20 Days Uganda Safari

Ugan­da has a lot to offer the world, and with this 20-day safari, you will have a blend of adven­ture and relax­ation expe­ri­ence. Your epic hol­i­day com­bines dif­fer­ent expe­ri­ences from Cen­tral, East­ern, and North­ern to West­ern Ugan­da. You will begin with adren­a­line adven­tures at the Source of the Nile, enjoy white­wa­ter raft­ing; Sipi Falls at the base of Elgon Volcano.

To North­east­ern Ugan­da, explore Kide­po Val­ley Nation­al Park, pro­ceed to Murchi­son Falls N/Park, Kibale, Queen Eliz­a­beth Park, Semu­li­ki, Bwin­di Nation­al Park, Lake Mburo, Lake Bun­y­onyi, and more. Your safari also incor­po­rates unique cul­tur­al expe­ri­ences in the dif­fer­ent regions that you will be visiting.

Detailed safari

Day 1: Entebbe Inter­na­tion­al Air­port (EBB) & trans­fer to a hotel

Meet your safari leader at EBB after land­ing, get briefed on your remark­able 20 days Ugan­da safari. After, con­nect to your hotel to enjoy an ulti­mate relax­ation, din­ner and overnight sleep. Entebbe Inter­na­tion­al Air­port lies on the spec­tac­u­lar penin­su­lar, and in the sur­round­ing, there is Lake Vic­to­ria, the largest trop­i­cal lake on earth.

Day 2: White­wa­ter rafting

After ear­ly morn­ing break­fast, leave Entebbe for Jin­ja city- East­ern Ugan­da. Dri­ve on the Jin­ja high­way and en route, you will find Mabi­ra For­est, a vast trop­i­cal for­est that is divid­ed into two by the road. Arrive ear­ly, and you will join oth­er rafters for brief­ing then pro­ceed for a half-day white­wa­ter raft­ing expe­ri­ence on the Source of the Nile Riv­er Jin­ja. You will be con­quer­ing the Grade 5 rapids, with experts avail­able to make your day mem­o­rable. Return from a thrilling white­wa­ter raft­ing, and enjoy late lunch, chill and you will set off for a boat tour to where John Speke stood. Here, you will also be sight­ing numer­ous birds like kingfishers.

Day 3: Sipi waterfalls

Trans­fer from Jin­ja to the Sipi water­falls, 4 to 5 hours’ dri­ve. En route, enjoy the view of exten­sive sug­ar­cane plan­ta­tions, and rice fields, and arrive ear­ly to check in at your accom­mo­da­tion where lunch will be offered. After lunch, set off for 3–4 hours trek to the triple Sipi water­falls which exist at ele­va­tion ranges of 85m, 100m, and 75m.

Day 4: Kide­po N. Park

Rise up ear­ly for break­fast, after, begin your road trip to the extreme North­east­ern Ugan­da where you will vis­it Kide­po Val­ley Nation­al Park. This is a 1442sq.kms exten­sive pro­tect­ed area, estab­lished in 1962 and home to numer­ous wildlife such as cape buf­faloes, leop­ards, chee­tahs, ele­phants, Jackson’s har­te­beest, elands, spot­ted hye­nas, top­is, Ugan­da kobs, 475 species of birds, and others.

Day 5: Game dri­ve, Karamo­jong com­mu­ni­ty visit

Start ear­ly on your 2–4 hours’ guid­ed game dri­ve in the exten­sive savan­na plains of Kide­po Val­ley Nation­al Park. Dri­ve through the Narus Val­ley, a reward­ing sec­tor in Kide­po that will get you exposed to many ani­mal species includ­ing zebras, reed­bucks, buf­faloes, lions, leop­ards, chee­tahs, side-striped jack­als, elands, giraffes, bat-eared fox­es, cara­cals, birds, etc. Return for relax­ation, lunch and in the after­noon, you will embark on a com­mu­ni­ty tour to explore more about the Karamo­jong and their dis­tinct cul­tures, tra­di­tions, prac­tices, and more.

Day 6: Mt. Morun­gole & IK com­mu­ni­ty tour

After break­fast, set off for a long day trek to the top of Morun­gole Moun­tain where you will explore the IK peo­ple and their cul­tures. Mt. Morun­gole is 2749m high, and the IK peo­ple live on its summit.

Day 7: Murchi­son Falls Park

Start your road trip to Murchi­son Falls Nation­al Park, Uganda’s biggest park locat­ed on the North­west­ern side of the coun­try. This is expect­ed to take you about 7 hours dri­ve, and en route, lunch will be enjoyed at Gulu. Murchi­son Falls Park hosts a huge pro­fu­sion of wildlife, and they include cape buf­faloes, ele­phants, antelopes, giraffes, etc.

