Ultimate Uganda Travel

Although it was once synonymous with Idi Amin, these days Uganda has a different headline act: the mountain gorillas that roam Uganda’s dense jungle interior. The dark days of dictatorship are long gone and a spell in this mesmerising country will make your heart beat faster for all the right reasons.

Uganda doesn’t do things by halves and there is a smorgasbord of heavyweight attractions – the source of the Nile, the highest mountain range in Africa, the world’s most powerful waterfall and, of course, opportunities to come face to face with one of the most awesome creatures on earth: the mountain gorilla.

When to go

Uganda is warm all year round. Temperatures range between 21-26ºC but are tempered by altitude – up high it’s far chillier. There are two rainy seasons – March-May and mid-September-November, which are best avoided if you plan to hike or camp.

International airports

Entebbe (EBB) 35 km from Kampala.

When to go

Accommodation

Throughout Uganda accommodation to suit all tastes and budgets is easy to come by. The local lingo can be confusing – self-contained means an en suite hotel and in Swahili hoteli refers to a restaurant.

Upmarket hotels and swanky bush lodges come equipped with en suites, mosquito nets, TVs and air conditioning or fans. Budget hotels are of a reasonable standard and usually have en suites, mosquito nets, fans and running water.

At the lowest end of the spectrum are guesthouses – rather insalubrious rooms set around a courtyard with shared toilets. Numerous organised campsites can also be found.

Food & drink

Food is simple, cheap and filling. Meals usually consist of rice, chapatti, ugali (maize porridge) or matoke (cooked plantain) with a meat or chicken stew. Everything can be flavoured with groundnut sauce. Kampala offers greater variety if Ugandan cuisine doesn’t float your boat.

Vegetarians don’t fare well unless they make a beeline for Indian eateries. Chai (sweet tea) is widely drunk and the best beer is Nile Special.

Choose from luxurious new lodges located in various national parks throughout the country.

“Put a stick in the ground and it will grow,” they say of the heart of Africa. From papyrus wetlands and semi-arid savannas to gorilla trekking in mist-shrouded forests and marvelling at alpine flora on snowcapped Mountains of the Moon—the nickname for the Rwenzori Mountain—Uganda offers wilderness in the raw, and in 2025 travellers will experience it in style.

Gorilla Forest Camp, an A&K sanctuary in the heart of the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park—home to more than half the world’s mountain gorilla population—has always offered unparalleled access, but in April 2025, it will open with a gorgeous new design after a complete rebuild.

Also entirely reimagined and slated to open in early 2025 is neighbouring Silverback Lodge, offering 12 sumptuously furnished “nests” by award-winning Hesse Kleinloog studio (responsible for Rwanda’s Singita Kwitonda).

From either location, it’s fairly easy to tack on a stop in Kibale Forest National Park, and Volcanoes Safaris’ newly launched Kibale Lodge is an excellent reason to do so. At the end of 2025, you’ll also be able to base yourself at Lake Nyamirima Cottages, 30 minutes away, with views of surrounding crater lakes.

A game changer for the underrated Queen Elizabeth National Park is the opening of the River Station, the new luxury camp built by Wildplaces Africa on the banks of the Kazinga Channel. Wild Places is also busy in Murchison Falls National Park (MFNP) with Kulu Ora opening on a remote new concession on the banks of the Nile around Spring 2025.

Elsewhere in MFNP, Pabidi Lodge, Budongo will be built by Great Lakes Safaris in their Budongo Forest conservancy, on the site of a former Jane Goodall research centre.

And with Uganda Airlines’ new direct flight from Gatwick to Entebbe, getting here, at least for UK visitors, is now a cinch. Karibu sana (or “welcome”).

How to plan it: Gorilla trekking is a little easier in drier seasons (December to February; June to August), but Uganda is essentially a year-round destination. Multiple airlines fly to Entebbe, but to reach Bwindi’s southern sector (the only place you can book a four-hour habituation gorilla trek), you may want to consider flying into Kigali in neighbouring Rwanda and transferring by car.