June to August is the best time to visit Uganda, with December to February close behind. Those are the country's two dry windows. Gorilla and chimpanzee trekking run year-round, so the month you pick changes mud, cold and cost more than what you see.
June to August is the best time to visit Uganda, and December to February runs it close. Those are the two dry troughs in a country that otherwise rains twice a year. Gorilla and chimpanzee trekking run year-round and permit numbers per group are fixed, so your month mostly changes how muddy, cold and expensive the trip is — not whether you find the animals.
The Uganda National Meteorological Authority (UNMA) describes two major rainfall seasons nationally: March-April-May (MAM) and September-October-November-December (SOND). It also states that the period from December to February is typically dry across Uganda, with February the hottest month of the year.
That leaves two usable gaps: the long one from June through August, and the shorter one from December into February. December straddles UNMA's own two statements — the month sits inside the SOND rainfall season and inside the December-to-February dry period at the same time — so treat it as the least settled month of that second window. Both patterns are tendencies rather than guarantees, and UNMA revises its outlooks on its own seasonal schedule.
One national caveat matters enormously for itinerary building: UNMA notes that northern and parts of eastern Uganda usually receive substantial rainfall during June-July-August. So the mid-year dry window that the southwestern forests enjoy is weaker in the north.
The best long-term record for gorilla country comes from the Institute of Tropical Forest Conservation's monitoring station at Ruhija, at 2,400 m inside Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. Across a 13-year instrumental record, rainfall peaked in March-May and September-November, with dry troughs in December-January and June-July.
The single most stable feature of that record is this: June, July and August were the driest months in every year measured. If you want the best odds of firm ground underfoot in Bwindi, that is the window.
Two honest qualifications. First, the bimodal pattern is a tendency rather than a rule — in 1992 and 1999 the March peak was so weak the distribution was nearly unimodal, and July 1988 delivered heavy rain despite being a dry-season month. Second, annual totals at Ruhija were relatively stable across 1987-1998, with 1999 the one marked outlier at under 600 mm during a nationwide La Niña drought; the wettest year, 1988, recorded about 1,719 mm. So the year-to-year spread is real but concentrated in a single outlier year, and a wet week inside a dry month is entirely normal.
If gorilla trekking is the whole point of the trip, the trek-specific detail sits in the best time to visit Uganda for gorilla trekking; this page is the wider national calendar.
The same Ruhija record gives a mean daily maximum of 19°C and a mean daily minimum of 14°C, with an annual mean of 16.3°C and recorded extremes of 11°C to 24°C. June and July, inside that driest stretch, are also the coldest months of the year at Ruhija. September and March are the warmest. Pack warm layers and rain gear whatever the month says; our gorilla trek packing list goes into the detail.
Not in any way an authority has published. Uganda Wildlife Authority caps a gorilla group at eight visitors per day and allows a maximum of one hour with the animals, regardless of month. For chimpanzees, UWA states an over-90% sighting success rate at Kibale National Park with no seasonal qualifier attached at all.
Kibale's own long-term field record shows rainy seasons in March-May and September-November and dry seasons in December-February and June-August, on roughly 1,646 mm a year. Dry-season months are commonly recommended by operators, including us, for trail conditions and comfort — but that is a preference about walking in mud, not a claim about seeing fewer chimps. We would rather say that plainly than sell you a month on a promise nobody can evidence.
What genuinely changes with the season is the walking. Wet-season treks in Bwindi or Mgahinga mean slick slopes, heavier undergrowth and longer days on your feet. That is a fitness and comfort question, and for some travellers it is decisive.
This is the real trade-off, and it is new. By circular of 26 February 2026, UWA introduced discounted low-season permits applying in April, May and November only:
Those three months sit inside the rains — April and May within the MAM season, November within SOND. So you are buying a USD 200 saving per person on a gorilla permit in exchange for wetter trails and a permit you cannot move. For a fit traveller on a flexible schedule, that can be a good deal. For a once-in-a-lifetime trip with a fixed return flight, it usually is not.