Day 8: Game trip, Vic­to­ria Nile boat tour

After a hot cup of tea/coffee, leave your lodge for 2–3 hours game dri­ve via the North­ern sec­tion of Murchi­son Falls Nation­al Park. Dur­ing the game dri­ve, you will use a 4x4 tourist vehi­cle and expect to come across wildlife species such as lions, the Roth­schild giraffes, ele­phants, Ugan­da kobs, Jackson’s har­te­beest, buf­faloes, leop­ards, water­bucks, oribis, birds in large numbers.

You will return from the game dri­ve, enjoy lunch and at 2 pm, expect to begin your mem­o­rable boat tour along the Vic­to­ria Nile. The boat cruise expe­ri­ence starts from Paraa and con­nects up to the base of the Murchi­son waterfalls.

Between the two points, you will be left aston­ished by the mes­mer­iz­ing view of aquat­ic life includ­ing hip­pos, birds, Nile croc­o­diles, and more. At the base of Murchi­son Fall, enjoy the breath­tak­ing view and take incred­i­ble pic­tures. You may pro­ceed with a hike to the top of the falls, 45 min­utes, or return to Paraa on a boat.

Day 9: The top of the falls & trav­el to Hoima

Break­fast ear­ly in the morn­ing, and after dri­ve to the top of the falls for pho­tog­ra­phy then head to Hoima. En-route to Hoima city, you will make a stop vis­it at Kibiro salt gar­dens. Kibiro is one of the sig­nif­i­cant her­itage sites, and many local res­i­dents gath­er at the site for salt mining.

Day 10: Hoima-Kibale N/Park, Uganda

Enjoy a hefty break­fast, and after, dri­ve from Hoima to Kibale Nation­al Park. En-route, you will dri­ve via the breath­tak­ing land­scape, home­steads, lush veg­e­ta­tion, etc. There are also exten­sive tea estates, watch locals as they pluck. At Fort Por­tal city, you will make a stopover for lunch and con­tin­ue to Kibale Park to relax at the lodge while enjoy­ing the refresh­ing atmosphere.

Day 11: Chim­panzees & Bigo­di Swamp walk

A cup of tea/coffee be pro­vid­ed to you at the lodge, and after, trans­fer to Kanyanchu tourist cen­ter for a brief­ing about chim­panzee trekking rules. Kanyanchu is where treks to explore habit­u­at­ed chim­panzee com­mu­ni­ties start from, and it is where the park guides are also allo­cat­ed to vis­i­tors. At 8:00 am, the 2–4 hours trek to see chim­panzees start and you will be guar­an­teed one hour of mag­i­cal encounter. Oth­er than chimps, Kibale is also rich in oth­er pri­mates, birds, and flo­ral species.

Day 12: Semu­li­ki Park

Leave Kibale For­est N/Park for Semu­li­ki, a spec­tac­u­lar park most pop­u­lar for its pow­er­ful hot spring- Sem­paya hot springs. Semu­li­ki is 220sq.kms park, home to 441 bird species and numer­ous pri­mates includ­ing the grey-cheeked mangabeys, De Brazza’s mon­keys, Mona mon­keys, red-tailed mon­keys, baboons, chim­panzees, and black and white colobus mon­keys. You will under­take a guid­ed nature walk lead­ing to the Sem­paya hot springs. This hot spring con­sists of female and male hot springs, the male- is Bitente, and the female is Nyasim­bi. It has a boil­ing rate of 100 degrees Cel­sius, and most vis­i­tors come to car­ry out exper­i­ments here espe­cial­ly boil­ing an egg or plan­tain. After your Sem­paya tour, head to the Rwen­zori Moun­tains Nation­al Park.

Day 13: Rwen­zori Moun­tain trek

A full day will be ded­i­cat­ed for you to explore the base area of the Rwen­zori Moun­tain ranges. It takes about 7 days or more to climb to the top of Mount Rwen­zori, Africa’s 3rd high­est moun­tain range. Mt. Rwenzori’s high­est peak is Margheri­ta, ris­ing to 5109m. Since it is a short tour, you will trek around the near­by peaks, but you will have an excep­tion­al view of the sur­round­ing Lake George, Edward; rift val­ley areas. After, you will be trans­ferred to Queen Eliz­a­beth Nation­al Park, West­ern Uganda.

Day 14: Game dri­ve tour, boat cruise expe­ri­ence ‑Queen Eliz­a­beth Park

After a hefty break­fast, you will set off for a guid­ed game dri­ve via Kasenyi plains. This is one of the spe­cial game view­ing trails in Queen Eliz­a­beth NP, and it is locat­ed on the North­ern side of the park. Expect­ed ani­mal sight­ings while on Kasenyi plains range from lions, ele­phants, antelopes, leop­ards (on a lucky day), warthogs, to birds.

