We are looking at visiting Namibia and Botswana next spring and would appreciate your advice on where to stay and what the absolute must do adventures are. In 2007, we switched to visit Zambia and Sou
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Cat:Middle East and AfricaForum:0EEAA5DA
Cat:Middle East and AfricaForum:0EEAA5DADiscussion:63251bb0-e2b5-41a8-995b-9369e05ed2b6
We are looking at visiting Namibia and Botswana next spring and would appreciate your advice on where to stay and what the absolute must do adventures are. In 2007, we switched to visit Zambia and South Africa after receiving great advice from you. We really enjoyed walking safaris, hiking, tiger fishing, a little scared to do canoeing in great populations of hippos after having one go under our canoe but don't mind being in a boat if it's safer. We enjoyed the ultra light ride over Vic Falls so the hot air balloon trip sounds fun (although can someone recommend a provider other than the one Robin dealt with on her trip).
The one thing we said we would do this time is tack on a few days on a beach relaxing and recouperating after a pretty intense safari schedule. We have two and a half weeks on the ground in Africa so we really must choose wisely. Could you please give us suggestions for the camps - we can rough a few days in each place but its nice to have a nicer place at least for a few days in each location.
Also, can you please advise where we can go for a few restful beach days or is the weather too iffy in May? Is May the best time to visit for animal viewing, weather, etc.? We used Island Safari to book our last trip, are there others that you recommend that specialize in Botswana & Namibia?
Are you doing this on your own or are you starting with a tour? We did a safari that started in South Africa only as a starting point, but immediately went to Namibia and Botswana after it. I think I have a trip report under Namibia, but if I don't you can find the day by day adventures in my blog at www.budgetnomad.blogspot.com. It is searchable or go to the archives for December 2006.
The whole experience was amazing. Namibia has some great safari parks, but Botswana's is fantastic. Though Botswana charges over $100 a day per person for entry. They try to limit it for the safety and welfare of the animals.
In Namibia, we did a tour of the orange dune mountains with a guide. The scenery is so incredibly beautiful.
Sorry for being so vague, but it is all in the blog and my time is short at the moment. We did not do any beaches, so I cannot tell you about those, but the parks were a life-changing experience for sure.
Thank you for the input Dr. James and I look forward to reading your report/blog. I have been checking on Namibia and from everything I have heard (Safari Club Intl, etc) - it's quite safe and we will probably rent a car and go with a guide maybe 3 or 4 days, and explore on our own the rest of the time, especially the park in the north - Etosha (sp) and the Caprivi Strip - over to Victoria Falls. For the person who opened this blog, the Namibia Tourist Agency sends out very good info.
My friends went on a horseback Safari in Botswana, and just loved it. Galloping between herds of spooked Giraffes and Zebras is quite an experience, as well as swimming in a river while holding onto the horses tails, etc. Apparently the Crocs were takikng a tea break.
Thanks again ahead of time for the additional information.
A couple of years ago we did 3 weeks and 8 safari lodges in Namibia on a self-drive tour arranged by Wilderness Safaris. I cannot recommend them highly enough. Although driving yourself is unusual ("95% of Americans fly between lodges here," was a refrain we often heard) it is not difficult in the dry season and offers an unusual insight into the country and its people. Though almost all unpaved, the road network is good and well-marked. A 4WD vehicle is highly recommended (if just for its tougher tires) and a tire gauge should be your first buy. We, too, took a mid-tour break in the attractive beach town of Swakopmund and recommend that for a change of pace. We were pleased with the small beachfront Beach Lodge there. Namibia is wonderful for its game lodges. They are all relatively small with thoroughly professional staffs, and game is abundant. You will almost always find yourself on game drives with only one other couple, and you'll probably never see another game vehicle while out. Driving yourself in Etosha National Park is easy and highly enjoyable. You'll have a great time.
My travel to these countries was on a small-group tour, so I cannot recommend specifics for lodges and guides. IMHO the sand dunes at Sossusvlei are a must. As it is a national park, no adventure activities are allowed on the dunes. In Swapkomund, adventure outfitters arrange activities (sand surfing, quad biking etc.) on nearby dunes. As already mentioned, Etosha in Namibia has great wildlife viewing. My favorite wildlife park in Southern Africa was Chobe in Botswana - smaller with more varied terrain than other wildlife parks.
I stayed in the Chobe Game Lodge in Chobe. It was fantastic. The plus of staying here is that it is the only lodge inside the park, so you don't have to leave as soon as other people, who have to leave the park at dark. Plus, my best memory was opening the door one night and just listening to the sounds of the wild outside the door. It was hair-raising. Personally, I would have a guide. We would literally be very close to animals and not even see them. Even giraffes were hard to spot with my untrained eyes, plus guides let each other know when they spot lions, etc.
