Reviews of trips to Swakopmund & Walvis Bay
927 holiday reviews from our travellers of holidays which include Swakop' & Walvis Bay.
Mr & Mrs F
Surrey
"My big birthday trip 2025"
I visited Namibia between 9 Apr 2025 and 20 Apr 2025
"This was our third trip organised through Expert Africa and we were delighted with your service.
We were very happy with Kwessi Dunes (trip highlight), Mowani Camp (awesome views, the best food) and GocheGanas is a little gem. If we had more time, we would have stayed a little longer in Swakopmund - beautiful city!
The only camp that we felt a bit underwhelmed by was Ongawa Lodge. The reasons are:
1. We were not told upfront of costs for Etosha and Ongawa gane drives - the manager mentioned that game drives were not included but failed to disclose prices, which were not shown in the room either
2. The game drives in Ongawa follow a set route and in three drives, we pretty much saw the same views/animals. Other camps use their land to show different sites. This felt too little for NAM1,500 per person/per drive
3. The Etosha Game drive is very expensive at NAM2,500 per person and it lasts only 3h
4. We were given our bill after breakfast on last day. We scan the bill and paid since we were in a rush. The bill felt excessive so we asked for breakdown and found out that we were overcharged for Etosha Game drive by NAM5,000. The manager was not particularly graceful in handling with this mistake - we had to recount days spent and activities per day before the mistake was acknowledged. They were unable to do the refund so we are now waiting to see if this come through this week.
I hope the comments above are useful and thank you once again for your help,
Rute & James" Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 10 on a Namibia trip
We were very happy with Kwessi Dunes (trip highlight), Mowani Camp (awesome views, the best food) and GocheGanas is a little gem. If we had more time, we would have stayed a little longer in Swakopmund - beautiful city!
The only camp that we felt a bit underwhelmed by was Ongawa Lodge. The reasons are:
1. We were not told upfront of costs for Etosha and Ongawa gane drives - the manager mentioned that game drives were not included but failed to disclose prices, which were not shown in the room either
2. The game drives in Ongawa follow a set route and in three drives, we pretty much saw the same views/animals. Other camps use their land to show different sites. This felt too little for NAM1,500 per person/per drive
3. The Etosha Game drive is very expensive at NAM2,500 per person and it lasts only 3h
4. We were given our bill after breakfast on last day. We scan the bill and paid since we were in a rush. The bill felt excessive so we asked for breakdown and found out that we were overcharged for Etosha Game drive by NAM5,000. The manager was not particularly graceful in handling with this mistake - we had to recount days spent and activities per day before the mistake was acknowledged. They were unable to do the refund so we are now waiting to see if this come through this week.
I hope the comments above are useful and thank you once again for your help,
Rute & James" Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 10 on a Namibia trip
Overall trip
Excellent
carlao
Rio de Janeiro
"My Apr 2025 trip"
I visited Namibia between 1 Apr 2025 and 17 Apr 2025
"The route was well balanced, car drive and plane at the end.
All camps from WIlderness do have couple of star above all other ones that we have been on Namibia
Also very comfortable having land strips near by the Wilderness camps.
Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:
For for this trip I was super well taken care off.
It is seamless the service form Expert Africa with Wilderness Safari ( Which was my concern). Congratulations you were able to make it happen.
Thought I would run into some problems with logistics, but none showed up.
Incredible!!!
Next trip with you guys will be in Botswana next year!!!" Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 15 on a Namibia trip
All camps from WIlderness do have couple of star above all other ones that we have been on Namibia
Also very comfortable having land strips near by the Wilderness camps.
Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:
For for this trip I was super well taken care off.
It is seamless the service form Expert Africa with Wilderness Safari ( Which was my concern). Congratulations you were able to make it happen.
Thought I would run into some problems with logistics, but none showed up.
Incredible!!!
Next trip with you guys will be in Botswana next year!!!" Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 15 on a Namibia trip
Overall trip
Excellent
Brian S
Toronto
"My Mar 2025 trip"
I visited Namibia between 17 Mar 2025 and 3 Apr 2025
"Namibia was a great country to visit and we enjoyed the overall trip. We had the misfortune of travelling during one of the wettest periods in recent years which really impacted wildlife viewing and a few other experiences. But overall we enjoyed our time there."
Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 16 on a Namibia trip
Overall trip
Good
Dr & Mrs K
Cornwall
"Namibia March 2025"
I visited Namibia between 5 Mar 2025 and 19 Mar 2025
"We had high expectations for this, our first trip, to Namibia and they were absolutely met and exceeded.
Namibia is a magical country and we had amazing, once in a lifetime experiences every day that couldn't fail to move us. This really was a trip that kept on giving in the most profound way.
