A Luxury Grand Tour of Namibia

Windhoek is one of the smallest capital cities in the world with a population of just 234,000, but it is home to some fascinating buildings with typical German architecture. You could also visit the National Botanical Gardens featuring mountain aloes, a large evergreen succulent with a dense rosette of fleshy, green leaves and striking orange flowers.

The towering terracotta sand dunes and clay pans that belong to Sossusvlei form the signature landscape of Namibia. Located in the Namib-Naukluft National Park in the southern Namib Desert, this rippling sand-sea of huge dunes has been shaped by the winds and the underground Tsauchab River.

Enjoy your time in the world’s oldest desert with your guides taking you on walking safaris, scenic drives and perhaps a photography lesson or two. Your travel designer will be able to talk you through the various activities available depending on which accommodation you choose to stay at.

Enjoy some time exploring Swakopmund, a small German coastal resort situated between the desert and the sea. This charming town boasts a combination of German architecture, good hotels, shops, restaurants, museums, craft centres, galleries and cafés for you to enjoy. Alternatively you may like to partake in any of the adventure activities on offer including quad-biking in the dunes, sky diving and scenic flights, which your travel designer will be able to advise you about.

One of the most scenic parts of Namibia, with plenty of scope for adventure, Damaraland encompasses the expanses of rugged wilderness in Namibia’s northwest between the Skeleton Coast, Kaokoland and Etosha. It is home to very few people, wandering herds of desert-adapted elephants and black rhino. The plains are dotted with surreal rock formation decorated with ancient San rock art, petrified forests, the imposing Spitzkoppe mountain and the Brandberg Massif (Namibia’s highest mountain).

Though there are no national parks here but instead a collection of game reserves and concessions that house remote safari lodges. Here you can hope to spot wildlife including lions, cheetahs, giraffes and more in the captivating surrounds.

Etosha’s most distinguishing feature is its horizon-less silvery salt pan that covers 6,133 square kilometres, as well as the variety and concentration of game that crowd its surrounding spring-fed waterholes. Nicknamed the “Place of Mirages”, the terrain is extraordinary especially when a pride of lions, herds of blue wildebeest or desert elephants stand against this stark backdrop.

The remains of an ancient inland lake, the Etosha Pan, takes up about a quarter of the park’s land and there is a variety of habitats within the park’s borders from mopane woodland to treeless plains, open savannah, becoming more hilly the further west you go.