25 Days in Uganda: The Perfect Uganda Self-drive Itinerary

25 Days in Uganda: The Perfect Uganda Self-drive Itinerary – If you’re interested in visiting the Pearl of Africa, Uganda, this 25-day safari is among the greatest options. While in Uganda, you can go on a journey to visit the three most famous primates in the country (mountain gorillas, golden monkeys, and chimpanzees), as well as experience the Big Five and the excitement of Jinja, known as the “Adventure Capital of East Africa.” The highlight of your trip to Uganda will be monitoring mountain gorillas in Bwindi National Park, one of the 10 national parks in Uganda. The 25-day Best of Uganda Safari begins and ends in Kampala/Entebbe and features round-trip airport transfers as well as flexible itineraries to suit your preferences.

Safari Highlights: 25 Days in Uganda

Day 1: Pick up from your hotel in Entebbe and Drive to the pier on Lake Victoria for a boat trip to Ngamba Chimpanzee Sanctuary for a full day encounter with Orphaned chimpanzees rescued from across East Africa after you will cruise back and transfer to your hotel for overnight.
Day 2: Drive to Lake Mburo National Park via the Equator for an evening game drive and overnight
Day 3: Morning sunrise game drive and Transfer to Lake Bunyonyi arriving in the evening for relaxing at the lake, dinner and overnight.
Day 4: Morning boat cruise on Lake Bunyonyi and Transfer to Mgahinga Gorilla National Park
Day 5: Golden Monkey tracking experience and transfer to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park
Day 6: Gorilla tracking experience and Batwa cultural experience
Day 7: Transfer to Ishasha sector of Queen Elizabeth National Park for an evening game drive
Day 8: Full day game drives in Ishasha wildernesses to search for Tree climbing lions and other wildlife
Day 9: Transfer to Mweya sector of Queen Elizabeth National Park for an evening game drive
Day 10: Morning game drive and afternoon boat cruise on Kazinga Channel.
Day 11: Morning Chimpanzee tracking in Kyambura Gorge, afternoon community visits, evening game drive and sundowner.
Day 12: Morning game drive and transfer to Kibale Forest National Park for a community experience.
Day 13: Chimpanzee trekking and Bigodi wetland walk
Day 14: Transfer to Budongo forest, close to Murchison Falls NP.
Day 15: Morning chimpanzee tracking and Bird watching, after lunch Transfer to Murchison Falls National Park via a visit to the top of the falls and an en-route game drive to your lodge for overnight.
Day 16: Morning game drive and afternoon boat cruise to the bottom of the falls
Day 17: Morning Delta cruise and afternoon game drive
Day 18: Transfer to Kidepo Valley National Park for an evening game drive
Day 19: Full day Game drives in Kidepo Valley National Park
Day 20: Another Full Day of Game drives in Kidepo Valley National Park
Day 21: Visiting Karamajog villages to explore the local cultures and Transfer to Gulu for overnight to break the journey for the next day.
Day 22: Transfer to Ziwa Rhino sanctuary for on foot Rhino tracking and Overnight
Day 23: Transfer to Jinja for a boat cruise to the source of River Nile and overnight
Day 24: Full day Jinja Adventure, white water rafting and Horse riding plus a short Jinja tour and later have an optional night life in Jinja.
Day 25: Transfer back to Entebbe/Kampala for drop off at your hotel or at the Airport for your departure flight

Detailed In Itinerary: 25 Days in Uganda

Day 1: Boat trip to Ngamba Chimpanzee Sanctuary for a full day encounter

An interesting boat ride to the chimpanzee island, Ngamba Island, Uganda

Today you’ll travel to the Ngamba Chimpanzee Sanctuary to see the orphaned chimps there. The chimpanzees in this refuge have been rescued from several locations in East Africa. You will be picked up from your Entebbe or Kampala hotel, or the airport, depending on your arrival time, and taken on a boat ride across Lake Victoria to the Ngamba Chimpanzee Sanctuary, where you can observe the chimpanzees being fed and even feed them yourself, before returning to Entebbe for the night.

Day 2: Transfer to Lake Mburo National Park for an evening game drive and overnight

After breakfast at your lodge, you’ll be picked up by your safari driver guide and driven to Lake Mburo National Park, where you’ll do a quick sightseeing tour of the equator and have lunch before checking into your lodge for the night. Lake Mburo National Park is home to a wide variety of flora and fauna, including the marabou stork, bronze tailed starling, and the stunning grey crowned crane, the national bird of Uganda, as well as other water and acacia savannah bird species. During your time at Lake Mburo, you can go on morning and afternoon game drives, guided walks, and boat rides on the lake to see the park’s abundant wildlife.

