In Uganda you report to a park entry point for a briefing, track from 8:00am with UWA guides, walk anywhere from two to seven hours, then get a strict maximum of one hour with the gorillas in a group of no more than eight. Here is the whole day, in order.
A gorilla trek is a long walk with a short, extraordinary payoff. In Uganda you report to a park entry point for a briefing, then track from 8:00am with Uganda Wildlife Authority guides. The walk takes anywhere from two to seven hours. You get a maximum of one hour with the family, in a group of no more than eight, then you walk back out.
That is the shape of the day. What follows is the detail — the parts the wildlife authorities set down in writing, and the parts that depend entirely on where the gorillas happened to sleep the night before.
The Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) sets the official start for gorilla tracking at 8:00am, and defines tracking time as running from immediately after the briefing until you return for debriefing. The gorilla habituation experience starts earlier, at 6:30am. Chimpanzee tracking runs from 8:00am or, for the afternoon slot, 2:00pm.
You do not simply go to Bwindi. You go to a specific designated entry point. UWA lists four for Bwindi — Buhoma, Ruhija, Nkuringo and Rushaga — and Ntebeko / Muhavura for Mgahinga Gorilla National Park, noting that other entry points may be established as the gorillas move.
UWA's 2024 guidelines state that permits are booked by date and by designated entry point, and that visitors are allocated to a specific gorilla family on the day of tracking. No permit fixes a named family in advance. Where a family is named at the time of booking, that is operator expectation rather than a UWA allocation — UWA allocates on the morning of the trek. What your permit does fix is the sector, and Bwindi's sectors are separated by long, slow drives around the forest edge. If your lodge sits at the wrong trailhead, that is a pre-dawn transfer you did not need.
Rangers brief the day's trekkers on conduct and terrain, groups are formed, and each group is assigned its family. The cap is eight visitors per gorilla group per day, in both Uganda and Rwanda.
Bring the passport you were booked under. UWA requires that permits carry visitors' bio data before the tracking date, and permits are validated against UWA records at the entry point. UWA also states that anyone tracking at undesignated entry points, without UWA guides, or without an authentic permit and proof of payment will be arrested and prosecuted. Every group walks with UWA guides and trackers.
UWA puts Bwindi treks at between two and seven hours and describes moderate fitness as required, adding that tracking can last from a few hours to a whole day depending on how far the group has moved.
Two things make it harder than the distance suggests. The first is altitude — Ruhija sits at around 2,400 metres. The second is ground conditions. Long-run rainfall monitoring at Ruhija by the Institute of Tropical Forest Conservation found two wet peaks, March to May and September to November, with June, July and August the driest months in every year of a 13-year record. Even in those driest months, this is rainforest: mud, steep ground and no trail in the usual sense. Our notes on when to go and what to pack go into both.
| Stage | What happens |
|---|---|
| Early morning | Transfer from your lodge to the designated entry point named on your permit. Permits are checked against UWA records here. |
| Before the walk | Ranger briefing. You are allocated a gorilla family and put into a group of no more than eight. |
| From 8:00am | Tracking begins immediately after the briefing, on foot, with UWA guides and trackers. |
| Two to seven hours | The walk. Duration depends entirely on where the family moved to overnight. |
| One hour, maximum | Time with the gorillas. UWA counts it from the moment you reach them. |
| The walk out | The walk back to the trailhead, with the same guides and the same group. |
| End of the day | Return to the entry point for debriefing. Tracking time officially ends here. |
Short. UWA's guidelines are precise on this point: viewing time is a maximum of one hour and commences from the moment visitors reach the gorillas. Not from when you have caught your breath, put your pack down and found the right lens. Have the camera out and the pack off before the last few metres — those minutes are expensive.
You are also required to keep a minimum of 10 metres from the gorillas at all times in Uganda. Gorillas do not observe the rule, and a young one may close the gap; the obligation to move is yours. Guides manage that distance throughout the hour.
Hire a porter. Rwanda's official tourism site describes porters as available to carry backpacks and cameras as well as to offer a helping hand along the route. Porters work the same way at Uganda's trailheads, though that is trailhead practice rather than a published UWA arrangement. Neither UWA's conservation tariff nor RDB's fee schedule publishes a porter rate — porters are community-run and priced locally, so we confirm the current figure with you rather than quote one that may be out of date. Take one regardless of how fit you are. It is the most direct route by which your money reaches households living on the forest edge.
