Best 5 Uganda Safaris You Can Actually Afford

There is nothing good like heading out on an African safari holiday overseas in a place you have never visited but just read about like Uganda. Mornings and evening are too beautiful with the sun rise and sun set, diverse culture, wildlife, primates, landscape and peaceful environment. A lot is experience by tourists who happen to visit Uganda for tours and safaris.

Trip costs for Uganda Safaris range from $200 per person-$1000 per person for a duration of 1-3 days. The country might be small but excellent for holidays. It’s possible to do a safari in Uganda in your budget after finding cheap trip deals to the places of your interest.

A Lifetime Trip of Uganda

Visit Uganda on a life time trip to the famous land of gorillas in south western Uganda in the wildlife conservation areas of Bwindi Impenetrable national Park and Mgahinga national park. Spend 2nights in the wilderness known as one of the top gorilla trekking destination in the world. Get a close opportunity to be with gorillas and spend a full hour admiring there amazing life in the jungle. Juveniles play with elders; mothers comfort the little ones as the silver back protects every family member.

African Wildlife safari

Uganda has many wildlife parks best for Africa wildlife safaris but Queen Elizabeth national park offers exciting wildlife adventures for both budget and luxury with style of elegance expected of in any Africa safari. Travelers always continue from Bwindi forest for either 1-2 nights in the park enjoying the main park highlights if tree climbing lions of Ishasha, boat cruise on the Kazinga channel, game drives in Kasenyi and ishasha, chimpanzee treks in Kyambura and Kalinzu among others. Queen Elizabeth isn’t far from Bwindi forest if you do want to explore at least two parks on your safari in Uganda.

Big five Safari in Murchison falls

Explore the special park of Uganda and a home to the roaring might falls combined with wonderful wildlife and primates. I think Murchison falls is seriously the finest wildlife safari park with many incredible adventures that need no level of fitness and particular age bucket. On the drive to the park make it appoint to stop at the Rhino sanctuary and meet the first big five before exploring the vast land of wildlife for either family holidays, sole or group depending on your travel arrangement. The park offers great comfort for all kinds of visitors and its one of the top unforgettable safari in Uganda.

Experience the Unique Culture of Uganda

Uganda as commonly referred to as the pearl of Africa is a land locked country on the equator and surrounded by the great lakes of central Africa, Uganda was one of the last parts that the foreigners reached, these where Arabs who came first spreading the gossip of Islam, slaves and ivory in the 1840s. These were followed by white’s British nationals who came to meet the Kabaka by then Muteesa the King of Buganda.

The existence of the Kingdoms in Uganda had a great impact on tradition. All the ruling was done the old way from food, clothes, trade and behaviors’ and lot is still in place and preserved as we could. Given the fact that Uganda was scrambled in the 1880 not only Uganda but Africa at large. The existence of these wars and new behaviors in Uganda brought too much change that up to date Uganda has taken up the western life style as their daily life but embrace tradition as much as they can.

Categorized into the batwa and Nilotic ethnic groups, who are believed to have originated from west Africa in Cameroon. Migrated, divided and settled in Uganda, the batwa who are the “twa” speaking people settled in West, central, south and East of Uganda. It is of great surprise that the divided ethnic groups scattered around the country speak up to over 40 different languages.

For your visit whether on a self drive car hire in Uganda or guided trips with Auto Rental Uganda, you can be able to see how we lived, the ancient life style and behavior and more interesting when with one of our resourceful driver guides. Uganda is still privileged to have people who like tradition much and live it as their life style every single day. Be sure to enjoy Uganda’s tradition to the fullest in real life not only in the museum. In the northern Uganda lives and settles a tribe the Karamajong who decided to stay as our great grand fathers typically. Rarely will you find them here in the central but many will be in the villages who are the Batwa and Bagishu.

On your guided trip to Uganda you can ask your resourceful driver guide at Auto Rental Uganda to not only schedule for you the wild life but also the ancient Uganda. It can be seen in many ways around Uganda in museums and in real life style, food in all delicacies highlighting the ancient Uganda like we used not cook in saucepans but clay made pots that are still in place up to-date, traditional dance and attires, kingdoms and the process they go through to be a king, where they are buried. The ancient Uganda is better than the modern Uganda, for comparison you must visit Uganda. For some reason the Kampala city tour that takes you through the biggest tribe of the Buganda, highlights the long history of Buganda and the long chain of the kings. This doesn’t stop here but proceeds to the tombs where they were buried and also the first of its kind in Africa huge grass thatched huts. Unfortunately that was brought down by arsonists and still no trace of the criminals has been found.

In Uganda everything is a must see, just mention it and it will be served to you on a silver plate with that mouth-dropping dessert of course; this is the time you should plan your trip to Uganda. It’s one of the few places in Africa where you have value for your money to the maximum with a bonus.

