When to go to Etosha National Park?
→ The detailed month-by-month page, with real weather records
Best time: May to October
At a glance
Why go to Etosha National Park?
Etosha works differently from Africa's other great parks. Here you don't go looking for the animals: you park in front of a waterhole and wait for them to come. From May to October not a drop of rain falls, the savannah dries out completely and the fifty or so permanent springs become the only lifeline for 114 species of mammal. The result is a density of sightings few reserves can match, with lines of elephants, zebras and giraffes filing past your windscreen one after another.
The park was created in 1907 by the German governor von Lindequist, making it one of the oldest reserves in Africa. It then covered 80,000 square kilometres, cut back to 22,270 in 1970. At its centre, the Etosha Pan spreads 4,760 square kilometres of salty clay, the remains of a lake that dried up when the Kunene River changed course. Dry eleven months out of twelve, it is covered with a film of water after heavy rain and then draws tens of thousands of flamingos that come to breed.
Etosha is also one of the few places to see black rhino without a guide or tracking. Its free-roaming population is among the largest on the continent, and the floodlit waterhole at Okaukuejo lets you watch them almost every night, just a few metres away. Add the black-faced impala, a subspecies found only in north-western Namibia, and the Damara dik-dik. All of it can be explored in an ordinary car on gravel roads in good condition, with no compulsory guide.
Map of Etosha National Park: what is where?
The map shows the 6 places covered in this guide, to picture the distances and plan your route.
- Okaukuejo
- Etosha Pan
- Halali
- Namutoni
- Salvadora
- Olifantsrus
How much does a trip to Etosha National Park cost?
The entry fee stays modest, around €8 per person per day plus €3 per vehicle. It's accommodation, car hire and fuel that make up the budget for a stay in Etosha, with steep increases in July and August.
| Style | Per day | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Backpacker | €70-110/day | Camping in the park's camps, braai cooking, ordinary car shared between two, entry fees included |
| Comfort | €150-230/day | Chalet in an NWR camp or lodge to the south, rented 4x4, dinners in restaurants, fuel for 200 km a day |
| Premium | €450+/day | Private reserve on full board, guided drives morning and evening, night safari and light-aircraft transfers |
The Namibian dollar is pegged to the South African rand, which is accepted throughout the country, at around 20 to €1. Cards work in the camps and at the camp fuel stations, but network outages are frequent: always keep 1,000 to 2,000 Namibian dollars in cash. The nearest ATMs are in Outjo and Tsumeb, outside the park.
Is Etosha National Park safe?
Etosha is a safe park as long as you follow two simple rules: stay in your vehicle and be back before the gates close. Getting out of the car outside authorised areas is forbidden and dangerous, as lions and elephants are regularly close to the roads without being seen. Elephants in musth and females with young can charge: keep fifty metres away, engine running, and never push on if an animal is blocking the road. Inside the camps, jackals and hyenas roam at night, so don't leave food outside. On the driving side, the gravel is treacherous above 60 km/h and rollovers are the country's leading type of accident. Malaria is present from December to May in the north of the park, with a low risk in the dry season: seek medical advice. Finally, the nearest clinic is in Tsumeb or Outjo, two hours' drive away, and evacuation is to Windhoek: insurance covering repatriation is essential.
What to see and do in Etosha National Park
- Okaukuejo waterhole
- Etosha Pan
- Moringa waterhole at Halali
- Namutoni Fort
- Chudop waterhole
- Salvadora and Charitsaub waterholes
- Olifantsrus hide
- Dolomite Camp, in the west of the park
Okaukuejo and its waterhole
The park's historic camp, 17 km from the southern gate, with its 1960s water tower and the Etosha Ecological Institute, based here since 1974. The waterhole, floodlit all night, is edged by a low wall and tiered seating. In the dry season, elephants arrive in the late afternoon and black rhino show up almost every night between 9pm and 2am. It is the only place in the park where you can watch wildlife at night without leaving your seat.
The Etosha Pan
Four thousand seven hundred and sixty square kilometres of salty clay, 120 km long and 55 wide, the remains of a lake once fed by the Kunene before it changed course. The surface stays dry eleven months out of twelve, white and blinding, with constant mirages on the horizon. After heavy rain, a sheet of water a few centimetres deep covers it and draws tens of thousands of lesser and greater flamingos. The Etosha Lookout viewpoint lets you get out of your car.
