Windhoek, Namibia

Evergreen city guide with quick facts, travel, business, and culture.

NamibiaKhomas
Windhoek's Christuskirche viewed across the Tintenpalast Gardens with palm trees in the foreground.

Christuskirche (1907–1910), the iconic German-Lutheran landmark at the heart of Windhoek, seen across the Tintenpalast (Parliament) Gardens.

© Curioso Photography / Adobe Stock

Overview

Windhoek is Namibia's quiet, surprisingly green capital — a Wilhelmine-Lutheran spire, a few good restaurants, and the country's only major airport, sitting on a 1 700-metre plateau where every Namibian road trip starts and ends.

Wilhelmine Heritage

Christuskirche, Alte Feste, Tintenpalast and the three Klein Windhoek castles — the city's German-colonial architectural layer.

Independence Memorial & National Museum

The five-storey golden tower telling Namibia's pre-colonial, colonial and independence history, with a panoramic café at the top.

Game-Meat Braai & Wine

Joe's Beerhouse for kudu, oryx and the famous Namibian eisbein; The Stellenbosch and Leo's for fine dining; Heinitzburg for an atmospheric castle dinner.

Namibia Craft Centre

Owambo baskets, Himba ochre, San ostrich-egg-shell jewellery and contemporary Namibian art under one historic-brewery roof.

Khomas Hochland Day Trips

Daan Viljoen Game Reserve 24 km out, Avis Dam on the eastern edge, the Bosua Pass on the C26 to the coast, and the Auas Mountains south of the city.

Self-Drive Base

Hosea Kutako Airport 45 km east, rental 4x4 desks on arrival, and the start and end of nearly every Namibia itinerary — Etosha, Sossusvlei, Damaraland and the coast.

History

Windhoek's modern history begins in 1840, when the Oorlam leader Jonker Afrikaner settled by the thermal springs and built the first stone houses on the site. The Schutztruppe officer Curt von François re-founded the city in 1890 as the administrative seat of German South-West Africa, building the Alte Feste fort to control the springs. German rule continued until the territory passed to the Union of South Africa in 1915; the South African administration retained the city as the capital of the South-West African mandate, and the Tintenpalast (1913) was completed as the seat of legislative authority. Katutura on the city's western edge dates from a 1959 urban-restructuring period; the Old Location Cemetery is a small memorial site nearby. Namibia became independent on 21 March 1990 after a SWAPO-led independence movement that began in 1966; the Tintenpalast became the seat of the post-independence parliament, the Heroes' Acre south of the city was inaugurated as a national-memorial garden in 2002, and the Independence Memorial Museum was opened on the hill behind the Alte Feste in 2014.

Culture

Game meat is the city's signature — kudu, oryx (gemsbok), springbok and zebra appear on most serious menus alongside South-African-style braai (barbecue), eisbein (pork knuckle) and schnitzel. Joe's Beerhouse is the iconic full-Namibian-experience restaurant; Leo's at the Castle inside the Heinitzburg is the most atmospheric fine-dining option; The Stellenbosch Tasting Room is the city's serious wine address. The Windhoek Lager and Tafel Lager brewed locally by Namibia Breweries Ltd are the standard everyday beers; the craft-beer scene has emerged around Camelthorn and the Stellenbosch tasting room. Apfelstrudel, Schwarzwälder Kirsch and serious sourdough bread survive from the German colonial period at the Craft Café, the Stellenbosch and any of the half-dozen central Konditoreien. Festivals: Windhoek Karneval (WIKA, April — German-tradition Mardi Gras), Independence Day (21 March — Heroes' Acre south of the city), Namibian Tourism Expo (May, Windhoek Show Grounds), Heritage Day (4 May — public holiday), Oktoberfest Windhoek (late October — Sport Klub Windhoek). Museums: Independence Memorial Museum, National Museum of Namibia (Owela & Alte Feste sections), TransNamib Railway Museum, Bushman Art Gallery.

