DJCat

This is my first attempt at my itinerary. I am looking for go in either February or June (I am leaning towards June) 2015 (I like to plan early). Initially I was going to go to Tanzania and then just do gorillas but I have decided that I cannot miss out on the chimpanzees (and other primates) so will only do Uganda and possibly Rwanda. I will be travelling alone. Time is not a problem for me but unfortunately I am not rich so depending on the estimates I receive, somethings may need to be removed from the itinerary but this is my wish list.

Day 1 - Arrive Entebbe - O/N Airport Guest Hourse or Boma Guest Hourse
Day 2 - To Ngamba Island - Infant Integration - O/N Ngamba Island Tented Camp
Day 3 - Forest Walk - To Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary - PM Rhino Trek - O/N Amuka Lodge or Ziwa Cottages
Day 4 - To Murchison Falls NP - see top of falls - O/N Paraa or Nile Safari Lodge
Day 5 - Game drive in AM, Boat to falls in PM - O/N Paraa or Nile Safari Lodge
Day 6 - Game drives - O/N Paraa or Nile Safari Lodge
Day 7 - Game drive in AM - Stop at Boomu Women's Group - to Hoima - O/N Hotel Kontiki or ?
Day 8 - To Kibale - Swamp walk in PM - O/N kibale Forest Camp or Primate Lodge
Day 9 - Chimp Habituation - O/N kibale Forest Camp or Primate Lodge
Day 10 - To QE Park - Game drive in PM - O/N QE Bush Lodge or Mweya Safari Lodge
Day 11 - Game drive in AM - Kazinga Channel in PM - O/N QE Bush Lodge or Mweya Safari Lodge
Day 12 - Game drives - O/N QE Bush Lodge or Mweya Safari Lodge
Day 13 - To Bwindi via Ishasha - look for lions - O/N depends on gorilla group
Day 14 - Gorilla Trek - O/N depends on gorilla group

The next part is where I am undecided

Day 15 - Gorilla Trek - O/N depends on gorilla group
Day 16 - To Lake Mburo - Game drive in PM - O/N Arcadia Cottages
Day 17 - Walking safari in AM - Game drive in PM (or vise versa) - O/N Arcadia Cottages
Day 18 - To Entebbe - Day room or O/N Airport Guest Hourse - Fly Home

OR

Day 15 - To Rwanda - O/N Kingi Guest House or Mountain Gorilla View Lodge
Day 16 - Gorilla Trek - O/N Kingi Guest House or Mountain Gorilla View Lodge
Day 17 - Golden Monkey Trek - to Kigali - get a day room somewhere - Fly Home

Thanks for your help - Joanne

atravelynn

I can relate as I also usually go alone and have done the same Uganda/Rwanda activities you have here.

Day 1 - Arrive Entebbe - O/N Airport Guest Hourse or Boma Guest Hourse
Day 2 - To Ngamba Island - Infant Integration - O/N Ngamba Island Tented Camp
Day 3 - Forest Walk - To Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary - PM Rhino Trek - O/N Amuka Lodge or Ziwa Cottages

*******If you are forest walking on Ngamba and then getting to Ziwa in time for a rhino trek, that means you have 30-ish minimum boat transfer and about a 3.5 hour minimum drive between Ngamba and Ziwa. Both are fantastic outings, but ask for some timeframes here.


Day 4 - To Murchison Falls NP - see top of falls - O/N Paraa or Nile Safari Lodge
Day 5 - Game drive in AM, Boat to falls in PM - O/N Paraa or Nile Safari Lodge
Day 6 - Game drives - O/N Paraa or Nile Safari Lodge

*********Good, 3 nts is adequate time.

Day 7 - Game drive in AM - Stop at Boomu Women's Group - to Hoima - O/N Hotel Kontiki or ?
Day 8 - To Kibale - Swamp walk in PM - O/N kibale Forest Camp or Primate Lodge
Day 9 - Chimp Habituation - O/N kibale Forest Camp or Primate Lodge

*******Great that you are doing habituation

Day 10 - To QE Park - Game drive in PM - O/N QE Bush Lodge or Mweya Safari Lodge
Day 11 - Game drive in AM - Kazinga Channel in PM - O/N QE Bush Lodge or Mweya Safari Lodge
Day 12 - Game drives - O/N QE Bush Lodge or Mweya Safari Lodge

*******Since you have adequate time in QE, do one more morning Kazinga Channel trip. That’s the highlight of the place. PM is better light, but AM has more animal activity IMO, based on several channel trips.

