When to go to Etosha

Best Time To Go To Etosha; When To Go To Etosha

When you are looking to travel to such a place as Sub-Saharan Africa, the chances are you are not hoping to be rained on – particularly if you are travelling to such a dry place like Namibia. African holidays are made up mostly by time in the wilderness on safari and on the beach in a little slice of Indian Ocean paradise. For a safari, it is generally better to travel in the drier months which are, as a rule of thumb, usually in the British Summer Time of end of June – October. Very sweepingly, this is when most of the parks in both east and southern Africa are drier, making the animals forced to congregate around waterholes and easier to spot generally. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule…

Generally there is less rain in Namibia than the rest of southern Africa due to the dry desert climate. However, for Namibia and Etosha within this it is best to go in their winter months (June – September) as in these months it is not unbearable hot. The nights can get chilly with lows of around 6 degrees, so make sure you bring some warm clothes. It is important not to go in the really hot months of October and November, because you will find that doing activities in the heat of the day become almost unbearable. The wildlife in Etosha is also great in these months though. If you can handle going just when it starts to get very hot though, you may avoid the crowds, so this is also something to consider. However, for general levels of comfort and safari enjoyment we would stick to the more wintery months.