Our 4-Day Affordable Uganda Safari is the perfect trip for time-challenged travelers who seek out extraordinary experiences.

This epic Uganda safari trip offers you a gorilla trekking adventure through the verdant afro-montane forests of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. Of course, your main focus will be mountain gorillas (read more about these gentle giants here), but you will encounter other wonderful species, such as colobus monkeys, colorful birds and butterflies, and prehistoric three-horned chameleons – amongst others.

And, after the amazing but relatively tiresome gorilla adventure, you’ll visit the nearby Lake Bunyonyi for much-needed relaxation and enjoy the beautiful scenery and cool breeze. Having relaxed and rejuvenated, you will visit Kibale Forest National Park for a chimpanzee trekking tour.

By the end of the 4 days Uganda safari, you would have gotten yourself an awesomely great, adventurous, and an unforgettable experience after Chimpanzee and Gorilla tracking in these two primate National Parks.

Overview

Length: 4 Days / 3 Nights

Group Size: Flexible – you tell us how many are in your party

Location: Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Equator, Lake Bunyonyi, and Kibale Forest National Park

Departure Dates: To suit you

Highlights

Day 1: Visit the Equator Monument & Transfer to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest

Day 2: Gorilla trekking and transfer to Lake Bunyonyi for relaxation

Day 3: Boat cruise/Canoe Ride on Lake Bunyonyi and Travel to Kibale Forest

Day 4: Chimpanzee tracking and transfer back to Kampala/Entebbe

Details

Day 1: Entebbe- Bwindi Impenetrable Forest

Your fantastic 4-Day Affordable Uganda Safari starts today! Your tour driver guide shall pick you up from pre-tour accommodation in Kampala or Entebbe or Kampala city at around 7.30 am. After a short tour briefing, you will embark on a scenic drive of about (520km) 8-9 hours southwest to the great Bwindi Impenetrable Forest.

You will pass via Masaka-Mbarara Road. After driving for about 2 hours, you make a stop at the Kayabwe Equator monument to take photos, stretch your legs and enjoy some snacks. After that, you’ll continue your drive, making another stop for lunch at Igongo Cultural Centre in Mbarara for lunch.

Igongo is a huge commercial enterprise with conference facilities, a five-star hotel, a top restaurant, craft centers, and shops, and luckily also one of the best museums in all of Uganda. From Igongo, you will continue on your way to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, arriving in the early evening.

Covering an area of 321 km2, Bwindi was gazetted as a National Park in 1991 and declared a World Heritage Site in 1994. It is an amazing piece of land that survived the last Ice Age when most other forests in Africa disappeared. Of course, most famously, Bwindi is home to more than half the world’s population of Mountain Gorillas about 459 individuals at last count.

In addition to the endangered Mountain Gorillas, the incredibly biologically varied park also has almost 350 bird species (including 23 Albertine Rift endemic species), 120 mammal species, more than 200 butterfly species, 27 species of frogs, and over 324 species of trees.

Accommodation Options:

Luxury: Buhoma Lodge/Gorilla Forest Camp/Volcanoes Bwindi Lodge

Midrange: Haven Lodge Buhoma/Gorilla Mist Camp/ Agandi Eco Lodge

Budget: Trekkers Tarven/Buhoma Rest Camp

Meal Plan: Lunch & Dinner

Day 2: Gorilla Trekking & Relaxation at Lake Bunyonyi

Today is going to be an undoubted highlight. And we don’t mean just of the tour, but of your life. The trek to see gorillas in their natural habitat is really a bucket list adventure that naturalists from all over the world dream of doing!

You will have a hearty breakfast at your lodge and transfer to the park offices to get briefed by expert local guides. At 8 am you’ll embark on the trek within the “Impenetrable forest” in search of the great mountain creatures.

The gorilla trek is relatively tiresome and might take you a good few hours, depending on the gorillas’ movements. But trust us, the bit of exercise will be very well rewarded by meeting, watching, spending time with, and photographing these incredible creatures as you look straight into their inviting, brown, expressive eyes. This is a thrill of a lifetime!

While the gorillas will be the highlight, other mammals that you may be fortunate enough to find on your trek include Duikers, Guereza, L’Hoest’s, Blue Red-tailed, and Colobus monkeys. After this life-changing gorilla trekking experience you will return to the starting point where you’ll be rewarded with gorilla trekking certificates.