The expanse, emptiness and beauty of the landscapes really must be seen to be believed and the warmth of the people (especially those we met at Doro Nawas) felt so sincere, it quickly felt like home.
Sabina put together a fantastic itinerary for us and we felt she really took on board and understood our preferences. It was a perfect balance of adventure and relaxation and ticked all our boxes (even some we didn't know we had).
We hope Namibia will welcome us again in the future and we wouldn't hesitate to use Expert Africa again and to recommend it to other travellers.
Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:
We're not sure how it could have been improved - everything was excellent, heartfelt thanks to all involved." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 14 on a Namibia trip
Namibia is a magical country and we had amazing, once in a lifetime experiences every day that couldn't fail to move us. This really was a trip that kept on giving in the most profound way.
The expanse, emptiness and beauty of the landscapes really must be seen to be believed and the warmth of the people (especially those we met at Doro Nawas) felt so sincere, it quickly felt like home.
Sabina put together a fantastic itinerary for us and we felt she really took on board and understood our preferences. It was a perfect balance of adventure and relaxation and ticked all our boxes (even some we didn't know we had).
We hope Namibia will welcome us again in the future and we wouldn't hesitate to use Expert Africa again and to recommend it to other travellers.
Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:
We're not sure how it could have been improved - everything was excellent, heartfelt thanks to all involved." Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 14 on a Namibia trip
Overall trip
Excellent
Family T
Scotland
"Namib Desert, Damaraland, Etosha self-drive"
I visited Namibia between 22 Dec 2024 and 5 Jan 2025
"We visited Namibia with our family of seven adults in December 2024/January 2025. We chose to self-drive in two 4WD cars, traveling from Windhoek to the Namib Desert, to Swakopmund, Damaraland, Etosha, and finally Okonjima, before returning to Windhoek, a distance of 2000 kilometers in two weeks. We believe our itinerary allowed us to experience different desert and savannah environments, with their different wildlife species, without feeling we were driving too much.
We had chosen Namibia as none of the family except one had ever been to Africa on safari, and we wanted a special experience as my husband and I were celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary. It is fair to say this holiday is the best holiday any of us have ever had. Namibia is such a beautiful and varied country, it blew us away. We stayed in extremely comfortable lodges, which were all without exception outstanding. The staff were helpful and kind. The food delicious. The guides knowledgable and entertaining. And we saw so many different animals! If it hadn't started to rain hard on our last day I think we may never have left.
Expert Africa, and specifically Sabina, did a brilliant job organising the logistics: everything worked as per plan - the route and accommodation descriptions were accurate, the lodges expected us, the cars were brand new and drove well, and the supporting information provided relevant and useful.
Thank you very much for our holiday of a lifetime!" Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 13 on a Namibia trip
We had chosen Namibia as none of the family except one had ever been to Africa on safari, and we wanted a special experience as my husband and I were celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary. It is fair to say this holiday is the best holiday any of us have ever had. Namibia is such a beautiful and varied country, it blew us away. We stayed in extremely comfortable lodges, which were all without exception outstanding. The staff were helpful and kind. The food delicious. The guides knowledgable and entertaining. And we saw so many different animals! If it hadn't started to rain hard on our last day I think we may never have left.
Expert Africa, and specifically Sabina, did a brilliant job organising the logistics: everything worked as per plan - the route and accommodation descriptions were accurate, the lodges expected us, the cars were brand new and drove well, and the supporting information provided relevant and useful.
Thank you very much for our holiday of a lifetime!" Read full review: 14 nights in Africa; 13 on a Namibia trip
Overall trip
Excellent
E & H
Canada
"My Dec 2024 trip"
I visited Namibia and 1 other country between 15 Dec 2024 and 31 Dec 2024
"I was thoroughly impressed with ExpertAfrica!
We take a 2-3 week trip every year, and usually do it fully independently. For this trip, I had planned out the full trip, and then we decided for fun to see what ExpertAfrica would quote, thinking it would be higher. It turned out to be about 30% cheaper! And on top of that, Maruska provided a lot of benefits we would have otherwise missed out on.
For example, we booked rather far ahead (over a year), and Maruska was able to make the bookings even though they weren't available yet on some hotels websites.
She was also able to determine that a couple would be closed over the holidays and recommended alternatives.
Her step-by-step directions between lodges was also excellent, better than both Google Maps and our physical map.
I'd definitely recommend ExpertAfrica to my friends (or anyone!) and we will be using ExpertAfrica again if we're headed to a country tha ExpertAfrica offers trips to.
