Travel Information - Namibia

Accommodation establishments in Namibia cater for a variety of budgets. The upper market and budget sections of the market are well covered. At present the middle market is not as well covered, but with a bit of searching, compromising and good planning this can be overcome.

Establishments in Namibia can be loosely grouped into three categories

• Private Accommodation Establishments in Namibia
• Namibia Wildlife Resorts (partially government owned, all accommodation in the national parks)
• Namibian Community Tourism

Private establishments include hotels, pensions (smaller private hotels), game lodges, guest houses, bed and breakfasts and backpacker hostels. As with all private enterprise some establishments offer excellent value for money and others not.

National Resorts offer either bungalows, chalets or camping. These are always of a reasonable standard but some are better than others.

Community tourism ventures are normally campsites, but occasionally they offers some sort of traditional hut or homestead. Most of these resorts offer very basic facilities, so do not expect flushing toilets or hot water (even if advertised).

If you're looking to plan a particular sort of trip and want advice on where to stay have a look at our list of recommended Namibian accommodation establishments, but as this list is far from complete, if you're looking for anything particular please contact us.

Alcohol is only available at licensed bottle stores, bars or restaurants in Namibia. Supermarkets are now allowed to sell beer & wine but not spirits. Alcohol can only be sold until 5pm on weekdays, 1pm on Saturdays and sales are not permitted on Sunday, so make sure you stock up for the weekend.

The larger towns have thriving shebeens (unlicensed drinking places), these are usually found in the poorer areas or townships, alcohol is nearly always available here but it is best if you visit with a local.

The Beer
As all Namibians are passionate about their Beer it is readily available everywhere, often you can buy beer in places that do not have supermarkets or petrol stations (sometimes you can buy beer in petrol stations). Namibian Breweries brew several beers, Windhoek Lager, Tafel Lager, Windhoek Export, Windhoek Special (all Lagers), Windhoek Light (a light beer) and Das (a Pilsner). South African beers are widely available, but ask any Namibian (and many South Africans) and they'll tell you South African beer is not nearly as good as our own. Cold beer and wine is available at nearly all campsites in Namibia. An excellent way to learn more about the fascinating subject of beer, it is one of our favourite subjects, is by joining one of the Brewery Tours.

Wine

Although South Africans are not that good at making beer they produce pretty good wine, which is available in restaurants and bottle stores throughout the country. Omaruru is the only place in Namibia that produces wine, as yet this is not widely available.

Spirits & Liqueurs

Namibia does not produce many spirits, but bars and bottle stores all over the country have fairly good stocks of imported liquor. Particular favourites are brandy (normally mixed with coke), amarula (a sweet South African liqueur that tastes something like Baileys) and schnapps

As most of Namibia is covered by desert it is unsurprising that the climate is exactly what you would expect from a desert country. Daytime temperatures are hot (extremely hot in summer) and nights are cold, some areas frequently go below freezing in winter.

Rainfall is sparse with the northeastern areas of Namibia getting the most rain (this area is tropical) and rainfall decreasing as you travel south and westwards. The Namib desert runs along the coast line and rain in this area is rare. The raining season in central Namibia starts in January and runs until the middle of April, further north the rains begin earlier and as you travel south the season becomes shorter. Its fairly safe to say that if you travel in the winter months you will hardly see a cloud, except for the deep south were occasional (once every couple of years) winter rains do occur.

Namibia's coast is different; it only ever gets really hot in winter (when the east wind blows), almost never rains, and is frequently blanketed by fog.

Only a few of Namibia's cultural events are open to outsiders. These include Independence day on the 21 March, which is probably the most important day on most Namibian's calendar. Independence festivities occur in every village, town and city and will often include speeches by members of parliament, singing and dancing.

Maherero Day occurs in Okahandja on the weekend closest to the 26th of August. Thousands of Herero people gather in traditional dress for a memorial service to their chiefs, this is a spectacular and fun occasion. If you are going to be in Namibia around this time its worth visiting this festival, tours are often arranged from Windhoek.

Namibia also has several German style beer festivals the most notable being Octoberfest in late October.

If you want to experience more of Namibia's culture it is probably worth visiting one of the community tourism endeavours.

Namibia uses the Namibian Dollar (N$) this is linked on a one to one exchange with the South African Rand. The Rand is legal tender in Namibia. But the N$ can not be used in South Africa. N$ can also be changed to Rand without commission in Namibia, but the same transaction in South Africa will attract a fairly hefty commission (about 25%).

If you are wishing to purchase currency before arriving in Namibia it is easiest to buy Rand as the Namibian Dollar is seldom available in banks outside of Namibia.

To summarize visit Namibia with Rand in your pocket, and make sure you exchange any N$ you have back to Rand before you leave the country.

Credit cards are accepted at most supermarkets, restaurants and accommodation establishments in urban Namibia (Visa and Mastercard are most commonly accepted) but outlets in rural areas are more likely to only accept cash payment.

Credit cards can NOT be used to buy petrol.

Banks can exchange travellers cheques into N$ but this will attract commission, only a few establishments accept travellers cheque, so its best to cash some travellers cheques whenever you find a bank.

Banks are open from 9am-3.30pm on weekdays and from 9am-11am on Saturdays.

