Namibia, Botswana and Victoria Falls self drive itinerary – 3 weeks with kids

If you’ve been following our recent trip through southern Africa and asked for the itinerary, here it is!

This summer we spent three weeks on a Namibia, Botswana and Victoria Falls self drive adventure, travelling as a family of four with our kids, aged 12 and 14. It was genuinely the most brilliant trip, and I’m desperate to return!

We hired a 4×4 Toyota Hilux in Windhoek and drove across Namibia, through Etosha National Park and the Zambezi Region (formerly the Caprivi Strip), before crossing into Botswana for Chobe National Park. We had the car picked up there and finished with a taxi transfer over the border and a few days at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.

It was a big adventure, with long drives, some seriously early safari starts and an amazing amount of wildlife. But organising it independently was far more manageable than I’d expected, and gave us the freedom to combine self-drive safaris with guided game drives, outdoor activities, boat trips and some brilliant places to stay.

For each destination, I’ve included where we stayed, how long it took to get there and links for booking. I’ve also included our 4×4 rental, rough budget, border crossings and the things I’d change if we did it again.

Our route

Our Namibia Botswana road trip started in Windhoek and took us to Swakopmund via Spitzkoppe and then north-west to Brandberg before crossing Etosha National Park from west to east. From there, we drove through Namibia’s Zambezi Region (formerly known as the Caprivi Strip), crossed into Botswana for Chobe National Park and finished at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.

We had three weeks (departing on Friday evening, landing Sunday morning), which felt about right. There are a few fairly hefty driving days on this route, but we generally stayed for two or even three nights at each stop, so we weren’t packing up and moving on every morning. The drives are incredible, so it’s really not like sitting in traffic on the M5 in England! We still had time for pools, boat trips and doing absolutely nothing for a few hours between the wildlife spotting.

We self-drove as far as Botswana, then had our 4×4 collected there, and took a taxi transfer across the border to Victoria Falls for the final few days.

Use the interactive map below to follow our route, and click on each numbered stop for accommodation details and links.

The next few sections focus on the nitty gritty details like vehicle rental, SIM cards, border crossings, money and budget.

Click here if you want to go straight to the itinerary further down the article!

Hiring our 4×4 in Windhoek

For the self-drive section of our trip, we hired a 4×4 through African Tracks, picking it up in Windhoek and having it collected near Kasane, Botswana.

The handover in Windhoek was reassuringly thorough. Before they let us loose on Namibia’s gravel roads, we were shown around the vehicle, talked through the equipment, the paperwork for our border crossing and given some basic 4×4 training. It sounds slightly daunting if you’ve never driven a 4×4 in southern Africa before, but we soon got into the swing of it. Outside the cities there’s very little traffic, so the driving itself was actually pretty straightforward; it was more a case of getting used to the gravel roads and different road conditions.

Having a proper 4×4 was absolutely the right choice for this route. While there are plenty of good tarmac roads, we also drove long stretches of gravel and sand, plus some really rough and sandy tracks through the national parks, especially up in the Zambezi region. Road conditions varied enormously, so journey times weren’t always quite as straightforward as Google Maps might suggest.

We stocked up at a supermarket in Windhoek before setting off (we’d asked for a fridge in our car, which costs a little more, but is well worth it for the self-catering savings), then topped up food, water and fuel whenever we passed through larger towns. Once you’re out in the more remote stretches of Namibia, opportunities become considerably more limited.

One-way car hire was also key to making our route work, and this is possible with most rental companies in Windhoek. Rather than doubling back to Windhoek, we returned the car in Botswana and took a taxi transfer across the Zimbabwean border to Victoria Falls.

Data and SIM cards in Namibia

eSIMs don’t work in Namibia for some reason, so we bought local SIM cards from MTC, Namibia’s main mobile network.

Use the MTC kiosk in the baggage hall at Windhoek Airport, before you go through customs into arrivals. There’s another MTC office outside customs, but the queues were considerably longer there!

When we travelled, 20GB of data valid for 30 days cost around £40, while 10GB for 14 days was around £20. Prices and packages change, so check the current options when you arrive.

We got a SIM card for each adult phone and went for the 20GB of data as we’d heard that topping up wasn’t very straightforward! The kids / teens had to suck a lack of connectivity up but could use WiFi where that was available.

Coverage was reasonably good on our route (although there were long blank spots on our way through the Zambezi region where there were no towns), and we relied on our mobile data quite a lot, as WiFi at some of the lodges was a bit unreliable.

Oh, and because we were staying right across from the Namibian border in Botswana, my MTC SIM worked there as well! In Vic Falls, I just managed with WiFi only for 48 hours, although I think my husband bought an eSim there.

Before leaving the UK, I’d also recommend downloading what you can to your phone; like google maps for the areas you’re driving in, any Spotify playlists and audiobooks (you need entertainment on the long drives!), and any booking confirmations or photos of documentation you might need.

Best time of year for a Namibia and Botswana road trip

We travelled in July and August, during the dry season, and for a self-drive safari it worked brilliantly. With less vegetation and animals congregating around waterholes, wildlife spotting was excellent, particularly in Etosha, Bwabwata National Park and Chobe National Park.

The days were dry, sunny and pleasantly warm (verging on hot in some parts), but don’t underestimate how cold it gets once the sun disappears. Early morning and night game drives were absolutely freezing at times. Proper layers, hats and warm down jackets aren’t overkill, even if packing them for Africa felt slightly ridiculous.

July and August are also peak season, so the popular lodges and camps can book up well ahead. If you’re tied to UK school holidays, as we were, I’d get the key accommodation sorted early (up to a year in advance!) rather than hoping something suitable appears nearer the time.

For us, though, the combination of reliable weather, fantastic wildlife viewing and travelling during the school summer holidays made July and August an excellent time to do this route with kids.

Visas and border crossings

We travelled on British passports and found the border crossings relatively straightforward, although there is a bit of paperwork involved when you’re travelling overland through three countries.

For Namibia, British passport holders now need a visa. We got ours on arrival in Windhoek, rather than applying for an e-visa beforehand. The on-arrival visa queue was much shorter, but processing took longer, while the e-visa in advance queue was much longer, but processing time was shorter. I didn’t regret not doing the e-visa in advance! At the time of writing, passports need to be valid for at least six months from arrival and have at least three blank pages. You can check the latest requirements on the UK Government Namibia travel advice page.

