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Namibia Road Trip

Almost every tourist will want to take a road trip through Namibia, and almost everyone will start in Windhoek. We had six days to explore this vast land and decided to bypass Etoshi, a popular national park. This was mostly due to the fact that we have been on countless safaris after living in Kenya for so long. If you want to see some animals, though, do consider visiting Etoshi in the north.

Another popular route to take is along the Skeleton Coast heading north from Swakopmund. It’s here that you can see numerous shipwrecks as the coastline is deceptively dangerous. This is a park, however, and you will need to pay an entrance fee and exit by sundown. We decided not to take this route as our friends who live in Namibia said it wasn’t worth the drive – and it is a long drive north!

Ultimately, we decided to stick to the south, as we wanted to see something really different. Our route took us from Windhoek to Swakopmund (3.5 hour drive), a nice little coastal town. From there we drove 7 hours south to Sossussvlei where we camped for two nights. We traveled another 7 hours from Sossussvlei to Lüderitz, then returned to Windhoek (8 hour drive). Overall, we wished we had one more day in Swakopmund, and one more day in Lüderitz to spend more time in Kolmanskop. The driving was tough as Namibia is a huge country. We would also look into flying from some points to others, although during a pandemic it is a bit tough to rely on domestic flights.

Renting A Car

We rented our 4×4 with a roof tent through Asco, a highly respected car rental service in Windhoek. They really take their cars and clients seriously. We were shown how to use every item in the car, how to set up and take down the tent, and then had to watch a video on car safety and driving in Namibia before signing the contract and taking the car on our trip.

The downside is that the cars are equipped with black boxes. Basically, you can’t go any faster than the posted speed limit because the box will scream at you until you slow down. There were a few times where we were on a tarred road and it acted like we were on a gravel road and made us drive slower than we could have. It’s a little annoying when you have vast distances to drive, but it is definitely better to be safe than sorry, especially if you aren’t used to driving on gravel or sand.

Manual vs. Automatic

If you can’t drive manual, you may be hard pressed to find an automatic car. The first time we looked into visiting Namibia, we looked around for automatics, but they were extremely rare. You would need to book far in advance to make sure you had a car available. If you can drive manual you should be fine renting a car anywhere. 

We honestly found manual to be the better choice, especially for sand driving. Although many people say it’s easy to figure out manual on your own and to just wing it as the roads are so long and empty in Namibia, it’s better to have some lessons beforehand to be confident. The roads are not all nice roads, and you might find yourself in a sticky situation if you can’t figure out your gears. Our car rental company had us drive around the lot a bit just to check if we knew what we were doing!

Driving In Namibia

The roads are few and far between, but the maps are very accurate. We used paper maps and Google Maps for our routes. Google Maps gave us better time estimates, while the paper maps had more detail. Be aware that you will not likely have good phone coverage in most parts of the country, so load up your maps beforehand.

We saw the famous Namibian train from the car alongside the road.

The B roads are excellent, tarmac roads. They are often only two lanes, with occasional passing lanes on curves or hills. The speed limit here is 120kph. C roads are mostly flat, gravel roads, with some tarmac. The speed limit is 80kph. D and F roads are the worst roads, and are often just two tracks. The speed limit here is 60kph or less. In towns the speed limit is 60kph.

It is also the law that you must have your lights on at all times. When we forgot to turn our lights on, we would get polite flashes from oncoming cars to remind us!

We encountered very few police road blocks and were often waved through without stopping. Once they checked our insurance sticker but didn’t bother to look at our licenses. It’s likely that tourists have a bit of privilege here.

Drivers are very safe here and obey all driving laws and lights. We didn’t encounter any crazy driving at all.

One major thing to be aware of is that Namibians drive on the left side of the road. It can be a bit of an adjustment if you are used to driving on the right. On most C roads, however, you won’t see anyone for miles and so you can drive wherever you feel like it.

Gas Stations

Every town on the map has a gas station. Our car had two gas tanks and we were never in any danger of getting low on fuel. It is a good idea to always have an extra source of fuel on you anyway, as it would be very difficult to get to a gas station after running out of fuel 60 kilometers from the nearest town. Every gas station we visited took payment only in cash.

Bathroom Breaks

There are no rest stops in Namibia. There are many little picnic tables set up along the roads that you can find in the most random places, but there are no actual bathrooms. We suggest buying a roll or two of toilet paper and stopping whenever you feel like it for a pee break. There are so few cars and so few people and buildings that it really isn’t an issue at all. Just please do not leave your used toilet paper on the side of the road and take it with you!

You could get views like this when you stop for a pee break.

Water

The biggest surprise to us was that the water is safe to drink from the tap in Namibia. We found the taste a bit “earthy” and only drank from the tap in larger towns. Depending on how you feel, water is also widely available in stores and cheap to buy. We bought several large containers which we were grateful for during our long, hot road trip through Namibia.

We don’t suggest collecting the rainwater, but it was amazing to experience a desert storm in Namibia.

Road Trip Advice

If we were to do a road trip through Namibia again, we would likely follow the same route that we did before, but with more stops along the way. Driving for 7-8 hours straight can be very tiring. It is definitely possible to fit everything into a one-week trip, but for a more enjoyable and relaxing vacation it’s probably best to take a little more time sightseeing versus driving.