9-Day Uganda (Kigali Start): Where Primates Swing and Savannahs Stretch to Bunyonyi

Your driver-guide meets you at Kigali International Airport or your hotel in the morning, and you drive north through Rwanda's hills to the Katuna (Gatuna) border. After crossing into Uganda you continue via Kabale and Mbarara, the largest town in western Uganda, through rolling pastures grazed by long-horned Ankole cattle.

The journey to Lake Mburo National Park takes around five to six hours including border formalities and a lunch stop, and you arrive in the afternoon.

Head out on a late-afternoon game drive as the light turns golden, looking for zebra, impala, eland, topi and buffalo, before returning to your lodge for dinner.

Start the morning with a boat trip on Lake Mburo, watching hippos, crocodiles, fish eagles and pelicans, and perhaps the shy African finfoot along the papyrus edges. Then return to your lodge for breakfast.

You drive north via Mbarara, Ibanda and Kamwenge through tea estates and farmland to Kibale Forest National Park near Fort Portal, the seat of the Tooro Kingdom. The journey takes around five to six hours with stops.

Arrive in the late afternoon and settle in at your lodge on the edge of the forest, where the calls of primates and birds fill the evening air.

After an early breakfast you head to the Kanyanchu visitor centre for a briefing, then follow your ranger into the forest in search of a habituated chimpanzee community. Kibale is home to around 1,500 chimpanzees and is widely regarded as the best place in East Africa to see them. Once found, you spend an hour watching them feed, groom, call and swing through the towering trees.

In the afternoon you take a guided walk through the community-run Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary, a haven for birds and primates such as red colobus, black-and-white colobus and grey-cheeked mangabey. Kibale is home to 13 primate species in all, along with around 375 bird species.

Return to your lodge for dinner and an evening of forest sounds.

After breakfast you drive south past the beautiful crater lakes around Fort Portal, sparkling in steep volcanic bowls, with the Rwenzori Mountains, the Mountains of the Moon, rising to the west on a clear day.

You descend to the floor of the Albertine Rift Valley and reach Queen Elizabeth National Park around midday, a drive of about three hours with stops. After lunch you join a boat cruise on the Kazinga Channel, linking Lake Edward and Lake George, where hippos gather in huge numbers and crocodiles, elephants, buffaloes and waterbirds line the banks.

Return to your lodge for dinner as the sun sets over the Rift Valley.

Set off at dawn for a game drive on the Kasenyi Plains, the breeding grounds of the Uganda kob, where lions often lie in wait. Elephants, buffaloes, warthogs and waterbuck are common, and the Rwenzori Mountains form a dramatic backdrop.

After lunch you drive the scenic crater road through the Katwe Explosion Craters, a landscape of volcanic bowls and crater lakes, with views over the salt pans of Lake Katwe, where salt has been harvested for centuries.

Return to your lodge for a relaxed evening in the park.

After breakfast you drive south to the remote Ishasha sector of Queen Elizabeth National Park, famous for lions that rest in the branches of large fig trees. Enjoy a game drive among topi, Uganda kob and buffaloes as you search the trees for lions.

In the afternoon you continue south into the hills to the Buhoma sector of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, a drive of about two to three hours. The open savanna gives way to tea gardens, terraced farms and finally the dark, mist-wrapped wall of the rainforest.

Settle into your lodge on the edge of the forest and prepare for tomorrow's gorilla trek.

After an early breakfast you head to the Buhoma park headquarters for a briefing on gorilla etiquette and safety, before being assigned to one of the habituated gorilla families of the Buhoma sector. With experienced rangers and trackers leading the way, you set off into the steep, tangled rainforest that gives Bwindi its name.

The trek can take anywhere from one to several hours, depending on where the family has moved overnight. When you find them, you spend one unforgettable hour watching the gorillas feed, rest and play: the silverback keeping a calm eye on his group, mothers cradling infants and youngsters tumbling through the undergrowth. Bwindi protects almost half of the world's remaining mountain gorillas, and this hour is a privilege few people ever share.

Return to your lodge for lunch. In the afternoon you can join an optional community walk through Buhoma village, visiting local craftspeople, a traditional healer and the Batwa, the forest's original people, or simply relax and enjoy the views.

After a relaxed breakfast you drive south through the green hills of Kigezi, past terraced farms and small market towns, to Lake Bunyonyi near Kabale. The scenic journey takes around four hours with stops.

You arrive in time for lunch with views over the lake's 29 islands. In the afternoon you take a canoe or boat trip with a local guide, hearing the stories of the Bakiga people at Punishment Island and Sharp's Island, and stopping at a lakeside village where families farm the steep terraced hills.

Enjoy a final evening at your lodge as the lake falls still and the many little birds that give it its name settle for the night.

Wake early to watch the morning mist rise from the islands, with time for a short walk or paddle before breakfast.

After breakfast you drive to Kabale and cross back into Rwanda at the Katuna (Gatuna) border. The road winds through some of the most beautiful hill country in East Africa, and the journey to Kigali takes around three to four hours, including formalities.

Your driver-guide drops you at Kigali International Airport for your onward flight, or at your hotel in the city, at the end of a memorable journey through southwestern Uganda.