British passport holders can currently visit Botswana for up to 90 days without a visa. Passports again need at least six months’ validity and three blank pages. Our overland crossing from Namibia was straightforward, although we’d made sure we had some Botswana Pula (currency) beforehand in case card payments weren’t available at the border (more on that in the money section below). Check the latest UK Government Botswana travel advice before travelling.

For Zimbabwe, we got our visas on arrival when we crossed from Botswana to Victoria Falls. British visitors currently need a visa, and the UK government recommends carrying new US dollars in small notes to pay for it. Your passport should have six months’ validity and three blank pages. Check the current visa options and requirements on the UK Government Zimbabwe travel advice page.

Additional documentation for border crossings with kids

This is one bit of paperwork you really don’t want to forget. We travelled with the kids’ full birth certificates, as Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe have additional documentation requirements for children.

Namibia currently requires parents travelling with children aged 17 or under to carry the child’s valid passport and full birth certificate showing both parents’ details, either the original or a certified copy. Botswana also requires an original or certified copy of the full birth certificate for children aged 17 or under entering or leaving the country. There are additional consent requirements if a child isn’t travelling with both parents, like a certified affidavit of consent (less than 3 months old) from the non-traveling parent.

Entry requirements can change, so don’t rely solely on our experience. Check the official travel advice for Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe shortly before you travel, particularly the requirements for children.

Booking accommodation

We booked all our accommodation in advance through Booking.com, and I’ve included booking links to everywhere we stayed in the itinerary breakdown below.

I’d definitely recommend booking ahead for this route, particularly if you’re travelling during the July and August peak season.

Etosha National Park is the place I’d prioritise. Staying inside the national park gives you easy access to amazing rest camp waterholes and means you’re already in position for early-morning wildlife viewing. Accommodation inside the park is limited, so this is one to sort as soon as your dates are fixed. I’d also book the smaller lodges along the Zambezi Region and around Chobe well ahead, as there simply isn’t the same depth of accommodation choice you’d find in a city or major resort.

We stayed in a real mixture of places, from self-catering apartments and simple safari tents to some much smarter lodges. Spending more didn’t necessarily mean we enjoyed a place more, either. Some of our favourite stays were relatively simple, while there was one more expensive choice I’d change if we did the trip again.

I’ve explained those as we go through the itinerary below, including where we’d stay instead.

Budgeting and Money

This was not a cheap trip. All in, our three-week Namibia, Botswana and Victoria Falls trip cost roughly £15,000 for our family of four, including flights, 4×4 hire including a fridge, accommodation, activities, park fees, fuel and food.

You could certainly spend A LOT more, especially by staying exclusively in high-end safari lodges and booking guided safaris throughout.

Equally, a more budget self drive safari is possible by camping, self-catering and doing more of the game driving yourself. We did a mixture: simple safari tents and apartments alongside a few nicer lodges, and we spent money on experiences we really wanted to do, including some guided safaris, seal kayaking and the helicopter flight over Victoria Falls.

Since we’d booked a fridge in our vehicle, we were able to self-cater a bit too, particularly with packed lunches in Namibia. Supermarkets in the larger towns were useful for stocking up before heading into more remote areas, and having our own food meant we weren’t paying lodge prices for every meal. Not all lodges had self catering facilities for dinner, but some did.

Where our budget went

I don’t think there’s much value in listing every coffee and supermarket shop, but the big costs to factor into a trip like ours are:

• Flights – particularly if travelling during the UK summer holidays.
• 4×4 hire, one way drop off, and fuel – one of the biggest costs, but also what makes this itinerary possible independently.
• Accommodation – there’s a huge range, from simple self-catering to luxury safari lodges.
• Activities and guided safaris – easy to underestimate when planning, but you don’t need to pay for anything you don’t really want to do!
• National park fees – including Victoria Falls, where you pay the entrance fee each time you enter.
• Food and drink – self-catering helped us keep this under control. While we did eat out a lot more than we had to, which added up, eating out is still pretty cheap compared to UK / US / European prices! Lunches were often around £30 for us all, and evening meals often less than £50. Of course in some places it cost more than this.

For us, the aim wasn’t to do the trip as cheaply as humanly possible. It was to spend where it genuinely improved the experience and save where it didn’t. We mostly got that balance right, but I’ll get to that in the itinerary.

💰 Could you save money by camping?

Yes. One of the biggest ways to make this trip cheaper is to hire a 4×4 with rooftop tent(s) and camping equipment and stay at campsites rather than lodges.

You can hire vehicles with two rooftop tents for a family of four, complete with cooking and camping equipment. The vehicle itself costs a fair bit more than a standard 4×4 and you’ll still pay campsite fees, but overall it can work out considerably cheaper than staying in lodges every night.

We seriously considered it, but ultimately decided not to camp. My worry was that we’d become more and more exhausted as the trip went on. We had some long driving days and very early safari starts, and I suspected four people sleeping in rooftop tents for three weeks would mean a lot less actual sleeping than we’d get in lodges.

This was such a bucket-list trip for us that I didn’t want tiredness to start taking the shine off it halfway through.

We also looked at combining camping with lodges, but financially that didn’t make much sense for us. We’d still be paying the higher rental price for a fully equipped camping vehicle on every night we chose to stay in a lodge.

So we committed to accommodation throughout instead. Some places were cheap, others rather less so, but for us it was the right decision.

That doesn’t mean camping isn’t a brilliant option. We met plenty of families travelling with rooftop tents who were having a fantastic time. If your family enjoys camping and you want to bring the overall cost of a Namibia and Botswana road trip down, it’s absolutely worth considering.

Cash and currencies

You cross three countries on this route, so the money situation requires some planning.

In Namibia, the Namibian dollar (NAD) is pegged 1:1 to the South African rand (ZAR), and rand notes are accepted in Namibia. We took some rand with us from the UK which we ordered in advance, which meant we arrived with usable cash rather than immediately hunting for an ATM. Most places also accept cards too. Keep hold of smaller notes, as they’re particularly useful for tipping cafe and restaurant staff, parking guards (it’s customary to tip the guys who keep an eye on your car when it’s parked in a public car park or on the road) and petrol station attendants (you don’t pump the petrol yourself – someone does it for you).