Thanks for helping make our trip so memorable!" Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 16 on a Namibia trip
We take a 2-3 week trip every year, and usually do it fully independently. For this trip, I had planned out the full trip, and then we decided for fun to see what ExpertAfrica would quote, thinking it would be higher. It turned out to be about 30% cheaper! And on top of that, Maruska provided a lot of benefits we would have otherwise missed out on.
For example, we booked rather far ahead (over a year), and Maruska was able to make the bookings even though they weren't available yet on some hotels websites.
She was also able to determine that a couple would be closed over the holidays and recommended alternatives.
Her step-by-step directions between lodges was also excellent, better than both Google Maps and our physical map.
I'd definitely recommend ExpertAfrica to my friends (or anyone!) and we will be using ExpertAfrica again if we're headed to a country tha ExpertAfrica offers trips to.
Thanks for helping make our trip so memorable!" Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 16 on a Namibia trip
Overall trip
Excellent
Mr and Mrs M
Berks
"My Dec 2024 trip to Namibia"
I visited Namibia between 7 Dec 2024 and 19 Dec 2024
"We had an amazing trip - our first visit to Namibia and first time using Expert Africa.
It was difficult to know what to do/where to go but Tracy was really helpful from the start. She was extremely knowledgable about the places we wanted to visit and gave us some great information before we then went off and did some research. We then came back to Tracy to ask more questions and look at an itinerary and accommodation in more detail.
We knew were going for 'scenery' rather than wildlife and having done our research our trip met or exceeded our expectations on every level. It was also good to know that Expert Africa was there should we have experienced any problems.
I can't speak highly enough of Expert Africa and particular thanks to Tracy for all her help.
Comments on our Private Guide
We quickly built a good rapport with Usko. We were a little concerned about spending so much time with our guide as there was only my husband and I but needn't have worried. Usko was delightful and was happy to listen to how we wanted the trip to go in terms of leaving time from each lodge, how many stops we wanted to make en route etc.
He told us we didn't need to 'make conversation' but could just enjoy the views from the vehicle and ask questions if we wanted to know anything. He was very knowledgable and always pointed out places of interest/wildlife/flora and fauna, landscapes etc. It made the days easy and relaxing (for us!).
He also told us that some evenings he wouldn't join us for dinner so that we could have time together. Usko made the trip really stress free, our cases were loaded/unloaded and delivered and collected from our rooms. He was an excellent driver especially on the bumpy gravel roads and soft sand at Sossusvlei!
The picnics we enjoyed en route some days were amazing! A proper table, camping chairs, tablecloth and delicious food in 'the middle of nowhere'. Usko really made the trip for us, we felt in incredibly safe hands knowing that if there were any problems that he was fully equipped to deal with them." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 11 on a Namibia trip
It was difficult to know what to do/where to go but Tracy was really helpful from the start. She was extremely knowledgable about the places we wanted to visit and gave us some great information before we then went off and did some research. We then came back to Tracy to ask more questions and look at an itinerary and accommodation in more detail.
We knew were going for 'scenery' rather than wildlife and having done our research our trip met or exceeded our expectations on every level. It was also good to know that Expert Africa was there should we have experienced any problems.
I can't speak highly enough of Expert Africa and particular thanks to Tracy for all her help.
Comments on our Private Guide
We quickly built a good rapport with Usko. We were a little concerned about spending so much time with our guide as there was only my husband and I but needn't have worried. Usko was delightful and was happy to listen to how we wanted the trip to go in terms of leaving time from each lodge, how many stops we wanted to make en route etc.
He told us we didn't need to 'make conversation' but could just enjoy the views from the vehicle and ask questions if we wanted to know anything. He was very knowledgable and always pointed out places of interest/wildlife/flora and fauna, landscapes etc. It made the days easy and relaxing (for us!).
He also told us that some evenings he wouldn't join us for dinner so that we could have time together. Usko made the trip really stress free, our cases were loaded/unloaded and delivered and collected from our rooms. He was an excellent driver especially on the bumpy gravel roads and soft sand at Sossusvlei!
The picnics we enjoyed en route some days were amazing! A proper table, camping chairs, tablecloth and delicious food in 'the middle of nowhere'. Usko really made the trip for us, we felt in incredibly safe hands knowing that if there were any problems that he was fully equipped to deal with them." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 11 on a Namibia trip
Overall trip
Excellent
Mr & Mrs H
Yorkshire
"My Oct 2024 trip"
I visited Namibia between 20 Oct 2024 and 9 Nov 2024
"It was a spectacular trip and we cannot wait to return. Expect Africa did an incredible job.
We stayed in a variety of accommodations and Expert Africa prepared us for each one - we knew what to expect and how to get there.
It was a wonderful trip." Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 19 on a Namibia trip
We stayed in a variety of accommodations and Expert Africa prepared us for each one - we knew what to expect and how to get there.
