•  Full time English professional safari driver guide

•   4×4 safari van/ 4×4 Safari land cruiser with pop up roof for game viewing with functional A/C

•   Full board accommodation

•   Gorilla trekking permit fees

•   Boat cruise fees

•   Wi-Fi Internet on board the safari vehicle

•   Bottled water

•  Gratuities and tips to drivers, rangers, our Driver/guide, hotel staff and porter

•  Personal expense the day before trip and the day after trip.

•  Any expenses of a personal nature like laundry, alcoholic drinks and souvenirs

•  International flight tickets and Visas for Uganda.

•  Porters or someone to carry your equipment and tools throughout the trip, Our Guide/Driver may help but only up to a certain extent..

•  Travel/Personal and medical insurance.

Day 1: Arrival at Entebbe International Airport

 

Arrival at Entebbe International Airport, a OBRY SAFARIS driver will pick you from the Airport and transfer you to your hotel in Entebbe. (15 minutes)

Accommodation and meals:

Papyrus Guesthouse

Bed & Breakfast

 

Day 2: Transfer to Lake Mburo National Park

Your first morning in Africa, no one can tell you how that feels, right. Well, start your Best of Uganda Safari vacation after an early breakfast and head out to the Mabamba swamp on the shores of Lake Victoria. This is one of the few remaining swamps in the country protected by the local communities. It is an extensive papyrus swamp, with a labyrinth of channels and lagoons, and is home to several pairs of Shoebills, Uganda’s most famous avian resident. This charismatic monotypic species is undoubtedly among the most sought-after birds in Africa. Paddle through the channels by boat. View a good selection of classic East African water birds to observe along the way

This takes a provision of 4 hours on the road between venues should be considered. Conduct an evening game drive where you will be able to spot Zebras, Elephants, Buffaloes, Impalas, and Topis, and bird your way around the lodge.

 

Accommodation and meals:

Mihingo Lodge

Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

 

Day 3: Lake Mburo National Park

The Best of Uganda Safaris takes you to your first savanna experience into the small and easy to access Lake Mburo NP. Enjoy a break of down morning savanna game drive around the park and meet up-close some of Africa’s big game animals and get back to the lodge just in time for breakfast.

 

After breakfast, you’ll be escorted into the park on foot for a grizzling nature walk and a canoe ride on Lake Mburo. You’ll be back at the lodge in time for lunch. After lunch, enjoy another walk around the lodge till late in the evening before retiring to the lodge—a great day in the savanna and ending it with a golden sunset on the horizons of Africa.

 

Accommodation and meals:

Mihingo Lodge

Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

 

Day 4: Transfer to Bwindi Impenetrable NP

Let’s take your Best of Uganda Safari experience to the southwestern corner of Uganda, taking that smooth countryside ride through some of Africa’s most beautiful landscapes. After an early breakfast, meet with your driver/guide, and through the game tracks, catch sight of early morning savanna dwellers as you head on to the highway passing Mbarara town, Kabale, then Kisoro town before continuing to Nkuringo Bwindi Gorilla Lodge, where you’ll spend the next few nights in the misty jungles. The drive takes 6 to 7 hours, with a few stops in beautiful African towns along the way.

 

Bwindi Impenetrable forest offers arguably the most productive montane forest birding in Africa and supports 23 of Uganda’s 24 Albertine Rift endemic bird species. Once part of a much larger forest that included the Virunga Volcanoes in neighboring Rwanda, Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is now an ecological island within a sea of human cultivation and immense conservation importance.

 

Accommodation and Meals:

Nkuringo Bwindi Gorilla Lodge

Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

 

Day 5: Gorilla Trekking Experience in Bwindi Impenetrable NP

After breakfast at around 7:45 is with packed lunch and drinking water in your backpack, the Best of Uganda Safari takes an exciting turn as you head into the African jungle to find the elusive mountain gorilla. Your driver will transfer you to the trailhead to brief the dos and the don’ts while tracking and spending time with the gorillas.

