Accessing Bwindi National Park from Entebbe, Kampala, Rwanda and QENP
Accessing Bwindi National Park from Entebbe, Kampala, Rwanda and QENP : Bwindi National Park is one the most popular game parks in Uganda and East Africa. This park is home to over half the world’s population of mountain gorillas and one of the four parks in the world with mountain gorillas.
Bwindi National Park receives about 10,000 visitors or more, who engage in mountain gorilla trekking activities, birding sprees, hiking, and mountain climbing adventures among other activities. However the most sought after safari activity in the park is mountain gorilla trekking.
Mountain gorilla trekking is the experience of trekking the mountainous and forested gorilla habitat in search of mountain gorillas. In Bwindi National Park, mountain gorilla trekking is done every day all throughout the year.
On mountain gorilla trekking experiences, the trekkers spend one hour in the presence of the mountain gorillas when they find them and the spend the rest of the time trekking up and down the mountainous forest.
In Bwindi National Park, mountain gorilla trekking takes about 6 to 9 hours depending on how far deep the mountain gorillas are in the forest and which sector of the park you have trekked. Bwindi National Park, has four sectors namely Buhoma, Nkuringo, Rushaga and Ruhija; each sector offers are different experience. Some sectors are easier to trek than others.
Mountain gorilla trekking permits for trekking in Bwindi National Park cost USD 700.
Getting to Bwindi National Park
Bwindi National Park is located about 9 to 10 hours from Uganda’s capital Kampala and can be accessed from the capital or Entebbe international airport either by road or air. Bwindi National Park is located in south western Uganda, so it can also be accessed from Rwanda as Uganda borders Uganda to the south west.
By Road
Getting to Bwindi National Park by road can either be from Entebbe, Kampala, Queen Elizabeth National Park or Rwanda.
- From Entebbe or Kampala
From Entebbe to Kampala, you will travel for 9 to 10 hours to the park is via the Kampala-Masaka-Mbarara highway. As started the park has four sectors so the location of the sector you are trekking will determine whether the travel time is above, exact or below the 9 to 10 hours.
- From Rwanda
If you are in Rwanda, you can still access Bwindi National Park and this is a shorter route compared to Kampala/Entebbe to Bwindi. You will travel from any part you are at in Rwanda, most probably Kigali to the Uganda- Rwanda Border at Katuna or Cyinika. From the Uganda-Rwanda border, you then proceed to Bwindi National Park which is about 90 to 120 mins from the border. The whole travel journey will be 4 or 5 hours.
- From Queen Elizabeth National Park
Queen Elizabeth National park is about 2 to 3 hours north of Bwindi National Park. Acessing Bwindi National Park from Queen Elizabeth National park means you will be in QENP prior to travelling to Bwindi. This works best when you have a combined trip to Bwindi and QENP. You will travel from QENP through the Ishasha sector where you will even sight tree climbing lions all the way to Buhoma sector in Bwindi National Park.
By Air
You can choose to fly to the park, which is a 1 hour/ 45 min flight from Kajansi airfield near Entebbe to the 3 three airfields near Bwindi National Park; the airfields are Kihiihi plus Kayonza and Nyakabande. A drive from any of these airfields to Bwindi National park is about 60 to 90 minutes; the total travel time by air is therefore about 2 hours to 2 and half hours.
