15 Days Big Five Safari Gorilla, Chimp, and Wildlife

These 15 Days Uganda Big Five Adventure Safari starts and ends at Entebbe International Airport. Meet eye to eye with the amazing gorillas and chimpanzees of Uganda in their natural habitat, one of Africa’s major highlights. This close encounter with these amazing apes is simply breathtaking.

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Gorilla Trekking in Uganda

15 Days Uganda Big Five Adventure Safari Highlights

Detailed 15 Days Uganda Big Five Adventure Safari

Day 1 of 15 Days Uganda Big Five Adventure Safari: Arrival at Entebbe International Airport


Meet and greet at Entebbe International Airport where your Ugandan adventure safari starts with our representative who will warmly welcome you and facilitate seamless arrival formalities. Your will then be transferred to your hotel where you will be briefed about your adventure safari.

Depending on the time of arrival, you are advised to have money changed on this day. If time allows, you may go for the city tour with the help of our driver/guide. Visit the shopping malls around town and craft villages to get items that you may need while upcountry.

  • Accommodation: Papyrus Guest House
  • Meal Plan: Bed and breakfast.
  • Main Destination: Entebbe (City)

Day 2 of 15 Days Uganda Big Five Adventure Safari: Murchison Falls National Park

After your early morning breakfast drive northwest to Murchison Falls National Park. You may stopover at the Rhino Sanctuary for to trek rhinos. There are 15 rhinos that were reintroduced after their extinction in the 1970s through poaching.

A local ranger guide will lead you on foot to an up-close encounter with the rhinos and it may take about 1 and a half hours. Proceed to Masindi Town for lunch and later continue to Murchison Falls National Park arriving at your lodge late in the afternoon.

  • Accommodation: Fort Murchison (Room) – Mid-range lodge located just outside Murchison Falls NP
  • Meals & Drinks: All meals included, Drinking water (Other drinks not included).

Day 3 of 15 Days Uganda Big Five Adventure Safari: Game Drives and Launch Cruise


Arise very early in the morning for your game drive on the northern bank of River Nile in your open-roof vehicle which will give you an excellent opportunity to view and photograph the diverse wildlife. Your guide will help you spot elephant, lion, Cape buffalo, Rothschild’s giraffe, hartebeest, waterbuck, oribi, bushbuck, bohor reedbuck, hyena and if you are lucky, the leopard.

After lunch, go for a boat cruise upstream the calm Victoria Nile to the base of the falls stopping just few of meters from the ‘Devil’s Cauldron’. Marvel at the schools of hippos, crocodiles and over the 17km stretch you may see elephant, waterbuck and Uganda Kob. This is also the zone of many birds, species like Goliath heron, Egyptian goose, pelican bee-eater, kingfisher, hornbill, cormorant and the rare shoebill stork.

  • Accommodation: Fort Murchison – Mid-range lodge located just outside Murchison Falls NP
  • Meals & Drinks: All meals included, Drinking water (Other drinks not included)

Day 4 of 15 Days Uganda Big Five Adventure Safari: Kibale Forest National Park

After your morning breakfast, carry a packed lunch from the lodge and begin your journey to Kibale Forest National Park. Drive south via Hoima to Fort Portal through the verdant countryside passing through traditional homesteads, farms and tea estates. You will arrive at your lodge late in the afternoon. Check in at your lodge for dinner and an overnight stay.

  • Accommodation: Kibale Forest Camp, Mid-range tented camp located just outside Kibale NP
  • Meals & Drinks: All meals included, Drinking water (Other drinks not included).

Day 5 of 15 Days Uganda Big Five Adventure Safari: Kibale-Semiliki National Park


Depart early after breakfast for the hot springs tour. Enjoy a full day pursuing the Semliki Valley Wildlife Reserve. The park is dominated by the easternmost extension of the great Ituri Forest of the Congo Basin.

This is one of Africa’s most ancient and bio-diverse forests; one of the few that survived the last ice age, 12-18,000 years ago. Your guide will point out and explain the park’s diversity of wildlife and flora and fauna. The Sempaya hot springs are Semliki’s most famous attraction.

There’s a “male” spring, known as Bintente, measuring 12m in diameter and is set in a lush swampy clearing. The “female” spring Nyasimbi, meaning “the female ancestors”, is a boiling geyser (103°C) that spurts bubbling water and steam up to two meters high, the steam cloud can be seen from as far as 2km away. Local residents used to cook their food in these boiling pools.