Over 95 species of mam­mals, 600 bird species all live in Queen Eliz­a­beth N/Park. Enjoy a leisure­ly lunch, after, pro­ceed to Mweya for a boat cruise which lasts for 2–3 hours on Kazin­ga chan­nel. At Kazin­ga, you will come across a huge con­cen­tra­tion of hip­pos, croc­o­diles, aquat­ic birds includ­ing the yel­low billed storks, African open billed storks, African spoon­bills, pel­i­cans, etc.

Day 15: Bwin­di Park with en-route tour in Ishasha sector

Depart for Bwin­di Impen­e­tra­ble Nation­al Park, about 3–4 hours’ dri­ve. You will enjoy an en-route game dri­ve at Ishasha sec­tor, the South­ern region of Queen Eliz­a­beth Park known for tree climb­ing lion watch­ing. After remark­able tree climb­ing lion watch­ing, trans­fer to Bwin­di Nation­al Park, a trop­i­cal for­est park which is found in the South­west­ern Ugan­da. Bwin­di lies along the Alber­tine rift val­ley, at alti­tu­di­nal range of 1160m and 2607m.

Day 16: Goril­la trekking – 2 to 6 hours’ drive

Set off from your lodge to Bwin­di Park offices for brief­ing and allo­ca­tion of goril­la fam­i­lies. This starts at 8:00 am, and a brief­ing will be con­duct­ed by the park offi­cial. At Bwin­di, there are 20 habit­u­at­ed goril­la fam­i­lies to be vis­it­ed, and they are dis­trib­uted across the 4 sec­tors- Ruhi­ja, Buhoma, Rusha­ga, and Nkuringo. Your park guide will escort you to explore more about moun­tain goril­las, with a max­i­mum of one hour guar­an­teed for a face-to-face encounter, and pho­tog­ra­phy. After enjoy­ing a close encounter with moun­tain goril­las, return to the lodge for relax­ation and lat­er, you will vis­it Bat­wa pyg­mies’ community.

Day 17: Gold­en mon­keys ‑Mgahin­ga NP & Lake Bunyonyi

A hot cup of tea/coffee, after, dri­ve to Nte­beko tourist cen­ter for a brief­ing on guide­lines for gold­en mon­key track­ing. You will explore in-depth gold­en mon­keys, some of the beau­ti­ful crea­tures with gold­en patch­es on their bod­ies. Gold­en mon­keys are endem­ic to the Virun­ga Region and some parts of the Alber­tine rift val­ley. The long day trek to see Mgahin­ga gold­en mon­keys can go for about 2–5 hours, and this includes 1 hour of a close encounter. From Mgahin­ga, you will dri­ve to Lake Bun­y­onyi for evening relaxation.

Day 18: Boat ride

Lake Bun­y­onyi is Uganda’s deep­est lake, with 29 charm­ing islands. After break­fast, you will take a boat ride, and you will vis­it one of the lake’s islands par­tic­u­lar­ly the Upside-down Island or pun­ish­ment island. Have a deep insight into the unique his­to­ry, these islands hold and also, you will keep an eye on small/little birds. When you return from the boat/canoe ride, have a leisure­ly lunch and lat­er, vis­it the Bakiga/Batwa com­mu­ni­ties, explore dif­fer­ent tra­di­tions, cul­tures, or learn how the local beer is made and oth­er hands-on experiences.

Day 19: Lake Mburo Park- Uganda

From Lake Bun­y­onyi in Kabale to Lake Mburo Nation­al Park, West­ern Ugan­da, you will dri­ve for 4–6 hours. Tra­di­tion­al lunch will be enjoyed upon arrival, relax, and lat­er, set off for a late after­noon game dri­ve to see hun­dreds of impalas, elands, zebras, giraffes, bush­bucks, giraffes, top­is, and birds. Enjoy a leisure­ly evening, and chill at the lodge where you will have din­ner and overnight stay.

Day 20: Return to Kampala/Entebbe & en-route stopover at the Equator

Get up ear­ly in the morn­ing for break­fast, and after, you will set off for a morn­ing boat cruise expe­di­tion. The 2–3 hours guid­ed boat cruise tour on Lake Mburo comes with incred­i­ble sights of aquat­ic life, such as hip­pos, croc­o­diles, and water birds. Retreat from the recre­ation­al boat expe­ri­ence, check out and dri­ve to the Equa­tor cross­ing for pho­tog­ra­phy, and relax­ation and make the final jour­ney to Kampala/Entebbe.