Before crossing into Botswana, we changed our last Namibian dollars and South African rand into Botswana pula (BWP) at a foreign-exchange office in Katima Mulilo, as we knew there were no ATMs at the border or between the border and our accommodation in Botswana. We’d read reports that card machines at the border could be unreliable and that we might need pula to pay the relevant fees, and we wanted pula for tips in Botswana as well (everything else could be paid by card).

In the end, we paid by card at the border without any problem, but I was still glad we’d changed some cash. It removed one small uncertainty from the crossing, and we then had pula for tipping our guides in Botswana too.

For Zimbabwe, take US dollars. Order some before you depart and include some smaller denominations if you can. We needed new US dollar notes for our visas on arrival. Card wasn’t accepted at the border! There are ATMs in Victoria Falls, but they are unreliable. Most places in Vic Falls also accepted cards too though.

The best thing to do is to travel with a fee-free bank card, but having some local currency before each border made life easier.

Top tips for this Namibia, Botswana and Victoria Falls itinerary

• Book accommodation early for July and August. This is peak safari season, and accommodation inside Etosha and the smaller lodges along the route can fill up well in advance. I started booking in September for the following July / August. And some places were already full!
• Get everyone their own binoculars. We took a pair each and used them constantly. Sharing binoculars sounds perfectly reasonable until somebody spots a lion and three other people immediately want them.
• Pack for seriously cold safari mornings. Namibia and Botswana may be in Africa, but those pre-sunrise game drives in July and August were freezing. Hats, warm layers and proper down jackets were very much required.
• Stock up whenever you reach a decent supermarket. We self-catered at several stops, and shops become harder to come by on the remote stretches. We always carried plenty of drinking water and snacks too, as some of the drives were long.
• Keep some small cash notes for tips. It’s important to have some Namibian dollars/rand, Botswana pula and US dollars rather than relying entirely on cards.
• Budget for tipping. Tipping isn’t compulsory, but personally, I think that you should budget for tipping the people who look after you along the way. That includes safari and boat guides, drivers and lodge staff. Most of the lodges we stayed at had a communal tip box at reception, which is a good way to remember all the people behind the scenes too. We tipped individual guides directly when we’d spent time with them, and used the lodge tip boxes for the wider team. There’s no need to get tied in knots over exact percentages, but do include tips in your trip budget.
• Don’t underestimate the driving. There’s very little traffic outside the towns, but gravel roads, sand and national park tracks slow things down. Journeys that look straightforward on a map can still take most of the day.
• Mix self-drive safaris with guided ones. Self-driving through Etosha was one of the best parts of the trip, but we were also really glad we’d booked guides for some experiences. In Chobe especially, having an experienced guide made a huge difference to the amount of wildlife we saw.
• Give yourselves some downtime. We generally stayed two nights at each stop, which gave us time for a swim or an afternoon doing very little between long drives and early starts, which was very welcome!
• Don’t choose your Victoria Falls accommodation purely for its proximity to the falls. We did, assuming we’d wander back several times. Then we discovered you pay the hefty national park entrance fee every time you enter. Realistically, you’re probably going in once, and it’s easy to take a taxi if you’re further away.
• Don’t assume the most expensive accommodation will be your favourite. Some of our simpler lodges were among the best places we stayed. Think about how much time you’ll actually spend there before splashing out.

Our 3 week Namibia Botswana Vic Falls self drive itinerary

Our three-week route took us from Windhoek across Namibia to Botswana and Victoria Falls. Here’s how we broke it down:

Days 1–2: Fly to Namibia and Windhoek

🛏️ Where we stayed: Arebbusch Travel Lodge

To get here: we flew overnight from London to Johannesburg, then connected to a separate flight to Windhoek. Leave plenty of time between flights if you have two separate bookings! My research suggested at least 4 hours; longer if you have hold luggage to collect and check back in.

As mentioned in the visa section above, we travelled hand luggage only, which meant we could remain airside in Johannesburg and go through the transit route despite having two separate flight bookings.

Bear in mind though that if you travel hand luggage only, although you don’t have to go through South African immigration and then back through departures, you still need to go through a security screening between flights. This took a while, and they were very strict! My spork and first aid scissors and my spray mosquito repellent (not the roll on though) were sadly removed (which had got through security at Heathrow just fine).

Windhoek was really just the launch pad for our road trip. After arriving, we were met at the airport by our car hire company, African Tracks, and taken to our accommodation for the night.

After a long journey from the UK, having the first night in Windhoek also meant we could sleep properly before tackling Namibia’s gravel roads the following morning. I wouldn’t recommend landing after a long-haul flight and immediately setting off on a major drive.

Days 3–4: Spitzkoppe

🛏️ Where we stayed: Spitzkoppe Mountain Camp
Driving time: ~4 hours

The next morning our car hire company collected us again and took us to their depot.

Here we collected our 4×4, got through the lengthy (but very useful) handover and made sure we understood how everything worked before setting off into Namibia.

Before we left Windhoek, we did a big supermarket shop. If you’re self-catering at any point over the next few days, stock up properly in Windhoek. Also get some snacks, drinking water (we didn’t risk using tap water although it’s generally drinkable – it just wasn’t worth the risk for us), and we bought some emergency food stocks like noodles and pasta pesto just in case (this all got eaten!).

Our first proper driving day took us north-west from Windhoek to Spitzkoppe, and the final section of the drive was our first real introduction to Namibia’s gravel roads. There was barely any traffic; the main adjustment was learning to slow down, relax and not treat the speed limit as a target! We stopped at Wilhelmstal Farm Stall for cold drinks and made sandwiches from our fridge to go with them for lunch!

Spitzkoppe was a brilliant first stop. The enormous granite peaks rise almost impossibly out of the flat desert, and our accommodation at Spitzkoppe Mountain Camp put us right overlooking that landscape. The staff here were lovely and although the whole place was fairlybasic, the food was actually very good (limited menu though), and the little swimming pool was great too.

We spent our time exploring the rock formations and booked a self-drive guided tour of the area through our accommodation. This included walking up the chain “ladder” (really just a very steep rock with a chain to help you up) to Bushman’s Paradise, where we learnt about the ancient rock art and the San people who once lived here. We also visited the famous rock arch and a couple more ancient rock art sites as well as a drive through the bush and our first zebra sighting!

There was also plenty of time to slow down at camp, watch the colours change across the rocks and properly settle into the road trip. After Windhoek and the long journey from the UK, two nights here worked really well.

