Wildlife, Gorillas, Chimpanzees & the Best of Uganda
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Sign in to save this itineraryYour Ugandan adventure begins the moment you step off the plane at Entebbe International Airport, where a Paramount Gorilla Expeditions representative will be waiting to welcome you and take care of every detail from there. There is no queue to navigate alone and no logistics to puzzle out after a long flight — just a friendly face holding a sign with your name, ready to see you comfortably settled.
From the airport you will be driven along the shores of Lake Victoria, Africa's largest lake, to your hotel for the night. It is a short, easy transfer, deliberately built into the first day so that you can rest, freshen up, and let the excitement of the days ahead settle in before an early start tomorrow. Dinner and an overnight stay round out your first taste of Uganda, the country travellers and conservationists alike have long nicknamed “the Pearl of Africa.”
An early breakfast at 6:30 am sets the tone for a day of real adventure. After checking out, you will begin the drive north to Murchison Falls National Park, breaking the journey at Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary — the only place in Uganda where you can track rhinos on foot. Southern white rhinos were hunted to local extinction in Uganda during decades of civil unrest, and Ziwa exists to reverse that: a dedicated sanctuary breeding rhinos in a protected, semi-wild setting with the long-term goal of one day releasing their offspring back into Uganda's national parks. With an experienced ranger guide leading the way, you will approach these gentle giants on foot and spend a full hour observing them at remarkably close range — an encounter that puts the scale and quiet power of a rhino into a perspective no vehicle window can match.
After a relaxed lunch, the drive continues on to Murchison Falls National Park itself, Uganda's largest protected area. Before settling into your lodge, you will visit the falls that give the park its name: here, the mighty River Nile, which has flowed wide and calm all the way from Lake Victoria, is suddenly forced through a gorge barely seven metres across. The result is one of the most dramatic sights on the entire river — a thunderous, churning column of whitewater dropping into the pool below with a violence and volume that is felt as much as seen. Photographs rarely do it justice; standing at the viewpoint, with the spray drifting up and the roar filling the air, usually does. From here, it is a short drive to your lodge for dinner and a well-earned overnight stay.
Today belongs entirely to Murchison Falls' wildlife, and it starts before sunrise. With a cup of coffee and a packed breakfast, you will head into the park's northern sector for a game drive timed to catch the cooler hours of the morning, when animals are at their most active. This stretch of savannah is home to Cape buffalo, elephant, Uganda kob, Jackson's hartebeest, Rothschild's giraffe — an endangered subspecies for which Murchison is one of Africa's most important strongholds — oribi, common warthog, several primate species, and lion; on a fortunate morning, a leopard may make an appearance too. Midway through the drive you will pause to properly enjoy your full breakfast out in the bush before continuing to explore deeper into the park.
By early afternoon you will head back for lunch before making your way to the Paraa launch site for one of Murchison's signature experiences: an afternoon boat cruise upstream along the Victoria Nile. The boat brings you steadily closer to the base of the falls, stopping just short of what is known as the “Devil's Cauldron” — the turbulent pool where the Nile crashes down through that same narrow gorge — for a view of the falls found nowhere else. Along the way, hippos and Nile crocodiles line the banks and shallows in large numbers, while the birdlife is exceptional even by Uganda's high standards: keep an eye out for the Egyptian goose, goliath heron, malachite and pied kingfishers, colourful bee-eaters, the outsized silhouette of the hornbill, and cormorants drying their wings on midstream rocks.
As the light softens, you will head out once more for an evening game drive — often the most rewarding of the day, since many of the park's more elusive residents become active as the heat fades. This is prime time to encounter lion, leopard, porcupine, civet, and spotted hyena, along with hippos grazing on land after a day submerged in the river; with real luck, you may even witness a hunt in progress, one of the rawest and most memorable experiences the African bush has to offer. You will return to the lodge for dinner and overnight, having covered Murchison Falls National Park about as thoroughly as a single day allows.
After a hearty breakfast, you will check out and begin an overland journey that is as scenic as it is transformative — tracing a route back across the Nile and steadily south-west toward Kibale Forest National Park. The landscape changes dramatically along the way: rolling tea estates carpet the hillsides in an almost impossibly uniform green, patches of natural forest appear and recede, and on a clear day the jagged, cloud-wrapped silhouette of the Rwenzori Mountains — the legendary “Mountains of the Moon” — rises in the distance, forming a striking backdrop to the volcanic landscape below.
You will break the journey in Fort Portal, one of Uganda's most attractive towns, for lunch and a short walk to stretch your legs and take in the local atmosphere before continuing on to check in at your lodge. In the afternoon, the day's second highlight awaits at Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary, a community-run reserve bordering Kibale Forest. Your guided walk winds through the wetland and into the neighbouring community, giving you a genuine sense of how local people live alongside the forest's wildlife rather than apart from it — without relying on modern conveniences most travellers take for granted. Along the way, you will have the chance to see traditional daily activities in action, from distilling banana gin and roasting coffee to local arts and crafts, before returning to your lodge to relax ahead of dinner and an overnight stay.
This morning offers one of Uganda's most sought-after primate encounters: an optional chimpanzee tracking excursion in Kibale Forest, home to one of the highest densities of primates anywhere in Africa. After breakfast, you will meet your guide and head to the park information office for a briefing on how to behave respectfully around wild chimpanzees before setting off on a guided forest walk in search of them. Chimpanzees share roughly 98.8% of their DNA with humans, and it shows the moment you find a group — their expressions, social dynamics, and even their squabbles feel startlingly familiar. Along the way you may also encounter other forest residents, from additional primate species to bush pig and a rich variety of birdlife. Once you locate the chimpanzees, you will spend a full hour watching them move through the canopy, feed, and care for their young, with plenty of time for photographs.
