This 18 Days Uganda Safari Holiday gives you the opportunity to experience an African safari on this best of Uganda on offering wildlife viewing, adventure, culture, food, city tour and scenic landscapes. You will visit 5 of 10 Uganda national parks including primate trekking destination of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park the home of mountain gorillas and Kibale Forest National Park best known for chimpanzees. This 18 Days Uganda Safari Holiday offers the best safari activities that Uganda has to offer.
You will undertake classic game drives and boat cruises in Lake Mburo National Park, Queen Elizabeth National Park, Murchison Falls National Park and Kidepo Valley National Park. This gives a chance to spot large mammals such as elephants, buffalo, giraffe and predators like lion, leopard and hyena.
In addition to wildlife, you will get to visit the local communities that live in harmony with wildlife around the national parks. Uganda is culturally diverse with over 54 different tribes, each with unique traditions including food, music and ways of living. Through village walks, you will be able to support the local communities as you equally take memories when you buy some souvenirs. This 18 Days Uganda Safari Holiday is designed purposefully to explore all destinations of interest.
18 Days Uganda Safari Holiday itinerary.
Day 1: Arrival.
Welcome to Uganda. Arrive at Entebbe international, meet and greet with your tour guide/driver. Wrap up all the arrival procedures and transfer to your hotel for leisure and relaxation after a long flight.
Day 2: Entebbe – Lake Mburo National Park.
Following hot breakfast, hit the road for 4-hour drive from Entebbe to Lake Mburo National Park. Along the way make a stopover at the equator monument for photoshoot. Continue driving entering the park via Sanga entrance gate, you might see zebras and impalas given that the park is not fenced and wild animals tend to feed at the boundary.
You might also see the Ankole long cows as the park is surrounded by the cattle corridor that stretches as far as the woodlands of northern Tanzania.
Arrive at your lodge towards midday and check in your room. Following lunch, you will go for afternoon boat cruise on Lake Mburo, the largest of the lakes within the park’s borders. Enjoy a 3-hour boat cruise on the lake which attracts hippos and water birds such as African fish eagle, kingfishers and African whistling duck.
Lake Mburo NP is one of the smallest savannah park but amazing home to zebras, buffaloes, topi, impala, bushbuck, waterbuck, klipspringer which you are likely to see during the evening game drive that will follow after the boat cruise.
Day 3: Lake Mburo – Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park.
After hot breakfast, you will undertake a guided nature walk with a ranger which lasts for an hour. This offers a chance to view wildlife on foot at close range. Since there’s little predators in this park, the walking safari the experience is safe.
Time to leave Lake Mburo and transfer to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park – southwestern Uganda. Stop for lunch at Igongo cultural museum before continuing through the Kigezi rolling hills to Bwindi forest which both provide stunning landscape shots for photographers.
Arrive at your lodge check in for dinner. Bwindi Impenetrable Forest survived the last ice age and its biological diversity is so rich. The park is home to half of the world’s mountain gorilla population. It’s rated the best gorilla trekking safari destination in the world.
Bwindi impenetrable Forest national park is also home to 354 bird species including 23 Albertine rift endemics. Besides the wildlife, the forest offers nature trails that follow rivers and waterfalls.
Day 4: Gorilla Tracking / community tour.
After breakfast at 6:00am, ensure you pack your lunch boxes, enough drinking water and don’t forget to dress appropriately for the jungle. Leave your lodge by 7:00am meet and greet with the Uganda Wildlife Authority rangers for briefing on gorilla rules at the gorilla center. This is the highlight of your 18 Days Uganda Safari Holiday. Visitors will be led by a team of rangers hiking on foot to search for the gorillas which can last for about 1 to 8 hours.
Once the gorillas are located, you will get to see gorillas keeping a distance of 7 meters and spend 1 hour taking pictures and observing how the gentle giants feed and play. The gorilla rangers will maximize your time subject on the movement and position of the gorillas. Return back to the center where you will be congratulated and awarded a Uganda Wildlife Authority gorilla tracking certificate.
Lunch at the lodge. Optional village walk that gives insight into the culture of the locals and how the people live in harmony with wildlife. Dinner and overnight at your lodge.
Day 5: Bwindi to Queen Elizabeth National Park.
Enjoy breakfast and thereafter leave Bwindi transfer about 5-hour drive to Queen Elizabeth National Park. Crossing through the southern Ishasha wilderness to the northern Kasenyi plains there’s a high chance of spotting the tree climbing lions. Also found in Ishasha are elephants, topi, buffalo, Uganda kob and primates such as red tailed and blue monkeys.
