Swakopmund is a quaint desert town on the icy Atlantic Coast.  It fuses  Bohemian and Bavarian, and is home to artists, hippies, strait-laced descendants of German settlers, stately Herero women in Victorian dress, and hard-bitten miners, game rangers, safari operators and fishermen.

Night time entertainment ranges from casinos, many pubs and restaurants, and an assortment of drama, music and cultural events.  Just outside town is the extraordinary Moon Landscape, a seemingly never-ending series of bizarre hills that look like pictures taken of Mars, or the Sea of Tranquillity. It is best visited at sunrise or sunset.

Swakopmund is a fun place.  Close by, a section of towering dunes have been set aside for recreational purposes, such as  sand-boarding and skiing, camel rides and off-road driving. Highly recommended is the quad biking, which is very well organised, with a strong emphasis on instruction and safety.

Other attractions available locally include excursions by boat to see dolphins and seals or a spot of surfing.  In addition, the town is surrounded by the Namib Naukluft Park, excellent for one-day safaris. 

There is an African crafts market where you can buy wooden elephants, giraffes, lions etc., made by people from the Congo, Zimbabwe and other parts of Africa.

• The Woermann Tower ~ from which you can see a delightful panorama of the town, the desert and the sea.
• Swakopmund Museum ~ Small but comprehensive museum with displays ranging from natural history and historical and ethnological artefacts. 
• Swakopmund Aquarium ~ Popular visitor attraction, featuring a large tank with a glass walk-through tunnel and home to a large variety of sealife, including indigenous organisms.
• Activities ~ Dune boarding, sand skiing, paragliding, surfing and yachting are all available from the beach or a boat.  There are motor-cross and 4 x 4 rally opportunities on the outskirts of town.
• Shopping ~ Brauhaus Arcade is a small outlet with specialist shops offering hand-made leather goods, art and crafts, and traditional Namibian items.  Woermann & Brock Arcade and Ankerplatz feature regular shops as well as traditional Namibian crafts.
• Swakopmund Tannery ~ This is where the town's renowned kudu leather shoes are manufactured and sold.
• Hansa Brewery ~ Guided tours one day a week, showing the traditional method of brewing.