8 days across Kibale, Queen Elizabeth and Bwindi, using exceptional lodges chosen for their positions, food and guiding. 7 nights on safari, priced on request.
Kibale - Queen Elizabeth - Bwindi - Lake Mburo
About this safari
The route opens in Kibale — the best chimpanzee tracking in Africa — and works through 3 further destinations over 8 days. It stays within Uganda; the final proposal will confirm transfer times and the balance between travel and game viewing. Accommodation is at the luxury standard: premium camps and lodges where the accommodation is part of the experience. At this level the camps are as much a reason to travel as the wildlife: limited suites, exceptional food, private decks and guiding of a standard that changes what you see. 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
This planning outline starts in Entebbe and continues into western Uganda; the collection point, timing and any permit arrangements are confirmed in the final proposal. 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 crater lake country around Fort Portal, just outside the forest, is worth the short detour — dozens of near-perfect volcanic craters holding deep green water, with viewpoints over the tea estates and, on a clear day, the Rwenzori Mountains standing to the west. A luxury stay is proposed for this night, with the final property and arrangements confirmed in writing.
Overnight: Kibale
Day 2
Tracking chimpanzees is a faster, noisier business than trekking gorillas. The forest at Kibale is flat and tall, and the communities here move considerable distances through the day, so following them is brisk walking rather than climbing. The reward is watching a large, entirely wild ape society going about its business — grooming, squabbling, fig-feeding, and occasionally erupting into a display that scatters everything else in the canopy. One hour is allowed with the group once found. Kibale holds thirteen primate species — the highest diversity of any forest in East Africa. Beyond the chimpanzees there are red colobus, black-and-white colobus, grey-cheeked mangabey, red-tailed monkey, blue monkey, olive baboon and, after dark, the nocturnal potto. Forest elephant and buffalo move through too, though the vegetation means they are seldom seen. This outline assumes the catalogue's premium standard. No named camp is guaranteed until the quotation confirms it.
Overnight: Kibale
Day 3
This travel day carries the route onward, 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. Game drives in the northern Kasenyi sector work the open grassland where Uganda kob gather on their breeding grounds and lion hunt them — this is the most reliable predator viewing in the park. The explosion crater drive climbs through the volcanic field north of Mweya, with views across the craters towards the Rwenzori when the weather permits. The suggested standard is luxury. Citrus will identify the available property and contracted services before confirmation.
Overnight: Queen Elizabeth
Day 4
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. The southern Ishasha sector is where the tree-climbing lions are. They rest through the heat of the day in the branches of large fig trees, which is genuinely unusual behaviour seen in only a handful of places in Africa. It is never a certainty — the sector is large and the lions move — but a drive through the fig country in the middle of the day is the way to look. The catalogue suggests a premium camp or lodge here. The exact property, suite and services remain subject to availability and quotation.
Overnight: Queen Elizabeth
Day 5
The itinerary continues by road, 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. 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 luxury stay is proposed for this night, with the final property and arrangements confirmed in writing.
Overnight: Bwindi
Day 6
The trek starts with a briefing and a walk out of the village into the forest edge, and from there it becomes a matter of following the trackers' radio. Bwindi earned its name honestly: the undergrowth is dense enough that a path has to be cut, the slopes are steep, and the altitude tells. What waits at the end is one hour with a habituated gorilla family at close range, which by common agreement is among the most affecting wildlife experiences anywhere on earth. Hiring a porter is strongly recommended and directly supports the surrounding community. 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 the catalogue's premium standard. No named camp is guaranteed until the quotation confirms it.
Overnight: Bwindi
Day 7
If this optional activity is included in your written quotation, walking here is genuinely relaxed because the risks that close other parks to foot traffic are largely absent. With a ranger you move through acacia woodland among zebra, impala and topi that allow a reasonable approach, and the guiding shifts to tracks, birds, trees and the small things a vehicle passes at speed. It is an easy, unhurried way to end a long circuit. The next section of the circuit moves on, the road from the south-west towards Kampala passes the long ridges and open acacia country of Lake Mburo, the smallest of Uganda's savannah parks and the closest to the capital. After the forests it is open and bright, and zebra — genuinely unusual in Uganda — are often visible from the main road before you reach the gate. The suggested standard is luxury. Citrus will identify the available property and contracted services before confirmation.
Overnight: Lake Mburo
Day 8
The last morning remains flexible until the departure point and timing are agreed. A boat trip on the lake adds hippo, crocodile and a good list of waterbirds, including the elusive African finfoot working the overhanging vegetation along the shoreline. On land, guided walks with a ranger and horseback rides among the zebra and antelope are what make the park distinctive — activities that simply cannot be offered where elephant and lion are abundant. 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 + Kyambura Gorge Lodge + Bwindi Lodge + premium 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
The best chimpanzee tracking in Africa
ExploreUganda
Kazinga Channel hippos and the tree-climbing lions of Ishasha
ExploreUganda
Half the world's mountain gorillas, in genuinely impenetrable forest
ExploreUganda
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.
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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.