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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
For adventurers with less time on holiday or those connecting their journey with a wildlife safari in Kenya, Tanzania or South Africa, the 5-day short luxury gorilla safari in Uganda is the perfect, once-in-a-lifetime off-the-beaten-track holiday expedition.
The trip starts in Entebbe, a scheduled domestic flight takes you across the southwestern terraced and highland landscape to a luxurious forest lodge on the edge of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. You will spend three nights in a forest cottage with spellbinding views of the Virunga Volcanoes, the rugged Rift Valley, and the steamy forest canopy. On the second day, you will be guided into the pristine jungle to find a mountain gorilla family and spend one electrifying hour silently observing their evolutionary life.
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-PRM001
Starting from
Price on request
Public retail pricing. Final quote confirms availability and inclusions.
Request quoteWhy this trip
Route notes
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 Wings to the Gorillas around your travel dates, preferred lodge level, permits and pace.
Trip route
Follow the day-by-day flow of this itinerary across East Africa.
Entebbe International Airport
Day 01: Arrival in Entebbe & Shoebill Tracking
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park
Day 02: Fly from Entebbe to Kisoro
Mapped stop
Day 03: Gorilla Trekking
Lake Mutanda
Day 04: Optional Activities
Entebbe International Airport
Day 05: Fly from Kisoro to Entebbe
Itinerary
Arrive at Entebbe International airport, complete arrival formalities before the Rift & Tide Africa driver will pick you up from the airport and transfer you to your hotel in Entebbe. (15 minutes)
There are optional activities around Entebbe to engage your curiosity if you arrive early in the day, like birding around the botanical gardens or just taking a walk among these internationally acclaimed bio-diverse gardens. Many birders visit Mabamba swamps to catch sight of the monstrous historical shoebill and hundreds of other rare African endemics.
You may prefer a walk to the local market or fish market to find out a little bit about Uganda's urban culture.
You will stay at: Boutique Hotel Number 5 (Luxury) or Papyrus Guesthouse (Comfortable)
You will catch an early morning domestic flight from Entebbe to Kisoro to kick off your short gorilla safari in Uganda's Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. The one-hour flight goes over Lake Victoria, beautiful central plains, into the rolling hills of the southwest region with cultivated terraces, tropical rainforest, bamboo forest, and the majestic chain of the Virunga Volcanoes. Our driver will pick you up from Kisoro airstrip and transfer you to the lodge.
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
In the afternoon, you can walk the Batwa Forest Trail in Buniga Forest, a pocked forest close to the lodge. The Batwa people showcase their ancient cultural tales, hunting and survival skills on the trail.
Alternatively, from Kisoro airport, join our walking safari guide in Kisoro Town for a community walk, canoeing excursion on Lake Mutanda, and nature hike through communities & cultivated garden trails.
It is an immersive off-the-beaten-track walking adventure connecting you with the local people and environments. It takes you to some of the most incredible scenes of rugged southwestern Uganda. The walking safari takes about 4-5 hours to Lake Mutanda, where the driver will pick you up for lunch before continuing to your night's stay at the lavish Nkuringo Lodge.
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. Excursion briefing starts at 7:30 am at the visitor's centre.
By 8:00 am, your tracking guide and rangers will lead you and six other tourists into the rainforest to find a habituated gorilla group. Two armed rangers will come along for your safety from wild animals. The trail-clearing guide is your tracker that creates a usable path through the thick jungle to the gorillas.
Once you have found the gorillas, you will be allowed to observe them for an hour from a respectful distance, following ranger guidance.
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.
Stay: Nkuringo Bwindi Gorilla Lodge
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner.
This day is left deliberately flexible, with optional experiences shaped around your energy level and interests.
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 for a more extended stay, we like to call the habituation experience. 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 on a 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 early in the morning and take another rural drive down the volcanic mountains to the lower Kisoro airstrip for your local scheduled flight to Entebbe International airport.
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 discretion.
Optional accommodation: Papyrus Guesthouse
Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch.
