A 10-day circuit taking in Ziwa, Murchison Falls and Kibale, with well-run mid-range lodges and camps at every stop. 9 nights on safari, priced on request.
Ziwa - Murchison Falls - Kibale - Queen Elizabeth - Bwindi - Lake Mburo
About this safari
The route opens in Ziwa — uganda's only wild rhino, tracked on foot — and works through 5 further destinations over 10 days. It stays within Uganda; the final proposal will confirm transfer times and the balance between travel and game viewing. Accommodation is at the mid-range standard: comfortable tented camps and established safari lodges. The balance most travellers settle on — proper beds, en-suite bathrooms and well-run lodges in good positions, without the premium that the top end of the market commands. Like every safari in this catalogue, it is priced on request rather than sold at a published rate, because park fees, permits, group size and contracted accommodation all change the figure.
Day by day
Written out in full before you book, so you can see exactly how the days are paced and where each night is spent.
Day 1
Entebbe is the working gateway for this route. Citrus will set out the actual meeting and transfer arrangements in writing. The road north from Entebbe and Kampala takes a few hours to clear the city's traffic and reach open country, and Ziwa sits beside it as a natural and genuinely useful break. The sanctuary occupies roughly seventy square kilometres of grassland and woodland, fenced and patrolled, and it is the only place in Uganda where rhino can be seen at all. Beyond the rhino, the sanctuary holds Uganda kob, oribi, bushbuck and waterbuck across grassland and light woodland, and its wetland areas are among the more accessible places in the country to look for the shoebill. Guided nature walks and night walks are both offered, and the staff are candid about the economics and politics of rhino reintroduction. The catalogue suggests a comfortable mid-range stay here. The exact lodge, room basis and meals are confirmed in the quotation.
Overnight: Ziwa
Day 2
This activity is a planning option and only forms part of the day when it appears in the written quotation. This travel day carries the route onward, the road north from Kampala runs through farmland and small towns before reaching the Nile and Uganda's largest national park. Murchison is big, open and hot, with borassus palms scattered across the northern savannah, and the sound of the falls carries a surprising distance before you see anything of them. A mid-range camp or lodge is proposed for this night, subject to availability and written confirmation.
Overnight: Murchison Falls
Day 3
If this optional activity is included in your written quotation, the launch cruise upstream from Paraa to the base of the falls is the park's signature activity and the best way to see its wildlife concentrated. The boat runs slowly along the banks past dense hippo pods, some of the largest Nile crocodile in Africa lying open-mouthed on the sand, and elephant and buffalo coming down to drink. The trip finishes in the spray at the foot of the falls, with the whole Nile coming down in front of you. The Albert delta, where the Nile spreads out before entering Lake Albert, is one of the more reliable places in Uganda to look for the shoebill — a prehistoric-looking, metre-tall bird that stands motionless in papyrus for long periods. A specialist boat trip downstream is usually needed to reach the right water, and is arranged separately. This outline assumes a comfortable safari stay near the route. The named property remains a suggestion until quoted.
Overnight: Murchison Falls
Day 4
The itinerary continues by road, today's drive brings you to the forest with the highest primate density in East Africa. The route passes through Fort Portal and the crater lake fields around it, where dozens of near-perfect volcanic craters hold green water, before the cultivated land gives way to the tall closed canopy of Kibale. The community-run Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary on the forest edge is a genuinely worthwhile addition. A boardwalk trail runs through papyrus swamp and forest, guided by local villagers, and it is excellent for primates and for birds — the great blue turaco among them. Revenue goes directly into the community, which has made the sanctuary a model for how conservation and local benefit can align. The suggested standard is mid-range. Citrus will confirm the property and contracted services in writing before booking.
Overnight: Kibale
Day 5
Kyambura Gorge cuts a forested trench into the savannah, and tracking its chimpanzee community means descending into a completely different world — humid, green and loud — a hundred metres below the open plain above. The group here is small and habituation is less complete than at Kibale, so sightings are less certain, but the setting is dramatic and the descent alone is worth the morning. Leaving the previous stop behind, the road drops out of the highlands onto the floor of the western Rift, and Queen Elizabeth spreads out between Lake Edward and Lake George with the Rwenzori Mountains standing behind — snow-capped when the cloud clears, which is not often. Explosion craters pock the northern sector, and the grass runs green after rain in a way the Kenyan and Tanzanian parks rarely do. The catalogue suggests a comfortable mid-range stay here. The exact lodge, room basis and meals are confirmed in the quotation.
Overnight: Queen Elizabeth
Day 6
If this optional activity is included in your written quotation, the afternoon launch cruise along the Kazinga Channel is the best two hours in the park. The boat runs slowly along the shoreline past hippo pods packed so tightly they overlap, buffalo standing chest-deep, and elephant families coming down to drink and bathe. Crocodile lie motionless on the banks, and the bird concentrations along the water are among the densest in Africa. The cruise is normally an optional extra rather than an automatic inclusion. Kibale's chimpanzees are not the only primates in this region: Kyambura Gorge, a forested rift cut into the park's eastern edge, holds its own chimpanzee community. Tracking there is less reliable than at Kibale because the group is smaller and the gorge is steep, but descending into the forested cleft is a striking experience in its own right. A mid-range camp or lodge is proposed for this night, subject to availability and written confirmation.