As they say traveling is discovering the wrong perception others have about the others. Lets travel and take away the perceptions.

Meet the Gorillas & Chimpanzees in Uganda

As far as tourism is concerned, whenever one hears Uganda, what comes in any foreigners mind is the primate excursions that are always carried out in this country. And not only that, but what also rings a bell to them is the gorilla tracking as well as chimpanzee trekking. However, there are distinctive features that separate these two primates in the way they are tracked and how best one can prepare for both to have an ultimate experience.

Where they are both found in Uganda;

Chimpanzees in Uganda are located in different places but habituated chimpanzees only exist in Kibale National Park located in western Uganda, Kyambura Gorge located in Queen Elizabeth National Park, Kalinzu forest located closer to Queen Elizabeth National Park and Budongo Forest in Murchison Falls National Park located in Northern Uganda. We also have orphaned chimpanzees in Ngamba Island which is approximately 23 km in Lake Victoria and can be accessed by boats.

On the other hand, habituated gorillas are found in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and Mgahinga National Park. According to the 2013 mountain gorilla census, it was discovered that Bwindi Impenetrable National park has almost half the number of mountain gorillas in the whole while the other population of gorillas are in the Virunga Ranges shared between Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic republic of Congo. Today Bwindi is one of the most popular parks for gorilla safaris on the African continent.

Gorilla and chimp trekking experience compared

When compared, gorilla tracking is a more organized activity both in Uganda and Rwanda and chances of seeing gorillas is above 90%. This is because gorillas live in families each headed by a dominant silver back. In Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, the activity is so organized in such a way that early in the morning, there is an advanced team that goes to the forest to look for where the gorillas would have slept and once they find them, then they communicate to the park head quarters to inform the guides where gorillas are. It’s from here that tourists plus their guide will start the trek to look for gorillas starting from where they slept the previous night until they find them. Once they have found them, they are given one hour to observe and take photographs.

Chimpanzee trekking on the other hand is not as organized as gorilla trekking and chances are high in Kibale National Park and Budongo forest to other places such as Kyambura Gorge and Kalinzu forest. The same process of having an advanced team applies to chimps but chimpanzees on the other hand live in communities of around 100 individuals or more and during the day, these communities breakup into small parties to reduce on food competition. Each party is therefore tracked by 6 people. Once you have found the chimpanzees, you are allowed only one hour to view and photograph them.

Family composition

A family of habituated gorillas is trekked by a maximum of 8 people in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and Mgahinga while Chimpanzee parties in Kibale National Park is restricted to only 6 people. While a habituated gorilla family can only be seen by a maximum of 8 people PER DAY, chimpanzee parties are trekked twice in a day (morning and afternoon). Taking a close look at chimp trekking in Kibale National Park, a maximum of 18 people do trek chimps both in the morning and in the afternoon. It is arranged in such a way that each chimpanzee party is trekked by 6 people thus 3 parties for 18 people. The fact that chimpanzees keep on breaking into small parties and regrouping, at a given point, you might find yourselves trekking the same party (18 people) they can join together. This tends to cause confusion amongst tourists if not briefed very well. This sometimes leads to congestion and kills the whole Eco- experience as expected by clients. Mountain gorillas tend to be on ground in most cases and depending on the height of the vegetation, they are better seen compared to chimpanzees which are in most cases up in the trees (Not all the time though as so many people have found them on ground).

What to pack for gorilla or chimp trekking

Both gorilla and chimp trekking requires one to have hiking boots, garden gloves, long sleeved trousers and shirts, rain jackets, sun glasses, huts, a hiking stick and some energy giving foods to give you that extra strength when needed. You might not need a porter for chimp trekking in Kibale but we highly recommend one for Bwindi Impenetrable National Park for your gorilla trek.

Gorilla and Chimp permits

In Uganda, you require a permit to either trek gorillas or chimpanzees. Gorilla tracking permit for Bwindi Impenetrable National Park costs USD600.00 which normally goes down from that in low seasons (Feb-may) to the tune of USD350.00. enabling you to save USD150.00. The above includes trekking gorillas, a guide for the trek and park entrance fees. Chimpanzee trekking permits in Uganda vary according to where you will be trekking them. In Kibale, a permit is USD150 while in Kyambura is at USD50.00 per person and includes guide, park entrance and viewing chimps.

Distances compared

Gorilla trekking is done in Bwindi and Mgahinga and they are approximately 8-9 hours from Kampala while driving and it also depends on which side of Bwindi you are going to. If you are flying, then it might take you around about one and half hours to Bwindi or Kisoro. Kibale National Park is about 5-6 hours from Kampala; Kyambura Gorge is approximately 7-8 hours drive from Kampala while Budongo is also approximately 5-6 hours drive to northern Uganda.