6-Day Uganda (Entebbe Start): Primates, Savannas & Cultural Trails

Your driver-guide welcomes you at Entebbe International Airport and drives you about 40 km north to Kampala, Uganda's lively capital spread over green hills near Lake Victoria. After time to freshen up, you set out on a guided introduction to the city's culture and history.

Depending on your arrival time, visits can include the Kasubi Tombs, burial place of the kings of Buganda, the Kabaka's Palace and the Bulange parliament at Mengo, and the Gaddafi National Mosque, whose minaret gives sweeping views over the city. In the evening you head to the Ndere Cultural Centre for a performance of traditional music, dance and storytelling from ethnic groups across Uganda.

Return to your hotel in Kampala for dinner and the night.

After breakfast you leave the capital and head west, a drive of about 5–6 hours through Mubende and on to Fort Portal, seat of the Tooro Kingdom, surrounded by emerald tea estates with the Rwenzori Mountains rising behind.

In the afternoon you explore the crater lakes around Fort Portal, deep volcanic bowls filled with blue-green water and fringed with forest and banana gardens. A short walk to a viewpoint gives wonderful views across several lakes at once. You then continue to your lodge on the edge of Kibale Forest.

Today is all about primates. After an early briefing at Kanyanchu you walk into the forest with a ranger-guide to find one of Kibale's habituated chimpanzee communities. The park holds about 1,500 chimpanzees, and once you find them you have an hour to watch them at close quarters, high in the fig trees or knuckle-walking along the forest floor.

In the afternoon you join a guided walk through Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary, run by the local community, whose income supports schools and village projects. The boardwalks and trails are excellent for red colobus, black-and-white colobus and birds such as the great blue turaco, and your local guide shares stories of village life and Tooro traditions along the way.

After breakfast you drive south past crater lakes and down the escarpment onto the floor of the Albertine Rift, reaching Queen Elizabeth National Park in about 2–3 hours. On the way in you may see elephants and herds of Uganda kob.

After lunch you board a boat for a two-hour cruise along the Kazinga Channel, which links Lake Edward and Lake George. The banks are crowded with hippos, crocodiles, buffaloes and elephants, and the birdlife is spectacular. Late in the afternoon you head out on a short game drive on the Kasenyi plains as the light turns golden, looking for lions hunting among the kob.

Head out early for a final game drive in Queen Elizabeth before leaving the park and driving east to Mbarara, the heart of the old Ankole Kingdom, a journey of about 4 hours. Just beyond the town you stop at the Igongo Cultural Centre, whose museum tells the story of the Banyankole people and their prized long-horned Ankole cattle, and where you can sample traditional food at lunch.

A short drive brings you to Lake Mburo National Park, a compact savanna park of rocky ridges, acacia woodland and lakes. In the late afternoon you take a boat trip on Lake Mburo itself to see hippos, crocodiles, African fish eagles and, with luck, the elusive African finfoot.

Lake Mburo is one of the few parks in Uganda where you can explore on foot, and this morning you set out on a guided walking safari with an armed ranger among zebras, impala, eland, topi and buffaloes. There are no elephants or lions here, which makes walking especially rewarding.

After breakfast you drive back east to Entebbe, about 4–5 hours, stopping at the Equator at Kayabwe for photographs. Your guide drops you at Entebbe International Airport for your departure flight.