Day 13 - To Bwindi via Ishasha - look for lions - O/N depends on gorilla group
Day 14 - Gorilla Trek - O/N depends on gorilla group

The next part is where I am undecided

Day 15 - Gorilla Trek - O/N depends on gorilla group

***************You have 2 gorilla visits. That’s what is important.

Day 16 - To Lake Mburo - Game drive in PM - O/N Arcadia Cottages
Day 17 - Walking safari in AM - Game drive in PM (or vise versa) - O/N Arcadia Cottages
Day 18 - To Entebbe - Day room or O/N Airport Guest Hourse - Fly Home

OR

Day 15 - To Rwanda - O/N Kingi Guest House or Mountain Gorilla View Lodge
Day 16 - Gorilla Trek - O/N Kingi Guest House or Mountain Gorilla View Lodge
Day 17 - Golden Monkey Trek - to Kigali - get a day room somewhere - Fly Home

****************
For variety of wildlife and quality of viewing, I like option #2. But I am certain #2 costs more. If you included the cost difference, that would help in deciding if the additional expense is worth it to you. Lake Mburo is not my 1st choice in an itinerary. There is a chance at the shoebill in Mburo, but Murch Falls offers a better chance.

If you think you may get back to Africa and go to Rwanda, then I’d make this trip a Uganda-only and the next trip a Rwanda-only. Plenty of good stuff in Rwanda beyond gorillas, such as Akagera and Nygwe, Never Again Memorial, Lake Kivu, etc.

If you have time and $ (and it appears $ is the constraint), I’d do 2 visits in Rwanda and 1 in Uganda.

Day 15 - To Rwanda - O/N Kingi Guest House or Mountain Gorilla View Lodge

Day 16 - Gorilla Trek - O/N Kingi Guest House or Mountain Gorilla View Lodge
Day 17 - - Gorilla Trek - O/N Kingi Guest House or Mountain Gorilla View Lodge
Day 18 - Golden Monkey Trek - to Kigali - get a day room somewhere - Fly Home


Or you could do 2 gorilla visits in Uganda and 1 in Rwanda to make the long trip to Bwindi more worthwhile.

Day 15 - Gorilla Trek - O/N depends on gorilla group
Day 16 - To Rwanda - O/N Kingi Guest House or Mountain Gorilla View Lodge
Day 17 - - Gorilla Trek - O/N Kingi Guest House or Mountain Gorilla View Lodge
Day 18 - Golden Monkey Trek - to Kigali - get a day room somewhere - Fly Home



However you tweak it, the trip looks great, lots of time to enjoy the unique and wonderful offerings of this area.

Leo_nep

Joanne,

You have a well planned itinerary. The only suggestion I would make is in regard to "Day 12 - Game drives - O/N QE Bush Lodge or Mweya Safari Lodge"

Since you will have done an afternoon game drive on Day 10 and a morning one on day 11, I think you could proceed to Ishasha on Day 12 and this will give you an extra day on your itinerary. After the gorilla trek in Bwindi, you could perhaps consider doing some activities in Mgahinga park like golden monkey trekking, hiking the virunga volcanoes or the Batwa Trail. You could also spend the day at Lake Bunyonyi or Lake Mutanda (my favorite spot in Uganda) for canoe trekking.

Leslie_S

Joanne - I might get "in trouble" for saying this but tripadvisor has a much more active Uganda forum and even though you've gotten good advice here you might also want to check in there to hear more. Maybe you already have.

On our trip everything (the drives mainly) took waaaay longer than we had estimated/been told they would. As atravelynn said on day 3, for ex, I don't think all off that can fit in one day.

It is good that you have 3 night stays some places. We mainly had 2 nights and felt very rushed. We liked Paraa a lot - even though it has more of a hotel feel than lodge.