Arrive early afternoon and check in at your lodge settle for lunch. Game drive in the evening. Queen Elizabeth National Park is Uganda’s most visited park because of its diverse wildlife and beautiful scenery. It lies at the foothills of Rwenzori Mountains in the rift valley floor with Kazinga channel best known for its large population of many hippos flowing through from Lake Edward to Lake George. There are 79 mammals including elephant, buffalo, leopard and lion and over 600 species of birds.
Day 6: Game Drive and Boat Cruise.
Early morning game drive starts at 06:00am and by 10:00am you will return for full breakfast. The Kasenyi plains area is home to prides of lion, leopard, hyena and morning time offers the highest chance to spot all these. Take a break up to lunch.
Wildlife viewing in the afternoon takes place along the banks of the Kazinga channel best known for its hippos, elephants and buffaloes that come to quench thirst and cool their bodies. The boat cruise lasts for 3 hours giving you more time to spot birds and the elusive Nile crocodiles. The boat will be followed by an evening game drive as you return to your lodge.
Day 7: Queen Elizabeth NP – Kibale Forest National Park.
Following a cup of coffee, once again you will start your day with an early morning game for the last chance possible to spot predators. You will spend a few hours on the drive because you must transfer to Kibale Forest National Park along the route that follow the crater lakes and Rwenzori mountains much of the journey.
Arrive and check in at your lodge – lunch. Relax the rest of the day.
Kibale Forest National Park known as the primate capital of the world is home to 13 species of primates including chimpanzees that you will track the following morning. Because there are over 1000 chimps, however, don’t expect to find them roaming around the forest. It only takes a guided chimp trek and the chance of seeing chimpanzees only depends on the expertise of Uganda Wildlife Authority rangers.
Other primate species found in Kibale Forest NP include red colobus monkey, grey checked mangabeys, red tailed monkey and blue monkeys. The park is also home to over 400 species of birds making it a great place for bird watching. Optional night forest walk.
Day 8: Chimpanzee tracking and Bigodi Swamp walk.
Early morning after hot African breakfast, you must attend briefing (07:00am) conducted at park visitor center Kanyanchu by the professional Uganda Wildlife Authority rangers. You will be divided into groups of 6 people accordingly and head off into the jungle hiking on foot searching for the chimpanzees. The chimp trekking experience lasts for 1-hour which allow visitors to see get up close encounters with a troop of chimpanzees habituated to humans.
After an hour with chimps, you will return to the lodge and settle for lunch.
In the afternoon, you will take a slow walk with a local guide in Bigodi swamp, home to over 200 bird species and 8 species of primates as well as a variety of medicinal plants. Visitors can also choose an optional village walk to interact with locals, buy some locally made souvenirs craft or drink a beer at a local bar.
Return to your lodge – dinner and overnight.
Day 9: Kibale to Murchison Falls National Park.
At this point, you are halfway your 18 Days Uganda Safari Holiday. From Kibale, it will be a long 7-hour drive to reach Murchison Falls National Park. Expect to arrive late afternoon at your lodge located in the northern banks of the Nile. Lunch.
Visitors might choose to go for a night game drive mainly for a chance of spotting elusive leopard. A trip in this park offers visitors a numbers of activities to view wildlife either by game drive, boat cruise along the Nile River or hot air balloon safari.
Murchison Falls National Park is the largest conservation area in Uganda located on the floor of the Albertine rift valley. The park’s varied habitats such as riverine forests, palm dotted savannah attract a variety of wildlife including lion, leopard, giraffes, Jackson’s hartebeest, bushbuck, waterbucks, buffaloes, warthogs, Uganda kobs, Oribis, hippos and Nile crocodiles and over 445 bird species. The Nile River which bisects the park also creates the spectacular sight – the Murchison falls, the strongest waterfall on the continent after the southerly Victoria Falls.
Day 10: Murchison Falls NP (game drive & boat cruise).
You will start the day early morning at 06:00am with a hot cup of African tea and go into the wild for game viewing. Due to the large size of the park, your guide will maximize time for best wildlife viewing chances. The northern Murchison game tracks is home to lion, leopard, Nubian giraffe, hartebeest, buffalo, Uganda kob and oribi the smallest antelope in Uganda.
Following lunch, visitors will gather at Paara and take a boat cruise along the banks of the Nile. You will get a view of the bottom of the falls and also take a hike to the top of the falls.
The leisure double decked boat trips last for 3 hours and is such a rewarding opportunity to view hippos, crocodiles, water birds, elephants and buffaloes that come to drink. The boat takes you 10 meters away from the base of the falls which gives you a view at a close range. The top of the falls hike is your vantage point that overlooks the falls and the mist gets you moderately wet. Most visitors never want to leave because of being equally at ease and taking pictures against the Nile and enjoying the play of light. This boat cruise will further give you a chance to recover from the Dinner and overnight at your lodge.
Day 11: To Kidepo Valley National Park.