Halali and Moringa waterhole
The central camp, backed against a dolomite hill, halfway between Okaukuejo and Namutoni. Its waterhole is watched from stone tiers, in a calmer and more hushed atmosphere than at Okaukuejo. Black rhino, elephants and, more rarely, a leopard coming down from the hill come to drink here. The denser vegetation in this sector attracts kudu and eland. Tsumasa Hill, ten minutes' walk from the camp, looks out over the savannah at sunset.
Namutoni Fort
A white fort with four towers built by the German garrison in 1903 to keep watch over cattle movements to the north. On 28 January 1904, seven soldiers held out here against several hundred Ovambo fighters before slipping away at night. Rebuilt in 1906 and declared a national monument in 1950, it serves as the entrance to the park's eastern camp. The rampart walk overlooks the plain and King Nehale waterhole. The palm groves in this sector are a complete change from the rest of Etosha.
Salvadora and Charitsaub plains
Two artesian springs on the southern edge of the pan, on a bare plain without a single bush, which makes for rare viewing conditions: you see the herds coming from three kilometres away. This is the best part of the park for lions, which use the slightest dip to creep closer, and for big gatherings of springbok, oryx and zebra. The glare off the salt becomes hard to bear from 11am, so it's better to be there at sunrise.
Olifantsrus and the west of the park
Olifantsrus, opened in 2014, is the only camp in Etosha reserved for camping and the only one with a covered two-storey hide overlooking the waterhole, where you stay on foot. The site occupies the location of an elephant culling plant that operated from 1983 to 1985, a history explained frankly on site. Further west, Dolomite Camp opened up in 2011 a half of the park that had stayed closed, with hills, mopane and black-faced impala.
How many days, and which itinerary?
Three nights in the park are the useful minimum: one per camp, to cover the three sectors without spending your days driving. Four or five nights let you add the west, Olifantsrus and Dolomite, and go back to a waterhole that delivered.
🗺️ Day-by-day itinerary · 📓 Free printable Etosha National Park guide (PDF) · 🌍 All of Namibia
The classic crossing (3 nights)
Enter by the Andersson Gate in the south, two nights at Okaukuejo for the floodlit waterhole and the Nebrownii and Gemsbokvlakte loops. Then drive to Halali with stops at Salvadora, Charitsaub and the pan lookout, one night there and Moringa waterhole at dusk. Third day to Namutoni via Goas and Chudop, a night at the fort, then exit the next day by the Von Lindequist Gate towards Tsumeb or the Waterberg.
Etosha in depth (5 nights)
The three-night route, plus two nights in the west: one at Olifantsrus, to spend a whole morning in the covered hide, and one at Dolomite, on its rocky ridge, in a sector where you pass two vehicles a day. This format also leaves room for a whole morning at a single waterhole, which completely changes the quality of your sightings compared with a string of short stops.
Northern Namibia (2 weeks)
Windhoek to start, then the Waterberg for its sandstone cliffs and white rhino, four nights in Etosha, and Damaraland for the World Heritage rock engravings of Twyfelfontein and the desert elephants of the Huab River. Then down to Swakopmund and the Skeleton Coast, before heading back via Sossusvlei and the Namib. Allow for a 4x4 and 3,000 kilometres of gravel road in total.
Getting there and getting around
The park is 5 hours from Windhoek via the B1 then Otjiwarongo and Outjo, or 5 hours 30 via Tsumeb for the eastern gate. The main roads are paved right up to the gates. A high-clearance ordinary car is enough for the park's internal roads, and a 4x4 becomes useful after rain.
Inside, you get around in your own vehicle: 900 kilometres of compacted gravel roads, limited to 60 km/h and well signposted. Getting out of the vehicle is forbidden except at the camps and a few authorised spots, and the gates open at sunrise and close at sunset.
Fuel stations are found only at Okaukuejo, Halali and Namutoni, and sometimes run dry. Fill up at every camp, especially before heading west, where there is nothing between Okaukuejo and Dolomite, three hours of gravel road away.
