When to go

That is a July morning. In January the same waterhole is quieter, because after the rain the animals find water elsewhere too.

Namibia essentially has two seasons. May to October is winter and the dry season: on long-term averages Windhoek gets less than 5 mm of rain a month from May to September, the days are mild and the nights cold. Summer brings heat and rain. The main rainy season runs from December to March. Germany's motoring club ADAC counts November as part of it, other climate guides start in December. Windhoek averages 27 mm in November and 91 mm in January.

And the rain is unevenly spread. The south-west sees 10 to 50 mm in a whole year. The Zambezi Region in the far north-east gets up to 800.

Rainy season

December to Marchsome sources start in November

Dry season

May to OctoberWindhoek: under 5 mm a month until September

Etosha

July to Octoberanimals gather at the waterholes

Coast

16 to 20 °Caverage daytime highs near Walvis Bay, all year

Windhoek in July

21 / 6 °Cday and night averages, 1991 to 2020

Month by month: Windhoek, the Namib and the coast

Average daily highs and lows. Windhoek: German and Namibian weather services, 1991 to 2020. Namib: Gobabeb research station. Coast: Pelican Point station near Walvis Bay, 1958 to 1984.

The Namib stays warm even in winter. At Gobabeb the July daytime average is 27 °C, almost six degrees more than Windhoek. Its hottest month is March. On individual December days the desert and the interior reach 40 °C.

The coast plays by its own rules. In summer it is eleven or twelve degrees cooler than Windhoek during the day. And its coolest days come not in June and July but in August and September.

May to October: dry, clear and cold at night

In June and July Windhoek sees around 21 °C during the day. Nights average 6 to 7 °C, and some drop below freezing. The Namib and the interior follow the same pattern: 25 to 30 °C by day, down to about 0 °C on cold nights. If you sleep in a rooftop tent, bring a sleeping bag rated for frost.

This is Etosha's season for wildlife, especially July to October. Why? The longer it has been since the last rain, the more animals come to the waterholes. That is where you wait for them, in the car or on a bench at the camp. At Okaukuejo the waterhole is floodlit at night.

From September temperatures climb fast. Windhoek reaches 30 °C by day in October. In the north October is one of the hottest months of the year, with 33 °C in Tsumeb and 34 °C in Ondangwa, and that is before the first rain.

September is also when the high-risk malaria season starts in Etosha, lasting until May. From June to August the risk there is medium. What that means for tablets and mosquito protection is covered under entry and health.

The multi-day hike through the Fish River Canyon is a winter-only affair. NWR, the state-run parks company, opens the trail from May to September.

December to April: rain and what it does to the roads

In January and February Windhoek has rain on ten or eleven days a month. The north gets more: around 130 mm in January in Tsumeb, around 106 mm in Ondangwa. The Namib and the coast get almost none of it.

For self-drivers what counts is what the rain does to the roads. According to the Roads Authority, about 83 per cent of the network is unsealed, and the Road Fund puts it at 90 per cent. Any of those roads can end up under water after heavy rain.

The 2025/26 rainy season showed what that looks like. On Christmas Eve 2025 several roads in Etosha were closed, including those near Okaukuejo and Ombika. In February 2026 Mariental was flooded. In early April the D1206 between Rietoog and Bullsport was under water, and gravel roads around Sossusvlei had flood damage. That is how travellers reported it on the namibia-forum.ch forum.

Tar is no guarantee either. In March 2025 the B1 bridge over the Aris, about 30 km south of Windhoek, was impassable after rain. And the C13 between Aussenkehr and Rosh Pinah is often in poor shape in the rainy season and closed at times when the Orange River floods.

The effects can last into winter. In 2026 the Fish River carried so much water that NWR pushed the start of the canyon hike from 1 May to the second week of May, closed the trail again in June and only reopened it on 17 July. The /Ai-/Ais resort announced on 25 June that it was fully open again.

If you travel between December and April, build in spare days and ask at your lodge about conditions before each gravel stage. How to drive on wet gravel is covered under practical tips.

Summer has its upside, though. Rental cars cost least, and one camp only exists at this time of year: Torra Bay on the Skeleton Coast opens only in December and January.

On the coast the season hardly matters

Near Walvis Bay daytime temperatures sit between 16 and 20 °C all year. The sea is 13 to 15 °C from June to August and 16 to 18 °C from December to February. Pack a jacket for Swakopmund, even in January.

Then there is the fog. Figures for how often it rolls in vary: 140 fog days a year are given for Walvis Bay, more than 180 or around 200 for the coast elsewhere. It reaches up to 140 km inland. Gobabeb, in the middle of the Namib, still counts 94 fog days.

When it gets busy and expensive

The state-run NWR camps in Etosha treat July to October as high season. Car hire rates follow a similar rhythm, but each company sets its own dates.

At Asco a Hilux with rooftop tent for one or two people costs €110 a day from 1 January to 14 March and €127 from 15 March to 14 July. From 15 July to 14 August it is €205, then €179 until 14 November and €117 to the end of the year (2026 rates for 6 to 15 rental days, as of October 2026). Namibia2go keeps it simpler. Its Hilux with rooftop tent cost N$ 2,640 a day until the end of June 2026 and N$ 3,520 from July to October 2026.

Check South Africa's school holidays as well as your own. The summer break there runs from 10 December 2026 to 12 January 2027. In 2027 it is followed by holidays from 20 March to 5 April and from 26 June to 19 July. For the break around the turn of September and October the sources disagree: a summary of the government gazette gives 23 September to 4 October, gov.za gives 2 to 10 October.

Our tipTravel in July or early August and you pay Asco's highest daily rate of the year. From 15 August it drops by €26 a day (2026 rates, as of October 2026). Push your trip back two or three weeks and you save over €500 on a three-week rental, with Etosha still in the dry season.

What the car costs in detail and which insurance comes with it is covered under car hire.