Uganda.
Gorillas at half the price, the best chimpanzee tracking in Africa, and a great deal more water than anyone expects.
Ten to fourteen nights. The same gorillas as Rwanda at USD 800 a permit rather than 1,500, plus the best chimpanzee tracking in Africa — in exchange for longer drives and rougher roads.
- Give it
- 10–14 nights
- Best months
- Jun–Sep, Jan–Feb
- From
- $800 per permit
- Come for
- Gorillas, chimpanzees, value
The value option, and rather more than that
Uganda offers the same mountain gorillas as Rwanda — around half the world population lives in Bwindi and Mgahinga — at a permit price of USD 800 rather than 1,500. That difference, across two permits and two people, is USD 2,800, which buys a great deal of other travel.
What you trade is convenience. Bwindi is an eight-hour drive or a two-hour flight and a transfer from Entebbe, the trekking is longer and wilder, and the roads are not Rwandan. What you gain, beyond the money, is a country with genuinely varied travel in it: Kibale has the best chimpanzee tracking in Africa, Queen Elizabeth has tree-climbing lion at Ishasha, and Murchison Falls has the Nile forced through a seven-metre gap.
Uganda is also the best birding country on the continent by species count — over 1,050 recorded — and the shoebill in the Mabamba swamps is a morning that serious birders plan whole trips around.
$800
Per gorilla permit
~1,050
Bird species recorded
~460
Gorillas in Bwindi
7 m
The gap at Murchison Falls
- Gorillas at half the Rwandan cost
- Chimpanzee tracking — the best in Africa
- Birders: unmatched species count
- Travellers with two weeks and some stamina
Less good for
- Short trips — the distances are long
- Guests who want smooth roads
- Classic open-plains game viewing
Five places worth your nights
Bwindi Impenetrable Forest
2–3 nights · the gorillas
Around 460 gorillas across four trekking sectors, in forest that earns its name. Longer, wilder treks than Rwanda.
Kibale forest
2 nights · chimpanzees
1,500 chimpanzees and thirteen primate species. The habituation experience puts you with a group for a full day.
Queen Elizabeth
2–3 nights · Ishasha
Savannah between two lakes, the Kazinga channel by boat, and the tree-climbing lion of the Ishasha sector.
Murchison Falls
2–3 nights · the Nile
The Nile forced through a seven-metre gap, boat trips below the falls, and Uganda’s largest park.
Kidepo Valley
3 nights · the wild one
Far north-east, bordering South Sudan: empty, dramatic, and the park Ugandans name first. Very few visitors.
Mabamba and Entebbe
1 night · shoebill
A dugout canoe through papyrus at dawn for the shoebill, forty minutes from the airport. The best possible first morning.
Month by month
| Months | Weather | Conditions | Crowds | Our view |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan – Feb | Dry, warm | Excellent trekking; best game viewing | Moderate | A very good window |
| Mar – May | Long rains; heavy | Trekking hard; roads difficult | Low | Permits available at short notice |
| Jun – Sep | Dry season | Excellent — the main season | High | Book six to nine months out |
| Oct – Nov | Short rains | Wet but workable; green and quiet | Low | Good value |
| Dec | Drying | Very good | High from the 20th | Book ahead for festive dates |
Flights and entry
Entebbe International is served from Europe, the Gulf and across Africa, and is ninety minutes from Nairobi. Internally, Bwindi and the western parks are reached by scheduled light aircraft in about two hours, or by road in eight to ten. We fly guests in almost every case; the roads are long and the scenery does not compensate.
What it runs to
Gorilla permits are USD 800, chimpanzee tracking USD 250 at Kibale and USD 300 for the full-day habituation. Park fees run USD 40–45 per person per day. Lodges are markedly cheaper than Rwanda at USD 350–900 per person per night. A comparable gorilla leg costs roughly 40 per cent less than the Rwandan equivalent.
