Your 2 week Namibia itinerary: A wonderful family adventure

Your 2 week Namibia itinerary, part 3, brings you all the wildlife you could ever wish for!

A 2 week Namibia itinerary, part 3

After the wild landscapes of Damaraland, the final stretch of our two-week Namibia road trip with kids brought a completely different rhythm. With farm stays, safari days, pool afternoons and one last dreamy night near Windhoek we saved the best until last! This part of the trip felt like the perfect family-friendly mix of adventure and downtime, with so much wildlife to keep everyone excited. It definitely made the long driving days feel manageable.

Day 10: Damaraland to Big Cats Farm Stay, Outjo

We drove from Damaraland to Big Cats Farm Stay near Outjo and arrived just in time for a sundowners game drive. This was such a gorgeous way to ease into the evening after a long road day. Our stay here was definitely one of the best places we stayed in Namibia.

The drive from Damaraland was around 4 hours and we stopped at Outjo bakery for lunch. We ended up eating here 3 times in the coming 4 days, it is so good. There’s even a play area for kids and the food is such good value. £25-£30 for all of us with meals and drinks.

Big Cats farm stay itself is tucked away in the bush, 40 minutes from Outjo. It feels wonderfully peaceful, with family-friendly houses and rooms, air conditioning, private terraces, a pool (well plunge pool), and the sort of quiet that makes you instantly slow down. What truly makes this place though is Rolf and Rachel. They are two incredible hosts. This is accommodation you must stay at when visiting Namibia with kids.

Dinner and breakfast are a big part of the experience here, both delicious although there is also the option of self-catering. Once darkness fell we headed out again for a night drive. This was one of the highlights of the stay, and such a fun activity to do even with young kids. We spotted anteaters, African wildcats, porcupine, owls, and of course springbok.

It was a sensational experience – we had low expectations but driving around the reserve under the watch of the milky way was a ‘pinch me’ moment. Each game drive cost us around £120 for the four of us, and worth every penny!

Day 11: Into Etosha National Park and Okaukuejo Campsite

After a superb breakfast, we drove to Etosha National Park, entering via Andersson Gate. This is the main southern entrance and the most convenient gate if you are coming from Outjo. Total drive from Big Cats farm stay was 1.5 hours and a very easy drive with good tarmac roads from Outjo.

It is worth arriving with time in hand, as this is where passports are checked. You also get the important reminders about gate times and park rules before heading in. They will check your car – drones are not permitted, and you can’t take meat outside of the park.

From the gate it is an easy drive towards Okaukuejo, just 20 minutes to the campsite where you pay your entrance fees (£80 for 2 days for the four of us). We headed straight out on a self-drive safari around the south area of the park.

Within 5 minutes we spotted zebras at the side of the road and it just kept getting better and better. On our first three-hour self-drive we were already spotting giraffes, zebras, ostriches and springbok. This is exactly the kind of easy safari success that makes Etosha brilliant with kids. We kept them entertained with a points competition and tally charts on who spotted what! The family of giraffes with their baby right by our car was a true highlight of our time in Etosha.

We stayed at Okaukuejo Campsite, one of the best-known camps inside the park. It has powered campsites, shared toilets and showers with hot water, a pool, a shop, and restaurant facilities. The floodlit waterhole that makes staying inside the park such a special experience. It is only around 17 km from Andersson Gate, which makes it especially practical. However it’s not luxury and the truck camping area feels a bit more like a car park. It was also noisier and life begins before 6am with everyone getting up for their early morning drives.

Day 12: Etosha with a Guide, Then Pool Time

For our second Etosha day, we booked a private self-drive guide through Born in Etosha. It meant the guide joined us in our own car rather than us moving into a safari vehicle. We started at 7am, ran for around four hours and cost us about £100. This is excellent value for a much more personalised safari.

The guides are local experts who were born and raised in the Etosha area. They know the park incredibly well. It worked brilliantly for us with kids. We kept all our own snacks, seats and familiar car setup, but still had expert eyes helping us spot wildlife and choose the best routes. The best thing and value was the access he has to a whatsapp group. All the guides share what they have spotted, without which we may not have seen the elephants or rhinos!

We actually booked him for the whole day and initially planned a 3-hour break and going back out at sunset, but the kids were done after the morning! “We’re animal-ed out” they both declared!. So after the morning drive we slowed the pace right down and spent the afternoon back at the pool area.

Day 13: Leaving Etosha for Sophienhof

After our Etosha safari days, we left the park and headed to Sophienhof for a softer, slower kind of wildlife stay. And from this point on we ditched the truck and roof tents. It was proper beds for our last 3 days.

Sophienhof Lodge is set just outside Outjo on a large private property surrounded by Mopane savannah. It felt instantly calming after the dust and early starts of Etosha. The lodge offers bungalows and campsite options, plus a pool, restaurant, bar and plenty of space to unwind. It is a great places to stay as a family.

It is one of those stays where you can do as much or as little as you want. Settle into the room, enjoy the gardens and let the children have some downtime, or head out for one of the activities on the reserve.

We happily leaned into the hotel side of things and just enjoyed a more restful afternoon before dinner. We read books, played games round the pool and chilled out a bit. There is even wildlife to spot around the cottages with the birds, dik diks and nyalas paying us a visit.

