10 Days – Uganda Safari Highlights.

Day 0: Arrival at Entebbe

Arrival meet and great our representative & transfer to your hotel in Entebbe City.

You’ll choose your preferred accommodation. Our reservations expert will share with you, hotel options in Entebbe. Meals: Bed and Breakfast.

Day 1: Kampala to Murchison Falls National Park

Activities: Rhino walking safari, road trip.

Today early morning, our guide will pick you from your Hotel or other residence in Kampala/ Entebbe. Along the way to Murchison falls national park, you will stopover at Ziwa rhino sanctuary located at Nakitoma village. Tracking and viewing the rhinos usually involves a short drive followed by 1-hour walking and viewing with a ranger. Closed shoes, long trousers and insect repellent are strongly recommended.

You’ll be guided on foot by a ranger to visit Uganda’s most endangered creature – the Southern White Rhino. Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary, home to over 30 southern white rhinos is the only place in Uganda where they still survive and breed with the hopes of one day being reintroduced back into one of the savannah parks. After check into your lodge for dinner and overnight:

• Road type: Paved except in Nat Park.
• Approximate driving time: 7 hours
• Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner

Day 2: In Murchison Falls National Park

Today’s activities: Game drive safari, boat safari trip.

Today we head out early (6.30 am) for morning game drive to the northern side in the open savannah. Enjoy a 3-hour game safari, keep an eye out for the elephants, leopards, lions, warthogs and giraffes as well as large herds of antelopes; oribi, Hartebeets, Kobs. Please note – some wild animals like leopards, lions can be elusive! – our guides will maximize chances of these cat sightings! You’ll stop for your lunch by the river Nile.

At 2:00pm, you depart for a 3-hour boat safari along the Victoria Nile to the bottom of Murchison falls. Along the way, you’ll be passing large numbers of giant Nile crocodiles, schools of hippos, over this 17 km stretch you may see elephant, waterbuck and Uganda Kob. This is also a zone of many bird species.  Enjoy this breathtaking scenery.  Today you will have a sundowner in the evening.

• Road type: Both Paved and dirt in Nat park
• Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner included.

Day 3: Murchison falls to Kibale Forest National Park.

Activities: Boat ride to delta & Transfer to Kibale Forest N P.
Road type: Both Paved and dirt in Nat park.
You will be picked at 7am and head out on boat ride to Delta. Highlights include, stunning birdlife, fishermen on the Nile, hippos, elephants and fishing life. On lucky day you could spot the rare shoebill. You will be picked by your guide at landing site. There after transfer by road to Kibale Forest N P. This is a very beautiful journey with stunning diverse landscapes and the hills you will drive through will become greener and greener until you come to the tea plantations of Fort Portal!

• Approximate driving time; 6 hrs, Delta boat ride approximate time: 3 hours
• Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner.

Day 4: In Kibale Forest National Park

Activities: Chimpanzee Tracking & Bigodi swamp walk and community life tour.
After early breakfast, you will have a short drive to  Kanyanchu gate in Kibale forest national park from where you will start chimpanzee tracking. Kibale forest national park is an extension of the great rainforests of central Africa. It is inhabited by three large “communities” of chimps, with over 120 individuals. Only one community is allowed to be visited by tourists.
In Kibale, here you will find one of the largest populations of chimpanzees in Africa – about 1450 individual. This activity can take between 2 to 4 hours.

Today after lunch break, you will continue exploring Bigodi swamp (one hour) & community tour in a village walk (2 hours). The guided circular trail through the swamp is also one of the best guided bird trails in East Africa as well as offering a realistic opportunity to see 4 to 6 different primate species in a space of a few hours. This walk is excellent for viewing bird life and seeing primates at close quarters. Search primates like: I’hoestes, red colobus, blues, red tailed and gray – cheeked mangabey, bird species like the Great blue Turaco, bees’ eaters and many more. Experience how primates and birds live with the community, amazing farm life experiences; basket weaving, Coffee roasting experience.
Road type: Mostly paved and dirt limited to some sections.

Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner.

Day 5: To Queen Elizabeth National Park – Boat Cruise

Activities: Bigodi swamp walk & Boat cruise safari

Today you will transfer to Queen Elisabeth NP park via Kasenda crater region. This area is dotted by over 20 crater lakes that color a landscape in the foreground of the Rwenzori mountain ranges. You will have photography stops. At 3pm we will go for a boat cruise on the Kazinga Channel (2 hours approx.). Look out for the hippos, great herds of Buffalos, and lots of water birds by the channel side. This boat cruise offers an excellent platform for photography, bird watching and game viewing.

The park is home to over 95 mammal species and over 600 bird species. Time permitting head out on a 2-hour evening game drive with a sundowner. Look out for the lions, buffalos, elephants, and large numbers of Uganda Kobs and other antelopes.

• Road type: Both Paved and dirt in Nat park.
• Approximate transfer time : 2.5 hr
• Accommodation: at your lodge at edge of Kibale forest national park.
• Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner

Day 6: In Queen Elizabeth National Park – Bwindi National Park/ Mgahinga Gorilla National Park

Activities: Road transfer, Picnic.

In the morning we do another game drive, on a look out for the lions, buffalos, elephants, and large numbers of Uganda Kobs and other antelopes. We transfer to Bwindi impenetrable national park or Mgahinga national park.  You will drive via Ishasha (2 ½ hours approx.), which is in the southern sector of Queen Elisabeth National Park. where you will have game drive in search of the famous tree-climbing lions and the large herds of game. There are chances of finding lions in the trees by the roadside.

