Arrival at Windhoek International Airport (no later than 14h00). Meet with your English-speaking pilot and our representative who will hand over your travel documents and discuss the itinerary with you, giving you a first glimpse of what you may expect during your visit. Depart on your private flight to the private Ongava Reserve situated on the border of Etosha National Park. In the late afternoon enjoy a guided, non-private sunset game drive on the lodge's game reserve.
Arrival at Windhoek International Airport must be no later than 14h00. For flights that pass via Johannesburg, we strongly recommend that you change money at Johannesburg Airport (time permitting) to avoid spending that time on arrival in Namibia. The rand is accepted everywhere in Namibia at the same rate as the local currency (i.e. the Namibian dollar). We recommend travellers bring cash in EURO or USD in small denominations in case you cannot withdraw money immediately upon your arrival in Namibia, to be able to cover the first expenses on the spot.
Visa is the most accepted card in Namibia. MasterCard can be accepted by certain distributors and sales terminals, but transactions are sometimes declined. American Express cards are not (or extremely rarely) accepted in Namibia. We recommend that you take a credit card and not only a debit card.
A passport valid for 6 months after the return date is required. Please note that a minimum of 3 blank pages is compulsory (2 of which must be side by side when the passport is open). Customs in the country of departure may refuse passengers access to the flight if these conditions are not met. Each client is solely responsible for checking the validity and conditions of their passport according to their nationality and the formalities in force in the country to which they are travelling.
The cooler morning time is when you have the most chance of encountering lions, leopards, or other predators. An early wake-up allows for a departure just before sunrise for a half-day guided safari in the park with a 4x4 vehicle from the lodge. Etosha offers one of the world's most beautiful wildlife encounters. In the afternoon enjoy another safari drive on Ongava’s private reserve.
Etosha National Park, is located in the northwest of Namibia and is the largest park in Namibia. It is one of the country's main attractions, along with the Namib Desert. You can see a wide variety of wildlife, offering one of the world's most beautiful wildlife spectacles. It covers more than 20,000 km², it is home to 114 species of mammals, 340 species of birds of which about a third are migratory and 110 species of reptiles. The fauna is attracted by perennial water sources as well as man-made watering holes. During the dry season, their gathering around these areas provides good photographic opportunities. The vegetation is varied: from dense bush to wide open plains, it attracts an exceptional diversity of wildlife and provides a variety of different landscapes.
In the morning you will meet your safari guide who will take you for another early morning game drive in Etosha Park. No two game drives are the same; all waterholes hold new surprises and attract different wildlife that you may not have seen previously. The room must be vacated before departure on safari. After the safari and lunch, you fly to the Damaraland. A guide from your Lodge will be waiting for you at the airstrip and transfer you in a closed game drive vehicle to the lodge. The transfer of about 1h30 hours allows a first discovery of the area.
The Palmwag concession is distinguished in Namibia by its vast expanses covered with a layer of almost identical-sized reddish stones. It is home to black rhinos, giraffes, desert elephants and mountain zebras. It's also the largest population of predators outside the national park, including leopards, lions, cheetahs and hyenas. It's important to note that there are no fences in the concession: game and predators live here in total freedom in an open and wild space.
Today you explore this wilderness area through the activities offered by the lodge:
- Game drives
- Guided walks
- Rhino tracking on foot
After breakfast, a scenic transfer of about 1h30 to the airstrip. You will fly via Swakopmund into the heart of the Namib Desert, the seas of sand, also declared a UNESCO World Heritage site. On the way discover the Skeleton Coast from the skies and fly over the well-known seal colony of Cape Cross, Sandwich Harbour and Conception Bay, some abandoned diamond mines and the well-known dunes of Sossusvlei. Check in at your lodge and in the late afternoon depart on a sunset nature drive.
A short distance southeast of the Sossusvlei dunes lies the country's largest private game reserve: the NamibRand Reserve. Covering more than 180,000 hectares and including some of the most beautiful scenery in the Namib Desert, this reserve shares a 100 km border with the Namib-Naukluft Park to the west and borders the Nubib Mountains to the east. The main attraction of the reserve is the diversity of its landscapes. The fauna includes oryx, springboks, zebras and spotted hyenas. The rocky areas are home to baboons, kudu and leopards. Birds are varied, and the place is also excellent for observing smaller animals, such as lizards, beetles and spiders.
The best time to visit this magical place is at sunrise, and you depart from the lodge about 45 minutes before sunrise to be on time to enter as soon as it opens after sunrise with the guide and 4x4 vehicle. Enjoy the spectacular sight of some of the highest dunes in the world and the morning colours of the Namib Desert. Before returning to your lodge, visit the Sesriem Canyon, a natural gorge carved millions of years ago by the once mighty Tsauchab River.
Sossusvlei was previously inaccessible because it was part of the forbidden diamond zone. Sossusvlei was opened to the public in 1977. The Namib Desert's splendour is concentrated in this place—a protected park with a breathtaking sea of dunes. Giant dunes are the highest in the world, some of them reaching 300m in height. Dunes as far as the eye can see, wild and romantic. Colourful dunes. All the colours, the ochres, and mauves are revealed according to the course of the sun, from pink to purple, from pale orange to bright red, and from apricot to blood red.
Today you explore the area of the reserve through the activities offered by the lodge:
- Morning and afternoon scenic drives in the striking NamibRand Nature Reserve
- Nature walks
- Skybeds experience and star gazing
- Quad biking
- Horse riding (at an extra cost)
- Scenic helicopter flights (at an extra cost)
- Spa treatments (at an extra cost)
Before departing back to Windhoek why not spoil yourself with a hot air balloon or helicopter flight over the desert just after sunrise (optional activity at an additional cost). You will fly back through an ever-changing landscape until you reach Windhoek, the capital in the centre of the country. You will be taken for a short visit of the city and shopping before you are transferred to the lodge located outside of Windhoek city. In the late afternoon, arrive at your lodge.
Full day to enjoy the magnificent views stretching to the distant hills of the Khomas Hochland plateau and the activities (included) of the Zannier Reserve.
Windhoek is the capital of the Republic of Namibia since its independence in 1990. Between modernity and colonial heritage, you can discover through the streets a mix of Germanic, Namibian and English architecture. We advise you to go to the Alte Feste, which is the old fort, but also the Lutheran church, Christuskirche located in the heart of a roundabout. The city is incomparable to other European cities but offers a variety of restaurants, shopping centres and entertainment venues.
Possibility of a final morning game drive on the lodge's private reserve (included). After breakfast, take a shared road transfer to Windhoek International Airport for your international flight back home.
End of tour.
• Lunch.