Days 5–7: Swakopmund

🛏️ Where we stayed: Beach View Apartment 205
Driving time: ~2 hours 15 mins

We gave ourselves three nights in Swakopmund, and I’m very glad we did. After the landscapes and slower pace of Spitzkoppe, this was the action-packed part of our Namibia itinerary, with fat biking, seal kayaking, a Living Desert tour and quad biking squeezed into our stay.

Be warned though – it was much chillier here on the coast than anywhere else on our trip! The sea fog means the sun isn’t seen very much!

The Living Desert tour was a real highlight. Rather than simply driving around looking at dunes, our guide showed us how much wildlife is hiding in what initially appears to be an almost completely empty landscape. We found tiny desert-adapted creatures and learnt how they survive in such an extreme environment. It was fascinating and the kids loved it.

We also headed down towards Walvis Bay for kayaking with Cape fur seals. Being out on the water surrounded by curious seals was another favourite; they are so cheeky!

Back in Swakopmund, we tried fat biking across the dunes and also went quad biking for an hour, so there wasn’t much sitting around.

If you’re doing this trip with older kids or teenagers, Swakopmund is a brilliant place to break up the long driving and wildlife watching with some completely different activities.

Our self-catering apartment – which was located within the Beach Hotel Swakopmund, so we could use the hotel facilities – was also useful here. After several days on the road, having our own kitchen, a washing machine and a bit more space made a welcome change from lodge life.

Oh, and our favourite lunch spot in Swakopmund was the Village Cafe. Great food, very friendly people, and a lovely atmosphere!

Days 8–9: Brandberg / Damaraland

🛏️ Where we stayed: Brandberg White Lady Lodge
Driving time: ~4 hours

On the drive from Swakopmund, we stopped for lunch at Cactus and Coffee Tea Garden in Uis – a handy place to break up the journey before continuing towards Brandberg.

After three busy days in Swakopmund, Brandberg White Lady Lodge was a complete change of pace. It’s set in Damaraland near Namibia’s highest mountain, Brandberg, and felt properly desert-like and remote again.

On the afternoon we arrived, we’d booked the lodge’s sunset drive – essentially a guided 4×4 tour of the local area rather than specifically an elephant safari. By complete luck, the desert-adapted elephants happened to be very close to the lodge that evening, and so we had an absolutely amazing evening watching the whole herd as it wandered slowly along the dry river bank.

We’d also booked the dedicated desert elephant tour for 7am the following morning. But having already had such a brilliant encounter – and being rather keen on a lie-in – we skipped the early start and the lodge very kindly moved our booking to another sunset drive that evening instead.

The lodge itself was a real oasis in the desert. There was a pool, a tame meerkat in the grounds (Mila the meerkat was a huge hit!) and space to slow down before heading into Etosha. Two nights worked really well.

And then there were the armoured ground crickets. Enormous insects, deeply unappealing and one even crawled into one of the kids’ socks while they were swimming. Nobody puts those in the safari brochure. Don’t panic though, in general they were easy to avoid!

🐘 Desert elephants in Damaraland

Namibia’s desert-adapted elephants aren’t a separate species; they’re African savanna elephants that have adapted their behaviour to survive in the extremely dry conditions of north-west Namibia.

Days 10–11: Okaukuejo and western Etosha

🛏️ Where we stayed: Okaukuejo Rest Camp
Driving time: ~5 hours, plus stops

We stopped in Outjo on the way for lunch at Outjo Bakery and, importantly, to fill up with fuel before entering Etosha.

The Okaukuejo waterhole

One of the biggest reasons to stay at Okaukuejo is its floodlit waterhole, which you can walk to directly from everywhere in the camp. We spent hours there, particularly around sunset and after dark, watching wildlife come and go.

This was where Etosha really started to deliver: rhinos, elephants, giraffes and huge numbers of zebra and antelope, sometimes all congregating around the water at once. You don’t need to be on a game drive or even leave camp – you can simply wander over whenever you fancy another look.

🛏️ Is Okaukuejo Resort worth staying at?

Okaukuejo gets a bit of a bad rap, and I can understand why. It’s a large, government-run resort, things aren’t always particularly efficient, the service can be fairly indifferent and, for what you get, it isn’t even especially cheap.

But I’d still stay there again.

Our rooms were absolutely fine: clean, comfortable and perfectly adequate for what we needed. More importantly, you’re staying inside Etosha National Park with that incredible waterhole right on your doorstep.

You can finish your self-drive, park the car and wander over to see what’s turned up at the waterhole. Then go back after dinner. Then again before bed. And again first thing in the morning if you fancy it. You’re not dependent on park gate opening times or driving back to accommodation outside Etosha.

So don’t book Okaukuejo expecting boutique safari-lodge service. Book it for the location and the waterhole. For us, those two things outweighed its shortcomings by a considerable margin.

During the day, we took our 4×4 out ourselves, following a loop of our own making between different waterholes before returning to Okaukuejo. That’s the joy of a self drive safari in Namibia and Botswana: no fixed itinerary and nobody telling you it’s time to move on before you’re ready.

🌙 Our Etosha night game drive

We also booked a night game drive from Okaukuejo. We hadn’t reserved this months in advance (I think this might be possible but I don’t know how!): I went to reception at around 7am that morning to get places for that evening. Numbers are limited, so if you want to do one, you need to get up early to get a spot!

The drive takes place after the park roads have closed to self-drive visitors, from 7-10pm, with the guide using a red spotlight to search for wildlife without dazzling the animals. There’s something particularly exciting about driving through Etosha in complete darkness, looking for eyes in the bush.

It was also freezing. Take far more warm clothing than you think you will need – it’s still a bit warm at 7pm but by 10pm and zooming along in an open jeep, you’ll be freezing!

Day 12: Driving across Etosha to Mushara

🛏️ Where we stayed: Mushara Bush Camp
Driving time: essentially a full day’s game drive (over 8 hours), from Okaukuejo across Etosha to the eastern gate

Rather than simply driving from one side of Etosha to the other, we made the entire day a self-drive safari, stopping constantly at waterholes and whenever somebody spotted something interesting.

Part of the main road through Etosha was closed when we visited, and it appears it is set to remain so for quite some time. This meant a substantial detour along some considerably rougher roads, although the detour does take in a good variety of waterholes. We stopped at Halali for our packed lunch, then carried on east.

And the wildlife was phenomenal.

