Swakopmund — Adventure & Colonial Architecture

Swakopmund is the most bizarre city in Namibia — and perhaps all of Africa. Imagine a German small town, somewhere between the Baltic Sea and the Black Forest, and place it on the edge of the oldest desert in the world, right by the icy Atlantic. That's Swakopmund.

The city was founded in 1892 as a German port and has remarkably well-preserved its colonial architecture: the Hohenzollernhaus (1906) with its distinctive tower, the Old Court, the lighthouse, the Jetty (a 325 m long pier), and countless half-timbered houses. The street signs still read "Bismarckstraße" and "Moltkestraße". In the cafés, there is apple strudel and Black Forest cake.

But Swakopmund is more than an open-air museum: The city has developed into Namibia's adventure mecca:

• Sandboarding — racing down the sand on the dunes of the Namib at up to 80 km/h
• Quadbiking — tearing through the dune landscape on the outskirts of the city
• Skydiving — tandem jump over desert and ocean at the same time
• Kayak tours — fur seal and flamingos in the Walvis Bay lagoon
• Living Desert Tour — fascinating tour to the "Little Five" of the Namib: chameleons, geckos, sidewinder snakes, and spiders that survive in the sand

Swakopmund is the perfect place for 2–3 rest days on a Namibia tour — especially after the heat of Sossusvlei. On the coast, it is significantly cooler (15–22°C year-round!) thanks to the cold Benguela Current, and morning coastal fog often hangs over the city.