At that time, they had an office in Houston. We arranged a stay at Sabi Sabi in South Africa and we stayed in tent lodges in Botswana. It was fantastic!!!! Our itinerary was a bit unusual in that we would arrive at the lodge, stay two full days and nights, and depart on the next day. Most tourists hit a lodge for only two nights, but, it is not enough to really really understand what you are seeing. South Africa? Drink the water!!!! Botswana? The camps used bottled water to drink but no problems with tooth brushing. Zimbabwe is coming apart - I would not be comfortable going there. If there is any way you can get to the Skeleton Coast in Namibia by all means, Go!!! Here is a Wikipedia explanation of that area:
Wilderness Safaris are incredible. They are spot on from an operations stand point and they limit the number of people in their jeeps. The most people my husband and I ever had with us were another couple. This is important if you're shooting with big camera equipment and of course just for comfort. They offer different levels of camps all the way up to ultra luxe. www.wilderness-safaris.com
We did an 8 day self-drive in Namibia in Sept 2005. It is one of our best trips. We used Cardboard Box Travel Shop to help us plan our trip. They were great. We wanted a mid-budget trip since we were also spending 3 weeks in Western Cape of South Africa viewing wildflowers. We arrived about 1pm in Windhoek from Cape Town and picked up our car from Hertz. It was a Toyota Corolla. I normally drive a Honda Civic and I'm used to small cars. It did fine on the dirt roads. You will be driving on dirt most of the time. Other than the main highway near Windhoek, most of the roads are well graded but dusty dirt road. We did not need 4wheel drive on the roads we traveled. The speed limit is about 80km on the dirt which is about the most you will want to go. We went for hours without seeing anyone on some of the roads. You also do not want to drive at night because of animals on the road. I drive on dirt logging roads here in the Pacific Northwest of the US and found the dirt roads in Namibia to be in excellent condition and easy to drive.
The first day we drove as far as Waterburg National Park. The next day we drove on to Etosha for 2 nights in Halali. We were able to see elephants, zebras and black rhinos at the camp waterhole at night. During the day, we drove to the different waterholes and saw many more animals. We had extremely good luck at around noon at Okondeka. We loved driving around looking for animals. We saw mostly hoofed animals, elephants, giraffs and oa couple of lions sleeping the afternoon away.
After Etosha, we drove towards the coast and stayed one night at Erongo and then one night at Swakopmund. Erongo is a nice tent camp and good place on the way to or from the coast. We didn't do anything at the beach but explore Swakopmund. One thing to be aware is the Benguela current goes up along the western coast of SW Africa bringing cold water from Antarctica. It is too cold to swim even in Namibia. We were there in September and it was also definitely too cold up the western coast of South Africa.
After Swakopmund, it was a long drive to Sesreim where we stayed two nights at the Desert Homestead. It was 6 hours across the Namib desert but beautiful. We are into plants so we stopped to see the Welwitschia along the way. The Desert Homestead had just opened and we liked staying in the chalets. It would be great place to stay if you ride horses. But it is about 45-1 hour from the Desert Homestead to the gate to Sossusvlei. We got up early to get to the gate by 7pm. We drove to Dune 45 and climbed up the dune for a view of the valley. You have to get there early to get the best light on the dunes. It is amazing how different they look at 7am versus noon. We did not go up to Dead Vlei. The road in Sossusvlei was probably the worst one we were on. It had a lot of pot holes.
We returned for one last night in Windhoek before returning home to the US.
We used Wilderness Safaris as well and like the others I can't recommend them highly enough. They handled 3 transfers through the Johannesburg airport for us including swapping and storing suitcases etc. We self drove around South Africa from Port Elizabeth to Capetown and then went on a Wilderness Safari expedition in Botswana. The expedition was one of their lower priced products where we didn't stay in their more famous camps, but in permanent tent camps. It certainly gives you more of a feel of being in the wild. We had 5 people in our group and visited 3 areas in Northern Botswana. We went in November of 2008 which had fewer tourists, but also fewer animals. There had been some rain but the heat wasn't that bad and the rain didn't hamper us at all. Our driver/guide etc. was incredible at tracking and finding animals. That's what you come for and it was great. I suggest you investigate them. For some reason our particular group was able to fly instead of drive more than planned, perhaps had space on planes with it being a low season. In addition our last tented camp was replaced with a classic camp. It was great after 6 days of more basic camping. I'm not a gung ho outdoors woman, but I'm still glad we had the smaller group and camp experience. At the last camp there were 18 guests and it felt huge. Craig Beal at Travel Beyond helped us decide on what to do and made all the arrangements for us. He is not a budget agent, but helped us maximize the experience on our budet. I highly recommend him.
Thanks everyone, after much thought of running running running, we decided to do just Namibia and took your advise on looking at Wilderness Safari's using Africa Adventure Company who was recommended by WS. Here's the draft itinerary:
1 night Windhoek - Olive Grove Guesthouse 3 nts Sossusvlei - either Kulala Desert Lodge or ?? 3 nights Ongave - Ongava Tented Camp or Lodge 3 nts Skeleton Cost Camp 4 nts Serra Cafema
Your thoughts? When we tried to add in Bots & the beach we were literally running from place to place and we wanted to be able to enjoy each place. Is there something we missed that's a must see, we have a day or two extra we could add (originally we looked at the rhino expedition but it took 8 days and meant we weren't going to go to 1 or 2 of the other places on our list. Thanks so much for your help.