There were vast numbers of zebra, springbok and other antelope, plus kudu, oryx and more birds than I could possibly identify. We saw elephants, rhinos and giraffes throughout the park. The only thing conspicuously absent was a big cat.

Until almost the end.

Just as we were approaching the eastern gate of the park, we came across a cluster of stationary vehicles – usually a fairly good indication that somebody has spotted something worth stopping for. Hidden away in the vegetation was a leopard.

It was extremely well hidden and there were plenty of other vehicles trying to see it, but we saw it. After two days of looking for big cats, seeing a leopard almost as we were leaving Etosha was a fairly spectacular way to finish.

💸 Would we stay at Mushara Bush Camp again?

Yes – but not for one night.

Mushara was lovely and the food was excellent, but we arrived after spending the entire day driving across Etosha and left again the following morning. In reality, we had about 12 hours there. We didn’t even have time to use the pool.

For what we paid, it simply wasn’t worth it.

If we were doing exactly the same itinerary again, we’d stay at Namutoni Resort (another government run camp with its own waterhole, just like Okaukuejo and Halali) just inside Etosha at the eastern gate instead and save the money.

If you’ve got the budget and can stay at Mushara Bush Camp for two nights, that’s different. It’s a lovely lodge and you’d actually have time to enjoy what you’re paying for. For a quick overnight stop before continuing east, we’d choose Namutoni next time.

Day 13: Rundu and the Kavango River

🛏️ Where we stayed: Hakusembe River Lodge Camping2Go
Driving time: ~5 hours

This was another fairly long driving day as we left Etosha behind and headed east towards Rundu and the Kavango River and the start of the Zambezi Strip.

We broke up the journey with lunch at Roy’s Rest Camp, which turned out to be a great find in the middle of nowhere. They don’t have a restaurant as such, but their website says you can arrange lunch in advance. I’d messaged them on WhatsApp rather too late to pre-book a proper lunch, but they offered us toasties and chips instead, which was absolutely perfect. Don’t just turn up, but message in advance!

Roy’s itself was rather quirky, with loads of character and a little pool. We were only passing through, but with more time I’d happily stay here for a night rather than treating it purely as a lunch stop.

Our overnight stop was Hakusembe River Lodge, right on the Kavango River with Angola sitting just across the water. We actually stayed in the lodge’s Camping2Go safari tents, rather than the main lodge accommodation, and thought they were excellent value.

These are permanent, fairly simple but very comfortable self-catering safari tents with en-suite bathrooms, around a 10 minute walk from the main lodge. Each has a proper outdoor kitchen, with all the cooking equipment you need.

You still have access to all the main lodge facilities, including the swimming pool, bar and river boat trips. And the staff are lovely. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are also available at the lodge if you don’t fancy cooking; meals are mostly buffet-style and the resort itself is fairly large, so it does attract tour groups. We ate dinner here though, and it was great.

Camping2Go was a really good compromise: the space and lower cost of self-catering, but with the pool, bar and other facilities of a proper lodge. After five hours in the car, we mostly wanted to use the pool, sit by the river and have an easy evening before continuing east the following morning.

Visiting the Mbunza Living Museum

Before we departed the next morning, we visited the Mbunza Living Museum, around 15 minutes away from the lodge. This is a community-run cultural experience where local guides demonstrate traditional skills and ways of life of the Bantu people of the Okavango river.

We learnt about everything from making fire and traditional fishing methods to food, crafts and everyday life, with plenty of opportunities to have a go ourselves. It was interactive enough to keep the kids interested and gave us some context for the communities we were driving through along the Kavango.

I find living museums and cultural village visits sometimes feel a little awkward or voyeuristic, but the Mbunza Living Museum is run by the local community, and by visiting I hope that we were directly supporting the people sharing their knowledge while helping traditional skills and culture to be passed on and kept alive.

Days 14–15: Divundu and Mobola Island Lodge

🛏️ Where we stayed: Mobola Island Lodge
Driving time: ~3 hours

After the previous day’s long drive, this was a much easier hop east towards Divundu and Mobola Island Lodge, on the banks of the Okavango River.

This was one of the more memorable places we stayed. The lodge has its own little island reached by a long suspension bridge over the river, with a bar and deck at the other end. Sitting out there at sunset, listening to the hippos and watching the river and Angola on the other side, was pretty hard to beat.

We stayed in a self-catering family bungalow, so we could cook for ourselves a little rather than eating at the lodge every night, although the food there was good.

We also organised (through the lodge) a boat trip on the river combined with a flora and fauna walk on one of the islands, spotting hippos and crocodiles along the way. Our guide had an impressive collection of hippo and croc stories, which made me increasingly terrified as the tour went on. Luckily we arrived back in one piece!

This was another stop where two nights worked really well. We could do the boat trip and explore, but still had plenty of time to sit by the river and enjoy the lodge. We were also able to get some laundry done here, which by this time was much needed!

Days 16–17: Bwabwata National Park and Camp Kwando

🛏️ Where we stayed: Camp Kwando
Driving time from Mobola: allow most of the day if you’re exploring Bwabwata en route

Rather than driving straight to Camp Kwando, we used the journey to explore Bwabwata National Park, visiting both the Mahango and Buffalo Core Areas.

This felt completely different to Etosha. The roads were much sandier, driving was slower and, most strikingly, there was barely anybody else there. We saw plenty of wildlife, but without the convoys of safari vehicles you can sometimes get around a particularly good sighting in the bigger parks.

And then we found a lioness.

In the Buffalo Core Area, our timing was so lucky, as we spotted her emerging from the buses onto the road just as we drove past. We stopped and reversed to watch her, and then she proceeded to stalk three impala from behind a tree! There were no guides, no other vehicles – it was just the four of us sitting silently in our car watching this lioness hunt.

It was incredible. I still think about her almost every day.

She didn’t ultimately catch an impala while we were watching, but that didn’t matter one bit. Finding her ourselves, with nobody else around, was one of my favourite wildlife experiences of the entire trip.

🛞 Self-driving Bwabwata

If you’re planning to explore these areas yourself, allow much longer than the distance on the map suggests. The sandy tracks made progress slow in places, particularly through the Buffalo Core Area, and you definitely need to turn the 4×4 on and possibly reduce your tyre pressure.

It was very quiet when we visited, which was wonderful, but also means you need to be comfortable driving independently in a remote wildlife area. A proper 4×4 was essential here.