You’ll be escorted into the jungle with a guide, two rangers, and seven other fellow trackers for your chosen gorilla family. This activity can last from a few hours up to a full day, depending on the gorillas’ location as they range freely in the impenetrable forest. Strict rules have to be adhered to keep you safe and keep the gorillas in their habituated mood.

 

Accommodation and Meals:

Nkuringo Bwindi Gorilla Lodge

Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

 

Day 6: Hike Across Bwindi Impenetrable Forest (16 km)

After a very early breakfast, drive along the Nteko Ridge to the Ivy River Trail’s junction with the forest (7 km) and then start the unforgettable hike across the forest (13km – 4-5 hours). Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park is a vast, unique natural reserve – monkeys, duikers, bush pigs, and some of Bwindi’s world-renowned bird species, plus many butterflies can be sighted.

 

If you are fortunate, you may even encounter gorillas! Once part of a much larger forest that included the Virunga Volcanoes in neighboring Rwanda, the park is nowadays an ecological island within a sea of villages and farmland, and its conservation importance is immense.

 

The emphasis of this Uganda Safari activity is for your walking safari guide to share his forest knowledge with you. It is not simply an A to B hike. The trail is also an essential footpath for local people, particularly on market days, traveling from Nkuringo and Nteko to Buhoma, on the park’s northern boundary. There is no road through Bwindi, so vehicles driving between the two locations have an incredible 170 km bone-jarring journey taking 6 to 8 hours.

 

Upon arrival at the park headquarters in Buhoma, meet with the vehicle and departure Queen Elizabeth National Park. The southern area of Ishasha is notably recognized for its resident ‘tree-climbing’ lions that are a unique attraction and one of the highlights of all safaris taken within the park. The lions can be spotted hanging on branches of enormous fig trees, whereas the Uganda Kob (which is the primary food to these lions) graze on the plains below. The drive takes about 4 hours (182kms)

 

Accommodation & meals:

Katara Lodge

Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

 

Day 7: Queen Elizabeth – Launch cruise & Game drive

Mornings are dedicated to game drives in Queen Elizabeth National Park and the boat trip on the Kazinga Channel – the 36 km waterway which connects Lake George and Lake Edward, which allows special viewing of game and birds on the river banks as the boat passes through pods of hippos. Crocodiles have only recently been seen in the Channel, and they disappeared for 8,000 years after they were eliminated from Lake Edward by toxic ash from local volcanoes.

 

QENP is one of Uganda’s oldest parks officially opened in 1952. The park was initially known as ‘Kazinga National Park’ before it was renamed in 1954 to commemorate Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain. QENP hosts 95 species of mammals, more than any other park in Uganda, and 619 bird species, the second-highest of any park in Africa – the sixth-highest of any park worldwide.

 

Take a Best of Uganda Safari break and transfer back to the lodge for lunch, after which you can take on an afternoon Launch cruise along the Kazinga channel. The channel is 40 wide and offers beautiful scenery of hundreds of hippos along the banks and different bird species seen when cruising west towards Lake Edward.

 

Accommodation & meals:

Katara Lodge

Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

 

Day 8: QUEEN ELIZABETH NATIONAL PARK – Kibale Forest NP

Have an early breakfast, and take on another Uganda Safari Highlights savanna game drive. View more African safari game as you catch them from their hunt expeditions.

 

Your private driver will gracefully drive onto the highway heading to Kibale Forest NP. Enjoy the landscape as you drive along the Kaseses-Fort Portal highway south-western side of Uganda. Kibale forest National Park bears homage to a huge number of primates.

 

You’ll be driving about 3 – 4 hours from Kasese to Kibale.