Please note that our guide and ranger will maximize all regular hot spots to increase chances of sighting. The scenic beauty, the size of the euphorbias and combination of riverine forest, Savannah plain and equatorial forest makes this a memorable day, only found in Africa. Afterwards you will drive through the “Switzerland of Africa” area known as the Kigezi Highlands with its terraced hillside and winding roads to Bwindi. You will transfer to your accommodation viewing the mountain landscapes.

Depending on the park gate of gorilla permits available at time of booking, we will proceed to one of the following three gates of Bwindi impenetrable national park – The home of Mountain Gorillas in Uganda: Buhoma, Rushaga, Ruhija and Kisoro for Mgahinga gorilla gate.

• Road type: Both Paved and rough sections, dirt in Nat park.
• Driving time to Bwindi: From 3.5 to 7 hours, depending on gate location of gorilla permit reserved at time of booking.
• Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner.

Day 7: Bwindi Impenetrable National Park – Gorilla Trekking

Activities: Gorilla trekking, Village tour

Breakfast and take a short transfer to Bwindi NP office, where you will meet up with excellent local rangers and trackers, who will give a talk on the etiquette of gorilla trekking. Thereafter, hike into the forest with your packed lunch.

An advance party of rangers (known as trackers) will have gone ahead into the forest to locate where the gorillas slept the previous night and will have begun to track their movements. These trackers will keep communicating with your head guide via a radio talkie and the trek into the forest will begin.

HOT TIP: Hire a porter at the briefing point. Your porter will carry your backpack and help you as you traverse the forest and is so completely worth it. You’ll be supporting a local family and this allows them to continue being part of community gorilla protection cooperation, which is essential in Mountain gorilla conservation. After this exciting experience, it’s time to relax at the lodge. It is possible to visit indigenous pigmie community, learn their way of life.

• In Bwindi NP (Uganda), there are 23 habituated gorilla families that can be viewed by tourists.
• In Mgahinga NP (Uganda), there is 1 habituated gorilla family for tourist viewing.
• Each of the families can be visited by a maximum of 8 people daily and the viewing lasts only 1 hour.

The trekking can take from 2 to 10 hours and climb to altitudes in excess of 7,500 feet.  After finding gorillas, you will spend a maximum of 1 hour viewing them. The terrain can get tough and at times muddy.  Although the hike is physically demanding the beauty of the forest and surrounding scenery make the trekking worthwhile. Once the gorillas are located all fatigue is forgotten, as the experience is often described as being the most profound natural history experience in the world. It can rain at a few minutes’ notice; hence waterproof clothing is a good essential including zip lock bags for cameras.  It is important to take plenty of water.  After return to your lodge.

Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner

Day 8: Bwindi Impenetrable National Park  – Lake Bunyonyi

Second Gorilla Trekking (optional). For primate fanatics, you could also choose to encounter mountain gorillas one more time starting from a different gate. Please note that a second gorilla permit is required: $700 per person. Please inform our reservation expert  at time of booking. After transfer to Lake Bunyonyi.

Transfer to lake Bunyonyi: Alternatively, you could choose to transfer direct 2 ½ hours to Lake Bunyonyi, described by BBC media as ‘probably Africa’s most beautiful lake. Lake Bunyonyi is a lava dammed lake, formed when a river was dammed by lava and valley filled up. This is one of Africa’s deepest and probably beautiful lakes at an elevation of 1960m (6400ft). Lake Bunyonyi is a known to be a place of so many little small birds.

The most popular activity is a boat ride to islands – Look out for “akampene” – the punishment Island – where until 1940’s unmarried pregnant girls were dropped and left to die helplessly or starve to death, some drown trying to swim ashore; they were often saved my poor men who could not afford pride price. It was a taboo to pregnant before the recommended marriage age. Activity duration: 1 hour.  Cost $15 per person.  Check in at your accommodation viewing lake Bunyonyi.

• Road type: Dirty and rough parts, halfway paved.
• Approximate transfer time: 2.5 hrs
• Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner.

Day 9: Drive to Lake Mburo National Park, evening game drive

Today you will transfer to Lake Mburo National Park. Expect to see antelopes like Impalas, Elands and Zebras not seen anywhere on this Uganda trip. The Lake Mburo National Park forms a mosaic-like habitat with rocks, dry slopes, open and wooded savannas, forests, and swamps increases. This diversity of habitats has the diversity of bird life with 313 bird species recorded in the park, including beautiful Rollers, Bee eaters, and starlings. You will have a game drive in the park.  Accommodation is at your lodge at edge viewing the park.

• Approximate driving time:  4 hrs
• Meal plan: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 10: Lake Mburo National Park to Entebbe AirPort 

Today morning  it is possible to do an on-foot game walking safari with a ranger.  This will give you an opportunity to get up close with grazing antelopes and zebra and also so many birds. You will return to the lodge for breakfast. i. You will be led by experienced rangers through the park trails.  There after you start your journey and transfer to Entebbe. This will be end of your Ugandan safari adventure.  We will stop at the Equator line. This is an opportunity to have photo moment and do souvenir shopping.

• Approximate driving time, 4.5 hrs
• Meals: Breakfast, lunch

TIP: We can customize this safari and can start any date.

Comfort Accommodations:

2 nights at Twiga Safari Lodge
2 nights at Isunga Lodge
1 night at Twin Lakes safari Lodge
1 night at Embogo lodge
2 nights at Ride4woman or Ichumbi Gorilla lodge
1 night at Rwakobo Rock

Meals-Full Board: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner included

Additional accommodation before and at the end of the tour can be arranged for extra cost!

Lodging mentioned depends on availability of rooms at the time of booking. Reservations will only be made after your confirmed booking with us.