Consider doing a road trip between Cape Town and Johannesburg instead, or, if you’re dead-set on desert, do a road trip in Jordan, Oman, or the Southwestern U.S. Sure Namibia’s desert landscapes are beautiful and one-of-a-kind, but South Africa also has equally-worthy scenery and much better roads. So if you don’t like the idea of spending your days feeling like you’re trapped inside a giant paint can shaker, you might want to think twice about doing a major road trip in Namibia entirely. Good thing we didn’t tell them about the other two or it would’ve been triple that! ✗ SanityĮven a Buddhist monk couldn’t help but eventually run out of patience and start swearing and pulling his hair out scratching his scalp because of Namibia’s mind and body-numbingly terrible roads. ![]() We did and ended up getting dinged $120 US by our rental agency for returning our car with one patched tire. So unless you can find third-party insurance to cover you, you’re going to have to take the risk. You are very likely to puncture a tire or crack a windshield at some point along Namibia’s shamefully mismanaged dirt roads-we punctured three tires in our trip!-so a Namibia road trip is the rare case where it might actually be in your favor to do so.ĭon’t count on your credit card’s insurance to cover tires and windshield either, because it almost certainly does not. ![]() Normally, this wouldn’t matter because car rental usually insurance isn’t worth it. You have to rent in Namibia to be covered there. ✗ Insurance TroublesĬar and truck rental agencies don’t offer tire and windshield insurance outside of the country you rent from, so if you rent in South Africa like we did you won’t be covered in Namibia. In this case, flying to Namibia and doing a round-trip road trip from there would have been slightly cheaper. But if we had rented a truck instead, which in retrospect we should’ve done-we’ll elaborate on this later-the one-way fee would’ve been about $390 US. And whichever direction you go you’ll save roughly $120-$200 US per person on a one-way flight ticket, plus the hassle of flying, baggage restrictions, getting to the airport, and all that.īut one-way car rental fees negate those savings and possibly supersede them.įor our little VW Polo, the one-way fee was $280 US, so Kim and I came out pretty much even. Sure, you save money if you drive from Cape Town to Namibia because car rental is generally cheaper in South Africa than in Namibia. You’re not going to save money by doing a one-way road trip between South Africa and Namibia. Why Not Do a Cape Town to Namibia Road Trip? ✗ Money Thirteen days later, we arrived with a much better understanding of why-and why not-to do a one-way road trip between Cape Town and Namibia.įeeling overly confident with our VW Polo at the beginning of our trip in Fish River Canyon. We loaded a rental car with whatever we’d accumulated during our six months living in Cape Town, plus some flea market-sourced camping gear and set off towards Windhoek. We couldn’t comprehend why a Cape Town to Namibia road trip wasn’t more popular. When we looked for Cape Town to Namibia road trip info online, we found nothing. ![]() It combines two of Southern Africa’s top attractions into one trip with less flying, no backtracking, and more adventure. ![]() Why Aren’t One-Way Road Trips Between Cape Town and Namibia More Popular?Ī one-way road trip from Cape Town to Namibia (or vice-versa) is a no-brainer. Compliment it with our Namibia travel tips, South Africa road trip tips, Cape Town travel blog, and in-depth Namibia travel blog and itinerary, and honest pros and cons of visiting Namibia. This post will help you determine whether a Namibia road trip from Cape Town is worth it and share inside tips if you do.
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