Before you go
Fifteen is the strict minimum age for gorilla permits. Bwindi treks are longer and steeper than Rwanda’s — budget two to six hours each way, and hire a porter. Yellow fever certification is mandatory for entry. Malaria prophylaxis throughout. The East Africa Tourist Visa covers Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda together.
Fewer lodges, and a handful that are very good
Uganda’s lodge scene is thinner than Rwanda’s and considerably cheaper. Bwindi has perhaps five properties we would use across the four trekking sectors, and sector matters: your permit is issued for a specific one, so the lodge must match it. Getting that wrong costs a two-hour pre-dawn drive, and it happens more often than it should.
Kibale and Queen Elizabeth each have two or three good lodges. Kidepo has one excellent camp and one adequate lodge, which is part of why so few people go.
Because the properties are cheaper, Uganda is the country where we most often add nights rather than trim them. A fortnight here costs what nine nights costs in Rwanda.
Ten nights, as we would build it
Entebbe, and the shoebill
Met at the airport and taken to a lake house. A dawn canoe through the Mabamba papyrus for the shoebill — the best first morning in East Africa.
To Kibale
Flown west to the forest. An afternoon walk, and a briefing on how chimpanzee tracking differs from gorillas.
Chimpanzees
The full-day habituation experience: out at six with the researchers, and a whole day with a group rather than a single hour.
To Queen Elizabeth
South to the savannah. The Kazinga channel by boat in the afternoon — elephant, buffalo and the densest hippo concentration in Africa.
Ishasha
The southern sector for tree-climbing lion, which behave that way here for reasons nobody has settled. Onward to Bwindi in the afternoon.
First gorilla trek
Into the Impenetrable Forest. Two to six hours of climbing, then one hour with a family. The afternoon deliberately empty.
Second gorilla trek
A different family and a different sector. Almost always the better hour, and at USD 800 a permit, an easier argument than in Rwanda.
To Kidepo
A long flight north-east to the empty one — borassus palms, mountains, and the park Ugandans name first.
Kidepo
Full days in a park most visitors never reach, with Karamojong guides and no other vehicles.
Kidepo
A day held open. Walking, a community visit, or simply the view from camp.
Homeward
A morning flight to Entebbe, day rooms at a lake hotel, and the evening international departure.
Uganda against Rwanda, and the rest
Against Rwanda: permits at USD 800 rather than 1,500, wilder and longer trekking, chimpanzees at Kibale and real savannah at Queen Elizabeth. Rwanda wins on roads, lodges and the sheer efficiency of an hour from the capital. If budget binds, Uganda; if time binds, Rwanda.
Against Kenya and Tanzania: Uganda’s savannah game viewing is respectable rather than exceptional. Come for the primates and the water, and add a Kenyan or Tanzanian leg if you want plains game — it is a ninety-minute flight from Nairobi.
Against Zambia: both are value countries with excellent guiding and few visitors. Zambia walks better; Uganda has gorillas, chimpanzees and a thousand bird species. Different trips entirely.
Every country we work in
On Uganda
Uganda or Rwanda for gorillas?
Uganda for value and wildness — USD 800 permits, longer treks, and a country with chimpanzees and savannah alongside. Rwanda for efficiency and comfort. The gorillas are the same animals in the same massif; everything around them differs.
How hard is the trekking in Bwindi?
Harder than Rwanda: two to six hours each way through steep, dense, wet forest that earns the name Impenetrable. Hire a porter at USD 20 — it is the best money you will spend, and it puts income into the local community.
Is Kibale worth the extra nights?
If primates interest you at all, yes. The full-day habituation experience — out at six with the researchers and a whole day with one group — is the best chimpanzee encounter available anywhere, and quite different from the standard one-hour visit.
Is Uganda safe?
The tourist circuit has been stable throughout our trading and the country is welcoming to visitors. We monitor the far north-eastern border areas and Karamoja separately, and we will tell you plainly if a route we would normally use is one we would currently avoid.
Do we need separate visas for Kenya and Uganda?
No — the East Africa Tourist Visa covers Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda for USD 100, which is the sensible option if you are combining. It does not cover Tanzania.