Two hemispheres, one country, and a gorilla an hour off the road.
What a gorilla permit really costs. Whether Murchison beats Queen Elizabeth on a short week. What a morning on foot in Kampala runs to. Reviews of every tour you can book in Uganda.
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0.2°SA gorilla, a waterfall, a city on foot, and the Nile from inside it.
Four bookings a first Uganda trip is usually built around. What each one costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The three-day trek3 Days gorilla trekking Safari tour in UgandaBwindi and back with the permit handled. One hour with a habituated family, after a climb nobody warns you about.
02The falls and the game drive3 Days Murchison Falls Adventure Wildlife Safari Uganda TourMurchison in three days: the Nile squeezed through a seven-metre gap, then the delta at first light.
03The morning in KampalaKampala’s Best Experience walking tourSeven hills, the taxi park and Owino market on foot. The cheapest good day in the country by a distance.
04The Nile dayTubing the NileTubing the White Nile at Jinja, below the rapids the rafts run. Warm water, no paddling, a beer at the end.
Uganda is a circuit of parks and one city you keep coming back through.
A rainforest on the Congo border, the Nile falling through a rock gap, a crater-lake park with lions in the fig trees, and rhinos on the road north. Six places, and the best days out in each.
Which park, and how many nights you can spare for it.
Every Ugandan park sells a different animal. Murchison is the Nile and the delta, Queen Elizabeth is hippos and tree lions, Mburo is the one you can do in a weekend, Ziwa is the only place left with rhinos. The number under each is what it opens at.
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 8-Day Murchison Falls, Chimp and Epic Gorilla Trekking Safari
Murchison FallsThe boat to the base of the falls, then giraffe country at dawn.
Queen ElizabethThe Kazinga Channel cruise and the fig trees at Ishasha.
Lake MburoZebra, eland and a walking safari. Close enough for two nights.
Ziwa RhinoTracking southern white rhino on foot, on the way north.
All 62 safaris and game drives →
An hour with the gorillas is the most expensive hour in East Africa. It is also the one nobody regrets.
Bwindi and Mgahinga hold about half the mountain gorillas alive. Kibale has the chimpanzees, Kalinzu the cheaper trek, and the Batwa who were moved off the forest floor now guide on it. Permits are capped per day and sold by name, so the date decides the trip.
Kampala is cheap, loud and best walked before the heat.
Everything in Kampala →
Seven hills, a taxi park that runs on nothing but shouting, and the biggest open-air market in East Africa. These three carry more travellers than anything else in the country, and none of them costs more than a good dinner.
Old Kampala and Owino on foot
Down through the taxi park, into Owino market and up to the Gaddafi Mosque for the minaret view. Several of the best-rated ones are led by women’s guiding collectives and the money stays in the neighbourhood.
The city from the back of a boda
A motorbike taxi with a guide on it, which is the only sane way to cover seven hills in an afternoon. Kabaka’s lake, the Bahai temple and Namirembe cathedral in one run.
Ugandan coffee, from cherry to cup
Uganda grows more robusta than anywhere in Africa and drinks almost none of it. An hour of roasting and tasting in the city is the cheapest thing on this whole site.
The Ugandan days out more travellers take than any other.
Every Ugandan tour we have reviewed →Trek permits and three-day safaris sit at the top of the price list, and the walking tours sit at the top of this one. Both are true.
1
3 Hours Guided Cycling Tour Across Lake Victoria
Start at Beach House Gardens in Ggaba at 8:00 am, take a local boat with your bike to Buule, then ride 20 to 25 kilometers on narrow dirt trails around the Lake Victoria Peninsula. Your English-speaking guide, mountain bike, helmet, soft drink, and Ugandan Rolex are included. Guide Zaga has led this route, though your guide may vary.
From · $60
Read our review →
2
Kampala’s Best Experience walking tour
from $33
3
3 Days gorilla trekking Safari tour in Uganda
from $2,600
4
Lake Victoria Island Cycling Tour from Kampala
from $62
5
Kampala Walking City Tours (Women Guided)
from $34
6
Kampala Walking Tour (3 Hours) with Optional Gaddafi Mosque Visit
from $32
7
1 Day Sipi falls hike
from $20
8
Steve Kampala Walking tours (Airpals Safaris tour)
from $28
Uganda is two price worlds and you will book in both.
Every tour on the site grouped by what it costs a head. A morning in Kampala and a week in the parks are barely the same holiday, and most people do both.