Overnight: Queen Elizabeth
Day 7
The route then continues onward, the route to Bwindi climbs into the south-western highlands through country that is green, steep and densely farmed, with banana and tea covering the hillsides. As you gain height the cultivation stops abruptly at the forest edge, and the change is absolute: from open, worked hillsides into ancient montane rainforest that survived the last ice age. Bwindi protects around half the world's remaining mountain gorillas across a little over 320 square kilometres of montane rainforest. Beyond the gorillas the forest holds chimpanzee, black-and-white colobus, L'Hoest's and red-tailed monkey, and more than 350 bird species including some two dozen Albertine Rift endemics — though the density of the vegetation means most of them are heard long before they are seen. This outline assumes a comfortable safari stay near the route. The named property remains a suggestion until quoted.
Overnight: Bwindi
Day 8
The day begins early at the park headquarters with a briefing, group allocation and the option of hiring a porter — worth taking, both for the help and because it puts money directly into the local community. Trackers set out at dawn to locate the family you are assigned, and the walk that follows can take several hours, through steep, wet, tangled forest at altitude. When you reach them, you are permitted exactly one hour. Gorillas feeding, grooming and dozing a few metres away, with a silverback watching on with complete indifference, is not an experience that photographs adequately — trackers work to locate the families each morning, but no wildlife encounter can be promised. Buhoma, the village at the northern edge of the park, has built a good deal of its livelihood around the forest, and the community projects there are open to visitors — a craft workshop, a tea stall, a small school. It is worth an hour, and it makes the economics of gorilla conservation considerably more concrete than a briefing can. A mid-range camp or lodge is proposed for this night, subject to availability and written confirmation.
Overnight: Bwindi
Day 9
The next leg links the two destinations, today's drive brings you to Lake Mburo, which works differently from Uganda's other parks. There are no elephant and very few large predators, which means walking safaris, horseback riding and night drives are all permitted, and the park can be experienced on foot in a way that is impossible elsewhere in the country. Lake Mburo is the only Ugandan park with impala, and the most reliable place in the country for Burchell's zebra and eland. Acacia woodland runs down to a chain of lakes and papyrus swamp, and the absence of elephant means the woodland is intact in a way that Uganda's larger parks are not. Topi, waterbuck, bushbuck and buffalo are all common. The catalogue suggests a comfortable mid-range stay here. The exact lodge, room basis and meals are confirmed in the quotation.
Overnight: Lake Mburo
Day 10
This outline leaves the final morning available for the confirmed transfer plan. Lake Mburo is the only Ugandan park with impala, and the most reliable place in the country for Burchell's zebra and eland. Acacia woodland runs down to a chain of lakes and papyrus swamp, and the absence of elephant means the woodland is intact in a way that Uganda's larger parks are not. Topi, waterbuck, bushbuck and buffalo are all common. Entebbe is the working end point, with the final transfer stated in the written proposal.
Safari ends
Where you stay
Accommodation below is the suggested standard for this package, taken from the Citrus catalogue. Where an entry describes a standard rather than a named property, we confirm the exact camp or lodge with your quotation. Named properties are suggestions and are substituted with comparable alternatives if they are unavailable for your dates.
Source catalogue listing
Pakuba Safari Lodge + Primate Lodge + Queen Elizabeth Bush Lodge + Engagi Lodge + Lake Mburo lodge
This is reproduced exactly from the catalogue. The written quotation will allocate nights and confirm each available property before booking.
These are planning examples, not confirmed inclusions for this package. Your written quotation will confirm exactly what is included.
The quotation will identify every separate cost before you confirm.
Where this safari goes
Uganda
Uganda's only wild rhino, tracked on foot
ExploreUganda
The Nile forced through an eight-metre-wide gorge
ExploreUganda
The best chimpanzee tracking in Africa
ExploreUganda
Kazinga Channel hippos and the tree-climbing lions of Ishasha
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Half the world's mountain gorillas, in genuinely impenetrable forest
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Zebra, acacia woodland and Uganda's most walkable park
ExploreBefore you ask
The catalogue sets the route and travel standard, but it does not publish a fixed price or a contracted inclusion list. Citrus will prepare a written quotation for your dates, party and rooming, showing the exact transfers, activities, accommodation, meals, fees and permits before you confirm.
No. It is suggested accommodation from the source catalogue. Availability and any proposed alternative are confirmed in the written quotation before a booking is made.
Do not assume so. Permit availability and whether each permit is included or quoted separately must be stated in the written quotation.
Ask Citrus to revise it. Any change to route, nights or transport must be reflected in the final itinerary and quotation.
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Tell us your dates and who is travelling, and we will come back with availability, honest advice on timing and a written quotation for this route.