A carefully paced 5-day route through Kibale, Queen Elizabeth and Bwindi, using the comfortable, well-positioned lodges most travellers choose. 4 nights on safari, priced on request.
Kibale - Queen Elizabeth - Bwindi
About this safari
The route opens in Kibale — the best chimpanzee tracking in Africa — and works through 2 further destinations over 5 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 west towards Fort Portal runs through tea estates and crater lake country, with the Rwenzori Mountains sometimes visible to the west when the cloud allows. Kibale itself announces itself as a wall of tall forest closing over the road — moist evergreen rainforest, noticeably flatter and more open underfoot than Bwindi, and loud with primates. 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 catalogue suggests a comfortable mid-range stay here. The exact lodge, room basis and meals are confirmed in the quotation.
Overnight: Kibale
Day 2
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. The itinerary continues by road, today's route brings you into Uganda's most visited national park, a broad stretch of savannah, crater lakes and waterway on the floor of the western Rift Valley. After the enclosed forests the openness is a relief, and the change of wildlife is complete — elephant, buffalo, kob and lion instead of primates in a canopy. A mid-range camp or lodge is proposed for this night, subject to availability and written confirmation.
Overnight: Queen Elizabeth
Day 3
This activity is a planning option and only forms part of the day when it appears in the written quotation. Leaving the previous stop behind, reaching Bwindi takes commitment. Whether you fly to Kihihi or Kisoro and transfer by road, or drive the whole way from Entebbe, the last hours wind through steeply terraced hills where every workable slope is cultivated, and then the forest appears — a dark, unbroken canopy filling the valleys ahead. It looks impenetrable from the outside, which is precisely how it got its name. This outline assumes a comfortable safari stay near the route. The named property remains a suggestion until quoted.
Overnight: Bwindi
Day 4
Gorilla trekking is the reason the whole itinerary exists, and the day is built entirely around it. After the morning briefing your group sets off behind a guide and armed ranger, following radio contact with the trackers who located the family at dawn. The forest is steep, wet and close, and the walking can take anywhere from one to seven hours. The hour you are given at the end passes extraordinarily quickly — juveniles wrestling in the vegetation, a female nursing an infant, the silverback shifting position and everyone freezing. Trackers work to locate habituated families, though nothing in the forest is guaranteed. The forest presses right up against the lodges here, and the soundscape is part of the stay — turaco calling across the valley, insects building through the evening, and rain moving audibly through the canopy before it reaches you. Mornings often start under mist that burns off to reveal ridge after ridge of unbroken forest. This outline assumes a comfortable safari stay near the route. The named property remains a suggestion until quoted.
Overnight: Bwindi
Day 5
The last morning remains flexible until the departure point and timing are agreed. 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. 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
Primate Lodge + Queen Elizabeth Bush Lodge + Engagi 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.
Before 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.
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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.