Discover The Skeleton Coast

This treacherous coast – a foggy region with rocky and sandy coastal shallows, rusting shipwrecks and soaring dunes – has long been a graveyard for unwary ships and their crews, hence its forbidding name. Early Portuguese sailors called it As Areias do Inferno (The Sands of Hell), as once a ship washed ashore, the fate of the crew was sealed.

This protected area stretches from Sandwich Harbour, south of Swakopmund, to the Kunene River, taking in around 20,000 sq km of dunes and gravel plains to form one of the world’s most inhospitable waterless areas in the world’s oldest desert.

Our preferred lodges

Collection of properties in Skeleton Coast

Shipwreck Lodge

Shipwreck Lodge

Freedom, beauty and solitude. A truly uniquely designed around the enigmatic shipwrecks that line Namibia’s Skeleton Coast, there’s nowhere on the continent quite like Shipwreck Lodge. In fact, there’s nowhere on the continent quite like the Skeleton Coast. A must visit when in Namibia.

Serra Cafema Camp

Serra Cafema Camp

Set under trees on the banks of the Kunene River, Serra Cafema is one of the most remote camps in southern Africa. The eight chalets are set on elevated decks and crafted in wood, canvas and thatch to create a unique camp that is at one with its surroundings and Himba people. 

Hoanib Skeleton Coast

Hoanib Skeleton Coast

Eight large en-suite tents with one family unit and the main area provide shady viewpoints, while nature drives into the surrounding area reveal a wealth of desert-adapted wildlife. Desert-adapted lion and brown hyaena may also be glimpsed in this vast but far from lifeless landscape.