Place to stay · Swakopmund
Hotel Prinzessin Rupprecht
Small hotel in a national monument on Anton Lubowski Street, a military hospital built in 1902 and later a Red Cross rest home, which still shares the building with a retirement home.
Few places to sleep in Swakopmund have a back story like this one. The building on Anton Lubowski Street went up in 1901 and 1902 as a hospital for the German colonial troops, and from 1914 it was a Red Cross convalescent home named after Princess Marie Gabrielle, wife of Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria. It has been a national monument since 1976, and part of it now runs as a hotel.
What to expect
There are 23 bedrooms, all with their own bathroom except the family rooms and the backpacker room. You can pick a single, a double, a triple (the big wood floored rooms in the original building) or one of two family rooms, each made of two twin rooms sharing a bathroom and opening onto a garden sheltered from the wind. Rooms have a fridge, tea and coffee, a phone, a safe and wifi. The old wards still carry the names of the Bavarian towns whose Red Cross branches paid for the 1913 conversion, so you may find yourself in the Bamberg or Rosenheim room.
Practical details
- Address: 15 Anton Lubowski Street, Swakopmund.
- Phone +264 64 412540, email info@hotel-prinzessin-rupprecht.com.
- Book through the hotel or its Nightsbridge page.
- The hotel also hosts small events and conferences.
Good to know
This is not a quiet boutique hideaway. The same foundation runs a seniors’ residence and the Marie Douglas Heim frail care unit, and the building is shared, roughly half hotel and half retirement home. I think that is part of the charm, and the money from the hotel helps fund the care side.
Last updated 7 October 2026. Sources: Hotel Prinzessin Rupprecht, Hotel Prinzessin Rupprecht, Our History, Hotel Prinzessin Rupprecht, Contact, Wikipedia (German), Prinzessin-Rupprecht-Heim.
