Western Region

Kibale National Park is the ultimate destination for chimpanzee tracking in Uganda because it has the highest number of these primates at 1,500, which are also easier to locate.

And on top of seeing chimps, you can encounter other primates like the red-tailed monkeys, blue monkeys, and diurnal monkeys as well as plenty of birds.

The park is situated in Western Uganda within a tropical forest. It has five habituated groups you can track and observe in their natural habitat, with the Kanyanchu chimpanzee group being the most popular one to trail in the Kibale forest.

Kibale has a moist and temperate climate whereby temperatures stay constant all year round. Temperatures can reach 27°C/81°F during the day and come down to 15°C/59°F at night.

Activities to Do

Chimpanzee Tracking

Tracking chimps in Kibale can take about 3-4 hours, and after finding them, you can spend an hour observing them as they interact and play with each other.

This activity takes place every day, and you can choose to go on a guided tracking walk at 8 am or opt for the afternoon one at 2 pm. 

These apes are quite interesting to watch as they use startling sounds to communicate with each other. It’s advisable not to mimic the chimpanzees as you may end up making a sound that puts your safety at risk.

Other primates you may see on the trek include the rare L’Hoest’s monkey, baboons, black and white colobus monkeys, grey-checked mangabey, and bush babies.

Chimpanzee Habituation

The chimpanzee habituation experience is suitable for those interested in spending more time with the primates to take lots of photos or even conduct research.

Here you can spend half a day observing the chimps in their habitat while the habituation research team works on getting them used to human visits.

Birding

Kibale is host to over 375 birds, such as the green-breasted pitta, Nahan’s francolin, and Black bee-eater that can be found all over the forest, but the Bigodi swamp sanctuary is the best place for birding in this park.

The variety of birds you can see there include the Black-billed turaco, Blue-breasted Kingfisher, Blue-headed Coucal, and White-spotted crake. This preserve is also home to plenty of butterflies you can enjoy watching as they fly around.

Nature Walks

The forest is lined with several walking trails that you can take along with a ranger guide to immerse yourself in nature and discover the other mammals in the park.

You may be able to see the duikers, forest elephants, bush pigs, and buffaloes as well as different reptiles and amphibians.

And on night walks, you can get to see the nocturnal animals, such as the bush babies, potto, hyraxes, civets, and the serval cat. Besides, Kibale has over 250 tree species that your guide can point out to you hike through the forest.

Crater Lakes Tour

There are numerous beautiful crater lakes at the edge of Kibale Park, popularly known as the Ndalii Kasenda craters that you can explore.

These lakes are dotted in between the rolling hills in the area, and you can enjoy a wide range of flora and fauna as well as spectacular views of the Kibale forest and the Rwenzori Mountains as you hike to the different craters.

The area around these lakes is also suitable for camping so, if you’re outdoorsy, you can bask in the wilderness experience.

The Rwenzori Mountain national park is largely covered by the mountain, and it lies along the Uganda – DRC border in Western Uganda.

Labeled “the mountain of the moon” by Ptolemy, an ancient Greek astronomer, and geographer, mountain Rwenzori has six ranges, but Mount Stanley with its third highest peak in Africa – Margherita: 5,109m (16,762 ft) is the most hiked.

It’s a block mountain whose name Rwenzori or Ruwenzori as the locals call it means “Rain-maker” or “Lord of the Clouds” because of its snow-capped peaks.

This is the only place with snow in Uganda. And although it’s not as high as Kilimanjaro, it requires more technical skills and endurance to climb its notoriously muddy and steep terrain as well as offers a more striking panoramic view of the Albertine rift valley and surrounding areas.

The park’s equatorial glaciers, landscape peppered with waterfalls, lakes, and a diverse flora of gigantic mossy heather trees and flowering lobelias that give the area a ‘La La land’ feel make it one of Africa’s most beautiful Alpines.

It’s best to hike the Rwenzoris during the dry season from December to February and June-October because the park tends to be colder than usual during the wet season, plus the rains can make hiking difficult.

Temperatures at high altitudes can range between 10-15°C /50-59°F during the day and 2-6°C /35.6-42.8°F at night.

