The Pearl of AFRICA!
Each of these has its own page: what it is like, when to come, and the trips that visit it.
Gorilla trekking, once-in-a-lifetime trips, fit walkers
Bwindi holds roughly half the mountain gorillas left on earth. You walk into thick, steep, ancient forest with a ranger and a tracker, sometimes for an hour and sometimes for six, and then spend one hour with a habituated family at a few metres' distance. People who have done every safari there is still describe it as the best hour of their lives.
First-time Uganda, families, combining with chimpanzees
The Nile squeezes through a gap seven metres wide and drops forty-three metres, and the noise of it is the reason people come. Around the falls is Uganda's largest park: a boat trip to the base of them past hippo and crocodile, then game drives on the northern bank for lion, elephant and Rothschild's giraffe.
Primates, birders, pairing with gorilla trekking
The best chimpanzee tracking in East Africa, in a forest holding thirteen primate species. Around 1,500 chimps live here and the habituated communities are relaxed enough that you watch them feed, groom and argue overhead rather than catching a glimpse and losing them.
Variety in a short time, boat safaris, birders
Uganda's most visited park, and the one with the most variety: a boat cruise on the Kazinga Channel past hundreds of hippo, the Kasenyi plains for lion, and the Ishasha sector in the south where the lions lie in the fig trees. The Rwenzori mountains stand behind it on a clear day.
Lion, photographers, early risers
The Kasenyi plains are the open grassland sector of Queen Elizabeth National Park, and the reason you set an alarm for 5.30am. The park's lions hunt Uganda kob here, and a dawn drive across the plains is the most reliable big-cat hour in the country.
Cultural travellers, visitors trekking gorillas in Bwindi
A Batwa community on the edge of Bwindi, where the forest people evicted when the park was gazetted in 1991 show how they lived inside it — tracking, hunting, fire, medicine, and the tree houses they slept in. It is a short visit and the most direct account you will get of what conservation cost the people who were already there.
Birders, breaking the drive north, primate enthusiasts
The largest mahogany forest in East Africa, on the road into Murchison Falls, with a chimpanzee community that has been tracked since the nineties. Stopping here turns the drive north into a morning in the forest rather than six hours in a vehicle.
Birders, canoeing, breaking up a long transfer
A small reserve on the Katonga river, between Kampala and the western parks, where the wildlife viewing is done from a canoe or on foot rather than from a vehicle. Sitatunga — the swamp antelope with splayed hooves — are the draw, and they are difficult to see anywhere else.
Repeat visitors, wilderness, photographers
Kidepo sits in the far north-east against the South Sudan border, and most people who rank Uganda's parks put it first. The Narus valley holds buffalo herds in the thousands, there are cheetah and ostrich found nowhere else in the country, and you will share it with almost nobody.
Breaking the drive to Bwindi, walking, families
The only Ugandan park with zebra, and small enough that you can walk in it, take a boat on the lake and do a game drive in the same day. Three hours from Kampala, it is the stop that turns a long drive to the gorillas into a proper first night.
Golden monkeys, volcano climbs, gorillas without the crowds
The smallest park in Uganda, where three volcanoes meet the Rwandan and Congolese borders. It has a gorilla family of its own and, more unusually, golden monkeys — and the Batwa trail here is led by the forest people who lived in it before it was a park.
Serious birders, repeat Uganda visitors
Uganda's oldest wildlife reserve, in the Albertine Rift where East African savannah meets Congolese rainforest — so the bird list reads like two countries at once. The Sempaya hot springs boil hard enough to cook an egg, and the Batwa still live on the reserve edge.
Private trips, cheapest first. Prices are per person and every route can be changed.
3 Day
3 Days
Welcome to Uganda, the Pearl of Africa! Situated in East Africa, Uganda has breathtaking landscapes, diverse wildlife, and warm-hearted people. From the majestic gorillas in the misty mountains to the vast savannahs teeming with wildlife, Uganda offers a unique and unforgettable travel experience. Whether you’re exploring the vibrant capital city of Kampala, trekking through lush forests, or embarking on thrilling safaris, Uganda has something to captivate every traveler’s heart.
Tell us when you can travel and how long you have. We will put a route together and price it honestly — including the bits that are not worth doing.
