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Home / Blog / Africa / Namibia / Tips for Sossusvlei

Tips for Sossusvlei

  • Advice
  • Namibia
April 23, 2018 by Natalie 41 Comments

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Welcome to Sossusvlei: One of the Most Impressive Places on the Planet.

Busting the crap out of our calf muscles climbing Dune 45.

Sossusvlei is located in one of the oldest deserts in the world, deep in the heart of the Namib along Namibia’s Western coast. The Namib-Naukluft National Park is easily one of the top destinations for visitors to Namibia and for good reason: it’s absolutely spectacular. If you are in Namibia, you need to visit.

Sossusvlei features some of the tallest and oldest sand dunes on the planet and can give even the most deranged camera-operator some stunning shots. You could throw your camera in the air and shoot fifty times and come up with amazing pictures. This place is unreal!

How to Get to Sossusvlei

From Walvis Bay/Swakopmund

Taking the C14 road from Walvis Bay south will take between 5-6 hours of driving. The roads are, at times, extremely bumpy. The drive will take you through the northern part of Namib-Naukluft national park, which is beautiful. Keep an eye out for zebra!

From Windhoek

The most direct route is C26 -> C14  -> C19 South, but this road can be very iffy. (We cracked our windshield on C26). C26 is a STUNNING drive, you’ll drive through some very empty, hilly country. It’ll take about 5-6 hours of driving.

For a slightly less bumpy ride, you can take B1 to Hardap and then get on C19 going West. C19 was pretty corrugated, but we were able to drive this road pretty easily in a 2×4 car. This will also take about 4-5 hours. (Namibia’s huge, yo!).

Tourradar

From the South/ Fish River Canyon

Come up B1 and turn West on C19 (that’s what we did). Took about 5 hours.

If you have a sweet 4×4, you can come up from Aus along C13 -> C27. Don’t know how long this would take! But I do know that if Google cites you 4 hours, add another hour.

Where to stay for cheap in Sesriem

Don’t have $200 bucks to fork over for a lodge? That’s ok! Do what we did and camp!

Camping in Sossus Oasis

We stayed at Sossus Oasis Campsite. It was one of our favorite campsites in Namibia. It was clean, had private camping blocks (including a kitchen and bathroom) and was really close to the main gate to the park. There’s a convenience store and a gas station within walking distance to the campsite, plus a sweet pool!

Rates for 2018: 200 Namibian dollars per person/ per night (kids under 11 years old are 100). That works out to about $16.75 USD per person at the time of writing this.

Tips about the Park:

The park opens to the public at sunrise. This meant 7am when we were there, but will change depending on the time of year you are in town. Don’t believe anyone when they say “6am” or “8am” or whatever. We heard a lot of different times being thrown around while there. Just go at sunrise.

Go ahead: take that 2×4!

The road into the park is paved! It’s a gorgeous road! We were driving over 100km/hr in our little 2×4 and it was buttery smooth.

After the parking lot the road becomes sand, though. No more 2x4s.

This is the 4×4 area. See that sand? That’s the ROAD.

Tickets/Fees:

Tickets are purchased INSIDE the park when you are FINISHED and on your way out. This is to prevent a major line to pay at the entrance and is, in my opinion, freakin’ brilliant.

You buy your ticket at the lodge immediately inside the park gates. Fees for 2018 were:

80 Namibian per person (x2 for the both of us)

10 Namibian for the car

Total: 170 Namibian (about $14 USD).

The Shuttle:

To get to Sossusvlei and Deadvlei and Big Daddy, you’ll need to get on the shuttle. The roads are incredibly sandy beyond the parking lot and only super-duper 4x4s will get in there. These tickets can be purchased for N$170 ($14 USD) each**. Once you have a shuttle pass you can use it to get around the park easily.

**I would HIGHLY recommend getting a shuttle ticket rather than self-drive even if you have a fancy car. These roads are no kidding around.

What to Do in Sossusvlei:

Dune 45

Me: sweating my way up 45.

45 is the first dune you can really climb once in the park. It’s impressive as all hell.

This is also where a lot of tour buses will dump their passengers first thing in the morning, so be prepared to hike with a bunch of dumpy, middle-aged tourists who never hike and stop frequently up the hill to curse.

This took us about 45 min to hike up and down.

From the top!

The views from the top are breathtaking and it’s about half the height of Big Daddy…

Big Daddy

There are some brave souls hiking up Big Daddy.

