Tour Overview
This 8-day budget safari brings together Uganda’s best primate encounters and classic savannah wildlife in one route. You trek to see mountain gorillas in Bwindi, follow chimpanzees through Kibale Forest, and enjoy game drives at Lake Mburo and Queen Elizabeth National Park, with a boat cruise on the Kazinga Channel.
It is designed for travellers who want the full western Uganda circuit at a budget-friendly level, with comfortable accommodation, an experienced driver-guide, and park fees and permits arranged for you.
Highlights
- Game drive at Lake Mburo National Park
- Mountain gorilla trekking in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park
- Optional Batwa community visit
- Tree-climbing lions in the Ishasha sector
- Kasenyi plains game drive and Kazinga Channel boat cruise
- Chimpanzee tracking in Kibale Forest
- Optional Bigodi Wetland walk
- Scenic drive back to Entebbe via Fort Portal and Kampala
Itinerary
This 8-day classic Uganda primates safari is an adventure like no other, taking you deep into Africa’s most iconic rainforests and savannahs. Trek through Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, home to half of the world’s remaining mountain gorillas, and track chimpanzees in Kibale National Park, the primate capital of Africa. Along the way, encounter lions, elephants, giraffes, leopards, and buffalo during thrilling game drives and boat safaris in Lake Mburo and Queen Elizabeth National Parks.
This journey is perfectly timed for peak primate activity. In Kibale Forest, experience the drama of chimpanzee society, as dominant males battle for status, mating rights, and territory. These intelligent primates swing through the canopy, their vocal calls reverberating through the jungle. Meanwhile, in Bwindi, thriving gorilla families feast on abundant fruit, their juveniles tumbling playfully while the mighty silverback watches over them with stoic authority.
If you’ve been dreaming of an authentic African jungle experience, this is it. Step into the world of Uganda’s great apes and witness wildlife in its rawest and most untamed form.
Your driver meets you at Entebbe International Airport and takes you to your hotel, about 15 minutes away. Your trip specialist will brief you on the week ahead before dinner.
If you arrive early, you can visit the Entebbe Botanical Gardens or add an optional half-day trip to Mabamba Swamp to look for the shoebill stork.
Overnight in Entebbe. Meals: bed and breakfast.
After an early breakfast, drive west through banana plantations and cattle country, with a stop at the Equator for photographs. The drive to Lake Mburo takes about five hours.
After lunch at your lodge, set out on an afternoon game drive. Look out for zebras, impalas, elands, buffaloes, warthogs and bushbuck. An optional boat trip on the lake gives close views of hippos, crocodiles and water birds.
Overnight near Lake Mburo. Meals: breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Start with a short morning game drive in Lake Mburo, then drive south-west through Mbarara and Kabale towards Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The road climbs through terraced hills, tea estates and misty valleys, and the last stretch is on dirt roads. It is a long day, so we keep stops relaxed and unhurried.
If time allows, you can join an optional visit to the Batwa community to learn about the original forest people of Bwindi.
Overnight near Bwindi. Meals: breakfast, packed lunch and dinner.
After an early breakfast, report to the park briefing point, where a ranger explains the rules of gorilla trekking: keep your distance, no flash photography, and stay quiet. You then trek into the forest with rangers and trackers to find a habituated gorilla family.
How long the trek takes depends on where the family spent the night, from about two hours to most of the day, on steep and sometimes muddy trails. Porters are available to carry your daypack. When you find the gorillas, you spend one hour with them at a distance of about seven metres. Trekking groups are limited to eight visitors per gorilla family.
Return to your lodge for dinner and a well-earned rest. Meals: breakfast, packed lunch and dinner.
After breakfast, leave Bwindi and drive north to Queen Elizabeth National Park through the Ishasha sector, famous for its tree-climbing lions, which often rest in the branches of large fig trees. Your guide will look for them along the way.
Continue to your lodge near the Kazinga Channel. Expect a full day on the road, with stops for lunch and photographs.
Overnight near Queen Elizabeth National Park. Meals: breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Start the day with a game drive on the Kasenyi plains, where you may see elephants, buffaloes, Uganda kob and, with luck, lions.
In the afternoon, take a boat cruise on the Kazinga Channel, which links Lake George and Lake Edward and is home to one of Africa's largest concentrations of hippos. Elephants, buffaloes and crocodiles come to the banks, along with many water birds such as fish eagles, kingfishers and herons.
After the cruise, drive north towards Kibale National Park, about three to four hours away, with the Rwenzori Mountains on the horizon.
Overnight near Kibale. Meals: breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Report to the Kibale briefing point early in the morning for your chimpanzee tracking briefing. Kibale is known for its high concentration of primates, with around 1,500 chimpanzees and 13 primate species in total.
Your guide and trackers lead you into the forest, following fresh signs such as fallen fruit and distant calls. The search can take a few hours. When you find the habituated chimpanzees, you spend one hour watching them feed, groom and play. Along the way you may also see red colobus, black-and-white colobus, blue monkeys, red-tailed monkeys and olive baboons.
In the afternoon you can relax at your lodge or join an optional guided walk in the nearby Bigodi Wetland.
Overnight near Kibale. Meals: breakfast, packed lunch and dinner.
After breakfast, drive east through Fort Portal and Kampala to Entebbe. The journey takes about six to seven hours depending on traffic, and you will pass through some of Uganda's most scenic countryside.
Your driver takes you to the airport or your hotel in time for your onward flight. Accommodation for this night is not included, but we can book a hotel in Entebbe on request.
Meals: breakfast and packed lunch.
Cost
The Cost Includes
- Pick-up or drop-off service from and to the airport (in our own vehicle)
- Ground transportation throughout the safari
- Food all along the trip (breakfast, lunch, dinner and a cup of coffee or tea) and accommodation during the trip in hotels with a family environment
- Transportation, food, accommodation and insurance of the guide during the trip
- First aid medical kit (your guide will carry the medical kit, but we also advise you to bring your own for personal use, as far as possible)
- All the required permits and paperwork
The Cost Excludes
- International airfare
- Visa charges
- Hotel expenses before and after the safari
- Your travel and medical insurance
- Personal expenses such as shopping, bar bills, telephone, laundry and snacks
- Services not mentioned in the itinerary
FAQs
The route starts with a drive from Entebbe to Lake Mburo for a game drive, then continues to Bwindi for mountain gorilla trekking and an optional visit with the Batwa community. It then goes north through the Ishasha sector to Queen Elizabeth National Park for a game drive and a Kazinga Channel boat cruise, and finishes with chimpanzee tracking in Kibale Forest before returning to Entebbe.
Yes. The cost list for this itinerary includes all the required permits and paperwork, along with the airport pick-up and drop-off, ground transportation, meals, accommodation, and the guide’s transport, food, accommodation and insurance.
International airfare, visa charges, hotel expenses before and after the safari, your travel and medical insurance, personal expenses such as shopping, bar bills, telephone and laundry, and services not mentioned in the itinerary.
The minimum age for gorilla trekking in Uganda is 15 years. Chimpanzee tracking age limits depend on the site, so tell us the ages of everyone in your group when you enquire.
A moderate level of fitness is enough. Treks can last from about 2 hours to as long as 8 hours on steep, muddy forest trails, depending on where the gorillas moved overnight. Porters from the local community can carry your daypack and help on steep sections.
The Batwa are the original forest people of the Bwindi area. On this visit you meet members of the community, hear their stories and learn about their traditional way of life in the forest.
