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Juan Pedro
ES
Visited:
October 2023
Reviewed: Nov 19, 2023
Email Juan Pedro | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
The pearl of Africa is true, it is not a cliché
You can't miss the gorilla trekking or the impressive Murchison National Park!!. The people are very friendly and usually help you. However, the food is not very varied.
Kyle
US
Visited:
September 2023
Reviewed: Oct 3, 2023
Email Kyle | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Fun trip, great people, beautiful country, ride bodas at your own risk!
Jen picked me up from the airport and Abdul was there early the next morning to begin the journey.
Abdul with Peak Cruise Safaris did an excellent job guiding the tour through Murchison Falls. In two short days we saw plenty of elephants and giraffe, and even spotted some hyena and a leopard. He also found some great spots to eat and get coffee on the way there and back. Try the offal!
Abdul has been doing this for over twenty years, and is very good at what he does, but be prepared for fast driving including through pedestrian areas. Winding through swarms of boda-bodas can be a shock for anyone not used to driving in congested cities in developing countries.
If you choose to ride the bodas they are fun and affordable but certainly a risky endeavor. Wild Coffee in Kampala is a fun place and apparently does slam poetry on Mondays. The
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zoo in Entebbe is a great spot to get up close to any animals you may have missed on Safari. (They even have tigers so you can tell people you saw a tiger in Africa).Overall, Uganda and Peak Cruise Safaris is Highly recommended.
Cheng Sung Hua
TW
Visited:
July 2023
Reviewed: Aug 8, 2023
Email Cheng Sung Hua | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Wildlife good
For wildlife , is good
For Food , soso
For people is good
For price . Is too expensive
Gary Kenny
NZ
Visited:
June 2023
Reviewed: Jul 6, 2023
Email Gary Kenny | 65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Great wildlife, friendly people, good value
Our driver guide was very very good, did everything with us in mind, getting us good positions and locations when ever possible. Chimp tracking and mountain gorilla tracking were the obvious highlights. Weather in June means the end of the rainy season, and while we had a couple of huge cloudbursts, they were over in short period of time. June would appear to be a very good time to visit Uganda. The country appears to be safe as a tourist destination, and at no time were we threatened or felt unsafe. A very enjoyable experience.
Joe van Den Berg
ZA
Visited:
May 2023
Reviewed: Jun 12, 2023
Email Joe van Den Berg | 65+ years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Birding and primates destination
Uganda is a safe destination. Is has a true African vibe. Friendly and welcoming to tourists.
If you are into birding and if you want to see a big variety of primates, Uganda is a good option. Gorilla trekking is expensive and too commercialized.
General game viewing is Ok, but there are many counties like Sout-Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Zambia where game is more abundant and much cheaper to experience.
Karin Aalbers
NL
Visited:
April 2023
Reviewed: Apr 18, 2023
Email Karin Aalbers | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Beautiful country, specially the area close to DRC / Rwanda, lots of mountains and volcanoes
Really like uganda. We have travelled 1,5 years through about 40 different african countries.
Highlight were seeing the gorillas in Bwindi NP ($700 permit, around 850 through an agency with transport) and the chimps in Kalinzu ($40pp).
We’ve been to Murchinson NP but after seeing a lot of national parks, this is not a highlight. The rivercruise doesn’t bring you close to the waterfall and the boat stays to far from the shore to see much. The hike to the waterfalls is nice.
We didn’t go to queen elizabeth national park, was too expensive for us $150 in our overlandtruck.
Very nice people, different sceneries, great campsites (see I overlander app)
Hannele
FI
Visited:
January 2023
Reviewed: Feb 3, 2023
Email Hannele | 65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Very interesting place to visit.
We traveled to Uganda in January to make a tour for two weeks with Maraka Tours and Safaris. We visited seven national parks and saw lots of interesting animals, especially birds, and plants. One of the highlights was watching shoebills in Mabamba swamp. We saw two of them and many other birds. Gorilla trekking was also quite an experience even though it was very hard to walk up and down in the muddy environment. Chimpanzees were also exciting to see in their own environment. All the birds: hornbills, turacoos, kingfishers, bee-eaters, storks, egrets, herons and many others were also breathtaking. In the last day of our safari we visited Rhino Sanctuary which was also a great experience. And wonderful butterflies in many places. The lodges we stayed in were mostly very nice and clean and the personnel very friendly and helpful. Weather was in Southern Uganda quite pleasant, in Northern part very hot. We were taked good care of and felt safe in all places.