This is a behemoth; a seriously large sand dune 1,000 feet high. We blew our energy on Deadvlei and Dune 45 so we didn’t hike this, but it sure looked amazing!

At the bottom of this major feature is Deadvlei and we would frequently see people running down the sides of the dune to get to the Deadvlei valley. Would I recommend running down the side of a sand dune? Probably not, but it would sure beat walking back downhill. (Have you ever tried walking up and down hill on sand for a few hours? It is A BUTT-KICKER).

Sossusvlei

The Sossusvlei (don’t be fooled by perspective: it was big!).

Another dune a bit deeper into the park and one that gets fewer visitors. We got there around 11am and it was balls hot so we didn’t climb it, but we were the only ones there (other than the majestic Oryx we saw). I’d recommend coming out here when you first arrive at the park (rather than stopping at Dune 45 first) and go for a hike up this fella’. We didn’t because it was so hot, but had we had another day I would have done that.

Deadvlei

At the bottom of Big Daddy lies this strange, straight-out-of-a-desktop-screensaver area. This is a must-see while at the park. You cannot miss this.

I mean. These dead trees are hundreds of years old and look so… well, you gotta’ see it to believe it. Also: you can’t take a bad picture here.

Deadvlei is a 20-min walk from the parking lot. Bring a ton of water.

Jackson.

Time of Day to Visit:

Go either in the early morning or at sunset. This place is 7th-circle-of-hell hot and unless you get there early or late you will suffer.

We got there as soon as the park opened. It was pretty crowded. Some friends of ours went later in the day and said they had the place to themselves. Maybe you’ll get lucky?

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  • desert
  • hiking
  • national park
  • parks
  • sand
  • sand dunes

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  • Luderitz Camera Roll

Hi, we’re Natalie and Jackson: a trans-continental couple who met in New York City in 2013 and haven’t been apart since. We got married in June 2015 and have been traveling around the world together.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. genny says

    April 25, 2018 at 1:17 pm

    What a majestic scene, I think I would be crazy taking thousands of photos in that magical panorama. I must visit it for sure

    Reply
    • Natalie says

      April 26, 2018 at 4:35 pm

      Oh man, I went crazy too!

      Reply
  2. Brittany says

    April 25, 2018 at 5:37 pm

    I need to go here immediately! OMG…look at that sand!!! Is it soft!?!? That color! RADDDD

    Reply
    • Natalie says

      April 26, 2018 at 4:34 pm

      Ha! Yes! That sand was buttery smooth! It felt nice and cool on the toes, but once the sun started coming up to heat the world it started to get super hot! And those colors are amazing!

      Reply
  3. Marguerite says

    April 26, 2018 at 6:13 am

    Wow, your photos are absolutely incredible! Now, I want to plan a trip to Sossusvlei and go to this park!!!

    Reply
    • Natalie says

      April 26, 2018 at 4:34 pm

      Thank you so much! Jackson has some more epic ones coming, I can’t wait till that post is up too!

      Reply
  4. Terri Beavers says

    April 26, 2018 at 11:00 am

    Wow, that is a gorgeous place. I love that there is a bottom to put tents on, there isn’t one around here, we have to put our tents on the ground. It would be a dream to visit there.

    Reply
    • Natalie says

      April 26, 2018 at 4:21 pm

      Oh man, we were so glad our tent fit there! A lot of camp sites didn’t have that sweet set up (this was our favorite camp!).

      Reply
  5. Cristina pop says

    April 26, 2018 at 11:36 am

    What a beautiful place. And such breathtaking views! I am sure you had a great time!

    Reply
    • Natalie says

      April 26, 2018 at 4:20 pm

      Yes! We had a lot of fun!! 🙂

      Reply
  6. Chi says

    April 26, 2018 at 12:21 pm

    These pictures are absolutely breathtaking. It looks and sounds like you had an amazing time. Will definitely be adding Sossusvlei to my bucket list.

    Reply
    • Natalie says

      April 26, 2018 at 4:20 pm

      It was so much fun, but it did get really hot by 11am! I hope you get a chance to go!

      Reply
  7. Sara Welch says

    April 26, 2018 at 2:15 pm

    Wow, that looks like such a fun adventure! I would really love to check out this dessert and get photos like this!

    Reply
    • Natalie says

      April 26, 2018 at 4:19 pm

      I hope one day you can. It’s such a magical place.

