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Kunene Region, Namibia

Wilderness Serra Cafema

Price per night from$1,868.96

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (inclusive of taxes and fees) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (ZAR32,056.00), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Wilderness Serra Cafema Photos

Style

Remotely charming

Setting

Borderland bliss

Explore

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Resting in the Hartmann’s Valley, Wilderness Serra Cafema is your all-frills base for exploring far-flung northern Namibia. Getting to know the Himba people's way of life and floating down the Kunene River are your immersive pastimes, and an idling ambience back at camp makes for alluring evenings, filled with flavour-packed fare, fireside tipples and a star-lit setting. Bed down in your cosseting suite (where private viewing decks come as standard) and this secluded locale will have you falling hard, fast. 

 

Standard prices listed on Mr & Mrs Smith are per night for two adults sharing. 

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A locally crafted souvenir gift (worth around $50)

Facilities

Photos Wilderness Serra Cafema facilities

Need to know

Rooms

Eight suites.

Check–Out

10am, and check-in is at 2pm. Both are flexible, on request and subject to availability.

More details

Rates include all meals, drinks (apart from some premium alcohol), nature drives, guided hikes and some excursions. Extras to pay for include travel between camps, specialist excursions and spa treatments.

Also

Unfortunately this remote camp is not suitable for guests with limited mobility.

At the hotel

Sunken viewing deck and elevated wooden walkways, reading area with books to borrow, boutique, laundry service (included, depending on your booking level) and WiFi in main lodge and suites. In rooms: air-conditioning, coffee- and tea-making kit, minibar, free bottled water, yoga mats, weights, ab roller, skipping rope, aerobic strap, hairdryer and Healing Earth bath products.

Our favourite rooms

There isn’t a short draw at Serra Cafema, where suites float above the Kunene River’s banks and sunlounger-lined decks watch over the valley’s roaming residents. Most of the camp’s tents are designed for duos, but for groups of four, the Family Suite is set-up with two bedrooms.

Poolside

There’s a small swimming pool (open 7am to 6pm) shrouded by lofty albida trees for post-safari cool-downs.

Spa

At Serra Cafema, a resident spa therapist is on hand to offer in-tent massage and facial treatments at additional cost.

Packing tips

A sketchbook for the artistically inclined, to eternalise these once-in-a-lifetime landscapes.

Also

For hot-air ballooning, passengers need to be at least seven years old, and you’ll need to allow at least three nights for your stay to secure the best chances of finding the right conditions.

Children

Little Smiths aged six or older are welcome. Serra Cafema has one family suite. By prior arrangement, a dedicated staff member can supervise children and you’ll need to reserve a private vehicle if you're with under-13s (additional charges apply).

Sustainability efforts

Wilderness takes a threefold approach to sustainability, aiming to protect (with sensitive management between people and wildlife), empower (by investing in the local community) and educate (supporting pathways out of poverty). In total, its camps help to protect six million acres of land, highlighting conservation and bringing tourism to rural areas across the African continent. Each camp treads lightly, following a set of strict standards that apply to the construction and operation of each stay. Standards cover water and energy consumption; monitoring of waste and recycling, and supply chain management. Camps are audited twice yearly and must comply with at least 85 per cent of the requirements, with any shortfalls addressed before the next audit. Wilderness Serra Cafema also runs entirely on solar energy.

Food and Drink

Photos Wilderness Serra Cafema food and drink

Top Table

Anything alfresco will make for a scenic dining spot.

Dress Code

Sandy shades and cargo trousers will have you covered in this desert den.

Hotel restaurant

There’s nothing as formal in camp as a restaurant in the traditional sense. Dining at Serra Cafema is a fluid affair (although thankfully not liquids only): meals are tailored to fit with the day’s scheduled activities, but evenings are often a chance to come together with other guests and staff over drinks before sitting down to an à-la-carte menu that’s guided by regional ingredients and seasonal crops, but will always provide a small choice of dishes for each course. If you’re up and out early, expect a basic breakfast at camp, bolstered by drinks and snacks on the trail, before returning to an early lunch or brunch. Similarly, guided afternoon outings are always accompanied with on-location drinks and nibbles. 

Hotel bar

Sundowners, apéritifs and drinks around the fire on nights at the boma may well become part of your routine at Wilderness Serra Cafema, and you’re unlikely to go thirsty with staff on hand to take your order for drinks — hot, cold or something a little stronger. 

Last orders

Banish any expectations of set dining hours and embrace the fact that food and drink will be seamlessly integrated into your day just when you want it.

Room service

A minibar in your suite is stocked with soft drinks and low-alcohol options. When hunger strikes, wander over to the lodge, where staff will be happy to help.

Location

Photos Wilderness Serra Cafema location
Address
Wilderness Serra Cafema
Serra Cafema Camp
Kunene River
Namibia

Wilderness Serra Cafema sits on the banks of the Kunene River, against the arid backdrop of Hartmann’s Valley in Namibia’s remote far north.

Planes

Scheduled transfers with Wilderness Air touch down at Hartmann’s Valley Airstrip, where you’ll be met by the Wilderness team and taken on the 90-minute drive to camp.

Automobiles

This camp’s no-hands-land locale means driving isn’t an option.

Other

Once you’ve booked your safari stays, the Wilderness team will be in touch to arrange travel between camps — usually scheduled or private charter flights or helicopter transfers.

Worth getting out of bed for

Wilderness Serra Cafema puts you in the middle of Hartmann’s Valley, home to arid dunes and the contrasting flow of the Kunene River. Boat trips and fishing excursions put water-based pursuits firmly on the cards, and visits to one of the region’s only-remaining villages are your introduction to the semi-nomadic Himba people’s old-as-time traditions. Catch sightings of elephants, giraffes, lions and springbok with a guided game drive, or explore tracks on quad bikes. And in a locale as deserted as this, clear skies bring evenings to a star-spotting close.

For a pan-Namibian adventure, start with a stay among the red dunes of Sossusvlei at Smith-approved Wilderness Little Kulala, before heading to Kunene’s Wilderness Hoanib Skeleton Coast (three nights there will give you time to take an organised trip to the desert’s Atlantic shores). Wilderness Serra Cafema is an ideal third base to incorporate from here. If it’s authentic rhino tracking you’re on the lookout for, you’ll want Wilderness Desert Rhino Camp in Damaraland in the mix.

Local bars

All meals and snacks are included with your stay — whether back at the lodge for dinner or out in the bush for a mid-drive pitstop. 

Reviews

Photos Wilderness Serra Cafema reviews

Anonymous review

By Mr & Mrs Smith

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this remote retreat in Hartmann’s Valley and unpacked their safari get-up and telescopes, a full account of their Namibian break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Wilderness Serra Cafema in the Kunene Region…

This northern expanse of Namibia may be best associated with its pin-drop silence and sprawling sparseness, but Wilderness Serra Cafema is here to show its intrepid side — with a dose of that serenity, too. 

This camp may be in the middle of nowhere, but it has trappings to tout: looming albida trees watch over a central swimming pool, floating walkways make around-camp strolls a scenic event, in-camp dinners are set under the stars and stilted suites are your ensconcing abode for evenings well spent. 

There’s excitement beyond its borders, too: visits to meet the local Himba community introduce you to this semi-nomadic people’s way of life. Your proximity to the Kunene River’s banks puts freshwater forays on thrill-seekers’ radars, and ancient African rocks, dunes and basalt flows are the scenic backdrop for your endeavours to spot oryx and lion. For a spot that’s sparse, Serra Cafema has adventure in abundance.

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Price per night from $1,868.96

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