The East side of Etosha is higher in wildlife, large herds, and excellent tourist facilities (like Namutoni and Halali rest camps).
The West side of Choose Etosha is for solitude, dramatic hilly landscapes, and unique species like Hartmann’s mountain zebra.
We are proposing two different itineraries depending on whether you are arriving from the West or the East.
Itinerary Option A: If you arrive from Anderson Gate and leave from Namutoni.
From Anderson Gate, you have two options: sleeping in Okaukuejo or outside the park.
Sleeping in Okaukuejo:
Pros: waterhole inside the camp; however, a couple we met during lunch there told us that the waterhole was empty both at night and in the morning.
Cons: waterholes outside the camps are not super close, around 20 minutes.
Sleeping outside the park:
Pros: Ombika waterhole is just a couple of minutes from the Anderson gate, giving a l big chance to see cats enjoying the water, when the felins are most active.
Cons: driving 20 minutes away or to the gate
For the second night, you have two options: sleeping in Halali or Numutoni.
Sleeping in Halali:
Pros: The waterhole inside the camp is very active at night, and you have good chances to see rhinos.
Cons: waterholes outside the camps are far away, around 30 minutes.
Sleeping in Numutoni:
Pros: multiple waterholes outside the camps and at a close distance.
Cons: long drive from Okaukuejo.
Itinerary Option B: If you arrive from Namutoni and leave from Anderson Gate.
For the first night, sleep in Namutoni:
Pros: Namutoni is the best place inside the park. There is a waterhole, even if a bit far away from the lookout. But the best quality is the several waterholes outside the camp, just a few minutes away.
Cons: none
For the second night, you have two options: sleeping in Halali or in Okaukuejo.
Sleeping in Halali:
Pros: The waterhole inside the camp is very active at night, and you have good chances to see rhinos.
Cons: waterholes outside the camps are far away, around 30 minutes.
Sleeping in Okaukuejo:
Not recommended from Namutoni. Waterholes outside the camps are not super close, around 20 minutes, and the drive from Namutoni is long.
Why is it important to have waterholes close to the gates?
Visitors are not allowed to drive inside the park before sunrise or after sunset. Most people agree that wildlife is most active during the hour before and after sunrise and sunset, and that was our experience as well.
For this reason, having waterholes close to the gates is a major advantage. You can reach them shortly after the gates open in the morning or stay there until just before the gates close in the evening, maximizing your chances of seeing animals during their most active periods.
We chose Option A, spending the first night outside the park. We had read many negative reviews about the accommodations at Okaukuejo, which influenced our decision.
However, after driving from Anderson Gate to Okaukuejo, then back to Ombika Waterhole, continuing to our hotel, and finally returning to Anderson Gate the next day, we felt that the extra driving was a bit excessive.
That said, Ombika Waterhole was fantastic and one of the highlights of our visit. If we were to do the trip again, we would still choose to stay outside the park for the first night, mainly because of the opportunity to spend more time at Ombika.
We had read many negative reviews about the lodges inside the park, so for our first night, we decided to stay outside Etosha. However, for our second night, we stayed at Halali Lodge and found it completely adequate. While accommodations inside the park are generally more expensive and offer less value for money, they provide a unique advantage: the opportunity to visit the waterholes at night and potentially see wildlife after dark.
Etosha Omusati Lodge, which included breakfast and dinner. We stay in a shalet. It was perfect, modern, clean, spacious, and isolated from other shalets.
It is possible to drive through the park with almost any type of vehicle. We drove a Suzuki Jimny, which was ideal for handling the large potholes on some of the roads. That said, we also saw regular 2WD sedans driving through the park without any issues.
If you choose to drive a sedan, be selective about which waterholes you visit. In our experience, some of the roads leading to more remote waterholes would have been extremely difficult, if not impossible, to navigate without a high-clearance vehicle.
We assumed that guided safari tours have a significant advantage over self-driving (our experience in Chobe NP), but that was not our experience in Etosha. In practice, private visitors and tour vehicles often follow the same roads and visit the same waterholes. We frequently saw tour vehicles spending valuable time stopping for common sightings such as impalas, rather than focusing on finding the more sought-after animals.
Another common assumption is that guides share information with each other about wildlife locations. During our visit, this did not appear to be the case. Different vehicles seemed to operate independently, and I rarely observed guides exchanging information about recent sightings. In fact, there was often noticeable competition between safari vehicles. At several lion sightings, I saw drivers aggressively positioning their vehicles to secure the best viewing spot, sometimes blocking the view of other visitors. Rather than a cooperative atmosphere, some sightings felt crowded and competitive.
We believe that self-driving in Etosha can provide an experience that is very similar to a guided tour, while offering greater flexibility to spend time where you want and follow your own schedule.