It was a wonderful trip." Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 19 on a Namibia trip
Overall trip
Excellent
Mr&mrs A
london
"My Oct 2024 trip"
I visited Namibia between 19 Oct 2024 and 5 Nov 2024
"The trip was amazing. Everything went as clockwork.
Would’ve been helpful to have a realistic time of each journey as we found Google underestimated each one by about an hour!
Great choice of lodges - enjoyed them all. Although Ongava Tented by far the favourite." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 15 on a Namibia trip
Would’ve been helpful to have a realistic time of each journey as we found Google underestimated each one by about an hour!
Great choice of lodges - enjoyed them all. Although Ongava Tented by far the favourite." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 15 on a Namibia trip
Overall trip
Excellent
Smiths
cheshire
"My Oct 2024 trip"
I visited Namibia between 13 Oct 2024 and 28 Oct 2024
"A wonderful adventure holiday although it felt very safe because we had confidence in the car hire and all the information we received.
The lodges were all fantastic. The scenery is a landscape photographer’s dream. People we came across were all very friendly, helpful and happy to see us.
The food was much better than we had anticipated. Animals were very plentiful - I even saw a honey badger!
The lodge game drives were all really excellent with good, very knowledgeable guides.
All in all, a terrific experience and we will recommend Expert Africa to all." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 14 on a Namibia trip
The lodges were all fantastic. The scenery is a landscape photographer’s dream. People we came across were all very friendly, helpful and happy to see us.
The food was much better than we had anticipated. Animals were very plentiful - I even saw a honey badger!
The lodge game drives were all really excellent with good, very knowledgeable guides.
All in all, a terrific experience and we will recommend Expert Africa to all." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 14 on a Namibia trip
Overall trip
Excellent
927
reviews of Swakop' & Walvis Bay by travellers since August 2007
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Inspire meWhere to stay in Swakop' & Walvis Bay
Our suggestions for places to stay in Swakopmund & Walvis Bay
Cornerstone Guesthouse
Cornerstone Guesthouse is a small friendly B&B in a peaceful residential area. It's just a short walk from Swkopmund's waterfront & amenities.
Strand Hotel
One of the larger hotels in Swakopmund, the Strand is well-placed on the seafront with good access to restaurants and the centre of town.
The Stiltz
Not your typical guesthouse, The Stiltz occupies a glorious location over the Swakop River on the edge of Swakopmund.
Villa Margherita
Villa Margherita is a beautifully renovated B&B in the heart of Swakopmund, with comfortable, well-appointed rooms, and friendly and attentive staff.
Beach Lodge
Right on the sea front, Beach Lodge offers good standard accommodation and its own restaurant, 15 minutes’ drive from Swakopmund.
Lagoon Lodge
Lagoon Lodge is a quirky little guesthouse located right on the edge of Walvis Bay Lagoon, a good spot for watching the flamingoes that frequent the area.
The Delight
Colourful and contemporary in style, The Delight is a relatively large hotel within a short walk of Swakopmund's waterfront, restaurants and main attractions.
Swakopmund Guesthouse
Swakopmund Guesthouse is a family-run B&B, boasting comfortable and high-quality rooms with a maritime touch.
Brigadoon
In a quiet residential location, Brigadoon is conveniently located for the Swakopmund waterfront and amenities.
Hansa Hotel
With a very central location in Swakopmund, the traditional Hansa Hotel is reliably good, though it is quite formal.
Secret Garden
Secret Garden Guesthouse is well located in the centre of Swakopmund not far from the sea. With a seaside feel, it has its own small restaurant and bar.
Cornerstone Apartments
Cornerstone Guesthouse’s three self-catering apartments, each in its own unique location, work well for families or groups of travellers seeking space & privacy within a comfortable, contemporary setting.
Desert Breeze
Not your typical Swakopmund guesthouse, Desert Breeze occupies a glorious location overlooking the Swakop River and the desert beyond.
Pelican Point Lodge
Pelican Point Lodge sits on a remote peninsula offering panoramic views of the ocean and is only accessible by 4WD or boat.
Namib Guesthouse
The Namib Guesthouse is a small, modern B&B, set in Swakopmund's peaceful Kramersdorf area. It's just a short walk from the coast and many amenities.
Oyster Box Guesthouse
Oyster Box Guesthouse is a small, modern and comfortable B&B, overlooking Walvis Bay Lagoon.
Pearls Beach Pods
With a beachfront location, superb sea views and easy access to the amenities of Swakopmund, The Pearls Beach Pods combine privacy with a high standard of luxury.
Swakopmund Sands
The relatively substantial Swakopmund Sands Hotel lies in a quiet area of the town, close to the beach yet within walking distance of tourist amenities.
