This 9-day self-drive safari in Uganda will offer you a chance to explore the highlights of the ‘Pearl of Africa’. You’ll go chimpanzee tracking in Kibale Forest, watch herds of elephants in Queen Elizabeth National Park, search for tree-climbing lions in Ishasha, and have a close encounter with the rare and endangered mountain gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. A walking safari and an amazing game drive in Lake Mburo National Park complete this self-drive safari in Uganda.

Day 1: Arrival at Entebbe International Airport

After you arrive at Entebbe International Airport, you will find when our driver is waiting for you and go through with the paperwork and do the car inspection after everything is done you will be given the car key and ready to start your 9-day self-drive safari in Uganda. If you arrive early, you can arrange a city tour in Kampala with the driver, if you arrive by noon but in case you arrive late evening you will transfer directly to your hotel in Entebbe or Kampala for dinner and overnight.

Day 2: Kampala – Kibale Forest National Park

After breakfast, your first long drive will be 300km from Kampala to Fort Portal in western Uganda. You will drive on a good road through the evergreen, hilly landscape, with amazing tea plantations. In the afternoon, after several stops, you will arrive at the center of the Toro Kingdom, the Fort Portal town. Here, you can get a chance to visit the market and take a break at one of the small cafes. Afterward, you will continue to your lodge in Kibale Forest for dinner and overnight.

Day 3: Chimpanzee Tracking and Transfer to Queen Elizabeth National Park

Enjoy breakfast at the lodge and then get your packed lunch and transfer to the Kibale Forest National Park headquarters with your chimpanzee tracking permits, there you will get a short briefing from the ranger guide on how you have to behave when you will chimpanzees in the jungle. Then you will be accompanied by the ranger and then continue to the starting point for the chimpanzee tracking process, from there you will enter the jungle with a ranger and an armed guard, and the actual chimpanzee tracking starts. The time you will spend while tracking these primates is unpredictable but it can range from 3 – 8 hours depending on how the chimpanzee moved in the jungle in search of food and shelter. These primates are in their natural habitat meaning they can move anyhow as they are searching for food and this makes the tracking time change every day. Along the track, you will get a chance to vie against other 12 primate species like the colobus, Olive baboons, Grey-cheeked Mangabeys, the L’Hoest’s, Red-tailed monkeys, Bushbabies, Vervet monkeys, and over 325 different species of bird. The ranger guide will give information on both flora and fauna.

After this amazing experience, you will return to the lodge for lunch, unwind and get ready to transfer to Queen Elizabeth National Park the drive that can take something like one and half hour drive meaning you will reach there in the afternoon for dinner and overnight.

Day 4: Queen Elizabeth National Park, Game Drive and Boat Safari

Today, you will start with a morning breakfast and then embark on a morning game drive in Queen Elizabeth National Park. The park offers a variety of wildlife you can watch when you take part in a game drive. The park is home to a good population of lions, buffaloes, hyenas, and the Ugandan Kob antelope. When going on a game drive, hire a ranger guide because those guides at the park have enough knowledge about the prime locations and will guide you to spot these animals while also answering your questions. After lunch, we will embark on a boat safari along the Kazinga Channel that connects Lake Edward and Lake George. Crocodiles and hippos inhabit the channel, while buffalo, elephants, and various stunning bird species can be spotted along its banks.

Day 5: Queen Elizabeth – Ishasha Game Drive – Bwindi Forest National Park

This day will start with early breakfast and then embark on a long drive from Queen Elizabeth National Park to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park with an en-route game drive through the Ishasha Sector where you will get a chance to see different animals and the highlight of the park is the tree climbing lions. Then you will hit the road and drive for 6 hours with an en-route stop for lunch, and later you will proceed to the park, reaching there in the evening for dinner and overnight and wait the next day for gorilla trekking in the park.

Day 6: Gorilla Trekking in Bwindi Forest National Park

Bwindi Forest in the southwestern part of the country hosts approximately 500 individuals of mountain gorillas which are almost half of the world’s remaining gorilla population. Gorilla trekking is the highlight of any safari in Uganda and a safari to Uganda is never complete without visiting Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park to enjoy gorilla trekking.

Gorilla trekking in Bwindi Forest always starts early in the morning with a short briefing and later, you will be grouped into groups of 8 people and each group of 8 will have to trek a different gorilla family, then, you will get back to your vehicle and drive to the starting point of the gorilla trekking. With the company of the ranger guide and an armed guard, you will enter the jungle and start the gorilla tracking process. The time you will take while tracking mountain gorillas is unpredictable and can go between 3-9 hours depending on the movement of mountain gorillas in their search for food and shelter. The tracking goes through steep rocks, climbing and down through slippery and muddy jungle grounds, making it tiresome. However, the amazing experience of encountering these amazing primates in their natural habitat erases the poor memories you experienced in trying to find them. You will stay with them for 1 hour for observation and photography as you ask the ranger guide all kinds of questions that will come to your mind. Later you will descend back to your lodge for an evening retreat for dinner and overnight.

Day 7: Transfer to Lake Mburo National Park, Game Drive

Today, we will start with breakfast at the lodge and get ready to hit the road and transfer to Lake Mburo National Park you will have a chance for a stopover in Kabale town to visit Lake Bunyonyi and later you will continue to the park with another en-route stop in Mbarara town for lunch. Later you will continue to the park with an en-route game drive as you enter the park, you will have a chance to see several animals like giraffes and zebras.

Day 8: Lake Mburo National Park, Walking Safari, Game Drive

Breakfast in the morning and you have the opportunity to embark on a walking safari in the park. This amazing experience will start early in the morning with your bottled drinking water and packed lunch, later you will get some briefing from the ranger before u start your walking safari accompanied by an armed ranger, you’ll set out to observe the animals up close. Your guide will point out animal tracks and explain their behavior. This experience will take from 2-3 hours and later you’ll return to the lodge for a full lunch and relaxation as you wait for the evening game drive. Later you will get ready to go for a game drive where you will get a chance to see most of the animals in the park including zebras, hyenas, elands, impalas, buffalos, oribi, leopards, Defassa waterbuck, hippos, topi and reedbuck and others. After you will return to the lodge for dinner and an overnight stay.

Transfer back to Kampala

This day will be for transferring back to Kampala with an en-route stop at the equator where you’ll have the chance to take some souvenir photos and have lunch before continuing with your journey to Entebbe International Airport to meet your departure flight.