Weather & when to go to Namibia

Even though most of Namibia is a desert, it still has regional climatic variations. The sun shines at least 300 days of the year throughout the entire country! But this doesn’t stop temperatures and rainfall to vary significantly both seasonally and geographically. The driest climate is found in the centre of the Namib Desert, where summer daytime temperatures rocket to over 40°C (105°F), falling again to sometimes below freezing at night.

In the mountainous and semi-arid Central Plateau (including Windhoek), daytime temperatures are generally lower than in the rest of the country. Fog is pretty common on the coast.

The hottest month everywhere is December. Average temperatures get to 30°C (86°F). Namibia has two rainy seasons, namely the 'little rains' from October to December, and the main rainy period from January to April. The main rainy period consists of brief showers and occasional thunderstorms that clear the air.

Low-lying areas in the eastern part of Namibia are usually much hotter than the Central Plateau and, except for Kavango and Caprivi in the northeast, get little rain.

Most popular time to visit:

Mid-Dec – Mid- Jan; Late April – Early June; Late Aug – Mid-Sept: Namibian & South African school holidays. The resort areas are at their busiest during these times.

Good time to visit:

May – Oct: the dry winter season. Days are warm and sunny, while nights are cold, often with temperatures falling below freezing.

Worst time to go:

Dec – March: We suggest you stay away from Namib-Naukluft Park and Etosha National Park, because it’s boiling hot. Because of this, the Fish River Canyon is closed to the public between December and April.

Another reason to avoid visiting Namibia during this time is because the north-eastern rivers may flood, resulting in impossible roads.

Best things to do in Namibia

1. At a glance, Namibia seems like a big and empty place. But if you look a little closer, your heart will skip a beat. Most of it is a desert, a desert which offers the most incredible, dreamlike scenery. Photographers will have a ball here.

2. The Fish River Canyon in the south, Etosha National Park in the north and the Namib-Naukluft Desert in the middle are Namibia’s main points of interest.

3. The desert is a playground for adrenaline junkies, and there’s nothing like quad-biking in the Namib Desert, climbing the giant dune at Sossusvlei, gliding down a dune on a sand-board, or freefalling out of a plane while enjoying the wide, open spaces.

4. A visit to the Himba Tribe is a worthwhile experience, sitting and watching an Etosha waterhole at night, or witnessing the sun setting over the Fish River Canyon.

Areas of interest in Namibia

Etosha National Park

The 20,000 sq km (7722 sq mi) Etosha National Park is one of the world's greatest wildlife-viewing places. Scrubby savannah defines the western part of the park, while further east, the landscape is made up of mixed woodland. But the lifeblood of Etosha is the Etosha Pan, an enormous, flat, saline desert that hardly ever holds water. For a few days each year, rains turn this desert into a shallow lagoon teeming with white pelicans and flamingos.

However, it’s its surrounding bush and grasslands that provide a home for 114 mammal species and 340 bird species. The best way to spot Etosha's wildlife is to get hold of a vehicle, park near a waterhole and wait for the lions, springboks and elephants to turn up for a drink.

Fish River Canyon

The awesome Fish River Canyon brings one to a loss of words with its incredible, awe-stricken beauty. To say that its views are to die for is an understatement. The Fish River has been cutting into this massive gorge for thousands of years. It’s 160km (99mi) long and 27km (17mi) wide.

The main information/tourist centre for the Fish River Canyon is at the northern end of the park, at Hobas, where there are also picnic sites, camp grounds and walking trails all around it. Hobas also provides access to some of the best viewpoints in the canyon.

Skeleton Coast

The coastline between where the Kunene and Ugab rivers open into the Atlantic, is known as the Skeleton Coast.  The name is often used for the entire desert coastline, even as far south as Lüderitz. The coastal parks consist of nearly two million hectares of dunes and gravel plains, and are among the world's most inhospitable waterless areas.

When sailors were washed ashore here from shipwrecks, they had absolutely no chance of survival. To add to the drama, there’s a misty fog that hangs in the air for most of the year. It gives the barren coast a cold, eerie feeling.

Namib-Naukluft Park

Home to some truly bizarre forms of life, much of the 80 – 250km-wide Namib Desert is situated within the Namib-Naukluft Park. This is one of the largest national parks in Africa. In fact, Namib means “vast” in the Nama language.

