Christmas and New Year tend to get a bit lost in the land of endless horizons. This is because the three public holidays for Christmas and New Year's fall within Namibia's six-week summer school holidays.
From mid-December until almost mid-January, Windhoek falls into a kind of deep sleep. Meanwhile, the coastal towns, especially Swakopmund, are bustling. In other words: hardly any free parking spaces and packed restaurants.
People flock to the coast for the cool climate. Some go fishing. And young people take advantage of the wide range of leisure activities and meet up with friends on the beach. Even more Namibians head north, many to farms. They visit their family, half of whom, statistically speaking, live north of Etosha National Park.
Namibia tourists travelling by rental car should strictly adhere to speed limits. They should maybe also rather refrain from that second glass of beer or wine. The police increase their speed and alcohol checks during the holiday season.
Christmas Day on 25 December and 'Family Day' on 26 December are public holidays in Namibia. The same applies to New Year's Day on 1 January, of course (see the overview of Namibian public holidays in the Travel Advice section on Namibian.org).
On these days, authorities, businesses, and many shops are closed. This also applies to some of the bridge days during these two weeks. Normal daily life resumes only after the second weekend in January when the summer holidays end. Be careful on the weekend after New Year's with its first wave of homeward-bound traffic.
Switch-on ceremony on 5 December: Christmas lights under palm trees in Zoo Park in the city centre of Windhoek. Photo: Screenshot from reel on City of Windhoek's Facebook page
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