Strand Hotel

The Strand Hotel stands on the Swakopmund promenade, where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Namib Desert. You stay in one of 125 rooms, many with floor-to-ceiling windows and balconies facing the water. The building is designed to catch the sea breeze, with an atrium that runs the length of the hotel, open at both ends to the view.

Three restaurants serve meals through the day. The Ocean Cellar specializes in seafood — Namibian oysters, line fish, sushi — with a counter where you can watch the kitchen work. The Brewer & Butcher is a microbrewery with its own beer on tap, and the Farmhouse Deli does breakfast and cakes. The lobby lounge has an open fireplace and looks out over the water.

The spa offers massages and treatments, and the front desk arranges activities in town or along the coast. The hotel is a five-minute walk from Swakopmund’s center, where German colonial buildings line the streets. The promenade, called the Mole, is built on a spit of land with water on three sides.