Drive time: Approximately 4-5 hours

Day 3: Morning sunrise game drive and drive to Lake Bunyonyi

The day will begin with a sunrise game drive before you check out of your lodge and make the drive to Lake Bunyonyi, where you may relax and take in the vistas before checking into Bird nest Resort Cottages for the night.

One of the deepest and most picturesque lakes in Africa, Lake Bunyonyi can be found in southwestern Uganda, and it is flanked by islands and terraced hills. The area has been marketed to tourists as a pleasant place to unwind because of its beautiful setting, pleasant climate, and abundance of little islands.

Day 4: Morning boat cruise on Lake Bunyonyi and Transfer to Mgahinga Gorilla National Park

After breakfast, you’ll have a boat tour of Lake Bunyonyi’s ancient islands, then travel to the south to visit Mgahinga Gorilla National Park, where you’ll spend the night at the lodge after checking in.

Day 5: Golden Monkey tracking experience and transfer to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park

After a hearty breakfast at the lodge, you’ll head out for a golden monkey tracking experience before making the short journey south to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.

Drive time: 2-3 hours drive

Day 6: Gorilla tracking Experience and Batwa Cultural Experience

The day will begin with a trip to the park’s headquarters after breakfast, where you’ll meet with ranger guides from the Uganda Wildlife Authority and learn which gorilla family you’ll be visiting. When your group size is confirmed to be eight persons, you’ll follow your two ranger guides deep into the dense, impenetrable jungle in search of the critically endangered Mountain Gorilla. The search for the gorillas always resumes the following day in the spot where they were last spotted. You’ll have an hour to spend with the famous animals once you get there, and you must maintain complete silence at all times while around the Gorillas. You can record video, take pictures, etc.

You have a 99% chance of seeing the gorillas on your trek, despite the fact that it can be physically demanding depending on the walk that day, which is typically decided by weather and the movement of the gorillas in the jungle. Professional trackers spend all day in the jungle following the mountain gorillas to learn where they nested the previous night, the starting point of the expedition. The two ranger guides will be with you the entire time, clearing paths, making new paths, and enlightening you about the mountain gorillas and Bwindi forest. Once you’ve finished following the mountain gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, you’ll return to the park’s visitor center to collect your completion certificates.

Day 7: Drive to Queen Elizabeth National Park Ishasha sector

After breakfast, you’ll hit the road for Queen Elizabeth National Park, where you’ll spend the afternoon exploring on a game drive and making sightseeing pit stops along the way. After being warmly welcomed upon arrival and checking into your room to unwind, you will embark on an evening game drive in search of late grazers before retiring to the Lodge for the night.

Day 8: Full Day Game drives in Ishasha wildernesses to search for Tree Climbing lions and other wildlife

You will proceed on game drives in the Ishasha wildernesses after breakfast, in search of tree-climbing lions and other wildlife; nevertheless, sightings are entirely at the mercy of chance and the elements, as we cannot schedule meetings with the wild.

Day 9: Drive to the northern part of Queen Elizabeth National Park Mweya sector.

You’ll have lunch and go on a game drive in the afternoon in the northern part of the park today. Grassland, acacia woodland, forests, wetlands, and open water all contribute to the rich biodiversity of Queen Elizabeth National Park, making it home to a wide variety of mammals, including the Big Four, and an impressive number of bird species—over 604.

Day 10: Morning Game Drive and Afternoon Boat Cruise on Kazinga Channel

Kazinga Channel Boat Ride

You’ll go on a dawn game drive in Kasenyi plains after breakfast to look for nocturnal wildlife. You can expect to witness a wide variety of wildlife, such as elephants, buffalo herds, leopards, lions, bushbucks, kobs, antelopes, and more.

The morning game drive will last about two to three hours, after which you will drive to Mweya peninsula for a hot lunch, relax, and go for an afternoon boat cruise safari on Kazinga Channel, something worth doing and considered a highlight of your safari in Queen Elizabeth National Park. From the boat, you will be able to see a wide variety of wildlife, including hippos enjoying the swim and a wide variety of bird species. Come back to the lodge after your cruise and unwind with dinner and a night’s sleep.

Day 11: Morning Chimpanzee tracking in Kyambura Gorge, afternoon community visit, evening game drive and sundowner

Today, after breakfast, you’ll go chimpanzee tracking in Kyambura Gorge, where you can also see other primates and bird species and find out more about the gorge itself. Afterward, you’ll return to your lodge for lunch and relaxation before paying a community visit, which may include stops at local schools where you can donate school supplies.

Day 12: Morning Drive/Visit Katwe Salt Lakes and Transfer to Kibale Forest National Park

After a short break, you’ll get in the car and head to Kibale National Park, stopping for lunch en route to the park on the way there. At the time of your arrival, you can take a walk through Bigodi Swamp and witness the local monkeys and birds up close.