Jiri Machacek
CZ
Visited:
July 2022
Reviewed: Sep 26, 2022
Email Jiri Machacek | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Uganda is an interesting safari destination but its wildlife is obviously under a great pressure
For such people Kenya/Tanzania are better options.
Uganda is about some special animal (shoebill, chimps, gorillas, other primates, birds) and special landscape (lakes, Virunga, Ruwenzori, a margin of Congo rainforest basin) targets.
We knew that, we are strongly oriented to wildlife but anyway - Uganda was a partial (with the focus on PARTIAL) disappointment.
When I was a child the classical Ugandan national parks like Murchison Falls and Queen Elisabeth were symbols of the African wildlife beauty. They are still here but obviously under a great poaching pressure and some parts of QE (esp. Ishasha sector) are simply dying ecosystems. Without any change in NP management Uganda can expect even further decrease of safari visitors.
There were also 2 and 1/2 disappointments with the activities which were expected to be the Uganda safari
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highlights:* Disappointment 1 : chimpanzee trekking in Kibale - IMO this is a cheat from definition - this is no trekking but cca an hour of standing in a dark forest and staring at a chimpanzee back high and far in the trees. I can understand it is made as it is possible but with all the marketing and for the price (a half of the gorilla permit) ... ? But I do believe that for chimps is Kibale a good place to live. Which is a good message.
* Disappointment 2 : tree-climbing lions in Ishasha/QENP - we saw just one older cub which was seriously and repeatedly injured (the older injury from poacher snares, the fresh new injury - as we were told - made by an aggressive male lion ). Add the evening/night shooting at elephants (to keep them out of the crop fields) and the fact that one half (really) of Ishasha sector is completely burnt down. A depressive place.
* 1/2 of Disappointment : gorilla trekking in Bwindi - this is no cheat (compared with chimps trekking in Kibale), it is a real rainforest trekking crowned with gorillas observation from a close distance - we spent a half an hour with a female and cca 10-month-old baby (nice) and we could hear other group members (incl. silverback) in the undergrowth nearby. But when the female with her baby was leaving we were told by our leader guide we could not to continue in observation because of a wasp nest (it was really there but it was there all the time and could be easily bypassed when trying to follow gorillas which were apparently nearby). So we finished our session after a half an hour and returned to the base where we were waiting another half an hour until the "easy group" returned (we were the "medium group"). I suppose the gorilla trekking is no cheat from definition (as I suppose the chimps trekking in Kibale is) but we simply had a hard luck with our leader guide. You didn't travel so long distance and didn't spend so much money to skip a half of the activity for such a vague reason.
But there were also very good points in our Uganda safari tour :
* shoebill in Mabamba swamps
* rhinos trekking in Ziwa RS
* Nile delta boat cruise (private small boat)
* giant forest hogs close to Buffalo lodge/QE
* Kazinga channel boat cruise (private small boat)
* Golden monkey trekking in Mgahinga NP (by far best of the primate trekking)
* Lake Mulehe birding (private small boat)
* Lake Bunyonyi birding (private small boat)
* birding !!!
And the trip organization by Africa Adventure Vacations was excellent. The tour was discussed and planned with Robert and we were guided with Ceasar and Daphne. I can highly recommend all of them, the tour organization was simply great and we would like to thank them once more at this place.
To sum up - I'm far from being sure to visit Uganda again but if we do that we'll ask Africa Adventure Vacations (Robert, Ceasar, Daphne) to organize our trip again.
Sarah
AU
Visited:
July 2022
Reviewed: Aug 31, 2022
Email Sarah | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Beautiful green lush country with friendly people
After spending some time in Kenya (dry and rough in most places), it was refreshing to travel through Uganda for a few days. The landscape was breathtaking, so many green hills - not to mention the incredible Bwindi Forest where we had the opportunity to see Silver Back Gorillas in the wild! The roads were much better than in Kenya, and the people were friendly - especially towards women who seem to be well respected in the Ugandan society. The amount of wild life can't compete with Kenya's huge & abundant national parks though. Overall I had a lovely time in Uganda and I'd be happy to return!
Mariana Pereira
ES
Visited:
January 2020
Reviewed: Jan 25, 2020
Email Mariana Pereira | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Amazing experience watching the gorillas in their natural habitat
The accommodation, the food and the guides were pretty good! We had a great time!