Two of Africa's great ape encounters in one trip — mountain gorillas in Bwindi and chimpanzee tracking in Kibale Forest.
Itinerary ref: UG-006
This 8-day Uganda primate safari brings together the two great forest encounters in one trip. You track chimpanzees in Kibale, you rest in Queen Elizabeth National Park, and you finish with a mountain gorilla trek in Bwindi. It is a compact route, and it suits wildlife travellers and photographers who want primates first and everything else second.
We are a Uganda-based team, and our guides have more than 12 years of experience leading tours here. If you want a shorter trip, see our Classic Gorilla Trekking Safari. Otherwise, read on to see how this route works.
Many visitors come only for gorillas, but a Uganda primate safari offers more. Uganda's forests hold a lot. Kibale is home to 13 primate species, so a visit there adds a second, very different encounter.
The order of this route is deliberate. First, you track chimpanzees while your energy is high. Then you spend two nights in Queen Elizabeth National Park as a physical reset. Last, you trek to the gorillas after you have settled into the trip.
As a result, the days feel balanced. You have demanding mornings in the forest, followed by calmer afternoons and time to rest.
Kibale Forest National Park is often called Uganda's primate capital. You spend two nights at a forest-edge lodge. On the first full day, a guide leads you into the forest to find a group of chimpanzees.
These chimpanzees are habituated and studied. Because of that, trackers often know individual animals by name and rank. In addition, the walk is full of other life, including monkeys, birds and the sounds of the forest.
In the afternoon, you can walk at the Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary. It is a gentle outing, and it adds eight further primate species and more than 200 bird species to your list.
Next, you drive south through the Rift Valley to Queen Elizabeth National Park. You stay two nights on the Mweya Peninsula. On arrival, you take an afternoon boat trip on the Kazinga Channel Cruise, which is a calm way to see wildlife from the water.
The next day is for game viewing. You search for the park's tree-climbing lions and drive across the Kasenyi plains. Depending on conditions, your guide may also visit the Ishasha sector, and you can take a nature walk in Maramagambo Forest.
This part of the trip is a welcome change of pace. For example, after the forest, the open plains give your legs a rest and your camera new subjects.
Then you drive through the Kigezi highlands to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. You stay three nights near the Buhoma sector. The trek is the highlight of the trip.
On trek day, a small group of up to eight guests follows a guide and trackers to a habituated gorilla family. You keep a minimum distance of seven metres, and your permit gives you one hour with the gorillas. The walk can be steep and muddy, so we brief you on what to bring.
Both permits are arranged for you. Your rate includes one chimpanzee permit and one gorilla permit per person. Because permits can sell out, it is wise to book early. For more on how they work, see our guide to chimpanzee trekking and the official Uganda Wildlife Authority website.
After the trek, you can join a Batwa cultural walk led by Batwa elders. They share their history with the forest and explain how it shaped their way of life. The afternoon is left open, so you can rest or take a short walk near your lodge.
On the last day, you transfer to the airstrip or drive back to Entebbe for your flight home.
You stay at three handpicked lodges, one in each area.
In Kibale, you stay at Primate Lodge Kibale, inside the national park. In Queen Elizabeth, you stay at Mweya Safari Lodge on the Mweya Peninsula. In Bwindi, you stay at Bwindi Lodge in the Buhoma sector, just outside the park. You can see more on our lodges page.
Rates depend on the comfort level you choose. We confirm the exact price for your dates in your quote.
Your Uganda primate safari includes seven nights across the three lodges, full board and a private 4x4 with a driver-guide. It also covers park fees, conservation levies, all internal transfers, bottled water and soft drinks on drives and treks, and the Kazinga cruise and cultural walks. We meet you at Entebbe airport, and our team supports you throughout the trip.
International flights, visa fees, gratuities and porter fees are not included. Travel insurance is mandatory, and we need proof before you travel. Please check visa and travel documents before you go.
It is a good fit if you want two primate encounters in one trip and you enjoy walking in the forest. It also suits photographers, because the light in Kibale and the misty mornings in Bwindi reward fast lenses, and our specialists brief you on gear.
If you want a longer trip with more game viewing, look at Uganda Complete: Bwindi, Queen Elizabeth & Murchison Falls. If you prefer a shorter trip with the Nile, try Uganda Gorilla Trek & Nile Adventure.
Can I do both treks on the same day? No. The treks happen in different forest blocks, so we schedule them on separate days.
What is the minimum age? Chimpanzee tracking generally allows ages 12 and up, the same as gorilla trekking. We confirm the rules for your dates.
Tell us your dates and group size, and we will build your Uganda primate safari around you and confirm every detail in your quote.
Gorilla trekking experience guideGorilla & Chimpanzee Trekking in Uganda: The Complete GuideBest Time to See Gorillas in UgandaChimpanzee tracking through Uganda's primate capital, with 13 primate species present.
A Kazinga Channel boat cruise and tree-climbing lion search.
A permit trek to a habituated mountain gorilla family.
