Etosha National Park

Amazing wildlife, great lodges and beautiful landscape

We had a self drive from Windhoek and our main reason for visiting was the prolific wildlife. Our first stop was an overnight stay in 'Olive Grove'. A really small boutique hotel, with lovely attention to detail and great food. Our next stop was Hoodia Desert Lodge in Sesriem to visit the world famous dunes. The lodge was beautiful and each chalet has air-con - a blessing in the scorching heat. The main lodge area was beautifully furnished and the manager and staff were extremely helpful and friendly. The food was also very good. We took an early morning trip to the dunes and our guide spotted and showed us stuff we never would've noticed. The walk to the top of Big Mama dune was hard work (for me), especially in 100 + degree heat. The highlight of this trip for me was seeing Dead Vlei - with black burnt trees against an orange background and a cloudless blue sky. This was a photographers dream. We then drove to Erindi private reserve and stayed in Traders Lodge. This is quite a large busy lodge, but the views from the lounge overlooking the waterhole was amazing. We were greeted on arrival by Wild dogs in camp. The evening viewing from camp was non stop from elephants, hippos, zebra, giraffes, wildebeest and Eland, all visiting the waterhole over the course of the evening. Our room overlooked the small waterhole at the rear of the lodge and lions and rhino came in the dead of night (caught with a remote camera). The game drives although good, are in my opinion a bit too organised. We were also unfortunate to have a vehicle that broke down twice! Unfortunately, they hadn't fixed the problem from the previous drive, and so we broke down again the next day. It was disappointing as this meant we missed most of our sundowner, as we were waiting for another vehicle to come and pick us up. The animals are tracked by GPS, and so you are nearly guaranteed of seeing what you want, it felt more like a safari park than an african safari. From here we went on to Etosha for 6 nights. Our first stop was Okaukeujo where we had booked a premier waterside chalet (definitely worth the extra), as you are right next to the waterhole and can sit out all night watching the game come and go. We had an amazing experience with elephants staying from early evening to sunset and beyond, just during themselves and bathing and playing. The trumpeting was an experience never to be forgotten. The chalet was clean and modern. The restaurant is average but the food could be better - however, you go to Okaukeujo for wildlife not a gourmet meal. Our second stop was Onguma Reserve, just out side Etosha. A nice camp which felt like an oasis compared to the dry dusty plains of Etosha. We had one evening game drive in the Onguma reserve which was a little quiet compared to Etosha. The guides are excellent and vehicles comfortable. The waterhole within the reserve was quiet when we visited. We saw a few giraffe and some waterbuck. Our next stay was in Anderssons Camp, again just outside the park. A nice old camp with a vibrant evening waterhole, where Rhino seem to visit every night - Their camp side is great, you are literally within feet of the many animals that go to drink there. We had one game drive within Onguma and saw the resident lions and rhino. We opted to self drive in Etosha and the waterholes are vibrant and teeming with animals. This was our second visit to Etosha and we were concerned we would be disappointed after having a great safari previously - but we were not disappointed and will visit again.

Dusty landscape teeming with wildlife

I spent three full days in Etosha National Park in September 2015. I spent the first night in the campsite at the Okaukuejo waterhole, and the following two nights at a hotel just outside of the park, near the southern Anderson Gate. I would highly recommend the campsite over a hotel, as you don't need to spend time driving to/from the gate at sunrise and sunset, and the floodlit waterhole offers the opportunity to watch the animals at night. The weather in September was perfect - clear skies and quite warm, but not too hot.

I spent several hours each morning and afternoon driving through the park, with a 4x4 rented in Windhoek. The roads are gravel, but are wide and most are well-maintained. I saw five rhinos, seven lions, as well as elephant, zebra, giraffe, springbok, gemsbok, kudu, hartebeest, steenbok, black-faced impala, and several species of birds. I was able to get very close to many of the animals and the size of the park, even though it's fenced, meant that there were large areas to explore and it felt like you could really see the animals in their natural habitat.

Among the park's we visited, Etosha NP was by far the best. A lot of animals, long drives and many options of waterholes, many spots of the Etosha white goast Elephants and lion cubs.

An experience everyone should do!

If you like driving through beautiful scenery and spotting wildlife, Ethosa is the place to be!

We spend a couple of beautiful days at Ethosa national park. Starting near namutoni, we first discovered the very eastern part of the park, spotting a great variety of colorful birding and wildlife at fisher's pan. On our second day we drove through the park to okaukuejo, taking as many loops as possible and exploring different areas of the park. We were especially fascinated by the great variety of landscapes and the animals which inhabit it. Seeing elefants, giraffes, zebras and other animals so closely is just amazing and in my opinion you will never get sick of it....unfortunately we didn't spot any cats, it might be different if you don't choose to do a self drive but book a safari because many guides know special areas in which lions, leopards and cheetahs live.
Nevertheless we had a great time. A personal highlight was the water whole at okaukuejo, where you can just sit and watch wild animals in their natural habitat - an amazing opportunity for unique moments. I'd recommend Ethosa to anyone visiting Namibia.

Absolutely great landscape and wildlife

We saw a lot of different game, such as herds of Zebras, Springboks, Orys and lots of Elephants, Giraffes, Hyenas, Lion, Cheetahs and much more. The scenery was amazing, changing a lot from green to brown and green again. The pan is impressive too. We stayed at the Ongave Tented Camp just outside the park.

