About Mantis Eco Adventures
In short. Mantis Eco Adventures is a Namibia trip planning service run by Johan van Eeden, a qualified lodge manager and certified nature guide with 25 years in Namibian tourism. He plans self-drive routes personally, using only the lodges and campsites he has stayed in himself. It starts with a free 30 minute call. A written itinerary is €100 (about US$110), and it is free when you let us book the trip. Having it booked is optional and done by a booking agency Mantis works with, which quotes its prices before you commit.
What Mantis Eco Adventures Actually Does
We plan Namibia trips. We are not a lodge, a car hire company or a tour operator. Most visitors arrive at Namibia the same way, with a rough list of places, a rental quote, and no idea whether the days between them work. Johan takes that and turns it into a route that fits the time you have, the vehicle you will be in and the kind of travelling you enjoy.
It runs in three steps, and you can stop after any of them.
| Step | What happens | Cost |
| A call with Johan | Thirty minutes. Where you want to go, how you like to travel, what you have to spend. You leave knowing whether your plan fits. | Free |
| Your itinerary | Johan writes the route himself, night by night, then walks you through it on a second call so you can change anything. | €100 (about US$110), free when you let us book the trip |
| The bookings, if you want them | A booking agency Mantis works with makes the reservations and quotes its prices before you commit. You can also book it yourself straight off the itinerary. | Quoted before you commit |
Who Johan Is
Johan van Eeden has spent 25 years inside Namibia’s tourism industry. He is a qualified lodge and hospitality manager and a certified nature guide, and he holds advanced certification in approaching dangerous game. He has managed guest lodges, guided travellers through some of the most remote country in southern Africa, and driven the routes he sends people on.
That is the part a booking site cannot copy. When he says a gravel stretch takes six hours rather than the four Google Maps promises, it is because he has driven it. When he puts you in a particular camp, it is because he has slept there.
How We Make Money, and How We Do Not
Johan takes no money from any lodge, car hire company or activity operator. Not a fee, not a commission, not a free night. The places in your itinerary are there because he rates them, and that is the whole reason the recommendations are worth anything.
Mantis earns in two ways, and both are visible to you. You pay the €100 itinerary only if you take the route and book it yourself. If you ask us to book the trip, the €100 is waived, the booking agency charges for that work and Mantis takes a share of it. You are free to skip that entirely and make the bookings yourself.
Who We Plan For
Most of our travellers fly in from Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States, and a good number drive up from South Africa. They are usually first-timers who want a self-drive trip rather than a guided tour, families working out whether Namibia suits children, and couples with two or three weeks who do not want to spend all of it behind the wheel.
If a guided trip genuinely suits you better, Johan will tell you that too, and point you at an operator rather than sell you a plan you do not need.
The Guides on This Site
Everything published here is written from first-hand experience and checked against current sources. Park fees, visa costs and border rules change, so the figures carry the date they were checked, and pages get updated rather than left to rot. The most read ones cover what food you may bring across the border, what a self-drive trip costs, whether Namibia is safe and what the road letters mean.
Questions are welcome under any article. Johan answers them twice a week and the answers stay on the page for the next traveller.
Where We Are and How to Reach Us
Mantis Eco Adventures operates in Namibia and plans trips across the whole country, from Fish River Canyon in the south to Epupa Falls in the north. The quickest way to reach us is the free 30 minute call. If you would rather write first, email info@mantisecoadventures.co.za.
If you want to see how the planning works before you book anything, read what the €100 itinerary includes or start with the Namibia self-drive guide.