  • Accommodation: Kibale Forest Camp – Mid-range tented camp located just outside Kibale NP
  • Meals & Drinks: All meals included, Drinking water (Other drinks not included)

Day 6 of 15 Days Uganda Big Five Adventure Safari: Chimp Trek Kibale

After breakfast at your lodge, transfer to the starting point of your chimpanzee tracking experience in Kibale Forest National Park which is reputed to have the greatest variety and highest concentration of primates in East Africa. The most famous of its 13 species is the chimpanzee, man’s closest relative. Kibale’s 1450 chimpanzees represent Uganda’s largest population of this endangered primate.

After lunch, head to Bigodi for an afternoon swamp walk at Bigodi which was established by a local development organization to protect the 4sq km Magombe Swamp that’s home to around 200 species of birds (highlights include papyrus gonolek, white-winged warbler and great blue turaco).

  • Accommodation: Kibale Forest Camp – Mid-range tented camp located just outside Kibale NP
  • Meals & Drinks: All meals included, Drinks not included.

Day 7 of 15 Days Uganda Big Five Adventure Safari: Kibale -Queen Elizabeth National Park


After breakfast at your lodge, you’ll proceed to Queen Elizabeth National Park following the mystical Rwenzori Mountain Range. Your expert driver guide will take you through the game park where you might spot some animals.

Upon arriving at your lodge, you will enjoy a hot lunch and later in the afternoon take a unique 2-hour boat cruise on the Kazinga Channel into Lake Edward. This trip passes through possibly the highest concentration of hippos and this launch/cruise offers an excellent platform for photography, bird watching and game viewing. The prolific bird life is colourful and stupendous, with well over 550 resident species.

  • Accommodation: Bush Lodge (Banda), Mid-range Banda located just outside Queen Elizabeth NP
  • Meals & Drinks: All meals included, Drinking water (Other drinks not included)

Day 8 of 15 Days Uganda Big Five Adventure Safari: Queen Elizabeth National Park

Queen Elizabeth National Park’s diverse eco-system of grassy plains, tropical forest, rivers, swamps, lakes and volcanic craters is home to an incredible abundance of wildlife. Have an early morning game drive where you have an opportunity to view the massive Rwenzori as a backdrop.

This provides excellent opportunities to spot lions, leopards, giant forest hogs, Cape buffalos, elephants, defassa waterbucks, Uganda kobs, topis and bushbucks. The game drives and the boat trip (taken prior) are memorable methods of discovering a vast array of Ugandan wildlife. Be sure to have your camera ready for these amazing sightings!

Have an afternoon nature walk up to crater lakes of twin lakes hunters’ cave where we take a close look at the bats, rock python and forest cobras. The same walk will provide a chance of seeing birds, primates, tree species etc. Return to the lodge for dinner and your last overnight stay.

  • Accommodation: The Bush Lodge (Banda) – Mid-range banda located just outside Queen Elizabeth NP
  • Meals & Drinks: All meals included, Drinking water (Other drinks not included)

Day 9 of 15 Days Uganda Big Five Adventure Safari: Ishasha Tree-Climbing Lions


After your early morning breakfast, pack your bags up and transfer to Ishasha Plains, a sector in Queen Elizabeth. Enjoy the wilderness and its inhabitants that are highlighted by Uganda’s tree-climbing lions as well as numerous birds and more mammals. Dinner and your overnight.

  • Accommodation: Enjojo Lodge (Cottage) – Mid-range lodge located in or near Ishasha
  • Meals & Drinks: All meals included, Drinking water (Other drinks not included).

Day 10 of 15 Days Uganda Big Five Adventure Safari: Queen Elizabeth National Park – Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

After your early morning breakfast, pack your bags up and drive through Ishasha plains for your final visit with the tree-climbing lions and other wildlife. Head out of Queen Elizabeth National Park and into Bwindi.

The drive takes you through the Switzerland of Africa area known as the Kigezi Highlands with its terraced hillside and winding roads to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. You will be arriving in the evening.

  • Accommodation: Gorilla Mist Camp – Mid-range lodge bordering Bwindi NP without fences
  • Meals & Drinks: All meals included, Drinking water (Other drinks not included)

Day 11 of 15 Days Uganda Big Five Adventure Safari: Gorilla Trekking


After an early breakfast, depart to the starting point for briefing about your gorilla trekking adventure after which you will be led by experienced gorilla trackers on the slopes of the volcanoes. You will start from the site where the gorillas were encountered the day before and from here the gorilla tracking begins.