We couldn’t find much info about Bwabwata National Park online, but we picked up this guidebook once we were in Namibia (sold in most lodges and tourist shops throughout the Zambezi strip), and I highly recommend it – it gave us much more confidence in our Bwabwata excursions, with good maps, history, and landscape and wildlife info galore.

The following morning we headed out again, this time self-driving through Mudumu National Park. It was another quiet, remote-feeling park with sandy tracks and very few other vehicles – quite a contrast to the busier wildlife areas later in the trip.

We saw plenty of wildlife, even two male lions from VERY far away (but which we would never have seen if another vehicle hadn’t come by and shown us), but in hindsight I might choose the Kwando Core Area of Bwabwata instead. It’s further from Camp Kwando, which was why we’d opted for nearby Mudumu, but having seen how much we enjoyed exploring the other Bwabwata Core Areas independently, I’d be tempted to make the longer drive next time (or stay another night and do both!).

That afternoon we swapped the 4×4 for a boat cruise from Camp Kwando. After several days of self-driving, it was nice to let somebody else do the navigating while we watched hippos, crocodiles, water monitors and an extraordinary amount of birdlife from the river, which also gave us a completely different perspective on the landscape.

Our favourite stay: Camp Kwando

Camp Kwando was our favourite accommodation of the whole trip.

It wasn’t one of our cheaper stops. As a family of four, we couldn’t all fit into one safari tent, so we needed two twin tents (which were fairly plush), which pushed the price up considerably. But this was one of the places where we felt the extra money was worth it.

The staff were exceptionally kind and welcoming, and the food was excellent. I’d definitely recommend having dinner and breakfast at the lodge.

There was a nice (small) pool which we enjoyed in the heat of the day. Before dinner, we’d sit with a drink in the open-air lounge while they brought out popcorn, listening to all the wildlife sounds around camp. It was just a really nice spot, with excellent service and a real feeling of being well looked after.

And then there was Henry. Camp Kwando has a resident guest in the form of Henry the hippo, who has a habit of wandering around the camp after dark.

This meant that before walking back to our tents at night, we needed to check with the staff whether Henry was around. If he was, we were escorted rather than attempting to negotiate right of way with a hippopotamus.

And at night, as well as the hippos, we could also hear lions roaring in the distance from our tents!

It was wild enough to feel properly adventurous, but with brilliant staff, excellent food and a comfortable bed at the end of the day. For us, Camp Kwando was absolutely worth the splurge.

Days 18–20: Chobe, Botswana

🛏️ Where we stayed: Mwandi View
Driving time: ~2½–3 hours, plus the Namibia–Botswana border crossing

We sadly waved goodbye to Camp Kwando and crossed into Botswana for the final safari section of our trip. On the way we changed the last of our Namibian dollars into Botswana pula in Katima Mulilo, so we had cash for the border if needed. In the end, we were able to pay by card and the crossing itself was fairly straightforward and didn’t take longer than an hour.

We stayed at Mwandi View, on the road south from Ngoma Gate, in a safari tent overlooking the floodplains. It was a good location for exploring Chobe National Park, and gave access to the less visited side of the park (i.e. the other side from Kasane, where the majority of accommodation for Chobe is located). Mwandi View had nice little pool and bar area and a small waterhole in front – although we didn’t see much when we were there but I think we were unlucky.

There is no ATM between the border and Mwandi View, so if you want to withdraw Botswana pula after the border, you have to do a long detour to Kasane (~2 hours round trip). We were glad to have some pula with us (which we exchanged in Katima Mulilo – see above) for tipping guides and lodge staff, although the big costs could be paid by card.

We’d booked meals at the lodge in advance, along with our game drives. The food was fairly expensive and, I’ll be honest, wasn’t amazing. Our tent had some self-catering facilities, including a kettle, microwave and BBQ facilities, but no hob, so cooking a proper meal wasn’t all that straightforward either.

There also aren’t really alternative places to eat nearby, so I’m not entirely sure what I’d do differently if we stayed again. I’d probably investigate the self-catering options more carefully and arrive with food that could actually be prepared with the facilities provided. But that’s hindsight rather than something we tested, so I can’t confidently tell you there’s a better solution. Overall, it was a decent place to stay in a good location.

We had our car collected directly from the lodge on our first morning here, since we’d decided to book game drives in Chobe rather than self driving, and we knew taking a taxi over the border to Zimbabwe and Victoria Falls was much easier than taking a rented vehicle over the Zim border. This also saved us a few days in vehicle hire costs. The guy who collected the car gave it a quick once over, and we had a quick chat with the guys in Windhoek over the phone so we knew we were giving the car keys to the right people. That was all it took; no complicated handover at all!

Game drives in Chobe National Park

We booked both our Chobe game drives through Mwandi View in advance, which made everything very easy.

We did a three-hour afternoon game drive one day and a six-hour morning drive the following day (setting off at 6am). The lodge packed us breakfast for the longer drive, so we stopped and eat breakfast out in the park.

🥶 Seriously, early morning game drives were COLD

Our early-morning Chobe game drive in August was absolutely freezing. You’re setting off before sunrise in an open safari vehicle, and once you start moving the wind chill makes it considerably colder.

We had lots of warm layers, luckily! Trousers, fleece, proper warm jacket, hat and a buff to protect your face. Gloves wouldn’t go amiss either (although we were okay without).

It does warm up quickly once the sun is properly up, so layers are essential. You’ll go from wondering whether frostbite is imminent to stripping down to a t-shirt a couple of hours later.

Both drives were brilliant, helped enormously by our guide, Lucky, who was fantastic. He knew where to look, explained what we were seeing and was just generally excellent company for several hours in a safari vehicle.

And the wildlife was phenomenal.

We saw huge herds of elephants and buffalo, hippos, baboons and an extraordinary variety of birds.

And lions. Lots and lots of lions. Across the two drives, we saw 17 lions – more than we’d seen anywhere else on the trip. After spending days scanning the bush in Namibia for big cats, Chobe suddenly seemed to be handing them out.

The six-hour drive sounds like a long time with kids, but ours were absolutely fine. In fact, if we went back, I’d go further and book a full-day game drive. There was so much to see that six hours didn’t feel excessive at all, and there are places where you can get out of the vehicle and stretch your legs (or eat your packed breakfast / lunch) so you’re not cooped up in the jeep all day!

