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Travel and Tourism in Namibia
Travel alerts, currency, climate, transit, health, and safety information for visitors to Namibia.
Practical Information
Travel alert status, currency, climate, and transit details.
- Travel Alert Status
- Level 1: Exercise Normal Precautions
- Time Difference
- UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC, during Standard Time)
- Currency
- Namibian dollar (NAD); South African rand (ZAR)
- Climate
- Namibia’s climate is typical of a semi-desert and high plateau country, with hot days and cool nights. In mid-summer (December–February), daytime temperatures can exceed 100°F in lower elevations. In Windhoek, January average high temperatures are in the 90s. Winter (May–September) sees daytime highs of about 70°F; nights can be cold, dipping below freezing. Windhoek enjoys about 300 sunny days a year. Rains usually come from December through March, peaking in February, for a yearly average rainfall of 12–16 inches in Windhoek. The unrelenting dryness of the rest of the year makes the rains refreshing, welcome, and eagerly anticipated, turning the mountains surrounding Windhoek green for the brief summer months.
- Ethnic Groups
- black 87.5%, white 6%, mixed 6.5%
- National Holiday
- Independence Day, 21 March (1990)
- Geographic Coordinates
- 22 00 S, 17 00 E
- Location
- Southern Africa, bordering the South Atlantic Ocean, between Angola and South Africa
- Airports
- 136
Destinations
Regions and cities, top sights, national parks, UNESCO sites, and festivals for visitors.
Etosha National Park
Etosha is one of the great wildlife destinations of the African continent, but it operates on different principles from the more famous parks of East Africa, and visitors who approach it with expectations shaped by Maasai Mara or Serengeti may need to recalibrate their mental models before they fully appreciate what Etosha offers.
The defining feature of Etosha is its pan, a vast saline depression of approximately 4,800 square kilometers that appears on satellite images as a brilliant white expanse surrounded by darker savanna. The pan was formed from a shallow lake that existed until approximately twelve thousand years ago, when tectonic activity diverted the Kunene River northward to its present course, cutting off the water supply and allowing evaporation to concentrate the mineral content of the remaining water.
Health and Safety
Medical facilities, vaccinations, disease risk, and sanitation conditions.
Windhoek has a small number of private medical hospitals and clinics capable of providing emergency care and performing many routine procedures. Doctors – both general practitioners and specialists – as well as dentists generally have training and facilities that are comparable to U.S. standards. Facilities outside the capital vary widely. Several large towns have well-equipped facilities similar to those available in Windhoek, while smaller towns generally do not. Malaria is prevalent only in the north of the country.