It’s most famous for its incredibly high rust-red sand dunes, blown into all sorts of peaks and razor sharp ridges by the wind.

Sossusvlei

In the Namib-Naukluft Park, amid towering red dunes, where the wind moves and moulds them to its liking, where shifting colours play tribute to this unhurried animation, you’ll find a huge pan, called Sossusvlei.

The surrounding dunes can get as high as 325m (1066ft), making then the highest dunes on Earth. It’s the most awesome experience to climb the highest dune, and, once at the top, a feeling of complete solitude and timelessness washes over you as you gaze into the masses and masses of sand that surrounds you. They belong to one of the oldest and driest ecosystems on earth, and are part of the 32,000 sq km (12,355 sq mi) sea of sand that blankets most of Namibia’s western continent.  

The closest accommodation to Sossusvlei is a campsite at Sesriem. What makes this campsite so special is that it’s the only place from where you’re allowed to drive out into the dunes and check out the sunrise. This campsite also gives you the rare opportunity to camp right in the middle of the desert, under a huge canopy of the brightest stars you can imagine.

Sesriem’s only 60km from Sossusvlei; though just remember that if you don’t have a 4x4 vehicle for the last 4km, you’d have to walk. In fact, we advise you to walk, because it’s the best way to experience the silence of the infinite and eerie dunes.

You can also opt for an aerial perspective, which is by far the best view you’ll get of the endless waves of sand beneath you. This can be done in either a plane or a hot-air balloon.

The Spitzkoppe

The dramatically-shaped Spitzkoppe rises mirage-like above the dusty plains of southern Damaraland. This 1728m (5669ft) natural structure is one of Namibia's most recognisable landmarks, and is very popular with rock climbers all over the world. It's beginning and ending with a sharp peak reminds one of the glaciated Swiss Alp. Fascinating tours with local guides are on offer.  

Swakopmund

If you’re a traveller in Namibia, you’re bound to end up at the action-packed Swakopmund some time or another. It’s hard to imagine that this coastal town that’s fast becoming the adrenalin capital of Namibia was once a sleepy town of Bavarian beer maidens and German patisseries.

Located at the end of the Skeleton Coast, it’s a crayfish diver and fisherman’s dream location. This is a seaside resort with a difference, since it’s surrounded by the harsh Atlantic Ocean, a strip of foggy coastline, windswept dunes and barren gravel plains. The town’s friendly and relaxed atmosphere winks travellers closer, just like its sparkling ocean. Swakopmund’s got a German feel to it, and its roads lead to Walvis Bay in the south, the little fishing town of Henties Bay and Cape Cross Seal Colony to the north, and, if you carry on going north, you’ll end up at the spooky Skeleton Coast National Park.

When in Swakopmund, take a stroll through town and make sure you’ve got your camera handy, because the brightly-painted buildings are very photogenic on a sunny afternoon. If you fancy yourself a beer drinker, make a stop at the Hansa Brewery, the source of Namibia’s popular beer. Or wander through an underwater tunnel at the National Marine Aquarium.

You can also visit the Swakopmund Museum, lying at the foot of another of the town’s famous landmarks – the red-and-white-striped lighthouse. Since the town is on the edge of the Namib Desert, it’s definitely worth taking a scenic flight, or, if you feel brave, take a jump from 12000 feet on a tandem parachute.

If the parachute didn’t get your adrenalin pumping, then go play on a section of towering dunes just outside town. This area has been set aside for activities, such as sand-boarding and quad-biking. Swakopmund also has a lot of water-based activities available, such as boat trips that take you to dolphins and seals, deep-sea fishing, crayfish diving, surfing, and some of the best shore-based angling in Africa. If you can’t do anymore, just lie back and chill on the beach. If you need a quick-start, a dip in the freezing ocean will do just the trick!

Windhoek

Thanks to a brilliant stroke of German planning, the capital city, Windhoek, is located slap bang in the middle of the country. With a population of around 200 000, it’s a really tiny capital by global standards, making it just the right size to explore by foot.