Activities to Do

Mountain Climbing

Rwenzori Mountain national park has several challenging trails that suit different people and their fitness levels. For avid mountain climbers looking for a worthy quest, hiking to the Margherita summit can be a great adventure. Treks can range from 1-2 days for shorter peaks to 7 or 12-day expeditions to the Margherita peak.

As you hike the mountain through a remarkably unique and diverse wilderness, you may catch sights of the rare, dark Rwenzori leopard, blue monkeys, and endangered animals, such as the L’hoests monkeys, Rwenzori Duiker, forest Elephants, chimps, and Rwenzori Otter Shrew as well as the endemic sunbirds.

Community Visits

The Bakonzo people live in the Rwenzori Mountains, and you can pay them a visit at their homesteads where they can entertain you with cultural performances and offer you their local cuisine. You can also take walks around their villages and see how they carry out their day-to-day activities.

Birding

The park hosts over 217 bird species that you can observe on a birding safari. These include the Albertine Rift endemics, such as the highly sought-after Ruwenzori turaco, Blue-headed sunbird, Barred long-tailed cuckoo, Handsome francolin, Golden-winged sunbird, Rwenzori Batis, and the Cinnamon chested bee-eater.

Nature Walks

You can walk through the tropical forest while marveling at its towering bamboo and supersized fig trees with birds perched upon them to see the different waterfalls on the slopes of the mountains. Along the way, you may also see various mammals, reptiles, and amphibians.

Lake Mburo national park is the smallest savannah park in Uganda. It’s located along the Kampala-Mbarara highway, making it a great daycation safari destination for tourists who don’t have much time in the country, but still desire to explore the savannah wild.

This park is the only one with Impalas from which the capital city’s name ‘Kampala’ was derived. It is also home to thousands of Burchell’s Zebras, crocodiles, and hippos that can be found along the five lakes in L. Mburo Park.

Other animals that you can find here include Leopards, buffalos, side-striped jackals, warthogs, bushpigs, and smaller predators like the white-tailed mongoose.

The L. Mburo landscape is peppered with narrow lines of woodland along the lakes, forested gorges, and rocky ridges in the western part.

The woodland keeps growing in the park because it lacks elephants, which are good at taming the vegetation.

And it has a mild climate with it raining throughout the year. Temperatures average 27°C/81°F during the day and 14°C/57°F at night.

Activities to Do

Day Game Drives

Game drives along a wide range of trails in this small gem will avail sightings of zebras, giraffes, buffalo, impalas, hyenas, reedbucks, oribis, klipspringers, and a variety of antelopes, among others in the savannah and along Lake Mburo. As you drive through the park, you will also get to enjoy its diverse landscape and lake views.

Night Game Drives

These enable you to see the nocturnal and elusive animals that are easier to encounter under the cover of darkness. Expect to see leopards, bushbabies, spotted hyenas, genets, porcupines, and other hard-to-see mammals with the help of a spotlight that your ranger guide will have on them.

Boat Cruises

Boat rides on Lake Mburo allow you to sit back and relax while you delight in views of lots of crocodiles, hippos, and a variety of birds, such as the endemic African finfoot, kingfishers, and the African fish eagle. The cruises depart every two hours daily and take up to 2 hours, ensuring you max out the trip.

Birding

Lake Mburo boasts over 350 birds and is arguably the best place for viewing the acacia-associated birds, forest and wetland birds, which include the Abyssinian ground hornbill, Papyrus gonolek, Red-faced Barbet, Saddle-billed stork, Verreaux’s eagle, and the White-winged Warbler. You can enjoy bird safaris in the comfort of your car, during the boat cruise, and on foot.

Nature Walks

Nature walks in Lake Mburo can be taken along the popular Eland trail where you can see herds of eland, giraffes, and other game.

You can also walk through the Rubanga forest and along the lake shores. A range guide will take you on a foot safari to view the animals without them catching wind of you being around so that they might run away.

Community Visits

Lake Mburo national park is surrounded by Ankole people settlements so, a trip to one of their farms can offer you a rich experience of their culture and way of living.

You can tour a farm, listen to entertaining stories about the Banyankole people and even partake in milking the legendary long-horned Ankole cows.

