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Planning notes, destination ideas and safari inspiration from the Rift & Tide Africa team.
Get safari planning ideas, destination notes and occasional offers.
Nairobi-based East Africa safari specialists for tailor-made journeys, beach escapes, and trade-ready planning.
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Planning notes, destination ideas and safari inspiration from the Rift & Tide Africa team.
Get safari planning ideas, destination notes and occasional offers.
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Private Tailor Made Tour
The short Uganda gorilla trekking safari is for adventurers who have less time on holiday or those connecting their Africa safari from vibrant wildlife destinations like Masai Mara, Serengeti, or Kruger in South Africa. The trip is a perfect tailor-made package for travellers who enjoy country road drives and forest hiking experiences.
It starts in Entebbe and, using a custom four-by-four safari truck, drives you across the southwestern terraced and highland landscape to a serene forest lodge on the edge of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. Here, you will spend the next three nights in a forest cottage with enchanting views over the steamy forest canopy and the rift valley rugged region. On the second day, expert trackers will guide you into the jungle to find a mountain gorilla family. You will spend a once-in-a-lifetime electrifying hour silently observing the mountain gorillas live their forest lives.
You will also explore the rugged rural region on foot, with immersive walks through communities and terraced gardens. Engage with the Batwa native community on a forest trail, showcasing their ancient cultures, drama, hunting, and survival skills when they occupied the gorilla-filled jungles.
For Rift & Tide Africa, this journey works as a polished starting point for private travellers and travel advisors who want a clear, premium East Africa itinerary. Final routing, lodge level, rooming, permits and special interests can be refined at quotation stage so the trip fits the traveller's dates, comfort level and pace.
Travel and accommodation
5 Days / 4 Nights, 1 country, Arrival in Entebbe to Entebbe
4 nights accommodation
Meals
Meals as per day-by-day itinerary
Safari style
The Primate Collection
Private Tailor Made
Itinerary
4 stops across the route
Trip code: RTT-PRM004
Starting from
Price on request
Public retail pricing. Final quote confirms availability and inclusions.
Request quoteWhy this trip
FAQs
Answers are general public guidance. Your final itinerary, inclusions, pricing, and supplier conditions are confirmed during quotation.
Public prices are indicative retail guidance. Availability, seasonal adjustments, rooming, and final inclusions are confirmed when the team prepares your quote.
Many scheduled routes can be adapted with lodge, timing, or extension changes depending on availability and supplier rules.
Share travel dates, traveller count, rooming preferences, gateway city, and any must-see destinations or experiences so the team can respond efficiently.
Approved travel agents can log in for trade rates and partner resources. New agencies can apply through the Become an agent page.
Keep exploring
Compare similar routes before sending your enquiry.
Entebbe
private tailor made
Virunga Highlands Expedition is a 8-day Uganda and Rwanda journey designed around refined pacing, meaningful wildlife encounters and carefully selected lodges, with a route shaped around Entebbe, Lake Victoria, Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Bwindi.
8 Days / 7 Nights
Price on request
Plan this journey
Ask Rift & Tide Africa to shape Bwindi Gorilla Trail around your travel dates, preferred lodge level, permits and pace.
Route notes
Trip route
Follow the day-by-day flow of this itinerary across East Africa.
Entebbe International Airport
Day 01: Arrival in Entebbe & Shoebill Tracking
Entebbe
Day 02: Drive From Entebbe to Bwindi Via Kibale
Mapped stop
Day 03: Gorilla Trekking Excursion
Lake Mutanda
Day 04: Optional Activities
Entebbe
Day 05: Drive from Bwindi to Entebbe
Mapped stop
Itinerary
Our driver will pick you up from Entebbe International airport (15 minutes) and check you in at your hotel within Entebbe. You will meet with your gorilla trekking safari trip specialist for a briefing just before dinner.