Practical Info

Safety: Generally safe by day; walking the central streets after dark is discouraged. Petty theft (bag-snatching, phone-theft) is the main concern; use Bolt/Lefa after sunset rather than walking. Avoid Katutura at night without a local guide; daytime township tours are well-organised and safe. Standard urban precautions apply. Language: English is the official language and widely spoken. German is widely spoken in restaurants, banks and the older central businesses (about 30 000 Namibians have German as a first language). Afrikaans is widely understood. Oshiwambo and Otjiherero are heard in Katutura. Currency: Namibia Dollar (N$/NAD), pegged 1:1 to the South African Rand (ZAR). Rand circulates and is accepted everywhere; N$ is not accepted in South Africa. ATMs are abundant on Independence Avenue, in the malls (Maerua, Wernhil, The Grove, Town Square) and at the airport. Card payment including contactless is universal.
Travel Overview

Windhoek is small for a capital — fewer than 500 000 people in the greater urban area — but it carries an unusual weight in Namibian life. It is the country's only city of any size, the seat of every national institution, the home of the only international airport with intercontinental traffic, and the start and end of nearly every self-drive itinerary in the country. The city sits in a basin on the central plateau at 1 700 metres above sea level, which makes the climate mild and dry year-round: daytime temperatures of 25–30 °C in the dry winter (May–October), warmer summer days with afternoon thunderstorms (December–March), cool nights that can drop below 10 °C even in summer. The architectural personality of the centre is German-Wilhelmine, a Bavarian-spa-town-meets-South-African-modernism that comes from the 1884–1915 German colonial period: the Christuskirche Lutheran spire, the Alte Feste fortress, the Tintenpalast (the 'ink palace' that now houses parliament) and a sprinkling of half-timbered villas in Klein Windhoek. Independence Avenue is the city's main spine, running roughly north-south, with the Independence Memorial Museum on the hill above the old fort and the National Museum (Owela section) and the wide Zoo Park lawn at the centre. The Hosea Kutako International Airport (WDH) is 45 kilometres east of the city — a 35-to-45-minute drive depending on traffic, no rail link, taxis and pre-booked shuttles only. The Eros Airport (ERS) on the south-east edge of the city handles domestic and charter flights to Sossusvlei, the Skeleton Coast and the safari lodges. The food scene runs from the famous Joe's Beerhouse (the country's signature game-meat restaurant) to the more refined Stellenbosch Tasting Room, the Leo's at the Castle wine cellar in Klein Windhoek's Heinitzburg, the Craft Café in the Namibia Craft Centre, and a strong specialty-coffee scene in the southern Klein Windhoek and Eros neighbourhoods. Most visitors spend one or two nights in Windhoek bookending a longer Namibia self-drive — long enough to collect a rental 4x4, recover from a long-haul flight, eat a proper game-meat braai and visit a museum, before driving north to Etosha or south-west to Sossusvlei.

Discover Windhoek

The hilltop block at the head of Independence Avenue is the densest layer of Wilhelmine-era Windhoek. The Christuskirche (Christ Church) — the brick-and-sandstone neo-Romanesque Lutheran church with its 24-metre spire, designed by Gottlieb Redecker and inaugurated by Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1910 — is the city's most photographed landmark. Across the road, the Alte Feste (Old Fort, 1890) is the original Schutztruppe garrison from which the German colonial occupation was administered; it now houses part of the National Museum collection. Behind the Alte Feste, the Tintenpalast (Ink Palace, 1913) — the elegant low building that houses Namibia's parliament — sits in the Parliament Gardens (sometimes still called the Tintenpalast Gardens), one of the loveliest small public parks in southern Africa, with mature palms, an art-nouveau lamp grid and one of the city's two equestrian statues. The Independence Memorial Museum (the unmistakable golden-glass tower opened in 2014) rises above the colonial-era buildings on the same hill, presenting the country's pre-colonial, colonial and independence histories across five floors — its rooftop café offers the best panoramic view of the city.

Diplomatic missions in Windhoek

12 embassies based in this city, grouped by region.