From Murchison Falls, you transfer to northeast as you witness the landscape changing from green to semi-arid / desert – the land of the Karamojong warriors – Kidepo Valley National Park, also known as the “true African wilderness”.
Arrive late afternoon, check in your room and settle for evening. You will have game drive in the evening exploring the Narus valley the park’s prime area for wildlife viewing. Kidepo Valley National Park covers 1442 km2 of semi-arid savannah wilderness home to big 4 mammals and over 457 species of birds. The park is the only one in Uganda besides Pian upe wildlife reserve where cheetahs can be spotted. In addition to prides of lions, leopards, jackals, elephants, eland, Uganda kob, Rothschild’s giraffe, bush duiker and bush pig.
Day 12: Kidepo Valley NP.
Early morning game drive exploring the vast Kidepo Narus river valley with a chance of spotting cheetah, lion, leopard and hyena, buffalo, elephant and giraffe and zebra. You will return to your lodge for lunch.
In the afternoon, you may opt for a cultural walk outside the park to visit the Karamojong natives. You will learn more about their semi-nomadic lifestyle with traditions that are century’s old including traditional settlements and lively cultural dances.
Day 13: Kidepo to Sipi Falls.
This morning you will take a hike to visit Ik tribe, descendants of hunter gathers before leaving for Sipi. This cultural walk from Apoka tourism center starting at 07:00 a.m. after breakfast takes you to Mount Morungule towering 2750 meters above sea level. Cultural enthusiast can enjoy authentic interaction with the IK indigenous, the smallest ethnic tribe in Uganda who live on the slopes of this legendary mountain. Return back for lunch and transfer to Sipi Falls situated on the edge of Mount Elgon National Park.
Arrive early afternoon, check in your lodge overlooking the Sipi falls where the view is most stunning. Relax the rest of the day enjoying the play of light. Sipi falls is the tallest waterfall in Uganda as River Sipi drops off basalt cliffs at a height of 100 meters. The falls are created in spectacular three series of waterfalls.
Day 14: Sipi to Jinja City.
Following breakfast, you will undertake a hike starting at the base and all the way up to the top of the cliff allowing you to enjoy the cool atmosphere and the scenery.
From there, you will be transferred to Jinja city known as the adventure capital of East Africa. Jinja is located on the shores of Victoria Nile at the source of the Nile, the longest river in the world.
Arrive in the afternoon check in for lunch. In the afternoon, you visit the source of the Nile by taking a boat trip to a point where the river spills from the Lake Victoria to begin its 6650 km journey to the Mediterranean Sea. Return to your lodge for dinner and overnight stay.
Day 15: Jinja – white water rafting full day.
Today you will undertake one of the most adventurous experiences in the world – white water rafting along Nile River in Jinja.
Visitors begin with a safety briefing and those with no experience can first make some tests in the water. Class 2 rapids are ideal for children and those rafting for the first time. Rafting will last for 3 to 4 hours. At the end you are provided soft drinks and barbecue which makes the tour more interesting.
The River Nile rapids range from grade 5 to 2 rapids along with a stretch of hill of rocks and a 40-meter giant water slide. This makes the Nile one of the best rafting spots in the world. There are 25 km2 of rapids on the White Nile downstream the hydro-electric dam.
Optional sunset boat cruise along Victoria Nile.
Day 16: Jinja – Kampala.
After breakfast, transfer from Jinja to Kampala, the capital of Uganda about 3hour drive. Once you reach Kampala, you will have lunch and take a short city tour on foot walking the streets in the evening.
You will visit the independence monument, the national theatre and Buganda road craft market in uptown Kampala and many other religious and historical sites plus iconic buildings that beautify the skies of Kampala.
Optional Kampala by night life experience that includes visiting night music clubs, comedy shows, live shows, fashion shows and live theatre performances.
Day 17: Kampala City Tour.
This day of this 18 Days Uganda Safari Holiday sees you explore Kampala city, the capital of Uganda. After breakfast, you will transfer to Mengo and visit the Kabaka’s palace and Bulange building where the history of the largest traditional kingdom in east and central Africa was born in the 14th century. You will also take a walk along the royal mile which connects the (Lubiri) Kabakas palace and Bulange, learning much about the Buganda tribes and their totems.
Lunch in Mengo featuring traditional Luwombo food. Leave Mengo and visit the Gadhafi mosque where you will climb upstairs to get a complete stunning view of Kampala’s 7 hills. From there, you will visit the Uganda Museum with over 1 million artefacts which is the largest collection of archeological history in East Africa.
Day 18: Departure.
Depending on your flight schedule, have breakfast in the midst of Kampala’s vibrancy, relax on the balcony of your hotel as you gaze at the numerous hills that make up this legendary capital. You will later be picked up and transferred to Entebbe international airport to board your flight back home. This will mark the end of your 18 Days Uganda Safari Holiday.
