10 daysUganda
10-Day Uganda Grand Circuit
Rhino on foot at Ziwa, the Nile at Murchison, chimps at Kibale, the Kazinga Channel and gorillas in Bwindi
From$7,200 per person
3 days, Uganda
3-Day Bwindi Gorilla Short Break
Fly in to Kihihi, trek one family in Buhoma, fly out. The shortest honest gorilla trip.
- Duration
- 3 days, 2 nights
- Group size
- 2 to 6 guests
- Physical demand
- Challenging
- From
- $2,950
Steep forest hikes of up to eight hours at altitude, in humidity and often in mud.
Per person sharing
About this safari
This is the shortest itinerary that still gives you a proper day with gorillas rather than a rushed one. Two light aircraft legs remove the two full driving days that a road trip to Bwindi costs, which means the middle day belongs entirely to the trek and there is a spare morning at the end if weather closes the airstrip. It is the trip we sell to people with a week of leave, to people adding Uganda onto a Kenya safari, and to people who have already decided that the gorillas are the only reason they are coming.
Be clear about what the trek involves before you book it. You leave the sector headquarters at 08:00 and the walk to reach the family takes anything from forty minutes to eight hours in each direction. Most of it happens between 1,500 and 2,300 metres, the air is humid, the ground is wet even in the dry months, and the difficulty is the gradient rather than the distance. Trackers cut a path through vine and nettle with a machete and you follow it. The minimum age is 15 and there is no upper age limit, but you should be able to walk uphill for several hours on uneven ground.
The price includes the Uganda gorilla trekking permit at 800 US dollars per person. That figure is set by the Uganda Wildlife Authority, not by us, and the rate applying on the day the permit is issued is the rate that applies. Permits are held against one date and one gorilla family, so in the high months of June to September and December to February the sensible order is to secure the permit first and build the flights and the lodge around the date it comes back with.
Highlights
- One hour with a habituated mountain gorilla family in the Buhoma sector, in a group capped at eight visitors
- Light aircraft both ways between Entebbe and Kihihi, which removes two full days of driving
- A Uganda Wildlife Authority permit held in your name before you are asked for the balance
- A porter booked for every guest in advance rather than offered as an upsell at the trailhead
- The Munyaga river forest trail on the last morning when the flight rotation allows it
- One private vehicle and one driver guide for your party only, from the airstrip and back to it
Day by day
- 01
Fly to Kihihi and drop into Buhoma
The scheduled aircraft leaves Entebbe mid morning and takes about ninety minutes over Lake Victoria and the western arm of the rift. Kihihi is a murram strip with a shed at one end, and your guide meets the aircraft on the apron. From there it is a 45 minute drive down into Buhoma, through tea and banana country, with the forest wall rising in front of you the whole way. The afternoon is for the sector briefing, a gear check and an early night.
- Entebbe to Kihihi and Buhoma, Uganda
- Bwindi Lodge
- Lunch, Dinner
- 02
Gorilla trek in the Buhoma sector
Report to the sector headquarters at 07:30 for the briefing and the allocation of families, then leave at 08:00 with a ranger, two trackers and an armed escort. The trackers have been out since first light and radio the family position back, so the walk is directed rather than exploratory, but it can still take forty minutes or it can take eight hours. You get one hour with the family from the moment the ranger says you have started it. The afternoon is a hot shower, a foot soak and doing nothing at all.
- Buhoma sector, Bwindi Impenetrable Forest
- Bwindi Lodge
- Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
- 03
Forest trail, then the flight back to Entebbe
If the aircraft is on the afternoon rotation there is time for the Munyaga river trail or the community walk down to the Bwindi Bar, both around two hours and both usually skipped by people in a hurry. Otherwise it is a slow breakfast and the drive back up to Kihihi. You are on the ground at Entebbe by mid afternoon, which connects with most of the evening departures to Europe and the Gulf.
- Buhoma to Kihihi and Entebbe, Uganda
- Departure day, no accommodation
- Breakfast
What is included
- One Uganda gorilla trekking permit per person, currently 800 US dollars, a rate set by the Uganda Wildlife Authority
- Return scheduled light aircraft flights, Entebbe to Kihihi airstrip and back
- Two nights at Bwindi Lodge on full board, or a comparable property in the Buhoma sector
- All road transfers in a private 4x4 with a driver guide who works this sector regularly
- One porter per guest on trek day, with the porter fee already paid
- Park entry, ranger guides, trackers and the armed escort on the day of the trek
- A packed lunch, bottled water in the vehicle and a walking stick on trek day
- A loan set of gaiters and gardening gloves, returned at the end of the trip
- All Uganda Wildlife Authority conservation levies and government taxes
- Telephone support from the Mnyansio office in Kampala for the whole trip
What is not included
- International flights to and from Entebbe
- Uganda visa or East Africa Tourist Visa, which you apply for online before you travel
- Travel insurance, which must cover trekking at altitude and medical evacuation by air
- All drinks other than the bottled water in the vehicle, including beer, wine and spirits
- Tips for your driver guide, the rangers, the trackers, the porters and the lodge team
- Laundry, telephone calls and anything else charged to your lodge account
- A second gorilla permit if you decide to trek twice, at the same 800 US dollars
On this safari
Where this safari goes
Questions about this safari
Is a short gorilla break long enough to be worth the flights?
For people with limited leave, yes, and we run it regularly. What you must accept is that a short trip has no slack in it: one permit, one date, and no second chance if the weather closes an airstrip. If you can add two nights, add them at the Bwindi end rather than in Entebbe, and consider a second permit rather than a better room.
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