You’ll enjoy a packed picnic lunch, after which you’ll leave for the beautiful Lake Bunyonyi, about 1 ½ hours away. You’ll travel through the captivating Kigezi Highlands where locals apply a terracing method to cultivate their slopes, making for an impressive and scenic landscape.

You will arrive at Lake Bunyonyi in the late afternoon. This is an ideal stopover for the tour, because your final park of the safari, Kibale Forest, is unreachable today. Your resort will be set on the shores of Lake Bunyonyi, commanding panoramic views of the beautiful surroundings. You’ll have time to relax at the resort as you enjoy the cool breeze.

Accommodation: Lake Bunyonyi Rock Resort

Meal Plan: Lunch & Dinner

Day 3: Lake Bunyonyi Boat Cruise and Transfer to Kibale Forest

After a leisurely breakfast today, you’ll enjoy a boat cruise on this lovely lake and hike to different viewpoints before heading to Kibale Forest National Park.

On the drive to Kibale, you’ll be able to enjoy an impressive sight of the legendary “Mountains of the Moon” which you’ll clearly see on the road to Fort Portal town. You will have lunch in Fort Portal after which you will head to the Kibale Forest National Park.

The 776 km² Park is one of the last remaining expanses to contain both lowland and montane forests and is famous for its primates. The park, formally established in 1993, forms a continuous forest with Queen Elizabeth National Park to the southwest. This adjoining the parks creates a 180-kilometer wildlife corridor, in which African Elephants move freely.

The varied altitude (1,100 m to 1,600 m) of the park results in different varieties of habitat, ranging from moist evergreen forest along the Fort Portal plateau, then through the dry tropical forest, and then to the woodland & savanna along the rift valley floor. Over 350 species of trees are found in Kibale Forest National Park.

However, the reason that naturalists from all over the world visit Kibale is the fact that it has one of the highest diversities and concentrations of primates in Africa. Species include Chimpanzee, Mangabey, Red Colobus, Olive Baboon, Red-tailed Monkey, Guereza, Blue Monkey, and the vulnerable L’Hoest’s Monkey. You will reach your camp or lodge in the late afternoon.

Accommodation Options:

Luxury: Crater Safari Lodge/Kyaninga Lodge/Primate Lodge

Midrange: Kibale Forest Camp/Chimpanzee Forest Lodge

Budget: Kibale Forest Camp/Chimpanzee Forest Lodge

Meal Plan: Lunch & Dinner

Day 4: Chimp Track And Transfer Back To Kampala

After a cup of good Ugandan coffee, you’ll gather at the Kanyanchu Tourism Centre to do your Chimpanzee trekking adventure which begins promptly at 8 am. The encounter commences with a briefing from the excellent park rangers who will be our guides for the activity.

After the briefing, you head to the forest in search of the man’s closest relative. The activity lasts about 3 to 4 hours and over the years has had a 95% success rate of seeing some of the 1,500 individuals in Kibale Forest.

The chimps have been fully habituated and thus offer you an opportunity to draw quite close to them and take pictures. Viewing them as they munch fruit, swinging in trees, socializing, patrolling, mating, and making hooting calls is an unforgettable experience that you will treasure forever.

You have a full hour to enjoy these precious creatures and you are free to take as many photos as you wish! There are of course several other mammals present in Kibale’s lush flora, though they are hardly seen.

If you are lucky you might see Bushbuck, Blue Duiker, Common Warthog, Sitatunga, Forest Hog, or Bushpig. And if you are very lucky, you could encounter African Buffalo and some the forest-adapted African Elephants.

A sharp observer will also see many species of amphibians and reptiles and a colorful variety of butterflies.

Kibale is also home to 325 bird species. The specials are the Green-breasted and African Pitta, Afep Pigeon, Black Bee-eater, Olive Long-tailed Cuckoo, Crowned Eagle, Western Nicator, Abyssinian Thrush, Blue-breasted Kingfisher, Brown-chested Alethe, Grey Parrot, Dusky Crimsonwing, Black-capped and Black-collared Apalis, Blue-headed and Purple-breasted Sunbird and Red-faced Woodland Warbler.

After the amazing Chimp trek, you’ll return to the starting point where you’ll enjoy your packed picnic lunch and catch your breaths after all the excitement. After lunch, you will embark on a drive of about 5 hours back to Entebbe.