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Sign in to save this itineraryFrom Entebbe, a scenic road transfer or short domestic flight brings you west into the Fort Portal region and on to Kibale Forest National Park, passing tea estates and the crater lakes scattered across the Kichwamba escarpment along the way. Kibale is Uganda's primate capital — thirteen species share this stretch of mid-altitude tropical forest, including the endangered red colobus and elusive L'Hoest's monkey alongside its headline chimpanzee community. Arriving at your forest-edge lodge in the afternoon, there's time to settle in and meet your tracking guide for tomorrow's briefing, with the forest's evening chorus of hornbills, cicadas and distant chimpanzee pant-hoots setting the tone for what's ahead.
An early start puts you at the trailhead as the forest wakes, tracking a habituated chimpanzee community through Kibale's dense understorey alongside expert guides who know individual chimps by name and rank. Sightings regularly include grooming clusters, juveniles play-wrestling through low branches, and — with good timing — the electric, forest-wide pant-hoot chorus a community uses to signal location to scattered members. In the afternoon, a guided walk through the community-run Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary on Kibale's boundary adds eight further primate species to the day's list, along with more than 200 recorded bird species including the striking great blue turaco, all while supporting a locally run conservation initiative.
A scenic drive south through the Rift Valley floor carries you into Queen Elizabeth National Park's northern sector, the landscape shifting abruptly from Kibale's closed canopy to open savannah, euphorbia-studded ridgelines and volcanic crater fields. After settling at your lodge overlooking the Kazinga Channel, the afternoon's boat cruise delivers close-range sightings of hippo pods — Uganda holds one of Africa's densest concentrations — alongside basking Nile crocodile, buffalo herds wading to drink, and a bird list that regularly tops 100 species in a single two-hour outing, from pied kingfishers to African fish eagles.
A full day dedicated to Queen Elizabeth's plains, beginning with an early drive through the Kasenyi sector, prime territory for lion prides that hunt this mixed savannah-woodland terrain, alongside Uganda kob performing their distinctive lekking mating displays at dawn. Depending on recent sightings, your guide may route toward the Ishasha sector further south, famous for lions that drape themselves across the low branches of fig trees — a behavior rarely documented elsewhere in East Africa and still debated among researchers, with leading theories pointing to escaping biting flies and the savannah heat below. The afternoon offers a slower pace for photography and a nature walk near the Maramagambo Forest before an early night ahead of tomorrow's transfer.
The road south climbs steadily out of the Rift Valley and into the Kigezi highlands, a landscape of terraced hillsides and switchback roads locals call 'the Switzerland of Africa,' before descending into Bwindi Impenetrable Forest — over 25,000 years old and, at just 321 square kilometers, home to roughly half the world's remaining mountain gorillas. Arriving at your forest-edge lodge in the late afternoon, you'll meet your trekking guide for a detailed briefing on tomorrow's permit and the habituated family assigned to your group, with the forest's dense, dark tree line visibly different from the open savannah left behind that morning.
After an early breakfast, you'll join a small trekking group of no more than eight guests for a briefing on trail conditions and trekking etiquette — a mandatory seven-meter distance, no flash photography, absolute quiet in the family's presence. The trek can run from forty-five minutes to several hours through dense, often steep understorey, guided by rangers and trackers reading broken vegetation and fresh dung for overnight movement clues. The permitted hour with the gorillas once located is the itinerary's undisputed highlight — a silverback's low rumbling vocalizations, juveniles somersaulting through the canopy, and the disarming directness of a gorilla's gaze meeting yours at close range, a fitting counterpoint to Kibale's more energetic chimpanzee encounter five days earlier.
With both great-ape treks complete, today turns to the forest's human history. A guided walk led by Batwa elders — Bwindi's original inhabitants, displaced when the forest was gazetted as a national park in 1991 — traces traditional medicinal plant use, hunting techniques and hut-building methods central to Batwa life for millennia, narrated firsthand. The afternoon is left open for a relaxed community forest walk along the Buhoma trail, browsing craft cooperatives, or simply resting at your lodge to let two demanding trekking days properly settle in before tomorrow's departure.
A relaxed final morning at your Bwindi lodge precedes the transfer toward the airstrip or the longer road journey back to Entebbe for your onward or homeward flight. Our local team stays available throughout this final transfer, and we're always glad to hear which encounter — Kibale's chimpanzees or Bwindi's gorillas — left the bigger impression once you're home.
Built from our own staff's real packing guidance for this trip's destinations, tailored to your dates and this exact itinerary above.
Both gorilla and chimpanzee trekking permits fully arranged
Kibale Forest hosts 13 primate species — Africa's highest density
A Kazinga Channel boat cruise breaks up the trekking days
Ideal single-country introduction to Uganda's forests
The only lodge located directly inside Kibale Forest National Park, minutes from the main chimpanzee trekking trailhead.
On the Mweya Peninsula, located within Queen Elizabeth National Park.
On private land adjoining Bwindi Impenetrable National Park's Buhoma sector, a short walk from the trekking trailhead.
| Accommodation Tier | Per Person Sharing (USD) | Single Supplement |
|---|---|---|
| Classic Comfort | $5,200 | +$900 |
| Premium | $6,800 | +$1,150 |
| Ultra-Luxury | $8,600 | +$1,450 |
Rates are per person sharing, in USD, based on double occupancy and include both a chimpanzee permit and a gorilla permit per person; permit availability is limited and rates rise slightly during peak trekking seasons.
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Some guests like a few quiet days by the sea after trekking. It is entirely optional.
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