Namibians are not particularly adventurous when it comes to their food; meat is pretty much the standard. This often comes served with a porridge like mixture called mahango or pap (or something else depending on where you are). In restaurants steak and chips is nearly always the Namibian choice.

Vegetables are not popular amongst the majority of Namibians, and are viewed as the poison of the cultural imperialists.

This said things are changing and many restaurants in Namibia offer a wider range of foodstuffs and some even cater for vegetarians. Vegetarians should be prepared for a lot of questioning about their particular eating disorder and can also expect little pieces of bacon or ham in their salad, but remember this is only your chef trying to be kind.

The favourite way of preparing meat in Namibia is the braai (barbecue) and this ritual is obeyed in the majority of households on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, the braai is a social occasion and only two things are guaranteed firstly eating will take place much later than anticipated and secondly there will be beer!!!

For more info have a look at our page on Malaria & other health issues

The best newspaper in Namibia is definitely the English language paper, The Namibian. It is published on weekdays and covers both local and regional news, although travellers may find its international coverage a bit skimpy.

The Observer is published on weekends and is worth a read if you're into the more sordid details of Namibian society, other dailys include the Afrikaans, Republikein, and German, Allgemeine Zeitung

International and South African papers are available at larger newsagents, the CNA in Windhoek's Kalahari Sands shopping centre is a good place to look.

All major centres have a post office which is open during normal bossiness hours. Mailing from Namibia is fairly reliable, but be warned that surface mail is very slow.

Mail to Namibia is unpredictable and an airmail letter from Europe can take anything from three days to three months. As Namibia does not have a delivery service your address should always contain a post box number. Letters that are incorrectly addressed and only contain a street address will only arrive if the post office can trace the name on the letter to a post box, this can take months.

The best place for post restant is the main post office in Windhoek, mail is sorted alphabetically, when collecting mail ensure the clerk looks under your first name, surname and even under M (for Mr or Ms - it happen).

Namibia has particularly beautiful stamps, these are available at the philatelic section of the main post office in Windhoek.

The national broadcaster is called the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation, and they operate the only Namibian Television channel as well as several local language radio stations.

The good news for TV addicts is that the South African M-Net channels are widely available, the terrestrial M-Net channels include movies, sitcoms and a dedicate sport channel. Satellite TV is becoming increasingly common. Sports fans need not worry as sport is a religion in Namibia and television coverage of any major sporting event (even if it is American) is pretty much guaranteed.

There are a few private radio stations, most are only available in Windhoek, the best of these is probably Radio Wave which plays 'almost' current music.

Radio reception is not available once you travel any distance from a town.

Namibia does not have many local crafts. The wood carving markets at Okahandja should provide a few useful souvenirs, the carved giraffes are particularly popular. Other notable crafts include the woven grass baskets, wooden salad bowls, and wire ornaments.

Namibia is well known for its diamonds and semi precious stones, and these can provide a particularly good souvenir (and excellent investment). Peters Gems on Stubel St in Windhoek is a good place to start looking. DO NOT buy illegal diamonds, chances are you will either be ripped off or arrested. Police entrapment is not illegal and is fairly common.

Namibian artists of note include Tony Pupkewitz (photography), Susan Mitchinson (block prints) and a host of lino printers the most popular of whom is the late John Muafangejo.

The phone system in Namibia is reasonable, and public phones are available at all post offices. The phones are either card or coin operated, but phone cards are only available inside the post office.

Phoning internationally from Namibia is expensive, and it is normally cheaper to get people to phone you back. The international dialling code for Namibia is 264. To dial out from Namibia the international access code is 00.

Cell phones have a limited radius and only work within a few kilometers radius of towns.

The Namibian telephone directory includes the countries yellow pages (the yellow section at the back) and a separate section for government departments (the green section about a third of the way through). Towns are listed alphabetically starting with W for Windhoek but then resuming a more logical order.

Theft is not a major problem in Namibia, be careful in major centres and never leave anything in an unattended vehicle in any city. Pick pocketing occurs in the towns and cities but if you exercise some caution and do not carry huge day packs or camera bags around with you the risk is minimised.

Muggings, although becoming more common, almost never include violence, do not resist if anyone points a knife at you (unless you have that black belt in karate). If you're mugged at gun point consider yourself special as this is almost unheard of.

Trust local advice, and don't be afraid to ask people at your accommodation establishment, but it is worth remembering that most southern Africans are rather paranoid when it comes to crime.

Namibia has abundant wildlife; the best place to see big game is Etosha National Park. You can expect to see Elephant, Rhino, Lion, Giraffe and a myriad of buck species. Cheetah and leopard are common but are easiest seen in specialized sanctuaries.

Driving at night is not advised in Namibia as some of the large buck species, notably Kudu, are active and are attracted towards bright lights, which results in very messy accidents. Namibian wildlife

Normal business hours are from 8am-1pm and 2-5pm. Nearly all offices take an hour lunch break. Shops are only open on Saturday mornings (8am-1pm) and everything closes on Saturday afternoon and Sunday. Larger supermarkets are open all day on Saturdays and have Sunday opening times (often 9am-1pm and 36pm)

Most petrol stations on the main roads offer 24 hour service.