Day-by-day itinerary

What the operator has planned, day by day, across 10 days.

1. Day 1

   Entebbe Airport Pick-Up And Transfer To Kampala

   Your guide meets you on arrival at Entebbe International Airport. From there you drive straight to Kampala and check in at your hotel.

2. Day 2

   Kampala To Murchison Falls By Way Of Ziwa

   After breakfast at your Kampala hotel the guide collects you for the drive north to Murchison Falls National Park. You break the trip at Nyakitoma for lunch at Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary and a guided rhino tracking walk on foot with a ranger. Carrying on into the park, you hike to the top of Murchison waterfall before being taken to your lodge for dinner and the night.

3. Day 3

   Murchison Falls Game Drive And Nile Boat Cruise

   Coffee and snacks come first, then a guided game drive through the park that usually runs about four hours. Uganda kobs graze close to the tracks, and elephants, lions, buffalo, zebra, Rothschild's giraffe, topi and eland are the other likely sightings. You return to the lodge for lunch and a rest before heading to the Paraa dock in the late afternoon for a boat ride on the Nile, with birds, Nile crocodiles, hippos, elephants and buffaloes along the banks. Cultural dancers may perform around the campfire in the evening, followed by dinner and overnight at the lodge.

4. Day 4

   Murchison Falls To Kibale Forest National Park

   After breakfast you check out and travel south towards the Kibale Forest area, stopping in Hoima town for lunch before carrying on to Fort Portal. There is a short tour around Fort Portal and time at the Ndali-Kasenda crater lakes for the views. You then head to your lodge for dinner and overnight.

5. Day 5

   Kibale Chimpanzee Tracking, Then On To Queen Elizabeth

   Breakfast is served early at 06:45 and you go to the Kanyanchu visitor centre to meet your park ranger for the briefing. Guides then take you into the forest to track chimpanzees for one hour, and the social behaviour within the group is the part worth watching. Black and white colobus, red colobus and a good many birds are usually seen on the same walk. After tracking you return to the lodge for lunch and transfer to Queen Elizabeth National Park, arriving early evening in time to settle in for sunset.

6. Day 6

   Morning Game Drive And Afternoon Kazinga Channel Cruise

   Coffee and snacks start the morning before you drive out to the game tracks around the Kasenyi plains with a park ranger. Lions, elephants, kobs, oribis, giraffes and buffaloes are the common sightings across roughly four hours of driving. You return to the lodge for breakfast, rest and lunch. The afternoon boat ride on the Kazinga Channel starts around 2:00 pm and brings hippos, crocodiles, birds, buffaloes and elephants along the banks, after which you go back to the lodge for supper and the night.

7. Day 7

   Ishasha Game Drive And Transfer To Bwindi

   After breakfast you drive to the south of Queen Elizabeth National Park to exit, stopping in the Ishasha sector for the tree-climbing lions, which are usually lying up in the fig trees after a hunt. You watch and photograph them, then leave the park for Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. Lunch is taken in Kihihi town on the way. You reach the Bwindi area in the early evening, check in at the lodge, have dinner and rest.

8. Day 8

   Gorilla Trekking And Transfer To Lake Bunyonyi

   You need to be at park headquarters by 7:30 am for the briefing and permit check, after which you set off from the starting point in a group of eight under a park ranger. The search runs about one to five hours depending on where your gorilla group has moved to. Silverbacks are large enough to give anyone pause on first sight, but the alpha male settles once he judges the group no threat and lets you watch the family go about its day. You take photographs and video, and at the hour mark you leave and rejoin your driver guide for the drive back to the lodge for lunch. You then check out and transfer to Lake Bunyonyi.

9. Day 9

   Lake Bunyonyi Boat Cruise And Transfer To Lake Mburo

   You wake to views over the islands of Lake Bunyonyi, take breakfast and then set out on a boat cruise to Punishment Island and its difficult history. The cruise also calls at Governor's Island, where zebra are sometimes seen, with an old church to look at and a climb up to the Batwa community. You return early and transfer towards Lake Mburo by way of Mbarara, stopping for lunch at the Igongo Cultural Center. Impala are usually about on the way in to the lodge at Lake Mburo National Park.

10. Day 10

    Lake Mburo Nature Walk And Return To Kampala

    After breakfast a ranger takes you on a three-hour guided walk on foot, which brings you much closer to herds of impala, zebra, topi, eland, buffalo and giraffe than a vehicle does. Birds along the way include crested guinea fowl and woodpeckers. You return to the lodge for lunch and then drive back towards Kampala, stopping at the equator monument for photographs. In Kampala you are dropped at your lodging, or given time to shop before the transfer to Entebbe airport.