Day 1

Arrive in Uganda through Entebbe International Airport

Arrival in Uganda through Entebbe International Airport, you will be welcomed by our drive guide who will transfer you to Kampala for an overnight at the magnificent Kampala Serena Hotel. It is an oasis of cool and green, within a peaceful neighborhood that hosts some of Uganda’s hallmark structures-like the Parliament. This five-star hotel boasts of 17 acres of beautifully manicured gardens and a sensational pond—that overlooks its Olympic size swimming pool. This and the other luxurious amenities of the hotel will reward you with the utmost comfort.  

Day 2

Transfer to Kibale Forest National Park.

After breakfast, drive to Kibale Forest National Park through Uganda’s western lush highlands decorated with tea, coffee and banana plantations. Your jaws will drop in awe as you marvel at breathtaking landscapes that sit in the shadows of Rwenzori, Africa’s third highest Mountain. You will be checked in at Ndali Lodge that sits on a beautiful crater lake rim and is 45 away from in Kibale Forest National park, famous home of the largest concentration of chimpanzees in Africa, as well as a bewildering variety of other primates, birds and butterflies. The Lodge is part of the 1000-acre farm with a Vanilla processing plant; while here, you can take a walk around, past alcohol brewing in oil drums, through banana plantations, vanilla plantations, coffee terraces, plots of cassava, groundnuts, sorghum and millet. Below the lodge, on the lake itself, is a sturdy jetty, set in the most tranquil and secluded spot and frequented by 5 different species of Kingfisher.

Day 3

Chimpanzee Trekking

Take an early breakfast and be transferred to the nearby briefing area where you will be welcomed by the park ranger guide. He will happily give you a detailed brief on dos and don’ts of chimpanzee tracking before leading you into the forest for a National Geographic moment with the 13 species of primates to whom the park is home: These include a mix of both old world and new world monkeys like baboons, Black-and-white Colobus Monkey, chimpanzees, Blue Monkey, Red-tailed Monkey, Grey-cheeked Mangabey and Bushbaby. The dense forest hosts a population of more than 1,000 wild chimpanzees. Your guide will draw your attention to an evocative pant-hoot call that marks your proximity to the delightful apes.  Spend a full hour watching them feed, socialize and rest before trekking back to Primate lodge for a hot lunch.

Later in the afternoon, drive to the nearby Bigodi Community for a signature swamp walk that has been featured on international media as the best community conservation model. The local guide will take you through a wetland sanctuary with more than 100 species of birds and primates including the red colobus, black-and-white colobus and other monkeys. Return to the lodge for dinner and overnight.  

Day 4

Transfer to Queen Elizabeth National Park

After breakfast, drive to Queen Elizabeth National Park through en route banana plantations, crater lakes with fascinating shapes and rolling hills. Proceed along the western Rift Valley that leads to Mweya Safari Lodge. This five star resort hovers on a peninsula protruding into the Kazinga Channel. At night, interesting guests including hippos and warthogs are usually seen grazing by your windows.

After lunch, you will be transferred to the nearby docking area for a relaxing boat cruise on Kazinga channel for great wildlife views including elephants, crocodiles, hippos, buffalos and hundreds of birds.

Day 5

Lion Monitoring Tracking and Game Drives

After breakfast, join the lion monitoring research team and drive to the park for an experiential tracking of lions, an experience that permits you to go off road (what the other cars are not allowed to do) to find the lions (and the other animals) and get very close to them. The Uganda Carnivore Project does research on Lions and other predators in Queen Elizabeth and this safari gives you an opportunity to join researchers on one of their outings. Part of the proceedings are used by Uganda Carnivore Project to educate the surrounding communities how to live in harmony and yet in close proximity to Lions and Leopards.

 Return to the lodge and relax, have lunch and later in the afternoon, take another game drive and crown the day with a sundowner.

Day 6

Transfer to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

 Take a relaxed breakfast, checkout of your room and drive to Ishasha sector, home to the famous tree-climbing lions. This is the second known population that climb trees as part of their day-to-day behavior (the other is found in Lake Manyara National Park in Tanzania). Several theories have been advanced for this behavior of lions including a speculation that these lions climb trees to protect themselves against the biting tsetse flies. Others claim that they seek shelter in the tree branches from the heat.

After an experience with Lions, go to the nearby Ishasha Wilderness Camp for lunch and later exit Ishasha to Bwindi through the green villages of Kigezi, the scenery gradually changes from open savanna to mountain slopes covered in dense rain forest. You will be checked in at Sanctuary Gorilla Forest Camp, a contemporary-yet-classic lodge that blends in sensitively with the dramatic African mountain landscape and, situated uniquely inside the national park, only minutes away from the start of your gorilla trekking adventure.

Day 7

First Mountain Gorilla Tracking Experience

This is a big day; you will have a rare encounter with gentle giant mountain gorilla. This is no doubt the absolute highlight of a tour to Africa for most visitors. It is a humbling experience to stand meters from the gentle giants as they eat rest, play and bond with their young ones. After a briefing by park authorities, you will embark on a forest trek lasting from one-five hours, depending on the location of the gorillas in the thick forest. There are 10 habituated gorilla families in the park. You will be blessed to encounter and spend time with one of the families that can be visited by a group of eight people per day! It comprises of members of different age brackets from newly born babies to Silverbacks that are over 20 years old. You will enjoy an exciting journey along forested slopes, bushes and bamboo before you ultimately reach the gorilla family. Coming face-to-face with a mountain gorilla is a truly awesome and emotional experience. You will return to the lodge where we will offer you a complementary body massage. Overnight at Mahogany Safari Lodge

Day 8

Second Day Mountain Gorilla Tracking Experience

Experience has shown that you can visit the same gorilla group twice on different days and get completely different experiences. Individual Mountain gorillas behave differently and same mountain gorilla can behalf differently on different days depending on moods. Some individuals are more active than others, some juveniles are more playful.

On the second day, after briefing, you will be led into the forest to track a different gorilla and you will agree with us that it is a different experience!

In the evening, we will take you on an optional community experience to visit some nearby homesteads. Some of these live with former forest people (pygmies) who were evicted from the forest to pave way for gorilla conservation. They will demonstrate to you how they used to hunt for survival. The experience is crowned with enthusiastic cultural dances. Overnight at Mahogany Safari Lodge.

Day 9

Fly to Entebbe and Depart

Today marks the end of your safari. After breakfast, your guide will transfer you to Kihihi airstrip that is 1.5hours away from Bwindi for a pre-arranged charter flight to Entebbe. You will be transferred to Boma Hotel for a day room to relax and refresh as you wait for your departing flight. Have a farewell meal complementary meal with our director before transferring to the airport.