Uganda: Discover the Pearl of Africa 2022

On arrival at Entebbe's international airport, our guide(s) will meet us and transfer us to our hotel for the evening. Welcome to Uganda!

We'll depart after breakfast for the drive to Murchison Falls.

Along the way, we stop at the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary, to trek to see the white rhinos.

Later we'll have a lunch break at Masindi before finally arriving at Murchison Falls.  Stop at the top of the falls where you can see how the Nile River is forced to compress from  a distance of 50 meters wide to squeeze through a 7-meter-wide canyon and drop 40 meters with a thunderous roar.  

After check-in at the lodge, our guides will take us out for a late afternoon game drive.

Return to the lodge for dinner and a welcome rest.

On the early morning game drive, you may see elephant, lion, buffalo, giraffe, hartebeest, and more.

After lunch, enjoy a boat trip on the placid Victoria Nile, upstream to the base of the Falls. En route you will see hippos, crocodiles, waterbuck, and a wide variety of birds, like the unusual shoebill stork.

The boat stops just tens of meters from the “Devil’s Cauldron,”  a great spot to take a photo of the majestic Murchison Falls. 

We return to our lodge for dinner and overnight.

After breakfast, we say goodbye to Murchison Falls and take a long ride over hills, down valleys, through villages and trading centers en-route to Kibale Forest National Park, home of one of our closest relatives, the chimpanzees.

We will visit a couple of tea plantations near our lodge. Walk through villages to the “Top of the World” view point and see how tea leaves are picked. 

Dinner and overnight at our lodge.

This morning’s adventure begins with an exploratory and sensational chimpanzee tracking experience in Kibale Forest, arguably Africa’s largest surviving hardwood forest. The forest is home to 13 primate species, 375 species of birds and many other forest animal species.  Chimp treks last about 2-3 hours, and participants will have the chance to see other species of primates and learn about different plants and trees in the forest.

Return to the lodge for a hot lunch and spend the afternoon doing a nature walk at the Bigodi Wetlands Sanctuary. Part of a local community project, the sanctuary is a bird watcher's paradise and home to the Great Blue Turaco, as well as 8 species of monkeys.

*For those interested in a more in-depth experience with chimpanzees, a full-day chimpanzee habituation experience may be available for additional cost. This must be booked in advance. Please ask for details.

Depart after breakfast for Queen Elizabeth National Park via Kasese.

There will be some time to relax at the lodge after lunch.

Later, we'll take a sunset game drive to end the day in an adventurous style!

Depart after your morning breakfast for a game at Queen Elizabeth National Park.

The park’s diverse eco-system of grassy plains, tropical forest, rivers, swamps, lakes and volcanic craters is home to an incredible abundance of wildlife. The park is a home to lion, leopard, and giant forest hog, Cape buffalo, elephants, de fassa waterbuck, Uganda Kob, Topi and bush buck. 

Then later we'll view wildlife from a different vantage when we board a boat for an afternoon cruise on the Kazinga Channel. This is a great platform for photography and game viewing, as the channel connects two lakes and attracts wildlife such as crocodiles and hippos to its shores.

 Return to the lodge for dinner and overnight.

Enjoy your early morning breakfast at the lodge and then we depart with our guides for Bwindi Impenetrable Forest via the Ishasha sector of Queen Elizabeth National Park.  Isasha is in the southwestern part of the park and is famous for its resident tree-climbing lions. Hopefully we can see one or two of them hanging out on the branches of a fig tree!

Once we arrive at our lodge and check in, the rest of the evening is yours to relax. For those interested and if time allows, there is an option to go for a walk in the nearby village.

After an early breakfast and a briefing by a ranger guide, we'll enter Bwindi Impenetrable Forest to meet mountain gorillas! 

The forest offers dramatic steeply forested landscape and is incredibly dense, but crisscrossed by numerous animal trails allowing access to tourists. The time taken and the terrain vary with the movements of the mountain gorillas. The thrill of spending time observing these gentle and endangered giants is an awesome, exciting experience to be long savored.

Trekkers are divided into groups of 8 and assigned to a particular gorilla family. You'll trek to that family's location and once they are found, you'll have one amazing hour to spend with them, watching them interacting with each other and going about their daily activities in the forest. It will be the most memorable hour you'll ever experience!

In the evening, you will go for a coffee tour guided by knowledgeable guides, who will show you the process from bean to cup, with a cupping session to compare notes on aromas and tastes. 

Today you will enjoy the Batwa Trail, a first-hand introduction to one of the most unique cultures worldwide. The Batwa (previously known as pygmies) are forest people displaced from the rain forest they shared with the mountain gorillas. The experience will give you the opportunity to learn more about their  culture while you enjoy a hike with the Batwa guides, see how they lived and hunted, hear ancient legends and learn about medical plants. The revenue generated from these activities directly benefits the Batwa to strengthen their community.

A 2nd gorilla trek is an option today for those interested in seeing another gorilla family. Permits are an extra $700 per person. Trekkers today will not likely be able to do the Batwa Trail.

After breakfast, we depart the impenetrable forest of Bwindi and head to Lake Mburo National Park.

As we enter the park it is likely that you will spot some wildlife, like zebra, impala, warthog, and buffalo. 

After checking in at the lodge, we will enjoy a boat ride on the lake to view the rich bird life and many hippos that are cooling off in its waters.

An early dinner will allow us the chance to go on a night game drive in an open Land Cruiser with spotlight. Lake Mburo is the best place in Uganda to see leopard, and a night game drive of 2-3 hours increases our chances of seeing this elusive animal. 

This morning, we'll go for a safari walk guided by a ranger.  Because it has no elephants or lions, Lake Mburo is the only national park in Uganda where you can experience a safari on foot.

We return the lodge for breakfast and check out.

With a game drive on our way out, we depart the park and drive back towards Kampala. Depending on your flight schedule, there may be time to visit a few African craft markets before continuing on to Entebbe.

Day rooms will be provided to refresh, relax and repack and have dinner (not included). 

Later you will be transferred to the airport for your international departure flight.