there in a day plus countless elephants (crossing the river Disney style) and hippos. We just booked up in situ a morning in a land rover and an afternoon on a boat and it was far far cheaper than you would pay as part of a package. We needed to park up and sleep on the road to Ghanzi and she phoned around and we ended up driving into the Kalahari and staying with bushmen at D’Qari Qari (sp?). When I hitchhiked through there in ’83 it was pretty much inaccessible and terrible dust roads.

My wife and I went there last year and have been boring our friends for the last 12 months with quite how much we loved it. Yes, there are some large distances involved but can be balanced and the mix of landscape, culture and wildlife is out of this world.

However, to answer your specific question, my best friend’s family visited about 10 years ago, the two girls were then 6 and 8. They still talk about it now as their favourite ever holiday, and have impressively clear memories of many of the experiences.

Time available, timing, budget and confidence in 4×4 driving are your constraints… (and willingness to camp v. stay in lodges, be cooped up 5 in the cab of a rented 4×4 for hours, etc.).

I would choose Botswana (obviously), plan to arrive in Maun and work from there.

Possible itinerary if self-driving and camping:

• Maun for a night or two to test camping gear and collect supplies
• Night in Moremi (or direct to Savuti)
• Night in Savuti
• Night in Chobe NP or Kasane (Kasane would give you opportunity for pro-guided game viewing – well worth it)
• Day Trip to Victoria Falls
• Transit the Caprivi Strip to the Okavango panhandle
• Plan a night near Shakawe to avoid night-driving
• Tsodilo Hills and camp or day-visit and camp at one of the riverside lodges between there and Gumare
• Return to Maun – allow plenty of time: the road and animals on the road were a fatal risk protocol when we were building a mine in that area
• Further options in/around Maun:
  • Okavango scenic flights or 1-2 night fly-in if you are loaded (I think we did Oddballs Camp last time).
  • Drive down to Gweta and a night on the Makgadkigadi Pans
  • Fatbikes at Sitatunga Camp/Delta Rain Safaris (they might also be able to plan a whole itinerary for you, with a guide/driver and equipment – make it clear you want to help pitch camp, cook etc.)

You can also drive between serviced lodges in the national parks, but they are generally pricey albeit impeccable service, professional guides etc.

This place (STW) never fails to amaze me.

We were going with the family back in 2020; COVID killed that one. Haven’t made it back since. A real shame, but I’ll get back when the kids have left.

Stubborn Mule came up with a great itinerary for us; they’ve since done Guatemala/Belize and Vietnam for us very well (but we didn’t use them for Tanzania; that’s Safari & Beach).

I’ve not done Namibia yet, but other bits of southern Africa. Like the recent US / California thread, don’t underestimate distances, think about time of year and suitability for activities assuming you are an active family, and consider Namibia is a lot about scenery. So think about what to do to keep the kids interested.

There must be great walking in the scenery, but note the summer is hot. Our summer, their winter (i.e. school hols July time) is probably better for outdoorsy people, dry, cooler in the day for hiking etc, but it’ll be zero at night in some places.

If you head north towards Damaraland and Etosha, consider also heaving into Caprivi Strip / Zambezi region and stay in a lodge who’ll do guided game drives (if you don’t want to try sand driving). Malaria meds aren’t expensive online.

And then for activities there are more around the coast Swakopmund / Walvis Bay.

Overall it’s a safe intro to southern Africa, European feel infrastructure, and very few people.

An alternative with equally good infrastructure but more variety in smaller areas, would be a bit of South Africa, e.g. Cape Town and Garden Route, or KwaZulu Natal.

Agree that bits of Botswana would also be a very different, safe, and me nd blowing experience. Though I wouldn’t take kids that young through Moremi-Khwai-Savuti (unfenced and very wild area, and also some tough sand driving, and you would struggle for space with 5 in the car taking everything you need with you). But a loop on the tarmac roads would be amazing.

I went on to Oddballs camp as a student – back then it was a largely backpackers camp with incredible but basic camping trips into the Okovango, still one of the most amazing things I’ve ever done. Back then it was £25 per night at the height of the season when the Delta was flooded and mind-blowingly full of wildlife. Now it is about £500 per night…
I agree Botswana is an awesome country – Savuti and Moremi (Okovango) being the highlights for me, Chobe also pretty awesome and of course Vic Falls being a place that should be on anyone’s bucket list – but I think as a country Namibia offers more for a single holiday.
Back in the day the Vic Falks hotel did an all you can eat buffet once a week that was open to non-residents – amazing place to visit on a backpackers budget having survived on mostly rice for weeks…

Problem with Victoria Falls is that you get hit with a whopper of a bill for Zimbabwe visas (which apparently is the same charge the UK imposes on Zimbabwean visitors). I didn’t think the falls were that interesting.