City walks, the coffee hour, a boda circuit, the Sipi Falls hike and the Entebbe botanical gardens.
Day trips and short safaris: the Nile at Jinja, Ziwa rhinos, two nights at Mburo or Murchison.
The full circuit, and anything with a gorilla permit inside it. Permit, transport, park fees and lodging in one number.
Three things Uganda has that its neighbours do not.
Savannah and big cats run the length of East Africa. A rainforest with half the world’s mountain gorillas in it, lions that sleep in fig trees, and the exact point the Nile leaves the lake, do not.
An hour with a gorilla family
The Impenetrable Forest holds roughly half the mountain gorillas left alive, in families that rangers have spent years getting used to people. A permit buys one hour once you find them, and the finding can take twenty minutes or six hours up a ridge in the rain. Uganda caps the permits per day per family, which is why the date you can travel decides the whole trip rather than the other way round.
- 13 Days gorilla trekking Safari tour in Uganda★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 121 reviews
- 28-Day Murchison Falls, Chimp and Epic Gorilla Trekking Safari★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 72 reviews
- 35-Day Pearl of Africa Chimps and Gorilla Trekking Safari★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 52 reviews
Lions in the fig trees
In the southern sector of Queen Elizabeth the lions climb. Nobody is certain why — the usual explanations are tsetse flies and the breeze — but on most afternoons a pride is draped along the branches of a candelabra fig, legs hanging. There are only two places on the continent where it happens reliably, and this is the easier one to reach.
- 12 Days Safari To Queen Elizabeth National Park with Cruise★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 54 reviews
- 23 Days Wild Tour Queen Elizabeth National Park Safari Uganda★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 36 reviews
- 3Private 3-Day Tour in Queen Elizabeth Park Safari★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 17 reviews
The point the Nile starts
At Jinja the world’s longest river leaves Lake Victoria, and you can stand on the bank and watch it go. Below it the water drops through grade-five rapids that built the town’s rafting industry, and below those it flattens out warm and slow enough to float down on a tractor inner tube with a beer.
- 1Tubing the Nile★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 69 reviews
- 2Private Whitewater Tubing in Bujagali Hydropower Plant★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 21 reviews
- 3Jinja Day Trip with Boat Ride on Lake Victoria & River Nile★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 15 reviews
Four Ugandan bookings that will not wait for you.
Most of this country can be arranged from a hotel lobby the night before. These four run on permit quotas, park calendars and river levels that take no interest in when your flight lands.
- 013 Days gorilla trekking Safari tour in UgandaGorilla permits are capped per family per day and issued against your name and passport. High season goes months out and they are not transferable.
- 025 Days Uganda Gorilla, Chimpanzee and Wildlife SafariChimp tracking runs in fixed morning and afternoon slots with a small group cap, and the habituation experience takes even fewer people.
- 037 Days Rwenzori Summit (Margherita Peak) HikeThe mountain routes have huts and guide rotas booked well in advance, and the wet months close the high traverse entirely.
- 048-Day Murchison Falls, Chimp and Epic Gorilla Trekking SafariThe launch trip to the base of the falls has a limited number of seats per sailing, and the good one is the afternoon boat.
When the murram turns to soup, book indoors and close to town.
March to May and September to November bring the long and short rains. Trek trails go slick, the park tracks soften and a three-hour transfer becomes five. The rain usually falls in one hard afternoon burst, so the answer is the same every time: something in the morning, something under a roof, something near Kampala.
- 1Kampala Walking City Tours (Women Guided)from $34
- 2City Guided walking sightseeing Tourfrom $22
- 3Kampala cultural tourfrom $55
By place — parks, lakes and the city
By kind of day — trek, game drive, water or street
Entebbe, Jinja, Murchison, Kibale, Queen Elizabeth, Bwindi: the loop almost everybody drives.
The newest Ugandan tour reviews.
The rest of this week’s Uganda reviews →
Rwenzori Mountains Trekking with Margherita Peak Summit
Read our review →
Mountain Rwenzori Trekking Uganda 9 Day Safari
Read our review →
3-Day Gorilla Trekking Bunyonyi Mist Relaxation Safari
Read our review →
Private Ugandan Food Cooking Class and Culture Experience
Read our review →
4 Day Uganda Gorilla Trekking Safari with Lake Bunyonyi
Read our review →
3 Days Lake Bunyonyi and Gorilla Trekking Tour in Uganda
Read our review →
1 Day Best Mabamba Swamp Shoebill Birding Tour, Lake Victoria
Read our review →
