The architect Wilhelm Sander built this natural stone castle in 1914 as his own home, and gave it turrets, battlements and stained-glass windows. Count Hans Bogislav von Schwerin took it on soon afterwards and named it Heinitzburg for Margarethe von Heinitz. Sander kept building on Luxury Hill. Sanderburg followed between 1917 and 1919, and with Schwerinsburg it completes a trio of castles.
It makes an easy first night of a Namibia trip
Today the Raith family run it as a sixteen-room hotel, high on its hill above Windhoek. The terraces look over the capital’s rooftops to the Khomas Hochland. Down below, the city is close but barely heard. It makes an easy first night of a Namibia trip, when the body is still on another clock, and a gentle last one before the flight home.
Beate Raith and her late husband Jürgen took on the castle as a family hotel. Jürgen was a chef, and the kitchen has mattered ever since. Their son Tibor is a classically trained chef, and now runs the hotel alongside his mother, so the cooking has stayed in the family. At Leo’s at the Castle, Namibian and international dishes come to tables above the city skyline.
As the light fades, the lights of Windhoek come on below.
Before dinner, sundowners are carried out to the Garden Terrace. As the light fades, the lights of Windhoek come on below. By day the same terrace serves light meals, coffee and cakes. Beneath the stone lies the wine cellar, where tastings and paired dinners are built around South African wines, and the Knight’s Room is kept for private occasions.
The private transfer comes in from Hosea Kutako International Airport and ends on a quiet residential hilltop, a short drive above the centre. Here the three castles keep company with private homes, and the street itself carries the hotel’s name, 22 Heinitzburg Street. The hill is close enough to town for an evening out and high enough to hear little of it. Guests setting out on a road journey can leave their vehicle in the hotel’s own parking, kept for residents. It sits right at the hotel and is watched around the clock.
The building takes its cues from the castles of medieval Europe. Its walls are faced in stone and its towers rise above the garden. Seen from the streets below, the effect is theatrical. Sander’s castle went up in 1914, in what was then German South West Africa, and more than a century later its rooms, cellar and terraces are all in daily use. Behind the stone, the interiors have been modernised with restraint, so period character survives around the comforts of today.
The hill is close enough to town for an evening out and high enough to hear little of it.
Massages are given in the room, a welcome thing after a long-haul flight. Outside, the pool lies on a garden terrace with the city spread beyond its edge, and an afternoon can pass there between the water and a book. No two rooms are decorated alike. Each pairs classic furniture and considered colours with modern fittings. Air conditioning keeps the hot afternoons at bay and heating takes the edge off cool nights.
No hotel group owns the castle. The Raith family run the castle themselves, and it shows in the details. Leo’s has its own menu, as do the terrace and the cellar, and the wine list leans towards South Africa, just across the border. The cellar and the Knight’s Room are kept for private dinners and events, arranged with the family themselves. On the last morning, the transfer heads back east from the hilltop to Hosea Kutako International.
accommodation
The sixteen rooms come in three categories, Standard Deluxe, Comfort Deluxe and Superior Deluxe. The four Superior rooms are the most spacious. No two rooms are decorated alike, but all pair classic furniture with modern comforts, with air conditioning for hot afternoons and heating for cool nights.
activities
Afternoons go to the pool and to massages in the room, evenings to sundowners on the Garden Terrace and dinner at Leo's at the Castle. Down in the wine cellar, tastings and paired dinners are built around South African wines. The cellar and the Knight's Room also host private dinners and events, arranged with the family.
dining
Leo's at the Castle serves the gourmet dinner above the lights of Windhoek: springbok carpaccio, Walvis Bay oysters, oryx with Kalahari truffle, crayfish from the Atlantic and a chateaubriand for two. The Garden Terrace does a lighter lunch from noon, with Flammkuchen, a Heinitzburg salad and Sacher torte or Apfelstrudel, then cocktails as the sun goes down. The wine cellar beneath the stone pairs South African wines with tasting dinners.
Get in touch and let’s start the conversation. An initial consultation helps us understand what you’re looking for, whether that’s specific experiences, luxury touches, or marking a special occasion, and from there we’ll guide you through what’s possible so you can decide if we’re the right fit.
Hosea Kutako International Airport lies 45 kilometres east of Windhoek, and the hotel sits on a hill just above the city centre, so the whole drive is on the main road in from the east. The hotel runs its own private, air-conditioned airport transfers, with a driver meeting you in arrivals; they have to be booked ahead, so we arrange yours with the rest of the trip, timed to your flight.
If the next leg is a light aircraft out to a lodge, those flights leave from Eros Airport, about five kilometres south of the city centre. A night at the castle between the long-haul arrival and that charter means you set off rested, and secure parking on the grounds suits a self-drive start just as well.
Yes. The architect Wilhelm Sander built it in 1914 as his own house, with turrets, battlements and stained glass in the manner of a medieval European castle. In 1916 he sold it to Count Hans Bogislav von Schwerin, who named it Heinitzburg after Margarethe von Heinitz, the woman he was to marry.
It is one of three castles on the hill the city calls Luxury Hill. Sander went on to build the smallest of them, Sanderburg, for himself between 1917 and 1919, and the third is Schwerinsburg; both are private and neither is part of the hotel. Heinitzburg itself is now a family-run hotel, and the Knight's Room, used for private dinners, sits inside its original stone walls.
Without leaving the hill, which after a long flight is the point. Leo's at the Castle is the hotel's fine-dining restaurant, with local and international cooking and the lights of the city below the windows. The Garden Terrace serves lighter meals and cakes through the day, then sundowner cocktails as the light goes over Windhoek and the hills around it.
For something more particular, the wine cellar hosts tastings and paired dinners built around South African wines, and the Knight's Room can be taken for a private dinner. We book Leo's at the same time as the room, so the first evening of the trip needs no planning on your part.
There are sixteen, each decorated individually rather than to a hotel template, in three sizes: four Standard Deluxe twins, eight Comfort Deluxe twins and four Superior Deluxe doubles, the Superiors being the largest. Every room has its own air conditioning and heating, which matters in Windhoek, where summer afternoons are hot and winter nights on the hill are cold.
The four Superior rooms have a bath with a shower over it; the others have a walk-in shower. Between the room and dinner there is the pool terrace in the garden, with views across the city to the mountains, and a massage in the room can be booked by appointment, which we can arrange ahead for the evening you land.
Very low risk. The American CDC reports no malaria transmission in Windhoek itself, and TravelHealthPro, the UK's official travel health service, puts the parts of Namibia outside its listed northern regions at very low risk and advises awareness and bite avoidance there rather than tablets. Very low risk is still not no risk.
We are travel planners, not doctors, so we leave medical advice to the professionals. Most Namibia trips that start at the castle go on to country further north, where the official guidance depends on the region and the month, so show your full route to your own doctor or a travel clinic and let them decide what suits you.
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our approach
Every journey starts with a conversation. We take the time to understand your vision before we start planning.
Whether by phone or in person, we work with you directly to shape something that is considered, personal, and expertly delivered.
