You will be met in the arrivals hall of Windhoek Hosea Kutako Airport by an ATI representative who will offer a thorough briefing of your whole holiday and go through your marked map, vouchers, and itinerary with you. Your pilot will meet you here and then escort you to the domestic terminal and through security to your light aircraft. Your flight will be shared with other passengers. You’ll then be flown to Kwessi Dunes in the NamibRand Nature Reserve, just south of Sossusvlei. G&Ts at the ready!

Join a professional guided tour to Sossusvlei on day 2 to discover this ancient desert landscape. Your guide will escort you to the highlights of this area which may include Dune 45, Deadvlei, Sossusvlei, and Sesriem Canyon depending on your exact schedule.  Scaling ‘Big Daddy’ (one of the highest dunes in the world) is a standard challenge for fitter guests. Enjoy the amazing scenery of the desert, usually departing your lodge before sunrise and returning in time for lunch. Take another inclusive activity this afternoon, perhaps a relaxing sundown nature drive, or an exhilarating guided quad bike ride!

Hop back on the plane for a scenic flight over the famous Eduard Bohlen shipwreck, Conception Bay and Sandwich Harbour, before touching down in Swakopmund for lunch. Then, it’s onward to Hoanib Valley Camp, over the dramatic Skeleton Coast and then inland to the beautiful interior of the country.

Deep in north-western Namibia, the area is a melee of towering mountains, sand dunes, and huge expanses of desert, scattered with unique wildlife and nomadic Himba settlements. It’s also one of Namibia’s most remote and wild environments, and one that not many will get the chance to discover in a lifetime. A joint venture including the local communities and the Giraffe Conservation Foundation, the world’s only Africa-wide giraffe conservation organisation, the camp is an elegant, intimate affair that immerses you into the wilds of the desert. Days are spent tracking endangered rhino, desert-adapted elephant, and of course desert-adapted giraffe, before retiring to your private veranda to marvel at the magnitude of your surroundings (sundown drink in hand).

This morning you’ll set off on your guided 4×4 transfer/ nature drive, passing through seasonal river valleys, exploring incredible rock formations, and perhaps, if you’re lucky, desert-elephant digging for water, before arriving at the crashing waves and rolling dunes of the Skeleton Coast.

Enjoy your time at the award-winning Shipwreck Lodge. Activities on offer include quad biking, visits to the Clay Castle formations and seal colony, and scenic wildlife drives – or you may like to just put your feet up and admire the views. At Shipwreck Lodge, expect giraffe, lion, baboons, elephant, and elusive brown hyena in the dunes, whilst at the coast you’ll find hundreds of Cape fur seals at the Mowe Bay Seal Colony, and plenty of birds flitting through the chilly ocean spray.

This morning you will enjoy a 1.5 hour scenic early drive to Mowe Bay from where you will fly onwards to the border of the world famous Etosha National Park. Perched on top of a hill, overlooking the plains below, Safarihoek is a stylish lodge, and you’ll find cool, thatched chalets all with private decks, a double-storey photography hide, and a swimming pool with 180-degree vistas of the brilliant savannah.

Enjoy morning and afternoon game drives in the Etosha Heights Private Reserve, and look for the elusive black and white rhino amongst large concentrations of plains game. The impressive 60,000 hectares of classic Etosha landscape around Safarihoek Lodge is dominated by vast, flat savannah interspersed with thickets of mopane woodland, riverine forest, and scattered salt pans. The numerous waterholes attract large numbers of game and their feathered counterparts. The reserve is also home to numerous species of antelope including sable and black-faced impala, as well as giraffe and other plains game. In winter, aardvark and elephant sightings are not infrequent.

Today you will enjoy a last scenic flight southwards, from Etosha to Windhoek International Airport in time to connect with your flight home.