Our package included breakfast and dinner. The kids slept on sleeper beds in our room rather than us having to book 2 rooms. This was their suggestion (as we did originally book 2 rooms). The dinner is a 3 course meal buffet style, with 2-3 meat dishes (vegetarian meals are served straight to you), 2 sides and salad. Drinks are not included but are very reasonably priced.

Breakfast at Sophienlodge is incredible. We all still speak of the freshly baked bread basket and mango marmalade. There’s eggs, sausage, bacon and then a cold buffet as well and of course hot drinks and juice.

Day 14: Cheetah Conservation Fund and a Sophienhof Sundowner Drive

From Sophienhof we made a day trip to the Cheetah Conservation Fund near Otjiwarongo, which is a really worthwhile stop if you want to balance safari with something more educational. Its around a 90 minute drive from Sophienhof and I wish we had got there sooner or could have stayed longer. We had just over 2 hours as we had booked a game reserve in Sophienhof for that evening.

CCF welcomes day visitors and offers activities including guided tours, cheetah feeding, cheetah runs and safari drives. It is worth pre-booking the experience you most want to do. There is a age limit for the cheetah runs but we thoroughly enjoyed the drive and the guides are once again so passionate. We found 5 cheetahs in their reserve. Although one took a bit of a fancy to Nyle and the guide may a swift exit.

The centre is focused on conservation, research and education rather than being a simple attraction. Visiting gave us a much better understanding of cheetah protection in Namibia. There is a museum, shop, café and cheetah feeding at 2pm which is worth waiting for.

Back at Sophienhof that evening, we ended the day with a sundowner game drive on the lodge’s private reserve. The property spans around 9,000 hectares and offers a surprising amount of wildlife. We had wildebeest chasing springbok, rhinos in their dozens, giraffes in front of our game vehicle. And the sky at sunset was sensational.

We originally booked Sophienhof due to them offering ostrich feeding with their game drive. However, it turns out that this is no longer a standard offering which led to a very disappointed Nyle and we probably wouldn’t have done another game drive here had we known.

But the staff at the hotel were so amazing that they arranged a private 1-2-1 feeding session the following morning which was one of our entire trip highlights. So kudos to the exceptional customer service experienced at Sophienhof when staying with kids!

Day 15: Outjo to Windhoek Game Camp via the Crocodile Farm

Our last full day and our heart strings were being pulled already. We didn’t want to leave!

We drove from Outjo towards Windhoek and broke up the journey with a stop at the Crocodile Farm in Otjiwarongo, which turned out to be a really easy family road-trip stop. It is the only crocodile farm in Namibia, and visits include short guided tours where you can see crocodiles of all sizes and learn about breeding and conservation.

It’s worth noting though that this isn’t a farm where conservation is to stop crocs being kills – it’s a farm where they are still killed for their skins but in a more humane and controlled way than perhaps in the wild. Alicia was a little traumatised by the stories of how they were slaughtered, but Nyle loved holding a baby croc!

Tours run during business hours, and if you are visiting between September and May there is also a Saturday 11am feeding session that is worth timing for. There is a restaurant and gift shop on site too, as well as a playground for the kids, so it is more than just a quick look around. And we can vouch for the food in the café being exceptional! And there are plenty of other options than just crocodile! Although if you want to try croc tongue or testicles, you can do!

3 hours later and by late afternoon we arrived at Windhoek Game Camp, and it was such a lovely final-night stay. This felt like such a treat!

The food and service were both fantastic, the pool area was gorgeous, and the whole place feels like a little wildlife retreat despite being close to the city – in fact it’s only 30 minutes from our 4×4 rental drop off so great for a first or last day place to stay.

The luxury tents have private terraces and family-friendly setups, and one of the absolute highlights is that giraffes are often visible from the pool, around the restaurant and even from your balcony or terrace. In fact, we were a mere 2 metres from one when packing the car the next morning. It felt like the gentlest, prettiest way to wind down after two weeks on the road.

I also have to call out the service at Windhoek Game Reserve – Nyle was ill and they brought our entire 3 course meal to our room so we could all eat together. The staff genuinely couldn’t do enough for us.

Breakfast was equally wonderful with so much choice – eggs and pancakes – and with giraffes coming for their breakfast whilst you ate yours, this was another pinch me moment!

Day 16: Depart Namibia

And just like that, it was time to leave Namibia. After two weeks of huge landscapes, unforgettable wildlife and some very long but very rewarding family drives, this final stretch felt like the perfect way to finish – a mix of safari, conservation, comfort and those little moments that make a trip with kids so memorable. Namibia really is one of those places that gets under your skin, and even on departure day we were already talking about coming back or what our next African adventure would be.

If you are planning a Namibia self-drive with children, this final section of the route is such a good reminder that you do not have to choose between adventure and comfort. A few well-timed lodge stays, a campsite inside Etosha and some easy educational stops made the last week of our trip feel exciting without ever becoming too much. We are glad we did the usual 2-week Namibia itinerary and stops in this order – keeping the wildlife to the end felt like a great motivation on the long drive days.