Accommodation & meals:

Primate Safari Lodge

Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

 

Day 9: Chimpanzee Habituation Experience in Kibale

Here’s your chance to take on your second Best of Uganda Safari rainforest jungle challenge of finding the excited chimpanzee troop and keeping up with their natural daily habits. Can you take it? It’s exhilarating and energy drenching but worth every moment.

 

Wake early morning at 6:30 Am and transfer to the trailhead (5 minutes walk) where you’ll be briefed on the chimpanzee habituation experience and then proceed into the jungle with an armed ranger, your personal guide, doctors, and researchers; you will spend the full day with Chimpanzees following them around. While tracking, you will spot different animal species like the Red Colobus, Black and white Colobus, Grey-cheeked Mangabey, Olive Baboon, Red-tailed Monkey, and L’Hoest’s Monkey, among others and different bird species.

 

Accommodation & meals:

Primate Lodge

Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

 

Day 10: Kibale to Murchison Falls NP

Have an early breakfast, drive via the Escarpment, enjoy the landscape as you drive for Murchison Falls National Park; This day will be a long driving day of 7-8 hours; we will have numerous stops to stretch your legs.

Enjoy a game drive game as you catch them from their hunt expeditions before continuing to the lodge.

 

Accommodation & meals:

Baker’s Lodge

Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

 

Day 11: Murchison Falls Savanna Experience

Another African savanna experience on this Best of Uganda Safari vacation starts after breakfast with a morning savanna game drive in the Murchison tracks. You may catch sight of; giraffes, elephants, lions, hartebeest, and different species of birds. Look out for mammals like the graceful Roth child Giraffe, Jackson’s Hartebeest, Uganda Kob, Defassa Waterbuck, Buffaloes, Elephants, Warthog, Hippos, Oribi, and when lucky a leopard and Lion among others.

 

After that exciting game drive, you’ll take the morning delta boat safari ride to the bottom of the Murchison waterfalls. Look out for the Nile crocodile, hippos, waterbucks, and a variety of bird species. Upon reaching the bottom of the waterfalls, you will disembark and climb/hike your way up to the Top of the Falls, where you will be rewarded with amazing views of the Nile. Also, be on the lookout for different bird species.

 

Accommodation & meals:

Baker’s Lodge

Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

 

Day 12: Transfer from Murchison to Kidepo Valley NP

There are two options for this part of the Best of Uganda Safari route: either take a chartered flight from Pakuba to Entebbe and Entebbe to Apoka airstrip in Kidepo 8-hour drive (440km) drive from Murchison to Kidepo NP. Our first option is the former.

 

With an early breakfast, drive to Pakuba for your flight back to Entebbe. From Entebbe, you’ll take another scheduled local flight to Kidepo Valley. Approximate arrival time 1.30hrs. You are picked from the airstrip and dropped to Apoka lodge, check-in, relax and have lunch. After lunch, take an evening game drive through Kidepo Valley National park.

 

Accommodation & meals:

Apoka Safari Lodge

Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

 

Day 13: Kidepo Valley National Park

We set off early morning breakfast for a 2-3 hours morning game drive to Kidepo Valley National Park, searching for lions, cheetahs, and leopards. Return to the lodge for late breakfast. Enjoy mid-morning at the open swimming pool with the sighting of wildlife from the lodge. The lodge offers a nice viewing platform for wildlife, and often at night, you will hear the lions roar and the hyena cries.

 

Take a break from the Best of Uganda Safari adventure and relax the afternoon away with a sumptuous savanna lunch. We can arrange for an evening fully parked Game drive to watch the golden sunset on the African horizon.

 

Accommodation & meals:

Apoka Safari Lodge

Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

 

Day 14: Flight To Entebbe and Departure

Morning Game drive and return to the lodge for breakfast and lunch. You will be transferred to the Airstrip to proceed to Entebbe. Our driver to transfer you to Papyrus Guesthouse for day room – use. Later transfer to Entebbe International Airport for the evening flight.

 

Accommodation & meals:

No Accommodation

Breakfast and Lunch