Otherwise, we have optional activities around Entebbe to keep you active when you arrive early in the day. For example, birding around the botanical gardens, taking a walk to the markets, shopping, or a boat ride to Mabamba swamps to catch sight of the monstrous historical shoebill and hundreds of other rare African endemics.
You will stay at: Boutique Hotel Number 5 (Luxury) or Papyrus Guesthouse (Comfortable)
Your private driver guide for the entire journey will pick you up from your hotel early in the morning to fit the road by 6:30 am. The long drive from Entebbe to Kisoro takes about 9 hours on a smoothly surfaced road. The last leg on a dirt road takes about one and a half hours through some of the most spellbound landscape views up to the lodge.
You will stop for lunch en route at the traditional drum-making artists, the equator for Instagram moments. The driver will stop anywhere you hope to capture a great photography moment.
Stay details available on request.
Stay details available on request.
Featured stays
Specific lodges, rooms and camps are subject to availability. Where a named stay is unavailable, Rift & Tide Africa will recommend a property of comparable character, location and comfort level before confirmation.
Inclusions & Exclusions
Departures
Contact us for current departure dates and quotation-stage availability.
Good to know
private tailor made
Rwenzori Summit Challenge is a 9-day Uganda journey designed around refined pacing, meaningful wildlife encounters and carefully selected lodges, with a route shaped around Entebbe, Rwenzori Mountains.
9 Days / 8 Nights
Price on request
Entebbe
private tailor made
Rwenzori Foothills Trek is a 5-day Uganda journey designed around refined pacing, meaningful wildlife encounters and carefully selected lodges, with a route shaped around Entebbe, Rwenzori Mountains.
5 Days / 4 Nights
Price on request
Stay: Nkuringo Bwindi Gorilla Lodge
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner.
Your butler will ensure you are up and about by 7:00 am with a packed lunch, the right trekking gear, drinking water, and a walking stick. The Uganda gorilla trekking excursion briefing starts at 7:30 am at the visitor's centre.
8:00 am: Your tracking guide and two armed rangers will lead you and six other tourists into the rainforest to find a habituated gorilla group. Time spent tracking the gorillas is relative, but once you find them, you can observe them for about an hour from a respectful distance, following ranger guidance. Alternatively, you can observe the gorillas for about four hours if you book a gorilla habituation pass.
Your time in the forest cannot be pre-determined as every day differs from the previous. However, most trekkers are out of the jungle by 2:00 pm with a unforgettable memory.
We recommend a massage at the lodge spa when you return and a relaxing evening.
Stay: Nkuringo Bwindi Gorilla Lodge
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch (packed), and Dinner.
The fourth day of this short Uganda gorilla trekking safari has some optional activities to keep you active. Otherwise, you can chill at your forest cottage for a relaxing holiday.
Stay back at the lodge and relax, read a book, join a cooking class or take a walk around the property and talk to some locals.
Go back into the mysterious jungle to meet with the gorillas for a second time. Maybe join the rangers for the habituation experience that gives you more time with the gorillas. But remember, you must have pre-booked the trekking permit.
Drive down to Lake Mutanda for a traditional dug-out canoeing experience with some of the most enchanting views on the volcano lake.
Forest walk either on a Batwa Forest Trail or the Circular Trail through Bwindi Impenetrable Forest; this time not for gorillas but everything else ethereal about the jungle.
Go on a sundowner picnic on top of the world with 360-degree spellbinding views of the hilly landscapes. It is within walking distance from the lodge.
Stay: Nkuringo Bwindi Gorilla Lodge
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner.
After breakfast, prepare for your transfer and take another rural drive down the volcanic mountains through Kabale, Mbararararara town to Entebbe. Here, you can freshen up for your late flight or stay another night in the lakeshore town.
In Entebbe, you can use our facilities at Papyrus guest house to freshen up for your international flight back home. Accommodation for this day is not included, though. But we can book you a room at your request.
Optional accommodation: Papyrus Guesthouse
Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch (packed).
