6-Day Chimps, Hot Springs and Savannah Safari

Your driver-guide picks you up in the morning from your hotel in Entebbe or Kampala, or from the airport. You drive west through farmland and small market towns, with a lunch stop on the way. The journey takes about 5 to 6 hours from Kampala, and about 1 hour more from Entebbe. In the afternoon you reach Fort Portal, the green capital of the Tooro Kingdom, set among tea estates below the Rwenzori Mountains. If there is light left, take a short walk on a crater rim near your lodge, where the lakes shine below you. Dinner and a quiet evening.

Overnight: lodge near Fort Portal or Kibale. Meals: lunch, dinner.

After an early breakfast you drive to the Kanyanchu visitor centre for the 8:00 briefing. In a small group with a UWA ranger you walk into the forest to find a chimpanzee community. The walk takes 2 to 5 hours in total, with up to one hour beside the chimps. You may also see red colobus, black-and-white colobus and grey-cheeked mangabeys. After lunch, drive about 6 km to Bigodi. Guides from the village group KAFRED lead you on a 2 to 3 hour walk on boardwalks through the papyrus, then through the village, where tourism income helped build the secondary school.

Overnight: lodge near Fort Portal or Kibale. Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner.

After breakfast you drive about 1.5 to 2 hours over the Rwenzori foothills, a beautiful road with views down into the rift valley. In Semuliki National Park, local guides walk you to the Sempaya hot springs, where boiling water and steam burst from the ground, and tell the stories of the "male" and "female" springs. The forest here is home to hornbills and many birds found nowhere else in East Africa. After a picnic lunch, meet a local community group who share traditional dance and crafts, then return to Fort Portal in the late afternoon.

Overnight: lodge near Fort Portal or Kibale. Meals: breakfast, packed lunch, dinner.

Leave Fort Portal after breakfast and drive south towards Queen Elizabeth National Park, about 2 to 3 hours. On the way, stop at Leopard Village near Muhokya, a community-run cultural site where Banyabindi, Bakonzo and Basongora families show their traditional houses and share dances and stories. After lunch, take a boat trip of about two hours on the Kazinga Channel. Hippos, buffaloes and crocodiles crowd the banks, elephants often come down to drink, and pelicans and fish eagles are all around. Watch the sun set over the savannah from your lodge.

Overnight: lodge in or near Queen Elizabeth. Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner.

Start early with a game drive on the open plains of the northern sector, the best time for Uganda kob, buffaloes, elephants and, with luck, lions. Return for a late breakfast and a rest. Later in the morning, visit Lake Katwe, a crater lake where salt has been harvested by hand for generations, on a tour run with the Katwe community. You see how the salt pans work and hear how families make their living from them. The afternoon is free to rest at the lodge, or to take an optional walk or extra drive with your guide.

Overnight: lodge in or near Queen Elizabeth. Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner.

After breakfast you start the drive back east, about 6 to 8 hours to Kampala with a lunch stop, and about 1 hour more to Entebbe. On the way you cross the equator and pass through the farmland and banana gardens of western and central Uganda. We drop you at your hotel in Kampala or Entebbe, or at Entebbe airport for an evening or late-night flight. Please share your flight time with us before booking, so we can plan the right departure time.

Meals: breakfast, lunch.