10 Day Highlights of Uganda Safari

Day 1: Welcome to Uganda!

Your driver/guide will pick you up from Entebbe airport and transfers you to your hotel for the night, only a 10 minute drive from the airport.  Depending on the time of your arrival, you might be able to explore the area. There are many options in Entebbe that can be easily organized before or after your arrival in Uganda. For example a visit to the Botanical gardens, the Ugandan Wildlife Education Centre (Zoo) or a sunset boat cruise on Lake Victoria, the largest fresh water lake in Africa. Please ask our travel specialists if you would like us to book any of these trips for you.

Over night: Latitude 0 Degrees
Meal Plan: Dinner

Day 2: To Murchison Falls national park

Today you continue your journey to Murchison Falls National Park one of the oldest conservation areas in Uganda. This is a long but rewarding journey through various landscapes of Northern Uganda. Enroute we shall stop over at the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary where you will go for a walking safari  to search for the  southern white rhinos. together with an experienced ranger. This is a wonderful opportunity to see the endangered species from up close! 

After your walk, you will have lunch and then proceed to Murchison Falls National park where you will check in to your Lodge in time for dinner and overnight. You will have to be up early tomorrow for a game drive.

Over night: Nile Safari Lodge
Meal Plan: Full Board (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner)

Day 3: Murchison Falls National Park

After an early breakfast, it is time to explore the park. On your Game Drives you of course need a fair share of luck and very good eyes to try and spot as many animals as possible. While driving through the park you will come eye-to-eye with the African animal kingdom.  The park is especially known for its massive giraffe and  elephant population, huge array of bird species and big herds of buffalo. . 

Return to the lodge after the game drive to freshen up and have lunch.

After lunch your driver will take you for an afternoon boat safari towards the Murchison Falls.  Carefully watched by crocodiles, hundreds of hippos, buffaloes, water birds, monkeys and all the other  wildlife that the Nile attracts, you go to the bottom of the powerful Murchison Falls. If you like hiking, the boat can drop you close to the waterfalls and you can hike up to the top (this takes around 1 or 1,5 hours 15USD per person). The views are amazing!

Return to your Lodge for dinner and over night.

Over night: Nile Safari Lodge
Meal Plan: Full Board (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner)

Day 4: To Kibale forest N.P.

Today, you will drive to green Kibale Forest. The drive is incredibly scenic, passing through tea plantations and the lush green countryside which characterizes so much of Uganda. On arrival at the forest, you will enter a completely different world… get ready for some serious monkey business!

Smelling the forest and listening to the many sounds, your safari tent or cottage is surrounded by countless bird species and butterflies.

Over night: Primate Lodge
Meal Plan: Full Board (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner)

Day 5: To Queen Elizabeth National Park

After a hearty breakfast, meet your guide for the start of your chimpanzee trek.

In Uganda, there are approximately 5,000 chimpanzees left in the wild. The Chimpanzee Trekking experience here is done on several well maintained walking trails in Kibale forest National park. Here you will find a wonderfully diverse concentration of other primates, more than any other forest in East Africa. You can find red colobus monkeys, red-tailed guenon, white-nosed monkey, gray-cheeked mangabey, blue monkey, L’Hoest’s monkey, and the black and white colobus monkey as well as birds & butterflies.

After your trek, return to the lodge to freshen up, have lunch and drive to Queen Elizabeth National Park.  Check in on time for dinner and overnight.

Overnight: Primate Lodge
Meal Plan: Full Board (Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner)

Day 6: Travel to  Bwindi Impenetrable Forest

After an early morning breakfast, continue to Bwindi through the Ishasha Sector of Queen Elizabeth NP famously known for the tree climbing Lions.  While lion cubs around the world frequently climb trees for fun, adults rarely do. However, these lionesses enjoy spending the hot afternoons snoozing in fig trees to get away from the tsetse flies and to enjoy a cool breeze. This is the most memorable sight in the park as you have never seen such photogenic lions posing for your camera before. During a game drive you will try your luck! Meanwhile don’t miss the stunning scenery and superb birdlife in this southern remote section of the park either.

Continue further south to Bwindi National Park, home of the Mountain Gorillas. Drive through traditional homesteads and villages to your home for the night.

Overnight: Mahogany Springs Lodge
Meal Plan: Full Board (Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner)

Day 7: Gorilla Tracking in Bwindi Forest

Today is the big day… Prepare yourself for an encounter with one of Bwindi’s gentle giants: the rare Mountain Gorilla. For most people this is the absolute highlight of their tour in Uganda.

 Following breakfast, transfer to the national park offices where you will be allocated a gorilla family in groups of 8 as well as a gorilla tracking guide.

After a briefing by your guide touching on the gorillas generally, as well as appropriate safety precautions, your assigned gorilla family will walk to the trailhead for the start of a thrilling adventure.

Participants can expect to walk long distances in steep and sometimes muddy conditions  with rain overhead, which can be tough and require a degree of fitness, however the thrill of coming face to face with a giant Mountain Gorilla silverback far more than makes up for the effort in their quest.

Upon sighting the gorillas, you will spend one hour with them as they go about their daily life; feeding, moving, playing, raising their young and sometimes wrestling by the juveniles – it is a totally unique and unforgettable experience!

Afterwards, you hike back to base and on to the lodge for a well-deserved shower and lunch or dinner depending on the time taken on the trek.

Overnight: Mahogany Springs Lodge
Meal Plan: Full Board (Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner)

Day 8: Lake Mburo National Park

This is the only place in southern Uganda to see zebras and the only park in the country with impalas, slender mongoose and giant bush rats. You can also look for hyenas, leopards, topis, elands and the beautiful Rothschild’s giraffes, not to mention the lake itself which is teeming with hippos and crocodiles!

There are a lot of wonderful activities on offer, such as horse-riding safaris, bush walk safaris, and a bike safaris. It is exciting to approach the wildlife at such close range, especially combining the fresh air with the beautiful scenery of Lake Mburo National Park.

At night you can sit at the campfire while enjoying the beautiful starlit sky or hang around in the restaurant with a dining area overlooking an expanse of rock that borders the park. It does not get more ‘Africa’ than this..

Overnight: Mihingo Lodge
Meal plan: Full board (Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner)

Day 9: To Entebbe international airport

Lake Mburo N.P. is one of the two parks in Uganda where it is permitted to go for a safari walk with an experienced ranger. Footprints and animal droppings tell which animal has been here and how long ago. It is exciting to approach the wildlife at such close range. This activity is included this morning.

If you prefer to explore Lake Mburo by mountain bike instead of walking, you can choose to do this instead. It’s very exciting to make a safari by mountain bike. Get active and get close to zebra, gazelle, Eland and sometimes even giraffe!

After your activity you will get back to the lodge (between 9 and 10 am). From here you will have breakfast and then time has come to head back to Kampala or Entebbe (Airport). Of course you stop at the equator, the best place for your souvenir shopping. Have lunch enroute to the airport.