Kibale Forest National Park is a popular location for birdwatchers and those interested in primates because it is home to 13 different kinds of monkeys and more than 335 different kinds of birds.

Day 13: Chimpanzee Tracking in Kibale Forest National Park

Chimpanzee trekking in Kibale National Park, Uganda

The day will begin with a journey from your lodge to the Kibale National Park Headquarters, where you’ll meet your guides and embark on your chimpanzee tracking adventure. Your group will be accompanied by guides, researchers, and trackers on an early morning journey into the forest to see wild chimpanzees and other primates in their natural habitat. For four hours, you’ll be able to walk alongside these entertaining and sociable apes as they go about their daily routines and show you every step of the tracking process. Our closest living relative, the chimpanzee, is critically endangered, with only about 5,000 thought to live in Uganda alone.

Please note: Chimpanzees are incredibly mobile as they forage for food across the jungle, making tracking them a potentially tiresome endeavor. Additionally, chimpanzees are wild animals, so sightings are never assured.

Day 14:Transfer to Budongo forest, close to Murchison Falls National Park

After breakfast, you’ll get in the car and drive to Budongo Forest, where you’ll stop for photos and lunch en route before finally checking into the lodge late in the afternoon and spending the night. Budongo Forest, on the outskirts of Murchison Falls National Park, is home to a variety of animals, including monkeys, baboons (who will greet you upon your arrival), and chimpanzees.

Day 15: Morning chimpanzee tracking and Birding after lunch Transfer to Murchison Falls National Park via a visit to the top of the falls and an en-route game drive to your lodge for overnight

After a morning of chimpanzee tracking and a lunch break, you’ll leave for Murchison Falls National Park and spend the night at the Pakuba Safari Lodge. While there, you can stop at the top of the falls and go on a nighttime game drive in search of nocturnal grazers before retiring for the night.

MURCHISON FALLS NATIONAL PARK

Murchison is deposed With a total area of 3,840 square kilometers, Uganda’s National Park is the country’s largest protected territory. Where the Nile River pours over the western rift valley escarpment, it creates a waterfall that separates the northern and southern halves of the park. Here, the water is channeled through a crack in the rocks six meters wide and dropped forty meters into a boiling kettle. Taking a boat ride upstream to the waterfalls is an experience you won’t soon forget. There are several creatures on display for guests to see. Animals and birds of many kinds can be seen along the Nile as the boat travels. These include elephants, buffalo, giraffes, lions, hippos, crocodiles, antelopes, and a variety of other species.

Day 16: Morning game drive and afternoon boat cruise to the bottom of the falls

You’ll have the chance to see giraffes, buffaloes, antelopes, hippos, and even big cats like lions and leopards on your morning game drive after breakfast. After lunch at the lodge, you’ll head to the dock for a two-hour boat ride to the base of the falls, where you can see the Nile squeeze through a narrow gorge before bursting out in a once-in-a-lifetime display. As you cruise along the river, you’ll likely see a variety of wildlife, including elephants, hippos, crocodiles, and birds.

Day 17: Morning Delta cruise and afternoon game drive

Take a relaxing morning sail downriver while enjoying breakfast on board. This three- to five-hour trip is a rare chance to see wildlife including hippo, elephants, and huge crocodiles, as well as a broad array of distinctive wetland and papyrus avian species, including the elusive shoebill stork. As the Nile River snakes its way to Lake Albert, visitors to Murchison Falls National Park will be treated to ever-changing vistas. North Bank, Second Game Drive If you didn’t see everything you wanted to see on your first game drive, you can try again after lunch or later in the afternoon.

Day 18: Transfer to Kidepo National Park for an evening game drive

You’ll soon be on your way to Uganda’s largest park, Kidepo National Park. In addition, you can unwind at the Lodge or go on a short evening wildlife drive, and you may come across seasonal springs and rivers that are frequently bridged by bridges. You may also begin to observe Karamajong people arriving in Kidepo in the evening.

Kidepo Valley National Park

Approximately 700 kilometers from Kampala, in the semiarid valleys between Uganda’s borders with Sudan and Kenya, is where you’ll find Kidepo Valley National Park. Established as a national park in 1962, the area is home to a wide variety of wildlife, including 475 different bird species and 77 different mammal species. Kidepo is Uganda’s most remote national park, but those who make the arduous journey north via Karamoja’s untamed frontier region will tell you it’s also one of the country’s most beautiful. From Apoka, the park’s administrative center, a savannah environment stretches outside beyond the gazetted region, towards horizons marked by far-off mountain ranges. Wetlands and remnant lakes in the vast Narus Valley near Apoka are the only permanent water in the park during the dry season. The Narus Valley is the best place in the park to see wildlife because of its seasonal oasis and open savannah landscape.

