14-Day Pearl of Africa Grand Tour

Welcome to Uganda. Your driver-guide meets you at Entebbe International Airport and takes you to your hotel, a short drive away. Rest after your flight. If you land early, take a late-afternoon walk with your guide to Nakiwogo landing, where fishing boats come in from Lake Victoria and traders sell the day's catch; it is your first chance to hear Luganda spoken and practise a greeting or two. In the evening your guide goes through the plan for the next two weeks with you over dinner.

Overnight: hotel in Entebbe. Meals: dinner if you arrive in time (bed and breakfast otherwise).

After breakfast you drive about 1.5 to 2 hours to Ewaffe Cultural Village in Naggalama, Mukono. Ewaffe was named Best Cultural Tourism Experience of the Year at Uganda's World Tourism Day 2024 celebrations, and here you join in rather than watch. Walk through gardens of matooke and coffee, learn which plants heal what, try carrying water in a clay pot, then help cook a luwombo lunch, steamed slowly in banana leaves, and eat it with your hosts. In the afternoon, drive north to Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary, about 3 to 4 hours.

Overnight: lodge at or near Ziwa. Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner.

At dawn, local paddlers take you by community canoe into the Lugogo swamp to look for the shoebill; the income goes to families living beside the sanctuary. After breakfast, walk with a ranger to watch southern white rhinos at a safe distance, about 1.5 to 2.5 hours. Then drive to Masindi and on into Murchison Falls National Park. In the late afternoon, hike the short path to the top of the falls, where the whole Nile pushes through a gap about 8 metres wide. Feel the spray and the noise.

Overnight: lodge near Masindi or the Kichumbanyobo gate. Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner.

Leave early for the ferry or bridge at Paraa and a game drive on the northern bank, where Rothschild's giraffes, elephants, buffalo herds and Uganda kob graze, and lions are seen on some days. After lunch, take the launch trip of about three hours up the Nile to the bottom of the falls, past hippos, crocodiles and drinking elephants. In the evening, join the Boomu Women's Group near the Kichumbanyobo gate. The women, who formed their group in 1999, cook dinner with you; the income helps run a nursery school.

Overnight: lodge near Masindi or the Kichumbanyobo gate. Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner.

After breakfast, a morning walk through the Boomu village with the women, who show their basket weaving. Then drive south-west through Hoima, the heart of the Bunyoro Kingdom, to Fort Portal, about 6 to 7 hours with stops. Near Hoima, stop at the Mparo royal tombs, where Omukama Kabalega, the Bunyoro king who resisted British rule, is buried, and hear his story from a local guide. You reach Fort Portal, the capital of the Tooro Kingdom, in the late afternoon.

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

After an early breakfast, 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, then spend up to one hour beside them as they feed, call and climb. The walk takes 2 to 5 hours in total. After lunch, drive about 6 km to Bigodi, where guides from the village group KAFRED lead you on boardwalks through the papyrus and then through the village. Tourism income here helped build Bigodi Secondary School.

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

A slower day. In the morning, walk the crater rims with a local guide to viewpoints such as the Top of the World, where several green and blue lakes shine below you at once, and stroll through tea estates. After lunch, visit the Tooro royal palace, Karuziika, on its hill above town, and hear about the Omukama, the king of Tooro, and the Amabere ga Nyina Mwiru caves and their old legend. The late afternoon is free, perhaps for a swim in a lake your guide recommends.

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

Drive south to the Rwenzori foothills near Nyakalengija, about 2 hours. Bakonzo guides from Ruboni Community Camp lead you on a foothills walk through farms and forest towards rivers and viewpoints, with the snow peaks above you on a clear day. Their families have lived on these slopes for generations, and they share how the mountain shapes their lives and beliefs. After a local lunch at the camp, continue to Queen Elizabeth National Park, about 1 to 2 hours, and settle in for sunset.

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

Leave at sunrise for a game drive on the open northern plains, the best time for Uganda kob, buffaloes, elephants and, with luck, lions. 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. After lunch, take a boat trip of about two hours on the Kazinga Channel. Hippos crowd the water, elephants come down to drink, and more than 600 kinds of birds have been recorded in this park.

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

After breakfast, drive south through the park to the Ishasha sector, where lions sometimes rest high in fig trees; they are seen on some days and missed on others. Continue to Buhoma on the northern edge of Bwindi, about 5 to 6 hours in total with the game drive. In the late afternoon, visit Ride 4 a Woman, a group started by local women in Buhoma in 2009, which runs sewing and craft workshops. You can watch the makers at work and buy directly from them.

Overnight: lodge near Bwindi (Buhoma). Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner.

After an early breakfast, go to the UWA park office for the briefing, then set off with rangers and trackers. The walk to your gorilla family can take 1 hour or more than 6, on steep, muddy slopes. When you find them, you stay one hour, at least 10 metres away. Today's local encounter starts at the trailhead: porters from the villages around the park can carry your bag and help you on steep parts, and many guests say their porter became a friend by the end of the day. Rest in the afternoon.

Overnight: lodge near Bwindi (Buhoma). Meals: breakfast, packed lunch, dinner.

In the morning, join the Batwa Forest Experience near Buhoma. Batwa guides, the first people of this forest, show how their families found food, medicine and shelter before they had to leave when the park was created. Their walk is gentle and their stories stay with you. After lunch, drive south through the terraced hills of Kigezi to Lake Bunyonyi, about 4 to 5 hours, arriving for a quiet evening by the water.

Overnight: lodge at Lake Bunyonyi. Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner.

Take a morning boat trip between the islands, where your guide tells the story of Akampene, once called Punishment Island, with care, as history. Then paddle a dugout canoe and visit a local craft group, including Batwa-run groups, who make and sell baskets; what you pay goes straight to the makers. After lunch, drive to Lake Mburo National Park, about 3 to 4 hours. In the late afternoon, take a short game drive among zebras, impala and eland as the light softens.

Overnight: lodge in or near Lake Mburo. Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner.

Early in the morning, visit the Rurambira Community Conservancy (RCC), just east of the park, where local landowners keep long-horned Ankole cattle on land they share with wildlife. Community guides show you how they live alongside both. After breakfast, drive back east, about 5 to 6 hours with stops. Stop at the Equator, and at Mpambire, where families have made traditional drums for generations, for a last people encounter. We drop you at your Entebbe hotel or at the airport for your evening flight. Please share your flight time with us before booking.

Meals: breakfast, lunch.