Best Things to Do in Windhoek

Windhoek is compact enough to explore without stress yet varied enough to reward two or three unhurried days at the start or end of a Namibian journey. Combine the historic monuments on the central ridge with the food markets of Katutura and the wildlife hills immediately west of the city.

1. Stand between Christuskirche and the Independence Memorial Museum. Admire the 1910 sandstone Evangelical Lutheran church blending neo-Romanesque and Art Nouveau curves, then ride the glass lift up the neighbouring bronze museum for exhibits on Namibia's liberation struggle and panoramic balcony views.
2. Touch 600-million-year-old space iron at the Gibeon Meteorite Fountain. On pedestrian Post Street Mall, thirty-one metallic fragments from the prehistoric Gibeon meteor shower are mounted atop steel columns so you can feel their crystalline iron-nickel weight.
3. Eat sizzling kapana beef at Oshetu Community Market (Single Quarters) in Katutura. Join a local guide to watch grill masters sear thin strips of fresh beef over open flames, dipping each piece into fiery chilli-salt powder and diced tomato-onion salsa.
4. Shop for San beadwork and Makalani palm carvings at the Namibia Craft Centre. Housed in the Old Breweries complex on Tal Street, forty fair-trade stalls sell hand-woven northern baskets, ostrich-eggshell jewellery and linocut prints from across all fourteen regions of Namibia.
5. Walk among giraffe, kudu and Hartmann's mountain zebra at Daan Viljoen Game Park. Just 25 kilometres west of the centre in the Khomas Hochland hills, absence of large predators lets you hike marked trails on foot beside plains game and over 200 bird species.
6. Stroll the terraced lawns of Parliament Gardens and the Tintenpalast. Relax under olive, palm and bougainvillea trees in front of the 1913 seat of the Namibian Parliament (affectionately called the Palace of Ink).
7. Dine under thatch and antiques at Joe's Beerhouse or a local craft brewery. Gather around outdoor braai fires in Eros for grilled game steaks and cold draught lagers brewed to the 1516 Reinheitsgebot purity law.
8. Visit the Penduka Women's Cooperative on Goreangab Dam. On the northern lakeshore, watch women artisans create colourful batik story-textiles, hand-embroidered linens and recycled glass beads.
9. Step inside the National Art Gallery of Namibia and the TransNamib Railway Museum. Pair contemporary Namibian sculpture and printmaking with the 1912 twin-domed Windhoek Railway Station and its narrow-gauge steam locomotives.
10. Watch sunset over the Auas Mountains from a hillside terrace in Klein Windhoek. End the day on an elevated deck with a cold Namibian Rock Shandy (soda, lemonade and dashes of Angostura bitters) as the surrounding hills turn deep amber.