Uganda starts with an hour among gorillas.
Which trek suits your knees. What a permit really commits you to. Where the Nile squeezes through a seven-metre gap. Every Uganda tour worth a day, reviewed.
Six days that carry a Uganda trip.
A morning in the Bwindi undergrowth, chimps calling in Kibale, the Nile going over the edge at Murchison, rhinos tracked on foot at Ziwa. Pick the days first and the route builds itself.
Gorilla trekking in Uganda: choose the trek, not the brochure.
Every trek we have reviewed →
Bwindi and Mgahinga hold roughly half the mountain gorillas left on earth. The permit is fixed, the daily places are few, and the hour with the family is the same on every itinerary. What changes is how many days you spend getting there and how hard the hill is.
Three days, one trek, straight back
Drive south the first day, trek at dawn on the second, drive out on the third. It is a long way to go for one morning, and it is still the morning most people remember.
Chimps in Kibale, then Bwindi
Kibale in the morning is a wall of noise before you see anything. Pair it with the gorillas and you have both great apes in one loop, with Queen Elizabeth on the road between them.
A morning with the Batwa
The Batwa lived in Bwindi long before it became a park and were moved out when it was gazetted. Their walk through the forest edge explains what the trees were used for, which no ranger briefing covers.
The Uganda tours travellers actually take.
Read every Uganda review →Cycling out to the Lake Victoria islands, walking the capital with a guide who grew up in it, the long drive to Bwindi. These carry more travellers than anything else on the site.
1
3 Hours Guided Cycling Tour Across Lake Victoria
Cycle Lake Victoria’s peninsula from Kampala, crossing by local boat, following dirt trails, and enjoying snacks, lake views, and Ugandan village life.
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
Kampala is a city you walk, not a city you drive.
Seven hills, a mosque with a minaret you can climb, markets stacked with matoke and jackfruit, and traffic best solved from the back of a boda. Most Uganda trips start and end here, and the good half-days are cheap.
Three things Uganda has and its neighbours do not.
Savannah and lake views are shared across East Africa. Half the world’s mountain gorillas, rhinos you follow on foot, and the point where the Nile begins belong to this country.
Half the Mountain Gorillas Left
Mountain gorillas exist in two places on earth and Uganda holds the larger share, in a forest so dense the colonial surveyors gave up and called it impenetrable. Trekking parties are eight people, the visit is one hour, and the group you are assigned depends on how far you can climb. Porters are worth every shilling on the steep families.
- 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
Rhinos You Track On Foot
Poaching wiped rhinos out of Uganda by the 1980s. Every wild one in the country today lives at Ziwa, a sanctuary on the road north, descended from a handful of founders. Rangers find the group in the morning and you walk in behind them, on the flat, close enough that the guides talk in whispers.
- 13-Day Ultimate Big Five Safari – Murchison Falls & Rhinos★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 55 reviews
- 2Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 40 reviews
- 3Day Tour Of Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary and Wildlife Ranch – ZIWA RHINO TREKKING★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 10 reviews
Waterfalls in Coffee Country
Sipi is three falls stacked up the side of an old volcano, with Arabica growing on the terraces between them. The full walk takes most of a day and ends at the tallest drop; the short version gets you to the viewpoint before the cloud closes in. Nearly every guide here also roasts, and will show you how.
- 11 Day Sipi falls hike★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 100 reviews
- 22 Sipi Falls hike and Coffee Tour Experience★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 23 reviews
- 32 Days Sipi Falls Hike and Coffee Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 15 reviews
At Murchison the whole Nile goes through a gap you could jump.
The river narrows to about seven metres and drops through the rock with a noise you feel in your chest. Below it, the delta run is thick with hippo and the banks are lined with crocodile. Above the falls the park is flat golden country: giraffe, elephant, and lion in the early light.
All 56 Murchison tours →
The Uganda circuit, north to south.
Murchison
Queen Elizabeth
BwindiUganda has the widest price spread in East Africa.
Every tour on the site, cheapest first. The gap here is wider than almost anywhere: a guided morning costs less than a taxi home, and a gorilla itinerary costs more than the flight.
City walks, boda circuits, market mornings, coffee on the Elgon terraces. Half of Uganda’s best hours sit in this band.
Cycling out to the Lake Victoria islands, rafting the Nile at Jinja, a day on the water at Kazinga, airport runs and long transfers.
The multi-day drives: Murchison, Queen Elizabeth, Kibale, and every gorilla itinerary once the permit is folded in.
Four Ugandan bookings that will not wait for your arrival.
Most of this country can be arranged from a Kampala guesthouse the night before. These cannot. They run on permit allocations and ranger rosters that are set long before your flight lands.
- 013 Days gorilla trekking Safari tour in UgandaPermits are issued per family per day and the daily total is fixed. High season goes months out.
- 025 Days Uganda Gorilla, Chimpanzee and Wildlife SafariKibale runs limited tracking places each morning, and the habituation slots are fewer still.
- 033-Day Ultimate Big Five Safari – Murchison Falls & RhinosTracking goes out with a ranger team on a set schedule, not on demand.
- 04Uganda Jungle RaftingThe rafting boats fill at weekends and the water level decides which lines run.
The Nile leaves Lake Victoria at Jinja and immediately gets interesting.
All days on the water →
2 Days Safari To Queen Elizabeth National Park with Cruise
Read our review →
Equatar Line Tour & Victoria Lake Sunset Boat Ride
Read our review →
3 days Murchison Falls, Boat cruise and wildlife game viewing
Read our review →
The rains come twice a year, and the good days move indoors and uphill.
March to May and September to November, the sky opens most afternoons. Forest trails turn to red clay, which is why trekkers book the dry months. The city keeps working through it: markets under cover, coffee roasted in a doorway, a guide who knows which lanes drain.
Start from a place on the map
Kampala291 tours
Entebbe8 tours
Masindi & Murchison8 tours
Lake Bunyonyi8 tours
Sipi Falls7 tours
Ziwa14 tours- The whole Uganda catalogue →
Straight off the road: our latest Uganda write-ups.
More new write-ups →
Uganda: 4-Day Murchison Falls National Park Safari
Read our review →
Uganda: 1-Day Murchison Falls Park Safari with Boat cruise
Read our review →
7 Days Fort Portal Culture Tour Western Uganda
Read our review →
3-Day Mind Refreshing in Murchison Falls National Park
Read our review →
