10 Days Uganda & Rwanda Gorilla Safari Adventure Itinerary

Upon arrival, you will be picked up from Entebbe International Airport or your hotel in Kampala by our experienced driver guide from Paradise Adventure Vacations, who will brief you about the 10 Days Uganda & Rwanda Gorilla Safari Adventure. The drive is about 45 minutes from the Airport. Upon arrival at your hotel, you will check in and have a rest from your long Journey. If time allows, we can either visit Entebbe botanical gardens or a Kampala city tour, where you will explore the historical places of Uganda, such as Kabaka’s palace, Uganda National Museum, Namugongo martyr’s shrines, Kasubi tombs (One of UNESCO’s recognized sites), depending on your arrival time.

Destination: Kampala, Uganda

Meal Plan: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

Drinks: Drinking Water and Fruits Throughout the journey

Wake up for an early morning breakfast and begin your panoramic road drive northwest of Uganda through the famous Luwero Triangle with an en-route stop at Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary. It is the only place in Uganda where you can find these peaceful members of the big five family in their natural habitat. On your arrival at Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary, you will go for a Rhino trekking adventure, which will provide you with opportunities to explore them close to their feet.

During your trek, you have to keep your camera on standby so that you do not miss out on any moment. You will return for a delicious lunch break and continue your drive to Murchison Falls National Park. The highlights of this park include: the roaring rapids of the Murchison, the rolling plains of Uganda’s largest national park, where you will have the chance of viewing lions, giraffes, hartebeest, buffalo, and elephants.

Destination: Murchison Falls National Park

Meal Plan: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

Drinks: Drinking Water and Fruits Throughout the journey

Wake up for an early morning breakfast, and prepare yourself for another exciting encounter. Starts with an early morning game drive through different trails of the park, like Albert trail, Buligi trail, and the Victoria trail. Here, you will meet eye to eye with different mammal species like buffalo, elephants, lions, leopards, bushbuck, and giraffes, among others, and return to your lodge for relaxation and lunch.

Later in the afternoon, embark on an afternoon boat cruise upstream to the bottom of the falls, while on the cruise, you will see the Nile crocodiles resting on the shores, herds of hippos while in water, bird species like the black bee eater, grey crowned crane, marabou stork, and many others. After the cruise, you will then hike to the Top of the falls, where you will witness the strength of the magnificent Murchison Falls as it roars and pours itself out through a narrow 8m gorge. While here, you will enjoy the soft splashes as it feels like little drizzles falling on your face from heaven. You will then return to your lodge for relaxation as you await your dinner and an overnight. OR You can opt for a Night Game Drive, which comes at an Extra Cost of $100 per person. This drive is done with an armed ranger guide and also spotlight torches, which will enable you to spot the predators as they hunt like hyenas, leopards, lions, bush babies, hippos, among others.

Destination: Murchison Falls National Park

Meal Plan: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

Drinks: Drinking Water and Fruits Throughout the journey

You will wake up early morning for a delicious breakfast and then proceed for a drive to Kibale National Park, which is located in the Western region of Uganda in Kabarole district. This drive will take about 5 hours, and it will offer you magnificent scenic views of Uganda’s landscape as you drive to the park. Enroute to your destination, you will have a lunch stopover in Fort Portal Tourism City, and upon arrival at the park.

You will visit Bigodi Wetland for a Swamp Walk, and during this walk, you will spot some butterfly species and birds like the Black-crowned Waxbill, White-spotted Flufftail, White-breasted Negrofinch, Yellow-spotted Barbet, Black Bishop, Hairy-breasted Barbet, Yellow-billed Barbet, Brown-crowned Tchagra, Black & white Shrike-flycatcher, Western Nicator, Superb Sunbird, among others. You will then proceed for a community walk where you will see and taste the Gins brewed from bananas, craft making, coffee processing, as well as enjoying a Cultural dance, and then proceed to your lodge for dinner and an overnight.

Destination: Kibale Forest National Park

Meal Plan: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

Drinks: Drinking Water and Fruits Throughout the journey

Wake up early in the morning for a heavy breakfast and wear appropriate clothing like a long-sleeved shirt, a pair of karky or jean trousers, a round cap, waterproof boots, and a heavy sweater to protect you from the falling tree branches, and also in case of bad weather.  Also, carry in your backpacks some snacks and drinking water to help keep you hydrated during the trek, since it may take about 1 to 5 hours to find the chimps, depending on their location. Then you will proceed to the Kanyachu Visitor Center for a briefing about the Do’s and the Don’ts of the park. Here, you will be assigned a Park ranger who will take you through the forest and also a chimpanzee family to look out for.

Chimpanzee Tracking, During the trek, you will spot primates like the black and white colobus monkeys, the red tailed monkeys, olive baboons, red colobus monkeys, grey cheeked mangabey, L’Hoest’s monkey, Mantled guereza, Potto, Vervet monkey, White-eyelid mangabey, Galago among others and also various bird species like olive long-tailed cuckoo, western tinker bird, blue headed sunbird, red faced woodland, grey parrot, yellow spotted nicator, little greenbul, blue breasted king fisher, among other bird species.

Upon finding the chimpanzees, you will have a full 1-hour encounter with them while learning their behaviors, social life, how they feed, and play. Feel free to ask the park ranger as many questions as possible. You will return to your lodge for lunch, check out then proceed with the drive to Queen Elizabeth National Park, which is about a 2-hour drive from Kibale Forest National Park. On arrival, you will check in to your lodge for dinner and overnight.