It’s extremely clean and modern, serviced by a well-developed infrastructure and its architecture is very German. Other than a good European café culture, there’s not much that’s different from your average, modern city. So, if you’re looking for something different or African-like, you won’t really find it here.

Caprivi Strip

At the top of Namibia, between Angola and Botswana, you’ll find an oddly-shaped panhandle, called the Caprivi Strip. It’s covered by permanent water and starts at the Kavango River in the east. It then follows the Zambezi River all the way to the border intersection of Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia. If you’re travelling to or from these countries, you’ll definitely travel through the Caprivi Strip.

Katima Mulilo, Caprivi’s main town, is closer to Harare and Lusaka than it is to Windhoek, so, in many ways, this area’s more like the African countries that surround it than Namibia itself. For starters, unlike the desert, it’s a very green and lush place – thanks to its rivers. The entire western area is a game reserve, with 8000 elephants, as well as hippos, buffaloes, crocodiles and many antelope species.

Along these rivers, you’ll find a number of lodges and campsites, and they also offer access to the northern reaches of Botswana’s Okavango Delta. They’re also only a short drive from Victoria Falls and Chobe National Park.

You don’t need a permit for using the Trans Caprivi Highway, but keep your eyes wide open, as there are no fences, causing the animals to cross the road whenever they like.

Damaraland

One of the most scenic regions in Namibia, Damaraland, has a dramatic landscape of red-hued mountains, enormous granite koppies (hills) and wide, open, sandy plains. It lies south of Etosha National Park and north of Swakopmund. It’s home to a few black rhinos and the elusive desert elephant.

Home to the largest known concentration of Stone Age cave paintings in southern Africa, Twyfelfontein isn’t just any old town in Damaraland. It’s got about 2500 engravings carved on a petrified sand dune, dating back to around 3000 BC. A guide can take you to these engravings, which are easily accessible on foot. The best time to visit this historic wonder is in the late afternoon when the engravings catch the soft light just before sunset.

Nearby you’ll find the Petrified Forest. Instead of a scared clump of trees huddled together as the name may suggest, it’s the site of very old fossilized logs. It’s speculated that these logs were washed down an ancient river 250 million years ago. After being buried under wet, silica-rich mud, they became petrified, or rather, fossilized, and today there’re about 50 of these trunks lying on the ground, with the longest one being 30m long. You can still see the bark and growth rings on some of them.

Recent history of Namibia

Namibia is Africa’s youngest nation. In 2001, the President stated that homosexuals were immoral, and the Prime Minister declared that black Africans must accept whites as part of Namibia. It was also revealed that members of the armed forces owned interests in diamond mines in the Congo, where the Namibian army were fighting rebels.

Although President Nujoma supported Robert Mugabe's forcible possessions of white farms in Zimbabwe, he did, however, adopt a more peaceful approach to land reform, and condemned illegal land seizures. By 2003, 15 farm invasions were prevented when a black farmhands' union came to an agreement with white farmers.

After 15 years in office, President Sam Nujoma finally stepped down in 2004, and was succeeded by Hifikepunye Pohamba, also a Swapo veteran.

In 2006, expropriation of farms became compulsory even though the government still states that the rule of law must be obeyed. 18 Orders were filed against white farmers.

Namibia does have very modern problems, with corruption within its politics and HIV/AIDS having dire effects on its population, among them. Along with this, the majority of its sparse population lives in terrible poverty and its energy requirements far exceed current supply.

Highlights of Namibia

1. Watch the sun rise over the dunes in the Namib-Naukluft Desert
2. Quad bike in the dunes of Swakopmund
3. Climbing the giant dune at Sossusvlei
4. Glide down a dune on a sand-board
5. Experience the Himba Tribe
6. View rhinos at an Etosha waterhole at night
7. See the sun set over the Fish River Canyon

Quick facts on Namibia

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1st Sunday in September

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Medical matters

1. HIV/AIDS
2. Malaria
3. Bites & stings
4. Schistosomiasis (Bilharzia)

Getting there

You can fly into Windhoek or Walvis Bay

Safety in Namibia

In comparison to the rest of the African countries, Namibia ranks as one of the safest. Crime, however, is increasing in the larger cities, in particular Windhoek, so a little street sense will be needed.

For the latest travel advisory check the British Foreign Office.