Schoeman's Skeleton Coast Safaris: Our full report

Skeleton Coast Safaris is a small, family-run operation that has organized trips here for 20 years.

They take up to eight passengers, using light aircraft to hop between remote beaches and private airstrips.

Each trip is usually escorted by one of the Schoeman family, who acts as pilot, driver and expert guide. You spend every night in a different area, sleeping in dome tents at tiny permanent camps – Kuidas Camp, beside the dry Huab River; Leylandsdrift Camp overlooking a spring in the Hoarusib River; and Kunene River Camp, on the lush banks of the Kunene River.

You'll have proper beds, hot bucket showers and usually dine by candlelight under the stars – invariably with excellent food, fine wine and lively conversation.

The Schoemans are amongst the best guides in the country, and will open your eyes to this unique wilderness. Bertus, Andre, Leon and Henk all visited the area with their late father, Louw Schoeman, who founded these trips – and was instrumental in getting the Skeleton Coast protected as a national park.

These trips are hugely informative, giving unparalleled insight into the area and we cannot recommend them too highly. On their spectacular flights you often see shipwrecks, seal colonies and flamingos; whilst on the ground, you'll explore in modified Land Rovers and on foot.

On a typical trip you'll cross enormous dunes by 4WD, track some of the area's desert adapted wildlife, slide down roaring dunes, and marvel at a landscape littered with semi-precious stones. These trips are real journeys of discovery – described by some travellers as 'life-changing'.

Geographics

Location: Skeleton Coast & Kaokoland, Namibia
Ideal length of stay: These trips usually last four days and three nights; one in each camp. For 2 or more people, it's possible to extend the trip, to include a night visiting Etosha National Park.
Accessible by: Fly-and-Transfer

Food & drink

Usual board basis: Full Board & Activities
Dining style: Group Meals
Dining locations: Outdoor Dining

Special interests

Birdwatching: A trip with the Schoeman family is perhaps the ultimate way to see Namibia. Flying around with an expert guide you will experience some of Namibia’s birdwatching highlights in a variety of habitats, from desert, to coast, to riverine forest.; See ideas for Birdwatching

Children

Attitude towards children

Our travellers’ wildlife sightings from Skeleton Coast Safaris

Since mid-2018, many of our travellers who stayed at Schoeman's Skeleton Coast Safaris have kindly recorded their wildlife sightings and shared them with us. The results are below. Click an animal to see more, and here to see more on our methodology.