Destination: Queen Elizabeth National Park

Meal Plan: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

Drinks: Drinking Water and Fruits Throughout the journey

Your Safari will begin with an early morning breakfast and thereafter you will head out to the jungle to search for the various mammal species that inhabit Queen Elizabeth National Park, like Anticipate seeing the famous Big Five including Antelopes, Hippos, bush pigs, sitatungas, topis, bushbucks, cape buffaloes, elephants among others mammals such as giant forest hogs, bushbucks, kobs, hyenas, and waterbucks. In the afternoon hours, you will partake in a launch cruise along the Kazinga Channel. You will appreciate the high scores of elephants, hippos, buffalo, and crocodiles. Several bird species will also be seen, including the rare shoebill. Dinner and your overnight stay are at the lodge.

You can also opt for an Experiential Lion and Leopard Tracking Experience in the Northern sector of the park, “Kasenyi plains,” which goes for an Extra $250 per person. while here, you will have an opportunity to drive off track while tracing a pride of lions and the leopards of the park. This Experience takes you beyond the usual game drive since you get to learn about their population, behavior, lifestyle, and also any other information concerning them. Experiential Lion and Leopard Tracking is done with Researchers who drive around the park with radiation trackers, which help them to find lions that have radio collars around their necks. Trackers can drive off trucks to find the predators whenever the signals are directed.

Destination: Queen Elizabeth National Park

Meal Plan: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

Drinks: Drinking Water and Fruits Throughout the journey

Today you will begin with a hot breakfast, and then you will check out of your accommodation to proceed to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, which is located south of Queen Elizabeth National Park. and it will take about 5 hours to reach the Northern sector of Buhoma. During your journey out of Queen Elizabeth, you will drive through Ishasha sector to search for the tree climbing lions which are usually resting on the branches of trees and other wildlife like Topis, Aardvark, lions, elephants, monkeys, Uganda kobs, Hippos, leopards, water buck among others which are found in this sector of the park, you will have a lunch stopover in Kihihi and proceed to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park for dinner and an overnight.

Destination: Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park

Meal Plan: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

Drinks: Drinking Water and Fruits Throughout the journey

After an early breakfast and a briefing from the guides of Uganda Wildlife Authority, we set off for the gorilla tracking in the forest of Bwindi. The activity starts at 8.00 am, and you join the other members according to the distribution of the gorilla families, only eight per family each day. The encounter with the gorillas, lasting for about one hour, certainly is a rewarding experience and an unforgettable one. In the afternoon, depart for Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda.

Note: Ugandan authorities are fiercely protective of this natural treasure, and currently permit only a maximum of eight people per day to visit a given gorilla family. The group will be split into different sub-groups for the trek, and depending on the number of travelers, different sub-groups may do their trek on different days.

Bwindi Impenetrable National Park has four areas: Rushaga, Buhoma, Nkuringo, and Ruhija. Depending on permit availability, your group could be tracking gorillas from different areas of the park; it is all still part of Bwindi.

Destination: Volcanoes National Park

Meal Plan: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

Drinks: Drinking Water and Fruits Throughout the journey

Rise early for breakfast, and around 6:30 am, we will head to the Kinigi Park headquarters. Today, your gorilla trek will surely be the highlight of your tour. We will arrive at the Kinigi ranger station by 7:00 am, where we will be assigned guides and given a briefing before entering the forest.

We will track one of the eight habituated gorilla groups in Rwanda. Experienced ranger guides will accompany you as we search for the mountain gorillas. Only eight people can track each habituated group, and our search can range from 2 to 6 hours, depending on the gorillas’ movements, as their territory can cover up to 40km (25mi). The park rangers and guides will clear the path and assist you through the forest. Spending an hour with this family group will be an unforgettable experience. After our hour is up, we will gradually make our way out of the forest and return to the lodge. In the evening, you will take a cultural visit where you will discover more about the local Rwandan culture.

Destination: Volcanoes National Park

Meal Plan: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

Drinks: Drinking Water and Fruits Throughout the journey

After breakfast, you will go to the park headquarters for your second experience with the endangered golden monkey. The trek to see them is easy and takes about 1 to 2 hours. Golden monkeys are a rare type of Old-World monkey found only in the Virunga Mountain range. They are endangered and listed as such on the Red List of threatened species. These monkeys live in groups of up to 90, usually led by one adult male. There are two habituated groups of golden monkeys. One group has about 80 to 100 members and is located at the foot of Mt. Sabyinyo. Like the treks to see mountain gorillas, the trek to see the golden monkeys takes place in the morning, and visitors can spend one hour with the monkeys.

After this experience. You will continue to visit the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre, which serves as a permanent memorial to those who fell victim to the genocide in 1994. The Center opened on the tenth anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide, in April 2004, and was built on a site where more than 250,000 people are buried. Please note that the content at the Memorial Centre shows the harsh reality of the genocide. When that’s done, you will be driven to your hotel in Kigali or the airport to catch a flight to your next destination.

Destination: Kigali (Rwanda)

Accommodation Option: No

Meals Plan: Breakfast and Lunch

Drinks: Drinking Water and Fruits Throughout the journey