The best of Namibia's north and west in a single expertly guided 6-day circuit. This tour combines two iconic Namibian experiences that together capture the country's extraordinary contrasts: the...
Guided
6 day journey
Duration
6 days
Group size
2–4 travellers
Style
Guided
From
NAD 85,748 / pp
Departures
Year-round
Nights
5 nights away
The journey
Explore at your own pace.
The best of Namibia's north and west in a single expertly guided 6-day circuit. This tour combines two iconic Namibian experiences that together capture the country's extraordinary contrasts: the...
The best of Namibia's north and west in a single expertly guided 6-day circuit. This tour combines two iconic Namibian experiences that together capture the country's extraordinary contrasts: the wildlife-filled white saltpan of Etosha National Park — Africa's 'Great White Place' — and the cool Atlantic charm of Swakopmund, Namibia's most beloved coastal town. Encounter elephants, lions, giraffe, and rare black rhino on the Etosha plains, then exchange the dust and heat of the safari for sea air, German colonial architecture, fresh seafood, and adventure activities on the Skeleton Coast.
With a professional guide, comfortable accommodation, and all park fees included, this circuit is the ideal introduction for first-time Namibia visitors who want maximum variety.
Etosha National Park — rare black rhino at Klein Okevi waterhole
N° 02
Okaukuejo floodlit waterhole — Africa's most spectacular night wildlife
N° 03
Swakopmund — colonial German architecture and Atlantic seafood
N° 04
Living Desert tour — Namib's incredible 'Little 5'
N° 05
Walvis Bay flamingo and pelican cruise
The route, drawn out.
3 stops 1,435 km total
NAMIBIA · THE ETOSHAOPENSTREETMAP
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Itinerary
3 stops
1
Etosha National Park
Best: June – November
2
Swakopmund
Best: June – November
Day by day.
Times are flexible — we'd rather you stop for a long lunch than rush to the next viewpoint.
01
Day 1 · D
Windhoek to Etosha – The Drive North (430 km)
Your guide meets you at Hosea Kutako International Airport for the airport transfer and vehicle briefing, then departs north on the B1 — Namibia's main artery. The road passes through Okahandja, Otjiwarongo (possible CCF stop), and the frontier town of Outjo, the classic gateway to Etosha where travellers have stocked up on supplies since the colonial era. Enter the park at the southern Anderson Gate by early afternoon and begin an immediate game drive along the western circuit toward Okaukuejo camp. Stop at the Salvadora waterhole — a reliable elephant and rhino site — before pulling in to Okaukuejo camp in time to watch the sun set over the saltpan from the camp's watchtower. Dinner at camp is followed by the evening's main event: the famous Okaukuejo floodlit waterhole. This lit drinking point draws extraordinary nightly processions of wildlife: elephant families drinking in close family groups, rare black rhino arriving cautiously from the bush edge, lion prides resting on the cement lip, and spotted hyena milling in the shadows beyond the light. Guests sit on a stone bench just metres from the water — no vehicle, no barrier, just the night and the animals.
Etosha National Park
Overnight—
Drive
What's included.
From NAD 85,748 per person
Included
Meals as Indicated
Accommodation
Vehicle
Driver/Guide
Fuel
Meet and greet
Park entrance fees
Planned activities
Airport transfers
Not included
Flights
Cancellation policy+
Free cancellation up to 60 days before departure. 50% charge for cancellations made 30–59 days before departure. No refund for cancellations within 30 days of departure. All cancellations must be submitted in writing to reservations@kenakare.com.
No deposit until we've shaped the itinerary together. We reply to every enquiry personally, within a working day.
Payments are settled in Namibian dollars (NAD).
N° 06
Dune quad biking on the edge of the world's oldest desert
N° 07
Moon Landscape — surreal volcanic rock formations
N° 08
Goanikontes Oasis — lush desert garden
3
Windhoek
Best: November – May
Total drive1,435 km
430 km
MealsDinner
02
Day 2 · B/D
Full Day Etosha – East & West Game Drive Circuits
A full day in Etosha to explore both the western and eastern sections of the park. Dawn departure for the western circuit: head first to Klein Okevi waterhole — the most reliable spot in all of Namibia to observe the critically endangered black rhino. These ancient, solitary animals often approach the waterhole cautiously at first light, their prehistoric shapes unmistakable against the pale saltpan sky. Continue west through the acacia and mopane woodland, stopping at Charitsaub and Kapupuhedi waterholes where lion are regularly found resting in the shade during the heat of the day. Midmorning loop east to Halali — the park's central camp and waterhole complex, set among spectacular dolomite rock formations that provide exceptional hide-and-seek terrain for leopard and klipspringer. Continue to Namutoni, where the whitewashed German fort (1901) rises incongruously above the floodplain, and the adjacent Klein Namutoni waterhole draws enormous elephant herds in the late afternoon. Birding detour to Fischer's Pan — a seasonal lake east of Namutoni that attracts flamingo, pelican, and a remarkable diversity of waders and wildfowl during and after the rains. Return to Okaukuejo for a final night at the floodlit waterhole — different animals, different stories, same magic.