Because of the long drives/bad roads several of the very nice lodges we stayed in made for too long of a "commute" during the day so the closer you can stay to whatever you're doing the better. So for ex., I don't know how far the QE Bush Lodge is from the action but we wished we stayed at Mweya when we saw how close it is to where we needed to be. Our lodge was lovely but over an hour away - that ate up valuable time on several runs back & forth when we could've been right there! So we ended up not even getting to enjoy the pretty lodges because we left them at dawn and got in just in time for dinner each night.

You look like you have a great itinerary and aren't rushing things. You'll love Uganda!

atravelynn

" we wished we stayed at Mweya when we saw how close it is to where we needed to be." ~Leslie_S

Agreed. I've always stayed at Mweya due to location, location, location. It is now a big, bustling lodge, which I see as a detraction but the location remains superb. If you can, avoid weekends because local people do weekend getaways to Mweya.

Not only is Mweya convenient for the Kazinga Channel boat launch, but the river views at sunrise/sunset are spectacular and the resident wildlife is abundant. I actually missed out on parts of my meals because I could not tear myself away from the mongoose or warthog families around the lodge.

"It is good that you have 3 night stays some places. We mainly had 2 nights and felt very rushed. We liked Paraa a lot - even though it has more of a hotel feel than lodge."
~Leslie_S

Both Mweya and Paraa are owned by the same company--Marasa. Both are a little more institutional than my preference but the locations are The Place to Be and where I'd go again.

DJCat

Thanks everyone, I will take all of your comments and suggestions on board. I guess my next step is to contact tour operators for quotes.

PS - I also posted on Trip Advisor but it's quite dead over there at the moment

loribarber1

Very cool that you are going to Uganda! My husband and I visited for 11 days in April. We went to many of the places on your itinerary (Entebbe, Queen Elizabeth National Park, Lake Mburo, and Bwindi for gorilla trek). I volunteer with a community tourism NGO there that arranges home stays with rural families. Here are a few thoughts and suggestions about your itinerary…

- Your itinerary covers many great areas of the country, but I’m wondering if you have too many stops spread over too wide an area. You may get burned out. Also, traveling by road in Uganda is not quick and some roads are not in good condition.

- Mweya Safari Lodge is great!

- A gorilla trek is an incredible experience. Be sure to reserve and buy your permit well in advance. In Bwindi we stayed at Sanctuary Gorilla Forest Camp.

- In Entebbe, don’t miss Uganda Wildlife Education Centre. You can do a regular visit or book a behind the scenes tour.

- Near Kampala, there’s a village, Bombo, that you can visit to meet the community and women’s handcraft group,
http://cobatiuganda.org/bombo-village/.

Here’s my trip report about the places we visited… http://latitudeb.com/uganda/

Feel free to contact me if I can answer any questions.

DJCat

Thanks Lori, that was a great trip report.

maryanneprotz

Just a little thought about your itenery,DJ cat

Getting ready for a gorilla trekking safari in Uganda or rwanda
Gorilla trekking trips just like any jungle safari in Africa
Secure your safari early enough to avoid inconvenience as the gorilla permits are few in the high seasons and also have in mind the increase in prices

With rising prices of gorilla permit it's time to book in peace of mind, so make sure your gorilla trekking safari in Uganda covered in advance.

Prices are rising so now is the best time Uganda has
Increased $100 more to the $500 with effect from 1st jan 2014 book a permit,
I and my husband did jst almost same itenery, in the first place thought of Mweya safari lodge but got a cheaper lodge at bush lodge which was not far for the early morning game drive, our guide suggested that lodge and we took it in which worked wonders for us. You can as well book a safari car and guide to take you around just like we did, there you command the trip, you can as well change your trip when on the road that’s if you don’t feel like going there or you can leave that out.. your guide will tell you and guide you to the best places to go or not to..,
In Bwindi, for the gorilla trecking gorilla safari camp wud be good for the nshongi group family to treck, its near the briefing point, …
You can contact the tour planners we travelled with at , with them you will pay for what you get, www.autorentaluganda.com, they will help you out on Uganda and Rwanda trips.

JohnBob

If you want a Uganda safari itinerary, you got to visit this website www.safaristouganda.com You will get all the safari itinerary you want. You can move from on to the other or ask for a tailor made itinerary and it will be done for you