Anderssons at Ongava

private reserve on the southern side of Etosha

Anderssons at Ongava is located in the Etosha area of northcentral Namibia.

This is a reasonably luxurious permanent lodge close to the entrance to this private reserve.

It is centred on a stylish circular main area, with comfortable lounge and dining areas, centred on a campfire area and looking out over a frequently busy waterhole.

Rooms

Guest accommodation at Anderssons at Ongava is in eight large comfortable tented suites, each with a large indoor bathroom and small private terrace.

Activities

Anderssons at Ongava provides access to the following activities, not all of which are usually included in the room rate …

• Vehicle safari (self-drive in the national park)
• Vehicle safari (guided on the private reserve)
• Walking safari
• Rhino tracking on foot
• Hides
• Research station visits
• Night vehicle safari

Etosha is a very well known reserve and, despite its obvious drawbacks, it tends to feature in a very high proportion of trips to Namibia.

The usual stay duration is 1-3 nights in one lodge or 3-5 nights split between two lodges on different sides of the reserve.

Seasonality

The best time to visit Etosha is generally considered to be the long Apr-Dec dry season, when the wildlife should be intensely clustered around the core waterholes.

Getting around

There are three main ways to get around Namibia and visit Etosha …

Self-drive

The first option is to self-drive, which is reasonably safe and easy to do. The upside is that it is by far the lowest cost way to get around. The downside is that, for safety reasons, you are obliged to stick to a relatively limited network of main roads locations.

The Etosha area is mainly visited by self-drivers, the roads are large and very easily navigated.

Flying safari

The second option is to travel around by light aircraft. This is both a great deal easier and enables you to access some wonderfully remote locations. The downside is that it’s much more expensive, as much as three times the price of self-drive.

The better private reserve lodges in Etosha are also quite well patronised by guests on flying safaris. However we believe that the area is fundamentally unable to deliver an experience of sufficient quality to feature in this level of trip.

Guided overland expedition

The third option is guided overland safari, which enables you to really explore the truly wild and wonderful parts of the country. The downsides are that this can be quite an arduous way to travel and can become quite costly.

Etosha very rarely features in guided overland trips. It’s quite hard to find a self-respecting private guide who doesn’t despise the place, to be honest.

Combinations

Many of the very best trips to Namibia combine two or three of these ways of travelling around.

a quiet base from which to raid into the busy self-drive areas