Sport Fishing

The sport can be carried out on any of the five lakes in the park, but the best place is at Mazinga shore on Lake Mburo. Here you can enjoy the thrill of hooking huge Tilapia, the most popular and common fish as well as catch several other species.

Horse Riding

Horseback safaris offer a unique and exciting way to get close to the different wildlife in the park. For your safety, two guides accompany you while you ride through the wilderness on well-trained horses.

Cycling Safaris

Cycling trips can last as long as you want, and you can ride to different parts of the park depending on your capabilities.

Riding in the flat valleys is more desirable because it is less strenuous and you can find plenty of wildlife there. A range guide always leads the safari to ensure you stay safe throughout the expedition.

Queen Elizabeth National Park, the second largest park in Uganda is the most popular tourist destination in the country.

As it has the widest variety of wildlife inhabiting a diverse ecosystem with open savannah grasslands, tropical forests, lakes, and wetlands.

It’s famous for having tree-climbing lions and is the best site for tracking lions in the country, as they are easier to spot here.

Lots of elephants and buffalo can be found in the savannah, and many hippos and birds along the Kazinga channel whereas different primates, such as chimpanzees inhabit its forests.

Queen Elizabeth lies in Western Uganda with the stunning snow-capped Rwenzori Mountains in the background and several craters carved into its rolling hills.

With it spanning the equator line, the area tends to have a warm temperature yearlong and has two wet seasons from March-May and August-December, characterized by heavy rainfall.

Activities to Do

Game Drives

Game drives in Queen take place in the Ishasha sector where you can see the incredible tree-climbing lions, and in the Kasenyi plains where you can view a range of wildlife, such as elephants, the Uganda kobs, warthogs, and buffalos.

Chimp Tracking

Chimpanzee tracking in Queen occurs in the Kyambura gorge where you can go on an exciting trek through a thick forest, crossing rivers and streams into the valley in search of the chimpanzees in this “Valley of Apes.”

Though there is a 50-50 chance of you seeing chimps in the gorge, the beauty of the gorge makes up for you tracking the chimpanzees in vain.

Besides, you can combine visiting the gorge with tracking chimps in the nearby Kalinzu forest to ensure you see these primates while on a safari to Queen Elizabeth national park.

Tracking chimps in this forest is nearly similar to doing so in the Kibale forest as it is easier to find them. Plus, people ages 12 and above can get a chance to track chimps in this forest, an age requirement that’s different from other places that require tourists to be 15 years and above.

Boat Cruises along the Kazinga Channel

You get to sail on this scenic water body between L. Edward and L. George while viewing hippos, buffalos, elephants, waterbucks, and a variety of birds like the saddle-billed stork and pink-backed pelicans that inhabit the channel.

Birding

With over 600 birds, Queen Elizabeth is a prime destination for birders in Uganda. Though birding can be done throughout the entire park, particular areas are best suited for it, like the riparian forest in Ishasha where you can see many unusual bird species, and the Mweya where you can spot a myriad of water birds along the Kazinga Channel.

Common birds include the Shoebill stork, black bee-eater, African skimmer, Blue-breasted Bee-eater, Red-necked Falcon, African Pygmy-goose, White-headed Barbet, Kingfishers, and flamingoes.

Nature Walks

Guided nature walks can be taken in the Maramagambo forest on different trails, such as the waterfall trail and river trail where you can see L’hoest’s monkeys, Vervet monkeys, red-tailed monkeys, and a variety of birds along the way.

You can also walk through the Mweya peninsula and the Ishasha sector along its river to get close to the various animals and bird species.

Hot Air Balloon Safari

Get to enjoy the scenic aerial views of the park and its animals on a thrilling one-hour ride. You can also marvel at the crater lakes, the Rwenzori Mountains, and the stunning western rift valley from the sky.

Community Visits

These tours can involve visiting the Bakonzo, Banyabindi, and Basongora tribes to enjoy their traditional dances, music, and storytelling.

You can also attend the Kikorongo African arts and crafts workshops and learn how to weave baskets from natural fibers or go on a tour of the Katwe Salt Lake to see how locals mine salt.