Although the hike can be physically demanding, the anticipation of the exciting experience ahead is amazing, and the beauty of the gorilla forest and its inhabitants are fascinating. One of Africa’s major highlights is when you encounter these gentle apes. It is a humbling experience to stand just meters from man’s distant cousins as they eat rest, play and bond with their young ones.

  • Accommodation: Gorilla Valley Lodge – Mid-range lodge bordering Bwindi NP without fences
  • Meals & Drinks: Meals at own expense, Drinks not included.

Day 12 of 15 Days Uganda Big Five Adventure Safari: Bwindi Impenetrable National Park – Lake Bunyonyi

After breakfast drive to Lake Bunyonyi which has breathtaking scenery. Spend the night overlooking Uganda deepest lake, where you may try your hand at paddling a dugout canoe or eating freshwater crayfish.

  • Accommodation: Bunyonyi   Rock resort – Mid-range resort located in or near Lake Bunyonyi
  • Meals & Drinks: All meals included, Drinks not included

Day 13 of 15 Days Uganda Big Five Adventure Safari: Lake Bunyonyi-Lake Mburo National Park


After breakfast at 8.00 am, you will travel to Lake Mburo National Park, the smallest national park of Uganda. Though being small, it has a lot to offer. Centred on a series of swamp-fringed lakes its birdlife is very rich.

You will arrive at the lodge in time for lunch. Later in the afternoon at 4:00 pm, enjoy the, evening game drive later return to your lodge.

  • Accommodation: Rwakobo Rock – Mid-range lodge located just outside Lake Mburo NP.
  • Meals & Drinks: All meals included, Drinks not included.

Day 14 of 15 Days Uganda Big Five Adventure Safari: Walk in Lake Mburo-Jinja

After breakfast, have a safari walk under the escort of an armed ranger. The Kopjes are particularly interesting with the camouflage klipspringers and topis. Due to cattle herding in the area, it is amusing to see zebra grazing alongside the long-horned Ankole cattle peaceably. It is exciting to approach wildlife at such close range.

Later drive to Jinja with a stopover at the Equator for water experience, here you will too have an opportunity to stand in 2 hemispheres at the same time. Take some photos, then another stopover at the Mpigi Royal Drum Makers where you will be able to watch the ceremonial drums being crafted using methods passed down through the generations arriving in the afternoon.

  • Accommodation: Nile River Camp – Budget tented camp located in or near Jinja
  • Meals & Drinks: All meals included, Drinks not included

Day 15 of 15 Days Uganda Big Five Adventure Safari: Source of the Nile -Departure


Arise early in the morning to enjoy rays of sunlight spreading on the green canopy and grasses that fringe the source of the Nile. Have your breakfast and lead to the source of the Nile for a morning of memorable boat cruise that will lead you to the Napoleon Gulf, where the Nile River starts to travel Miles through Sudan – Egypt leading finally to the Mediterranean Sea. While at the source of the Nile, view the Mahatima Ghadi Monument as well John Hamming Speke Monument where he stood to point where the Nile starts to spread to Mile. You may try to sample some fish at your expense while at the source of the Nile.

Have early lunch in a selected restaurant in town or at the hotel and proceed to Entebbe Airport with a stopover at Mabira Roadside market for a barbaque of roasted chicken and gonja all at your expense. Proceed straight to the airport to catch your onward flight to your next destination.

  • Main Destination: Entebbe (City)
  • Accommodation: No accommodation (End of tour)
  • Meals & Drinks: Breakfast (Lunch & dinner not included), Drinks not included.

End of 15 Days Uganda Big Five Adventure Safari

  • Important to Know
  • Rates are per person and exclude the international flight from/to your home country.
  • This tour accepts children who are 15 years and older.
15 Days Uganda Big Five Safari

Gorilla Trekking in Uganda

15 Days Uganda Big Five Adventure Safari Inclusions and Exclusions

Package Include:

  • Park fees (For non-residents).
  • Gorilla permits (One per person, non-resident)
  • Chimp permits (One per person, non-resident).
  • All activities (Unless labelled as optional)
  • All accommodation (Unless listed as upgrade).
  • A professional driver/guide
  • All transportation (Unless labelled as optional).
  • All Taxes/VAT
  • Round trip airport transfer
  • Meals (As specified in the day-by-day section)
  • Drinks (As specified in the day-by-day section).

Package Exclude:

  • International flights (From/to home).
  • Additional accommodation before and at the end of the tour.
  • Tips (Tips)
  • Personal items (Souvenirs, travel insurance, visa fees, etc.)
  • Government imposed increase of taxes and/or park fees.