I got to Swakopmund by road with a very lively group of Kenyans and Tanzanians from the same tourism conference where I had been speaking in Windhoek. Just attending a conference and then flying back was never my kind of travel, and this was my first visit to Namibia, so that was a no-brainer.
After an early morning departure from Windhoek, the urban sceneries quickly turned into a flatter landscape and then open desert. Sand. Sky. Not much else. Pretty, but monotonous. Slightly shorter than Nairobi–Mombasa, but decent roads and little traffic. A quick but epic stop at Spitzkoppe to marvel at Namibia’s most famous granite arch and some pretty serious peaks. Then the coast. Then Swakopmund, neat and oddly placed, with cold Atlantic air and more German leftovers than you might expect in this part of the world.
Swakopmund – “German” Town in the Desert
The original, much bigger plan had been a proper Namibia road trip with a rental car: Sossusvlei, Lüderitz, Kolmanskop, Skeleton Coast. The usual overconfident map work. Then, unfortunately, my business partner got stuck and couldn’t travel. So, change of plans. Luckily, this was a tourism conference, so I was not out of options. Swakopmund became part of a shorter run instead. Fair enough. Namibia was never going to be a one-trip country anyway.
Swakopmund is small, tidy, easy to get around, and slightly odd in a way I liked immediately. German colonial architecture is still all over the place. Old buildings. Neat streets. Bakeries. Sea air. A cold Atlantic edge that keeps the place from getting too soft.
Desert on one side. Ocean on the other. That alone is enough reason to stop.
That said, I was not there to study the street layout. Together with the same conference group, I joined a prosecco-assisted trip down to Walvis Bay and Sandwich Harbour, which turned into a very good mix of big scenery and violent bouncing over sand. The dunes down there are absurd. So is the strip where sand runs straight into the Atlantic. It looks excessive even when you are right in the middle of it.
Quad Biking: Some Unmissable Adrenaline
And no, I was not going to leave Swakopmund without taking a quad bike into the dunes. That would have been poor judgment. Charging over the sand around sunset was exactly as fun as it should be. Slightly stupid. Very enjoyable. Strongly recommended.
Swakopmund is not a place you go for vibrant nightlife. Seafood, though, it handles very well. Fresh oysters, solid fish, savoury prawns, good sushi, decent white wines. Seafood from cold waters usually has more taste, and on that point Southern Africa beats the equatorial regions quite comfortably. Swakopmund did not disappoint. I rarely eat twice in the same place when travelling, but Andy’s Sushi, Oyster & Fine Seafood Restaurant made me make an exception. The others were impressed enough, in any case, that I did not have much choice but to follow.
I was there in June, so the version I got was cool and slightly bleak around the edges. Good. That suited the place. Swakopmund would have been less interesting as some standard warm-weather beach town. The cold Atlantic and the German-Namibian mix give it its edge.
It also sat well in the wider Namibia run. Windhoek had been the conference stop. Swakopmund brought in sea air, a different climate, and a more playful stretch before Walvis Bay and Sandwich Harbour took over properly. As a base for a few days, it makes sense. Compact town. Easy logistics. Plenty to do in and around it, especially if your idea of a good time involves dunes, engines, and a certain disregard for clean shoes.
I did not get the long Namibia journey I had planned. I got a shorter one, with less range and fewer stops. Swakopmund still earned its place. Odd town. Good stop. Strong scenery. Stronger contrast.
Namibia still owes me the longer version. Swakopmund was only one piece of it, but it was a good one.
..and if you liked the pictures, you’ll love the video!
Quadbiking looks cool in pictures, but ten times better on video. The motion is the whole idea, so it kinda goes without saying, right? Anyway, I couldn’t help but make one from the desert right outside Swakopmund, so watch and enjoy! 🙂