6 Days, 5 Nights Uganda — Gorillas & Chimpanzees In The Pearl Of Africa

Day 1: Arrival Entebbe — Transfer to Kampala

Arrive at Entebbe International Airport on the shores of Lake Victoria and transfer to your Kampala hotel. Entebbe is Uganda's original colonial capital, a quiet lakeside town full of botanical gardens and pelicans. Your guide meets you at the airport and gives a comprehensive briefing over dinner this evening.

Overnight: Kampala/Entebbe (mid-range hotel)

Day 2: Drive to Queen Elizabeth National Park — Game Drive

Depart Kampala at 7am and drive west through Uganda's rolling tea estates and crater lake district to Queen Elizabeth National Park. Afternoon game drive in the park's Kasenyi area — prime lion and elephant habitat. Keep watch for Uganda kob, warthog, and the park's abundant hippo populations along the Kazinga Channel.

Travel time: approximately 5–6 hours.
Overnight: Queen Elizabeth NP lodge

Day 3: Queen Elizabeth NP — Kazinga Channel & Ishasha

Morning boat safari on the Kazinga Channel, where the shoreline is fringed with hippos, Nile crocodiles, elephants coming to drink, and a bewildering diversity of waterbirds including African skimmers, pied kingfishers, and the remarkable shoebill stork (with luck). Afternoon drive south to Ishasha to seek out the park's legendary tree-climbing lions — a behavior seen only in a handful of locations worldwide.

Overnight: Queen Elizabeth NP / Ishasha area lodge

Day 4: Ishasha to Bwindi — Afternoon Walk

Drive south from Ishasha into the Kigezi highlands, where tea plantations cascade down steep hillsides toward the dark mass of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. Arrive at your Bwindi lodge in time for an afternoon orientation walk along the forest edge with your guide, preparing you for tomorrow's gorilla trek. The forest is alive with birdsong, and colobus monkeys are often seen from the lodge gardens.

Travel time: approximately 2 hours.
Overnight: Bwindi forest lodge

Day 5: Gorilla Trekking Day — Bwindi

The main event. Briefing at the UWA park headquarters at 7:30am, then enter the forest with your ranger guide and habituated gorilla family tracker. The Bwindi forest is genuinely dense and the terrain is steep — your porter (available for hire and highly recommended) will support you on the slopes and carry your pack. When you find the family, you will spend a precious one-hour permit window in their company. Infants tumble, adults groom, and the silverback regards you with ancient, knowing eyes. This moment changes people.

Return to the lodge for a hot lunch and an afternoon of quiet reflection.

Overnight: Bwindi forest lodge

Day 6: Bwindi to Kibale Forest — Chimpanzee Tracking & Return

Early departure for the drive to Kibale Forest National Park, arriving in time for the afternoon chimpanzee tracking session. Kibale is home to approximately 1,500 chimpanzees — the highest density in Africa — and tracking the habituated communities through the forest delivers a high-energy, vocal, and highly unpredictable primate encounter very different in character from the contemplative gorilla experience. Depart for Kampala/Entebbe after your tracking session, arriving late evening.

Travel time Bwindi–Kibale: approximately 4 hours. Return to Entebbe: approximately 3–4 hours.