Without a car, the lodges around the park sell guided drives in open vehicles, morning and late afternoon, for €50-90 per person. They also offer night drives outside the park, the only way to see predators after the gates close.
Where to stay in Etosha National Park?
Namibia Wildlife Resorts camps inside the park, at Okaukuejo, Halali and Namutoni: €120-180 for a double room. Comfort is basic and service patchy, but sleeping inside puts you at the waterhole at first light and after sunset.
Campsites at the same camps, plus Olifantsrus in the west: €25-40 per pitch for two, with washrooms, a braai and often a pool. Book several months ahead for July and August, as these are the most sought-after pitches in the country.
Private lodges along the southern fence, between Outjo and the Andersson Gate: €90-200 half board. Comfort is markedly better but means 30 to 60 minutes' drive morning and evening, which costs you the best hours of light.
Private reserves bordering the park, to the east around Onguma or to the west on Etosha Heights: €300-600 per person full board with guided drives. They allow night safaris and walking, both forbidden in the national park.
Our places to stay, stop by stop, at three budgets →
What to eat in Etosha National Park?
The park's three camps each have a buffet restaurant, at around €15-25 for dinner, and a shop selling vacuum-packed meat, bread, tinned food and beer. Quality varies, but it's the only option inside: there are no shops between the camps.
Namibian camp cooking revolves around the braai, the barbecue fired with mopane wood: lamb chops, coiled boerewors and oryx or kudu steaks. Every campsite pitch has a fire pit. Allow €8-12 a kilo for meat from the shop.
Biltong, spiced dried beef or game, and droëwors, dried sausages, are snacked on while driving and found everywhere. Pap, a maize porridge, and potjiekos, a stew simmered in a cast-iron pot, round out the local repertoire.
Allow at least three litres of water per person per day in the hot season. Camp water is drinkable but heavily mineralised, with a pronounced taste. The private lodges serve more elaborate food, often at a communal table at a set time.
Entry requirements
Since 1 April 2025, EU, UK, US, Canadian and Australian passports all need a visa. For UK, US, Canadian, Australian and most western EU passports it is issued on arrival at Windhoek airport and the main borders, or applied for online in advance, for NAD 1,600; other EU nationals should check with a Namibian embassy. The passport must be valid six months beyond arrival, with three blank pages.
Rules change: check your own government's travel advice before you go.
Frequently asked questions about Etosha National Park
When is the best time to visit Etosha?
From June to October, in the heart of the dry season: the vegetation has died back, the animals depend on the waterholes and sightings become almost guaranteed. September and October are the best months for concentrations of wildlife, at the price of 35°C in the afternoon. From January to April, the savannah turns green, the animals disperse and many roads become difficult.
Can you visit Etosha in your own car?
Yes, and it's actually the most common way to do it. The 900 kilometres of internal roads are compacted gravel, limited to 60 km/h and passable in a high-clearance ordinary car in the dry season. No guide is compulsory. You must stay in your vehicle outside the camps and the few authorised spots, and be back before the gates close.
How much is the park entry fee?
Around €8 per adult per day for a foreign visitor, plus about €3 per vehicle. Payment is made at the entrance gate or at the camp reception, in Namibian dollars or by card when the network is working. Children under 16 get in free. The fee is charged for each day spent inside.
Should you sleep inside the park or outside?
Inside the park if sightings are your priority: the camps give you access to the floodlit waterholes at night and let you be out on the roads as soon as the gates open, while the predators are still active. Outside if you want comfort and better food, accepting 30 to 60 minutes' drive morning and evening during the best hours.
Can you really see the Big Five in Etosha?
Four out of five, realistically: lion, elephant, leopard and rhino, the latter mostly at night at Okaukuejo. Buffalo are absent from the park. The leopard remains the hardest and is mostly seen at dusk around Halali. The cheetah, which isn't on that list, is seen regularly on the open plains south of the pan.
Similar destinations
City🇲🇦 Merzouga and Erg Chebbi
Country🇿🇦 South Africa
Country🇰🇪 Kenya
Country🇹🇿 Tanzania
Country🇲🇬 Madagascar
Country🇨🇳 China
Country🇦🇷 Argentina
Country🇵🇪 Peru
Country🇧🇼 Botswana
Country