The Primate Express

Destination: Entebbe
Drive: 10 km | 0.5 hour

Arrival at Entebbe Airport, a lovely, gentle town, situated at Lake Victoria. It is worth spending an extra day in Entebbe. Things to do in this little tropical place: swimming at Lake Victoria Hotel, rent a little Laser sailboat at the Entebbe Sailing Club, visit the Botanical gardens, go to Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary or Mabamba Swamp.

Accommodation options:

Budget / Mid-Range: Via Via Guesthouse
Deluxe: The Boma Hotel

Restaurants: the Boma Hotel, or eat fresh fish and great pizza at Gorreti’s, with your feet in the white sands viewing Lake Victoria. Carpe Diem guesthouse has delicious shakes.

Start: Entebbe
Destination: Lake Mburo National Park
Drive: 225 km | 6+ hours

Your roadtrip adventure starts today. From Entebbe, take the express highway toward Kampala. At Busega roundabout, you take the last exit to join the Kampala - Masaka, Mbarara road. 

Its a smooth and scenic ride to Lake Mburo National Park.Covered with extensive acacia woodlands, this park is one of the best places in the country to enjoy a walking safari and see the giant eland antelope, zebras and leopards. 

Accommodation options:
Budget: Eagle's Nest
Mid-range / Deluxe: Rwakobo Rock

Enjoy: Lake Mburo National Park

Enjoy a day in the park. With no dangerous predators such as lions, Lake Mburo is the best place to go on a guided safari by foot, bike or horseback. Moreover, this is one of the few national parks in Africa allowing night game drives, which give you the chance to see some of the rare nocturnal animals like the mongoose, hyena, leopard and serval cat.

Start: Lake Mburo National Park
Destination: Lake Mutanda
Drive: 225 km | 6+ hours

Drive to the Kigezi Highlands, perhaps the most fertile and scenic region of Uganda. A landscape of expansive blue lakes, steep terraced slopes and dormant volcanoes. Lake Bunyonyi and Lake Mutanda are great places to stay. Read more about Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. 

Accommodation options:
Budget / Mid-range / Deluxe: Mutanda Lake Resort

Enjoy: Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park

Rise and shine. You will probably be getting up in the dark for an experience of a lifetime! Today you will be trekking the rare mountain gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. Bwindi’s mist-covered, forested hills protect an estimated 320 mountain gorillas, roughly half of the global population. This includes 11 habituated groups which can be tracked. You will start from Rushaga or Nkuringo.

Read more about gorilla trekking here.

Enjoy: Lake Mutanda

Plenty of activities can be arranged from Mutanda Lake Resort. You can do a culture walk, visiting a primary school, farm and local medicine man. Enjoy a ride in a dugout canoe as the local fisherman do, master one of the Virunga Volcanoes, go bird spotting (this is a superb birding watching area), or standup paddling and finish off the day with a sunset boat ride on the serene lake.

Check the Mutanda Lake Resort website for more information. 

Enjoy: Queen Elizabeth National Park

Enjoy another day in the park. Boat trips on the Kazinga Channel offer great game viewing, as do game drives around Mweya and the Northern Circuit. The Kyambura Gorge harbors habituated chimps, the Maramamgambo Forest is home to many forest monkeys and flamingos abound in the dozens of crater lakes. 

Start: Queen Elizabeth National Park
Destination: Kibale National Park
Drive: 125 km |  2½ + hours

Drive to Kibale Forest near the pleasant town of Fort Portal. Kibale is a 800 km2 tropical rainforest, home to 13 primate species and an impressive range of birds.  

Accommodation options:
Budget / Mid-range: Kibale Forest Camp.
Deluxe: Papaya Lodge

Enjoy: Kibale National Park

Kibale Forest is a nature lover’s paradise, with its sublime bird watching and chimpanzee trekking. As well as chimps, many other primate species abound in Kibale. Chimpanzee trekking is a half-day activity starting either early in the morning or just after lunch. A field of beautiful crater lakes lies between Fort Portal and the Forest which are perfect for a swim or exploration on foot.

Start: Kibale National Park
Destination: Kampala
Drive: 300 km | 5½ + hours

A smooth paved road passing through lush matoke (banana) plantations brings you to Kampala,  where you will find a thriving dining and nightlife scene with a pleasant vibe. We're happy to recommend some good places to eat and drink before you hand over your car in Kampala.

Want to read more about this Primate Express itineary? Life long traveller and roadtripper Patricija, wrote a detailed travel guide about her 12 day itineary in Uganda. 

Accommodation option:
Budget: Bush Pig 
Mid-range / Deluxe: the Yellow Haven Guesthouse 

Enjoy: Kampala

Depending on your return flight you have time to visit some highlights of Kampala:

• Explore Kampala on the back of a boda boda (motorbike taxi) and learn about Kampala’s history and scenic places. We recommend 2 Friends Boda Tours.
• Visit Ghadaffi Mosque located on Old Kampala Hill.
• Visit the Baháí Temple.
• Enjoy a traditional cultural dance show at Ndere Centre, Ntinda.
  Shows are on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Highly recommended!
• Visit the largest secondhand clothing market Uganda: Owino Market.