These are UWA's published rates, and UWA states that fees are subject to change without prior notice, so we confirm every figure at the time of booking. One change is already scheduled. A revised tariff structure takes effect on 1 January 2027, under which gorilla habituation rises from USD 1,500 to USD 1,800, chimpanzee tracking at Kibale from USD 250 to USD 300, chimpanzee habituation at Kibale from USD 300 to USD 400, and chimpanzee tracking at Kyambura Gorge from USD 100 to USD 200. Standard gorilla tracking is unchanged at USD 800, with the low-season rate of USD 600 in April, May and November. If you are planning across that date, when you book matters as much as which month you travel.
| Month | Pattern in the southwestern forests | Gorilla permit (foreign non-resident) |
|---|---|---|
| January | Inside Ruhija's December-January dry trough; dry across Uganda | USD 800 |
| February | Dry nationally, and UNMA's hottest month of the year | USD 800 |
| March | First month of the MAM long rains; among Ruhija's warmest | USD 800 |
| April | Inside the MAM long rains | USD 600, non-reschedulable |
| May | Last month of the MAM long rains | USD 600, non-reschedulable |
| June | Dry trough begins; among the three driest months, and among the coldest | USD 800 |
| July | Driest and coldest stretch of the year at Ruhija | USD 800 |
| August | Still among the three reliably driest months | USD 800 |
| September | SOND rains begin; among Ruhija's warmest months | USD 800 |
| October | Wet, inside the SOND season | USD 800 |
| November | Wet; the last of the three discounted months | USD 600, non-reschedulable |
| December | Counted by UNMA in both the SOND rains and the December-February dry period | USD 800 |
The USD 600 months carry UWA's no-reschedule condition, and the standard USD 800 rate is unchanged by the tariff revision of 1 January 2027.
Northern Uganda does not simply copy the southwest. UNMA's two-season regime still holds there, but with substantial rainfall through June-July-August, so the north loses much of the mid-year dry window rather than running on a different calendar entirely.
Because December to February is dry across the whole country, that is the window that works nationally — and it is the one to reach for if you want Murchison Falls or Kidepo Valley in the same trip as the gorillas without fighting the weather in two places at once. February is also, per UNMA, the hottest month, which is worth knowing before you commit to long game drives in Kidepo.
Park entrance fees are set by UWA and are independent of your permit: USD 45 per adult for 24 hours at Murchison Falls, and USD 40 per adult for 24 hours at Queen Elizabeth, Bwindi, Kibale, Kidepo Valley, Lake Mburo and Mgahinga. A launch trip at Murchison, Queen Elizabeth or Lake Mburo is USD 30 per person. The same caveat applies to these figures: UWA states fees may change without prior notice, so we confirm every one at the time of booking. Because entrance tickets run 24 hours from time of entry, arrival timing genuinely affects what you pay on a multi-park route like the Uganda Grand Circuit.
Further than you used to need to. UWA suspended its seven-day reservation window with effect from 1 March 2026. There is now no free hold period: a permit is secured only on full payment at the time of booking, and UWA accepts no deposits and no partial bank settlement. Foreign non-residents cannot buy gorilla or chimpanzee permits directly at all — UWA requires them to be booked through a licensed tour operator.
Put those rules together: eight places per gorilla group per day is a hard ceiling, and there is no longer any way to hold one while you think, so a permit belongs to whoever pays for it first. Treat permit availability as the thing that decides your itinerary, not the other way round. We cover the mechanics in Uganda gorilla permits: cost and booking.
Two entry requirements also shape lead time. The Uganda Tourism Board, reflecting immigration requirements, states that a yellow fever vaccination certificate is required for entry and must be presented as part of the visa application itself — Uganda is the strictest in the region on this, and the requirement is not limited to arrivals from endemic countries. A yellow fever certificate only takes effect ten days after the dose, though under a WHO amendment a valid certificate is good for the life of the person vaccinated. Speak to a travel clinic or your national health service about timing and suitability; we are not qualified to advise on it. Separately, a Uganda visa approval is valid for 90 days from the date of approval, after which it is cancelled automatically and you reapply.
There is no month in Uganda that is simply wrong. There are months that ask more of your legs and months that ask more of your wallet. Tell us your dates, your fitness and how much of the country you want to see, and we will tell you honestly which of those trade-offs you are actually making — start planning here, or send us your dates.
Safari planning team
The planning team answers permit, timing and logistics questions every day, and writes up the answers that come back most often. Everything published here is checked against current park authority rates and the routes our own vehicles drive.
