Plan your trip with our Namibia travel guide. The setting: the breathtaking scenery of the Namib Desert, the world's oldest desert, stretches for nearly 1,200 miles along the coast. There are steep sloping dunes, and at Sossusvlei, red sand waves rise high above the desert ocean. To the west, there is scarlet-coloured rocks and the Damaraland petrified forest. To the east, the equally stunning and mindblowing Kalahari Desert. To the north, the wooded bushveld of Okavango and Caprivi. To the south is the Fish River Canyon, with its ravine 1,600ft deep in places. Wildlife: in the Etosha Pan salt plan, waterholes are a magnet for hundreds of zebras, giraffes, rhinoceroses, and elephants. With a bit of luck, you may also be able to see a cheetah.
For the best chance to see one, visit the Okonjima Nature Reserve rehabilitation centre. Lastly, a spot of culture: the 6,000-year-old rock engravings at Twyfelfontein, meet the 11 ethnic groups that inhabit the country, including the media-savvy Himbas in Kaokoveld.