      Reply
  8. berlin | momi berlin says

    April 27, 2018 at 1:08 am

    Indeed impressive. I love the powdery sand and the smooth trail. I haven’t been to places like that. though the sun’s rays can somehow hurt the skin, i will still love to try such kind of place. it’s definitely an experience.

    Reply
    • Natalie says

      April 27, 2018 at 1:05 pm

      Oh the sand was so nice! But yeah, have to be really careful about the sun!

      Reply
  9. KC Puentespina says

    April 27, 2018 at 12:08 pm

    I’m so jealous! ? I wish I can travel around the world too. But for now, I just have to settle for road trips at least until all my kids can fend for themselves. ?

    Reply
    • Natalie says

      April 27, 2018 at 1:04 pm

      Wah! Road trips aren’t so bad! <3

      Reply
  10. Sela says

    April 27, 2018 at 1:23 pm

    What a beautiful place! Wow, your photos are totally amazing! I would love to plan a trip to Sossusvlei and visit that park! Stunning.

    Reply
  11. Suzanne says

    April 27, 2018 at 9:53 pm

    This place is wonderous! Never heard of it before this post.

    Reply
    • Natalie says

      April 29, 2018 at 3:52 am

      Great! I am happy to have given you a glimpse at this amazing country.

      Reply
  12. Felicia says

    April 27, 2018 at 10:09 pm

    Those pictures are spectacular!. I’m more of a green mountain gal, but you make it seem so inviting!

    Reply
    • Natalie says

      April 29, 2018 at 3:51 am

      Ha! I was raised on the east coast of the US, so I totally know what you mean!

      Reply
  13. Sudipta says

    April 27, 2018 at 10:13 pm

    I have done dune bashing many times in the Middle East, but have never visited Namibia. Your post makes me want to visit Sossusvlei.

    Reply
    • Natalie says

      April 29, 2018 at 3:51 am

      Nice! I haven’t done any of the middle east and would like to see that one day!

      Reply
  14. Kelly Hutchinson says

    April 27, 2018 at 10:36 pm

    My mouth is hanging open looking at all of these amazing photos! I would love to visit Sossusvlei!

    Reply
    • Natalie says

      April 29, 2018 at 3:50 am

      I hope you do!

      Reply
  15. Ashlee | She Can Social says

    April 27, 2018 at 10:39 pm

    Oh wow, this place looks absolutely gorgeous! I definitely don’t think I’d have it in me to climb up Big Daddy, but I’d go crazy taking photos at the base of it for sure!

    Reply
    • Natalie says

      April 29, 2018 at 3:50 am

      Haha! Don’t worry; we didn’t either 🙂

      Reply
  16. Shraddha Tripathi says

    April 28, 2018 at 8:09 am

    Your pics are really breathtaking. Really beautiful. I would like to visit this place sometimes in future.

    Reply
    • Natalie says

      April 29, 2018 at 3:49 am

      Thank you. It’s a magical place.

      Reply
  17. Nicole says

    April 28, 2018 at 8:19 am

    I don’t believe I have ever heard of this place before, but it looks beautiful! It seemed like you had a wonderful time. I will definitely have to put this on my bucket-list of places to visit. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
    • Natalie says

      April 29, 2018 at 3:48 am

      Namibia is usually overlooked! I’m happy to introduce it to you! Thanks for the comment.

      Reply
  18. Paula Stewart says

    April 28, 2018 at 9:55 pm

    After spending several rainy nights sleeping on tent pads made of pea gravel in the national parks here in the US, I would l have given anything for a nice pad with overhead shelter like those.

    Reply
    • Natalie says

      April 29, 2018 at 3:45 am

      Oh man. I can only imagine. This was the most delux camp we had, it was really awesome having the bathroom right there as well. I need to do more camping in the states to get an idea of what that’s like.

      Reply
  19. Becca Wilson says

    April 29, 2018 at 12:26 pm

    This is definitely such an impressive looking place! I have never been anywhere like this.

    Reply
    • Natalie says

      April 30, 2018 at 1:15 pm

      It’s so cool! I highly recommend you check it out in person!

      Reply
  20. fashionmommy says

    May 1, 2018 at 4:29 am

    I am afraid to say I have never heard of this place, but it looks so magical, absolutely incredible in fact, and certainly one for the bucket list.

    Reply

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