Having a guide here was genuinely worthwhile. After the freedom of self-driving Etosha and Bwabwata, it was interesting to experience safari differently: Lucky knew the tracks, was able to get intel from other guides we passed, and understood the animals’ behaviour, while we could concentrate entirely on watching them.

Why we skipped a Chobe River safari

A Chobe River safari is one of the most popular activities here, but we decided not to do one.

By this point we’d already done several boat trips and river safaris in Namibia, and we simply didn’t feel we needed another. With limited time and budget, we’d rather spend the money on experiences that added something different.

If Chobe is your first opportunity to see wildlife from the water, you may well want to add one. But don’t feel you have to book every activity simply because it’s on the standard Chobe checklist!

Days 21–22: Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

🛏️ Where we’d stay next time: Lokuthula Lodges
Transfer time from Mwandi View: ~2 hours driving plus +/-2 hours for the border crossing

Mwandi View arranged our transfer from Botswana to Victoria Falls, which made the logistics considerably easier. They picked us up in a nice minibus and drove us to the Botswana–Zimbabwe border, where things became rather less slick!!

The border crossing took us around two hours. There was a big queue, lots of people and moving vehicles and everything felt slightly chaotic (one group of people were trying to enter Zimbabwe with Zambian visas!!)

Our Botswana driver introduced us to the Zimbabwean drivers who would take us onwards. I joined the immigration queue while my husband transferred our luggage between vehicles, which involved walking everything across the car park.

We’d left Mwandi View in this rather smart minibus, but our Zimbabwean transport turned out to be a tiny, slightly falling-apart car into which the four of us, two drivers, and our luggage were somehow squeezed for the final hour to Victoria Falls.

It wasn’t glamorous. But we made it!

Where we stayed in Victoria Falls – and where I’d stay instead

We stayed at Victoria Falls Rest Camp, largely because I’d thought being able to walk to the falls would be important, and because it was cheap.

Honestly? I wouldn’t stay there again.

It was perfectly practical, the pool was nice and the location was central, but the whole place felt rather institutionalised – a bit like a prison camp with a swimming pool; our self catering cottage was extremely basic, and we didn’t find the staff particularly helpful.

More importantly, I’d completely overestimated how important it was to be within walking distance of the falls. Victoria Falls has taxis, and after dark you should be cautious about walking anyway because wildlife, including elephants, can move through town.

Next time, I’d choose somewhere nicer and use taxis. My pick would be Lokuthula Lodges, which is why I’ve linked that above rather than recommending somewhere we wouldn’t personally return to.

🚁 Seeing Victoria Falls

We booked a combined excursion through GetYourGuide that included a guided walking tour of Victoria Falls, a helicopter flight and lunch at The Lookout Café.

The helicopter flight was absolutely amazing. It’s expensive and over quickly, but seeing the scale of Victoria Falls from the air was completely different from viewing it on foot. Of all the paid activities we did here, this is the one I’d most enthusiastically do again. In advance, I wasn’t quite sure if it would be worth it, but it 100% was! It was SO exciting.

The guided walk gave us our proper look at the falls themselves, before we finished with a fantastic lunch overlooking the gorge at The Lookout Café.

Powered by GetYourGuide

💵 You pay every time you enter Victoria Falls

This was something I hadn’t really appreciated before we arrived.

For international visitors, ordinary entry to the Victoria Falls Rainforest is currently listed at US$58 per person, kids 12 and under are half price (5 and under are free). For our family of four, that’s US$203 just to go in once.

And that’s an entry fee, not a pass allowing you to wander in and out throughout your stay.

I’d imagined that by staying centrally we’d be able to wander down to the falls a few times – perhaps see them one afternoon and pop back again the following morning. At $203 per visit for our family, we absolutely weren’t doing that.

This is another reason I wouldn’t choose accommodation purely because it’s within walking distance of the falls. Realistically, you’re probably going to make one proper visit, so stay somewhere you actually want to spend time and take a taxi when you need one.

Check the latest fees before travelling, as park charges can change.

Our final dinner at Dusty Road Township Experience

For our last dinner, we booked Dusty Road Township Experience, and it was a brilliant way to finish the trip.

It’s very much an experience created for visitors, with colourful, theatrical surroundings and a whole evening built around Zimbabwean food and culture. But it didn’t feel like just another tourist restaurant. The food was fantastic: loads of traditional dishes and local ingredients, with plenty to try that we hadn’t encountered elsewhere on the trip.

It’s fun, lively and deliberately immersive – dinner is only part of the reason you go. We loved it!

Did we love Victoria Falls?

This is a difficult one.

The falls themselves are extraordinary, and the helicopter flight was one of the standout experiences of our entire trip. I’m very glad we did that; it was so so worth the expense!

But Victoria Falls town itself was also the most touristy place we’d been on the whole trip, and I didn’t completely love it.

There’s a huge amount to do – ziplining, rafting, cruises, bungee jumping, restaurants and shows – but almost everything is another paid activity. Even the obvious option of simply wandering back to look at the falls comes with another substantial entrance fee.

With more time, I’d probably lean into it and book some of those experiences – ziplining appeals, and I’d consider The Boma dinner and drum show for another evening, which sounds fun, albeit touristy. But otherwise, I think two nights was enough to see the falls properly, take a helicopter flight and have a good final dinner.

For us, Victoria Falls worked well as a spectacular finale to the road trip rather than somewhere I wished we’d spent loads more time!

Day 23: Victoria Falls to Johannesburg and home

We took a taxi to Victoria Falls Airport around lunchtime, then flew back to Johannesburg for our overnight flight home.

As on the outward journey, our Johannesburg–London flight was on a separate ticket. Because we were travelling hand luggage only, we could stay airside and follow the international transit route rather than entering South Africa to collect and recheck luggage (still went through the strict security screening though!).

We then flew overnight to London, arriving home on Sunday morning – just over three weeks after we’d left.

Travelling hand luggage only made those separate-ticket connections considerably simpler and meant we could take advantage of cheaper flight combinations. Just remember that separate tickets come with additional risk: if your first flight is delayed and you miss the second, the onward airline generally has no obligation to rebook you.

Can you do a Namibia and Botswana road trip in two weeks?

Yes, but I would definitely not try to squeeze our entire route into two weeks, it would be awful and you would be driving almost the whole time! And you’d not have enough time actually being anywhere to do the fun stuff!