After lunch, you will continue the drive to Queen Elizabeth National Park, pausing en route at the Katwe salt mining community on the shores of Lake Katwe — a crater lake so saline that almost nothing grows in it, and around which an entire local economy has been built. Salt has been extracted from these waters by hand since at least the 16th century, using methods passed down through generations largely unchanged by modern industry. You will have the chance to see — and even try your hand at — the salt-mining process yourself, while your local guide explains how the community has sustained this remarkable trade for hundreds of years. From there, it is a short drive to your lodge, where the rest of the evening is yours to relax before dinner.
An early start takes you out to the Kasenyi plains, one of Queen Elizabeth National Park's most reliable game-viewing areas, for a morning drive in search of leopard, lion, elephant, Uganda kob, waterbuck, buffalo, bushbuck, warthog, spotted hyena, bush pig, and a wide variety of birdlife drawn to the open grassland. Kasenyi's flat, expansive terrain makes for excellent visibility, and it is one of the more dependable spots in the park for a lion sighting.
You will return to the lodge for lunch and some time to relax before the afternoon's centrepiece: a boat cruise along the Kazinga Channel, the natural waterway that links Lake George to Lake Edward and forms the beating heart of the park's ecosystem. Regularly ranked among Uganda's most rewarding wildlife experiences, the cruise brings you closer than almost any other activity in the country to hippos in their hundreds, basking Nile crocodiles, elephants and buffalo coming down to drink at the water's edge, and a constant procession of water birds along the banks. As the boat glides along the channel, it becomes clear why this stretch of water is so often described as one of the greatest wildlife-viewing corridors in East Africa. You will return to the lodge afterward to unwind, with dinner and an overnight stay to close out the day.
After breakfast, you will head south to the Ishasha sector of Queen Elizabeth National Park — one of only a handful of places on Earth where lions have taken to climbing trees, a behaviour scientists still debate the exact reason for, whether escaping biting insects, catching a cooling breeze, or simply gaining a better vantage point over the plains. Spotting a lion draped languidly along a fig tree branch is one of Uganda's most photographed, and most memorable, wildlife moments. Ishasha's game drive also turns up leopard, elephant, buffalo, several antelope species, and primates as you make your way through the sector.
From Ishasha, the journey continues toward Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, arriving in the evening in time for dinner and an overnight stay. Bwindi's name is well earned — as you approach, the forest itself begins to close in around the road, dense, ancient, and alive with sound, a fitting entry point to the encounter awaiting you tomorrow.
This is the day many travellers build their entire Uganda trip around. Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, protects roughly half of the world's remaining population of mountain gorillas — making this single forest one of the most important pieces of ground on the planet for the species' survival. After a substantial breakfast and with packed lunches and plenty of drinking water in hand, you will meet your guide for a briefing at the park office before setting off on foot into the forest, tracking a habituated gorilla family alongside experienced trackers and rangers.
The trek itself is part of the experience — through dense vegetation, over uneven, often steep terrain — but the moment you find the family, all of that falls away. You will spend a full hour in their company, watching playful youngsters tumble over one another, mothers grooming their babies with evident tenderness, and the family's silverback quietly surveying the group, calm but unmistakably alert, ready to protect his family at the first sign of a threat. It is widely described as one of the most profound wildlife encounters on Earth, and an hour that tends to stay with people long after they've left Uganda behind.
Afterward, you will head to Lake Bunyonyi to unwind, with a boat canoeing safari on its calm waters offering a gentle, scenic close to an unforgettable day. Dinner and an overnight stay at the lakeshore round things off.
There is no need to rush this morning. After breakfast at your own pace, you will set out on a boat canoeing safari across Lake Bunyonyi, exploring several of its 29 islands. Each island carries its own local legend, and your guide will share these stories as you paddle past — tales that range from the whimsical to the genuinely haunting, part of the rich oral history this region is known for.
From the lake, the journey turns toward Lake Mburo National Park, with a stop along the way at the Igongo Cultural Centre for lunch and a glimpse into the traditions of south-western Uganda's communities. On arrival at the park, you will check in at your lodge before heading straight out for an evening game drive. Lake Mburo has a very different character from the parks you've visited so far — smaller, drier, and dotted with acacia woodland — and its species list reflects that: spotted hyena, leopard, civet, African rock python, porcupine, bush baby, zebra, impala, eland, topi, several other antelope species, warthog, Cape buffalo, and giraffe are all possible sightings as the light fades. You will return to the lodge for dinner and a final overnight stay in the bush.
Your last morning in the wild begins with an early breakfast and bags loaded into the vehicle, followed by one final, distinctive experience: a walking safari inside Lake Mburo National Park. Because Mburo has a much lower predator density than Uganda's larger parks, it is one of the very few places in the country where walking safaris are permitted — letting you approach zebra, impala, and the more skittish eland on foot, at a pace and proximity no vehicle allows.
From the park, the drive back to Entebbe includes a stop at the Uganda Equator crossing, where you can stand with one foot in each hemisphere, take in a simple water-displacement demonstration of the equator's effect, enjoy lunch, and browse a selection of craft stalls for souvenirs made by local Ugandan artisans. From there, it's on to Entebbe International Airport to check in for your flight home — with, we hope, a phone full of photographs and a few stories that will take some time to fully tell.
Gorilla trekking in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest
Chimpanzee trekking in Kibale Forest
Big-game safaris in Murchison Falls, Queen Elizabeth and Lake Mburo
Boat safari on the Nile to the base of Murchison Falls
Wildlife viewing in Lake Mburo National Park
Scenic relaxation at Lake Bunyonyi
Explore Uganda's diverse forests, savannahs and landscapes
Stay in carefully selected safari lodges and resorts
Experience Uganda's wildlife, landscapes and local culture in one journey
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