Beautiful landscape, but wildfires

I visited the southwest side through Galton Gate, for a single day, self-driven. Wildfire smoke obscured much of scenery, but we still have great views of zebra, kudu, springbok, vultures, and many other species at the waterholes. The entrance gate could use quite a bit of work in terms of providing maps, guidebooks, and other educational materials. We also visited Dolomite camp just for a look-see - very lovely and quiet.

Unexpected landscape and plenty of wildlife easily reacheable at your own leisure

I stumbled to the Etosha National Park a little by chance as I am usually more interested in landscapes than safaris. Said that...I have being flabbergasted by the park. The nature there is very much different than anything I had seen before and the abundance of wildlife is just stunning. You are left to wander freely in the park, as long as you stick to the indicated roads, and I felt more like landscaping in a very much alive place more than doing a safari looking for this or that animal. I could just enjoy my time going around and wildlife will just be there...literally crossing your road and popping out. And it is peaceful, and quite, and not crowded at all. Not to mention that it is very easy to do on your own with definitely well organized campsites inside the park, indications and roads. Maybe it lacks a little bit the real bush feeling, being so well organized, but you can get that anywhere else in Namibia outside the park just by driving around and stopping to camp wherever you feel like to. I would love to go back there at the end of the rainy season to see how water would transform it, but August was amazing as it was as it felt even magical and eerie in its dryness. As a practical advice, if you plan to do it as a road trip on your own in August as we did, and want to stay inside the park at night, which I strongly advice to do, you should try to book the campsite quite in advance as it seems tour operators get a big chunk of the available places in advance. This means that already in February we had been told by some camps that they had no places available for private travelers. Last but not least, the Halali campsite, which probably is the simpler of the ones inside the park, is probably the one where you want to stop longer if you are looking for a more wild vibe and nature peacefulness. In all we spent 3 days in the park, 2 nights sleeping inside, and all 3 days we saw something different. And we could have spent easily more days there had we had the time. Cheers!

A very dry, very warm, very dusty desert paradise

My 3-day stay in Etosha National Park was the highlight of my Namibian Trip so there was lots of animal activity around the watering holes, both day and night. The game drives were excellent with knowledgeable guides, excellent cook and comfortable tents. On each game drive there was a variety of animals but on one special day we came upon a large herd of elephants which included bulls and babies. Mingling with this herd were zebra, springbok, kudu and giraffes. but I enjoyed sitting at the watering hole viewing area watching the dramas unfold.

My first safari experience

I really enjoyed my trip to Etosha National Park in August last year. We stayed at Mokuti Etosha Lodge which was such a nice place to come back to, relax and enjoy great food after the excitement of a day spent in the park. The breakfast was particularly good, the staff was extremely friendly and helpful (a very noticable difference to some other experiences I've had with the Namibian 'service' culture... I guess it's because there are mostly tourists at the lodge that they've received more/better training?) and the beds were very comfortable. The lodge is located right next to one of the entrances and not far from Namutoni. On our way there we spotted the first animals. We later saw (among others) lots of giraffes, gnus, elephants, zebras (with foals, so cute), and what we believed to be the ears of a couple of lions taking a nap in the bushes.
As it was only mid-August i.e. spring was just beginning, the temperatures were still a bit unsteady. For the first half of our first day, I was wearing jeans and a scarf as well as a thick woollen jumper on top of my (long-sleeved) blouse and still felt cold. However, in the afternoon it became so hot that I took everything off again and basically ended up wearing just my vest as a top. It may have been just me though, as everyone else seemed just fine with the temperatures, but I would definitely recommend wearing/bringing some extra layers of clothing that you can take off or put on when necessary. Other than that I think normal (non-flashy) clothes work just fine as you're not allowed to leave your vehicle anyway.

My trip to Etosha National Park was a completely new experience for me that I enjoyed thoroughly.

From the UK we flew to the capital of Namibia (Windhoek) and hired a car from there. After travelling several hundred kilometres north to Anderson gate on the south part of the park we arrived at ongava lodge. The lodge staff were very welcoming and made our stay very special. The lodge has a total of 34,000 hectares of private land bordering Etosha and several styles of camp to suit people's adventure. On a daily game drive we entered Etosha through Anderson gate and spent several hours at waterholes and open plains watching all types of wildlife such as elephants and lions. After spending multiple hours in the fresh winters sun we returned to the lodge for lunch where we recieved a wide array of local cuisine. A proportion of relaxation time in the afternoon was quickly broken when we embarked a sundowner drive in the ongava reserve. Our very knowledgable guide took us to prime locations to make sure he would fulfil are passion to see a honey badger and secretary bird. After a lovely stay at ongava lodge we set off to the Far East of the park were we stayed at onguma lodge near the town of namutoni. This lodge was very different with a moroccan design. Are lodge like ongava where all separated and at least 50-400 metres from the main building, meaning we had to be driven by a electric car at all times back and forward, besides the mild inconvenience this definetly made our stay very more exciting. The onguma lodge had roughly the same private land and same agenda but the landscape had changed from a baron land to a place where there was many more trees. The trees attracted more wildlife like the higher possibility of seeing leopard and bush babies. After another 4 days in Etosha it was time to leave after an unbelievable stay. throughout my stay in Etosha everything was great, the guides, weather, lodges and wildlife and I can't say enough how much I recommend Etosha national park