For visitors with limited mobility, Rwanda publishes a clear position: at Volcanoes National Park, staff will provide a strong arm to lean on, or a stretcher for those confined to a wheelchair, arranged by contacting the park directly. No price is published. Uganda's equivalent carried-chair arrangement is not an official UWA product and appears in no UWA tariff or guideline, so quoted prices for it come from operators rather than the authority. If mobility is a factor, tell us early — it changes which sector and which lodge make sense.
UWA has written procedures for both, and they are worth knowing before you pay.
If you develop or show signs of illness before tracking, you will not be allowed to visit the gorillas or chimpanzees. You are referred to the nearest health facility for assessment, the illness is confirmed by medical report, and the cost of diagnosis and treatment is yours. Where a visitor already in the park is declared unfit, the guidelines provide for a refund of 50% of the permit value less incidental costs, authorised by the Executive Director.
If you track a whole day and fail to see the gorillas or chimpanzees, the Executive Director may authorise rescheduling to the following day. Where no slots exist, or your itinerary does not allow it, the guidelines provide for cancellation with a 60% refund on certification by the Chief Warden or Warden in Charge, less incidental costs.
One booking caveat sits on top of that. The standard Uganda gorilla permit is USD 800 for a foreign non-resident, and UWA's low-season permit is USD 600 for foreign non-residents in April, May and November, introduced by the Executive Director's circular of 26 February 2026. UWA states that low-season permits cannot be rescheduled. Gorilla tracking stays at USD 800 in the revised tariff structure taking effect on 1 January 2027. Both figures are correct at the time of writing; UWA's published tariff states that fees are subject to change without prior notice, and we confirm the live figure on every quote. Our full note on permit costs and booking has the rest.
| Item | Gorilla tracking | Gorilla habituation experience |
|---|---|---|
| Official start | 8:00am | 6:30am |
| Time with the gorillas | Maximum 1 hour | Maximum 4 hours |
| Permit, foreign non-resident | USD 800, unchanged on 1 January 2027. USD 600 in April, May and November, and UWA states those low-season permits cannot be rescheduled. | USD 1,500, rising to USD 1,800 on 1 January 2027 |
The permit figures come from UWA's conservation tariff and its circular of 26 February 2026. UWA states that its fees are subject to change without prior notice, so treat them as correct at the time of writing and confirm them at the point of booking. On age, UWA sets a minimum of 15 for gorilla tracking and publishes no separate figure for the habituation experience. The habituation experience is a genuinely different day: an earlier start, up to four hours of viewing, and a family that is still being habituated to human presence.
Structurally similar, and slightly earlier. RDB's booking guidelines set the reporting time at Volcanoes National Park at 07h00, with park offices operating 07h00 to 17h00. Eight permits are issued per gorilla family per day, with 96 permits available daily across the park, and contact time is capped at one hour, as in Uganda. Visit Rwanda states a permit price of USD 1,500 per person per day, and RDB's own guidelines list that figure for all visitor categories.
One note on rules: UWA publishes a 10-metre minimum distance for Uganda. RDB's published guidelines do not state an equivalent figure, despite the number that circulates on operator sites, so in Rwanda follow the distance your guide sets at the briefing. If you are weighing the two countries, our comparison of Uganda and Rwanda for gorilla trekking covers the trade-offs, and Volcanoes National Park has the detail on the Rwandan side.
The Uganda gorilla permit rate includes the guide fee, park entrance for the day and a community development contribution. It also carries a day's free entrance to Mount Elgon National Park and Toro-Semliki Wildlife Reserve, usable within one month before or after tracking — a small but real benefit if your route passes either.
Plan nothing else on trek day. A seven-hour trek plus the drive back rules out an afternoon activity, and building one in only creates pressure to cut the walk short. If your itinerary has room, consider two treks on consecutive days in different sectors: the second is a different proposition once you know what the first hour asks of you.
Because foreign non-residents cannot buy gorilla or chimpanzee permits directly — UWA sells them only through operators licensed by the Uganda Tourism Board — sector availability has to be checked before the itinerary is built, not after. Tell us your dates on our plan your safari page, or look at how a trek sits inside a wider route in gorilla trekking and the Bwindi gorilla short break.
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.
