Queen Elizabeth National Park

Queen Elizabeth is Uganda's most visited national park, spread between Lake Edward and Lake George beneath the Rwenzori Mountains, with crater lakes pocking the northern sector and open savannah running south. The Kazinga Channel, a natural thirty-kilometre waterway linking the two lakes, is the park's centrepiece: a boat cruise along it passes one of the highest concentrations of hippo in the world, with elephant and buffalo coming down to drink and an extraordinary density of waterbirds along the banks. In the southern Ishasha sector the lions have adopted the unusual habit of resting in the branches of fig trees through the heat of the day, which is one of Uganda's most distinctive wildlife sights though never a certainty on a given afternoon.

Why visit Queen Elizabeth

• The Kazinga Channel boat cruise, passing one of the densest hippo populations anywhere.
• Tree-climbing lion in the Ishasha sector — behaviour seen in only a handful of places in Africa.
• Explosion crater lakes in the north, with wide views towards the Rwenzori Mountains.
• Over 600 recorded bird species, one of the highest totals for any protected area in Africa.

Wildlife

Elephant, buffalo, lion, leopard, spotted hyena, Uganda kob, topi and waterbuck across the savannah sectors, and very large hippo and Nile crocodile populations along the Kazinga Channel. Chimpanzee live in the Kyambura Gorge, a forested rift in the park's eastern edge, though sightings there are less reliable than at Kibale. There are no rhino or giraffe in this park.

• Enormous hippo concentrations on the Kazinga Channel
• Tree-climbing lion in the Ishasha fig trees
• Uganda kob on the open savannah
• Chimpanzee in the Kyambura Gorge
• More than 600 bird species

Best time to visit

June to August and December to February are drier and give the best road conditions and game viewing. The park is at relatively low altitude and is warm throughout the year.

June–August and December–February.

Things to do

Kazinga Channel boat cruise

A two-hour launch trip past hippo, elephant, buffalo and waterbirds — usually a separately paid extra.

Ishasha game drives

Searching the fig trees of the southern sector for tree-climbing lion.

Crater lake drives

The explosion crater circuit in the north, with views towards the Rwenzori.

Kyambura Gorge chimpanzee tracking

Tracking in the forested gorge, arranged separately and less reliable than Kibale.

How long to stay

Two nights lets you take in the Kazinga cruise, a northern game drive and the Ishasha sector. One night restricts you to the channel and a single drive.

What it combines with

Queen Elizabeth sits between Kibale to the north and Bwindi to the south, which is exactly why it appears on almost every Uganda circuit that pairs primates with savannah game.