Etosha National Park
Overnight—
Drive200 km
MealsBreakfast, Dinner
03
Day 3 · B/D
Morning Etosha Drive, then Coast via Damaraland (~440 km)
One final early morning game drive through the western circuit before making your way back to the Anderson Gate by mid-morning. From Etosha, the route south and west toward Swakopmund is one of the most scenically varied drives in Namibia: descending from the Etosha plateau through Outjo, across the great central plains, and then through the Khomas Hochland highlands before plunging down the dramatic Gamsberg Pass escarpment to the Namib Desert floor. Alternatively, take the route via Omaruru — a charming artistic town surrounded by ancient hills — and then along the Swakop River valley, one of the most beautiful approaches to the coast. Stop at the Goanikontes Oasis, a small but lush garden farm carved from the Namib by a German settler in the 19th century — extraordinarily green against the surrounding gravel desert. Arrive in Swakopmund by early evening: the temperature drops 15°C from the Etosha heat, the air tastes of salt and kelp, and the architecture suddenly turns Bavarian. Check in to your seaside accommodation, then take a brisk sunset walk along the beachfront promenade. Dinner at one of Swakopmund's excellent restaurants — the fresh crayfish, Walvis Bay oysters, and kabeljou (kob) are among the finest seafood you will find anywhere in Africa.
Swakopmund
Overnight—
Drive440 km
MealsBreakfast, Dinner
04
Day 4 · B/D
Swakopmund – Living Desert & Walvis Bay Flamingos
Two of Swakopmund's most extraordinary guided experiences fill this day. Morning: the Living Desert tour — a 2.5-hour guided exploration of the gravel Namib Desert just east of town with a specialist naturalist guide. The tour focuses on discovering the astonishing 'Little 5' of the Namib — the five species of small desert-adapted animals that most people walk right past: the Peringuey's adder (a sidewinding snake that shuffles through sand grains), the Namib web-footed gecko (palmato gecko, with transparent skin and enormous eyes), the dancing white lady spider (hauls its prey up sand dunes using spectacular cartwheeling motion), the barrel-nosed legless lizard (looks exactly like a sand grain until it moves), and the tok tokkie beetle (communicates by drumming its abdomen on the ground). Your guide finds each species with seeming effortlessness — the result of years of patient desert observation. Afternoon: Walvis Bay flamingo and pelican boat cruise — a 2.5-hour catamaran trip through the extraordinary Walvis Bay lagoon, a RAMSAR-protected wetland 30 km south of Swakopmund that is home to 50,000 flamingos (both greater and lesser species, the largest concentration on the African continent south of Kenya's Rift Valley) and 2,000 Cape pelicans. The boat enters the flamingo flocks at close range — the cackling, preening, pink cloud of birds at arm's reach is one of the most spectacular wildlife images in Africa. Return to Swakopmund for dinner and a moonlit walk along the jetty.
A free-choice adventure day with a range of optional activities to suit all tastes and energy levels. For the adrenaline seekers: dune quad biking is one of Swakopmund's signature activities — helmeted up and briefed on controls, riders head into the towering sand dunes on the southern edge of town, climbing ridgelines and bombing down steep faces in a 1.5-hour guided session. Skydivers can join a tandem jump with a local operator and freefall from 10,000 feet with a vertical view of the entire Skeleton Coast and Namib Desert. For those preferring a gentler pace: a guided kayaking tour with the Cape fur seal colony at Pelican Point is one of the world's most endearing wildlife experiences — the seals approach kayaks with intense curiosity, rolling and spinning just below the hull and occasionally surfacing to haul themselves up on the kayak for a rest. Cultural afternoons: Swakopmund's German colonial history is richly visible in its streets. Walk past the Woermannhaus (1905) and the Kaserne barracks, visit the Swakopmund Museum for maritime and colonial history, and browse the galleries and artisan studios that have established the town as Namibia's creative capital. Evening: sunset at the old jetty platform, followed by a final seafood dinner at a harbour-side restaurant.
Swakopmund
Overnight—
MealsBreakfast, Dinner
06
Day 6 · B
Swakopmund to Windhoek – Moon Landscape & Farewell (~365 km)
A final breakfast by the sea — coffee with a view of the Atlantic fog rolling in off the cold Benguela Current — then load the vehicle for the return journey to Windhoek inland. The route east on the B2 passes first through the extraordinary Moon Landscape: a 45-km stretch of ancient volcanic rock eroded by the Swakop River into a surreal series of ridges, gullies, and moonlike plains — utterly unlike anything else in Namibia and frequently used as a backdrop for TV commercials, sci-fi films, and car shoots. Stop at the Welwitschia Plains interpretive site to see the park's most famous resident: Welwitschia mirabilis, the world's most bizarre plant — a species so unique it forms its own botanical order, consisting of just two giant leaves that grow continuously for 1,000–2,000 years, twisting and splitting into a shredded mat over a metre high. Individual welwitschia plants on these plains have been carbon-dated at over 1,500 years old. Continue through the Swakop River valley and up the Khomas Hochland Pass to Windhoek, arriving in the capital by early afternoon with time for airport departures. Your guide assists with luggage and signs off on six days of outstanding Namibian contrasts: from Africa's finest waterhole wildlife to the world's most unique coastal desert town.
