This is the safari almost everyone comes to Uganda for. Over three days you travel from the city into a rainforest that has not changed in a million years, and end up sitting a few metres from a silverback who weighs as much as a small car and could not care less about you.
We keep the group small, the pace relaxed and the lodges as close to the trailhead as possible, so that the whole experience feels personal rather than industrial. Your permit is booked the moment you confirm — gorilla places in Bwindi sell out months in advance.
An early start takes you south-west past the equator, through the rolling tea and banana farmland of Ankole and up into the Kigezi highlands. Arrive at your forest-edge lodge in time for a sundowner over the treetops.
After an early breakfast and briefing at the park headquarters, you head into the forest with trackers who have already located the family. The trek can last from one to six hours; once you find them you spend one magical hour in their company.
Join Batwa guides for a morning in the forest they called home for thousands of years — hunting techniques, medicinal plants and stories around the fire. Then begin the long, scenic drive back to Kampala or Entebbe.
Meals: B, L
What’s included
Gorilla trekking permit (USD 800 value)
Private 4×4 safari vehicle and professional guide
2 nights accommodation on full board
All park entrance and community fees
Bottled drinking water throughout
Batwa cultural village visit
All government taxes
Not included
International flights and Uganda visa
Travel insurance
Alcoholic drinks and personal shopping
Tips for guides and trackers
Optional activities not listed
Single room supplement<span class="kalika-price">$120.00</span>
Private porter for the trek<span class="kalika-price">$20.00</span>
Gorilla trekking is genuinely active — steep, muddy and at altitude. A reasonable level of fitness helps enormously, and porters are available to carry your pack and give a hand on the slippery sections.
The minimum age for gorilla trekking in Uganda is 15 years. Younger travellers are welcome on the rest of the itinerary and we can arrange forest-edge activities for them.
Gorillas do not stop feeding when it rains and neither do the treks. Bring a proper rain jacket — we supply walking sticks and gaiters.
