Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020

Which car to rent in NAmibia?

Country forums / Africa / Namibia

Hallo,

I will drive in January from Joburg to Capetown via Upington- Fish river- Luderitz- Sossuvlei - Keetmanshoop and down to Capetown so only tarmac road in ZA but non tarmac road in Namibia ( around fish river an dthen from Aus- Hemrinhausen, solitaire and to maltahoehe)

We are 2 people so we do not need a big car but a car to pass on non tar road even if we wil drive slowly and cool
renting the car in JNB airport, which car would you advice for such a trip
thx for advice
o

You can rent a normal sedan typ car for that, we saw a lot of them in Namibia, if you can find one with a little more ground clearance it will be better, if not it's ok, people did almost 4000 km with a Hyundai i20 and had no problems.

1

If you can afford it, consider a 4w drive car. It could be more comfortable. And January is in the midst of raining season in Namibia.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/youngadventure/sets/72157625578378522/

2

The gravel can be really hard on the thinner rubber that most sedans carry. Make sure you carry an extra spare. We had new and nearly new tires on our camper but even so had 4 flats over 3 months.

3

Do you know a good company to rent a car in Windhoek?

4

We rented from Bobo who are based in South Africa as we did a loop from Joburg through Botswana, Namibia and back to South Africa. Don't know about Namibia.

Our road reports and photos are posted on our site: http://www.lifewellspent.com

5

We were in Namibia last February and visited Fish River Canyon. I must say, our only regret was that we did not rent a 4x4. Some of the roads in towards our lodge (Canon Lodge) were very desert-like and we had to drive very fast to keep from sinking into the sand. But the biggest disappointment was when we got to Fish River Canyon... we could not go beyond the general parking zone, could not explore the canyon at all... so, my recommendation would be to rent a 4x4, if you want to see Namibia properly. We are headed back in about 2 weeks and will definitely rent something more than a sedan.

6