If we only had two weeks, I’d choose between two quite different trips.

Option 1: Etosha, the Zambezi Region, Chobe and Victoria Falls

For a 2 week Namibia Botswana itinerary focused on wildlife, this would be my choice.

I’d fly into Windhoek and head towards Etosha, maybe via a stop at Big Cats Farmstay (which we didn’t stay at, but came highly recommended to me by The Travelling Trowberrys) then continue east through the Zambezi Region (formerly the Caprivi Strip) before crossing into Botswana for Chobe and finishing at Victoria Falls. I’d drop Spitzkoppe, Swakopmund and Brandberg from our three week route.

I wouldn’t want to lose the Zambezi Region. It was one of the highlights of our trip and feels completely different from western Namibia: lush, green and dominated by rivers, with hippos, crocodiles and some wonderfully quiet wildlife areas like Bwabwata National Park, where we saw our lone lioness.

Option 2: A classic two week Namibia road trip

Alternatively, forget Botswana and Victoria Falls and make it a Namibia-only loop from Windhoek.

You could build a more classic itinerary around Sossusvlei, Swakopmund and Etosha, then break up the journey back towards Windhoek with somewhere such as Otjiwarongo. (Check out this classic Namibia itinerary as an example)

This has another advantage: you return your 4×4 to Windhoek, avoiding the substantial one-way rental fee that comes with dropping it in Botswana.

You’d miss Chobe, Victoria Falls and – most importantly for us – the Zambezi Region, but you’d get a brilliant (and cheaper) Namibia road trip without constantly watching the clock.

Whichever version you choose, I’d really recommend doing less and enjoying it properly! Don’t underestimate those driving distances, and don’t fully trust google maps with the drive times. Often things take longer than you expect!

What we packed

We travelled hand luggage only for the entire three weeks, so everything had to earn its place. I’ll cover exactly what we took in a separate Namibia and Botswana packing guide, but there are a few things I wouldn’t do this trip without:

• Binoculars (these are the ones we bought) for everyone. Honestly, get one pair each. Nobody wants to hand over the binoculars when they’re watching a leopard a long way away.
• A good southern Africa wildlife guide. This is the one I recommend. It’s not too fat, but has everything important! We used ours constantly for identifying animals and birds as we travelled.
• Zwela safari journals for the kids. A great way for them to keep track of what we’d seen and done each day – and lovely illustrations, lots of info and tips too.
• Osprey Ace 50 backpacks for the kids. These were their main bags for the whole three weeks and worked brilliantly – they’re small enough (just!) for travelling overhead luggage only, as long as they’re not full.
• Proper warm layers. Fleeces, warm jackets, hats and long trousers. Those early safari drives were considerably colder than any of us expected.

We deliberately didn’t bring loads of safari-specific clothing or expensive gear. You don’t need any of that stuff to sit in a 4×4 and look at wildlife!!

What we’d change if we did this trip again

Not much, actually! It was so brilliant, we had such a huge variety of amazing experiences and overall it was not difficult, just a good level of adventure. We’d happily do almost exactly the same route again. But with hindsight, there are a few things I’d tweak (I’ve linked each bullet point to the relevant part of the itinerary):

• Stay at Namutoni instead of Mushara Lodge for one night. Mushara was lovely, but we simply weren’t there long enough to justify the cost. Give me two nights, a bigger budget and a free afternoon and I might feel differently.
• Choose Lokuthula Lodges in Victoria Falls. The Rest Camp was okay, but I wouldn’t stay there again. I thought being within walking distance of the falls would be key, but we could just as easily have taken a taxi.
• Consider Kwando Core instead of (or as well as) Mudumu National Park. Mudumu was worth exploring, but I’d be tempted to spend time in the Kwando Core Area instead or as well.
• Book a full-day game drive in Chobe. Our six-hour drive was brilliant; the kids were absolutely fine. It was varied, exciting and we had the opportunity to stop and stretch our legs a few times. I thought six hours would be enough, but actually we would happily have stayed out longer.

The important bit is what we wouldn’t change: the overall route. Three weeks gave us enough time to combine Namibia’s desert landscapes and Etosha with the much greener Zambezi Region, then Chobe and Victoria Falls, without feeling as though we were permanently packing up and driving somewhere else. No regrets on skipping Sossusvlei. For this particular trip, I’d rather keep the time for wildlife, the Zambezi Region and Botswana.

And I’d stay in lodges rather than camp again too. Rooftop-tent camping is a brilliant way to reduce the budget and we met families having a fantastic time doing it, and I think we’d have found it really fun. But having proper beds and bathrooms throughout helped stop three weeks of driving and early safari starts becoming exhausting.

Would we do this trip again?

Absolutely. Our Namibia, Botswana and Victoria Falls self drive trip was one of those holidays that felt really, properly, adventurous without being particularly difficult to organise independently.

Three weeks was right for us. There were some long driving days and early starts, but enough two and three night stops that we never felt we were simply racing through the itinerary. And at 12 and 14, the kids were absolutely fine with both the driving and the longer safaris.

What really worked was being masters of our own time. Having our own 4×4 meant we could leave when we wanted, stop when we wanted and change plans when we’d had enough. On self-drive safaris, we could spend half an hour watching something interesting – or abandon a waterhole completely if everyone was bored and hungry.

And the driving itself was part of the trip. This isn’t like driving around England. Outside the towns there was very little traffic, with huge landscapes, gravel roads and views that made the long distances considerably less tedious. Up in the Zambezi Region, we’d pass small villages and see people going about everyday life – kids walking home from school and people carrying water back from pumps – rather than experiencing the country solely from inside safari lodges.

It also meant we could mix independent self-drive safaris with guided experiences where they genuinely added something. We loved finding wildlife for ourselves in Etosha and Bwabwata, but were equally happy to hand over responsibility to Lucky in Chobe and let him find us lions galore.

For a family trip, that freedom and flexibility was probably the biggest advantage of doing it this way.

If you’re planning the same trip, I’d book your 4×4 and key accommodation first, particularly Etosha and the smaller lodges. Once those are sorted, you can start filling in the fun bits.

And if you’re still planning, these might help next:

→ Namibia & Botswana packing list (coming soon)
→ Things to do in Swakopmund with kids (coming soon)

Three weeks, three countries and more wildlife than I ever imagined – I’d do it all again tomorrow.