Day 19: Full day Game drives in Kidepo National Park

Safari in Uganda – Kidepo Valley National Park

Since the wildlife in the Narus and Kidepo valleys is distinct from one another, you will be conducting game drives there today. Somewhere in the Narus Valley The Narus Valley is a grassy, undulating plain that is surrounded by mountains in the distance. Since the valley always has water, it serves as a magnet for the park’s species for the better part of the year. As a result, the valley near Apoka is well covered with game tracks, with four loop circuits providing many opportunities for exploration. The valley is home to a wide variety of wildlife, including lions, Jackson’s hartebeest, buffalo, giraffes, oribis, and reedbucks. Cheetahs and leopards are two of the rarest big cats to spot. During the dry season, visitors can see wildlife from the safety of the Narus dam or the water hole close to the Tourism Centre. Katurum kopje, located at the southern end of the Katurum loop, is an appealing destination with breathtaking panoramas of the Morungule Mountains to the north across the valley. A Valley in Kidepo Although there isn’t much wildlife to see in Kidepo Valley for the majority of the year due to a lack of surface water, it’s still worth the trip to check out the dry Kidepo River and walk along its 50m wide bed of white sand between banks covered with borassus palms.

Day 20: Full Day Game drives in Kidepo National Park

On your second day in Kidepo valley national park, you’ll get a full day to go on game drives. You will get the opportunity to look for animals that you may have missed the day before.

Day 21: Visiting Karamajog villages to explore the local cultures and Transfer to Gulu for overnight to break the journey for the next day

You will have an early morning game drive in Narus valley once you return there for breakfast. As the drives progress, keep an eye out for the same creatures and you might even come across some new ones. On your way to the Karamajong people, you’ll reach the Kidepo River. The hills on all sides of the valley create a breathtaking backdrop. The natives of Karamajogo. The Karamajongo are well-known as cattle keepers who take great care of their animals. Travel to the Manyatas’ settlements, where they’ll perform for you and share stories about their culture before you head back to Gulu for the night.

Day 22: Transfer to Ziwa Rhino sanctuary for on foot Rhino tracking, lunch and overnight.

Amazing Walking Safari in Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary

After breakfast, you’ll embark on a day trip to the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary, where you’ll do rhino tracking on foot, enjoy a hearty meal, and maybe even drop by a local school to contribute supplies.

Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary

It is common practice for safari goers on their way from Murchison to Kampala or Entebbe to go to the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary, a popular destination in and of itself. The responses we’ve gotten from guests have been overwhelmingly positive, and we anticipate a rise in foot traffic.

There is a security team of eighty Rangers, many of whom are armed, who patrol the fence, defend the gates, and keep an eye on the rhinos around the clock. In addition to the rhinos, the sanctuary is home to over 20 other kinds of wildlife and 300 different bird species, all of which serve to demonstrate Uganda’s rich biodiversity and the need of protecting it. We are seeing more and more species within the sanctuary, so it appears that the conservation efforts are working. While in Uganda, you should try to spot the elusive shoe bill, one of the world’s Great Birds.

Day 23: Transfer to Jinja for a boat cruise to the source of River Nile and overnight

You will depart for Jinja, a town in central Uganda on the shores of Lake Victoria, after breakfast. At Coronation Park, a park and a monument to British explorer John Hanning Speke represent the spot where the Nile first emerges from the ground. The Nile is widely recognized as the longest river on Earth. It originates in the area of Jinja, Uganda.

Day 24:Full day Jinja Adventure, white water rafting and Horse riding plus a short Jinja tour and later have an optional night life in Jinja

The town of Jinja has been dubbed “East Africa’s Adventure Capital” due to its reputation as a prime location for white water rafting and other extreme sports. You may discover the ideal white water experience here, whether you’re a first-timer, a family, or an extreme adventurer. Soak it up! Go crazy! Raise the rafts! Have fun on your journey! Strong white water can be fun to navigate in a raft built with safety, quality, and affordability in mind.

A horseback riding safari is a great opportunity to experience the sights along the Nile River, including a traditional Ugandan hamlet and the breathtaking scenery of the hills that overlook the river basin. After supper, you can go on an optional tour of Jinja and its nightlife before returning to your lodge.

Day 25: Transfer back to Entebbe/Kampala for drop off at your hotel or at the airport for your departure flight

You will be dropped off at either Entebbe/Kampala or Entebbe International Airport today, the final day of your trip, depending on the time of your departure flight.

End of the 25 Days in Uganda