Family-self drive in early August

Hello,

Our family of five plans a few weeks in Namibia in early July.

We have a few questions:
We hope to rent one of those camper vans with 2 tents and cooking gear. Do they have 5 seat belts?

Do we need to book camping sites in Etosha in advance?

Do you have suggestions for other places to stay on a tour around Windhoek, Etosha?
Finally, we want to go one-way between Swakopmund and Windhoek at the end of the trip. For 5 people, can we rent a car one way?

Thanks!

You may be able to request a 2nd tent when you book your car. One rooftop tent is standard. Check what they have as standard and as optional. (We rented just the car- no GPS, tent, fridge.)If not, bring a 2nd one. Request a dual-cab and it will have 5 seats (and belts.)
one-way rental will have a price. ask. swakop shouldnt be much.
other places? there are so many! palmwag comes to mind, as does the winery if that's your thing....but so do many places we couldn't fit into 6 weeks.

You can rent a 4wd with 2 roof tents, no problem at all. I'm not sure about the 5 seat belts and it might also depend on what kind of vehicle you rent, so its better to make sure with the rental company before booking.

I would book etosha in advance, the 3 camps (especially okaukuejo) are very popular.

Do i understan correctly, you will start in windhoek and finish your journey in swakopmund? One-way rentals are possible, but as the company will have to drive the vehicle back to windhoek, the charge for it will not be cheap. How do get from swakopmund mto your next destination ? Unless you stay there or travel to south africa overland, you would travel back to windhoek anyway.

I would definitely include sossusvlei, for the main highlight in nambia (apart from etosha).

I also don't understand your planing, you want to rent a car with 2 roof top tents, ok, possible, then you go to Etosha and then what? Do you drive back to WDH to drop the car off, then how do you get to Swakopmund?

A pretty standart self drive route is WDH - (Waterberg)- Etosha - Khorixas (to see petrified forrest and Twyfelfontein) - Swakopmund - Sossusvlei - WDH, in case you don't have enough time left you can always go from Swakop back to WDH, in case you want to stay in a guesthouse in Swakop most if not all offer safe parking for the car.

Thanks for your quick comments and my apologies for the confusion. We arrive in Windhoek and then have about 6 days to travel in a camper van to Etosha and around. Then we go to Swakopmund for a 10 day volunteer program. At the end of the program, we return to Swakop and then will go directly back to Windhoek to fly to Joburg for the rest of the holiday in South Africa. So we plan to camp for a week, ending in Swakop and then 10 days later we have to get ourselves to Windhoek. I know there are buses and such, but by the time we buy 5 seats, we wondered if it might be cheaper to rent a 2WD one way for that last trip.

We suspect that we are not going to make it to Sossusvlei on this trip - just not enough time!

Thanks for clearing up the confusion ;-)

What you suggest is doable (and yes, with 6 days including sossusvlei is indeed not a good idea).
That means you would actually do 2 one way rentals, one with the camper with 2 rooftents, and the second one with the normal car, so 2 one way rentals fee.
It might be actually cheaper to do one rental (camper) for the whole time you are in namibia, and leave it in a safe parking place during your volunteer stay. So definitely compare this to the cost of doing two one way rentals.

Between etosha and swakopmund you could include 1 or 2 nights in the twyfelfontein area. Or okonjima game reserve btw windhoek and etosha. The africat foundation is run by the game reserve and they protect and rehabilitate cheetahs and leopards, and you can see those amazing animals.

In that case I would hire a camper from a local company in WDH and return it there, for the trip to Swakop a normal sedan should do, if you take the B2 you have tar all the way, that way you might be able to visit the seals at cape cross, the salt road is very good to drive.

Otherwise just take the Intercape http://www.namibian.org/travel/namibia/intercape.html

It would be easier to get the flight out of Walvis Bay.

Hello! Me and 3 friends are also going to Namibia beggining of August for 2 weeks. We'd love to rent a similar camper, but we are a bit afraid it will get to cold, not only for sleeping in the tent, but after sunset, while we are having dinner and hanging around before going to bed. What do you think?! Cheers

August is deepest winter in Namibia it can get below 0°C at night, after sunset it will get cold.

Even if you stay in lodges, most of them don't have central heating or any heating at all in the rooms, you get a bed bottle to help you, inside where you have dinner there often is a fire burning, grilling the part of your body which is turned to it, not too much help heating the whole room.

Lots of people still do camp in Namibia during August with the right cloth and a very good sleeping bag, the camp fire will keep you warm, I would plan to have dinner shortly before sunset so you can cuddle up to the fire after that, check with the camp site when they heat up the donkey so you can have a hot shower.

In Windhoek you're around 1675 m above sea level, Swakopmund was pretty cold in May but then the sea might even that out during winter, so bring hats, scarfes, fleece or wool cloth, ski underwear and you should be fine, during the day it will be warm enough.