Best tours in Uganda
Best tours in Uganda : Uganda is a diverse country when it comes to tourism. She is one of the best tourism destinations on the continent with a variety of wildlife, culture to learn, waterbodies and beautiful landscapes among others. The country has a variety of tours all classified as primate, safari, hiking, water or cultural tours to thrill while on Uganda safaris.
Primate tours
Primate tours in Uganda are one of the most revered tours in the country. Uganda boasts of 20 primate species including gorillas, golden monkeys and chimpanzees which are the most trekked. Mountain gorillas are only found in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and Mgahinga National Park while golden monkeys can only be trekked at Mgahinga National Park. Chimpanzee trekking on the hand is mostly done in Kibale National Park that is home to 1500 chimpanzees and in other places like Budongo forest, Kalinzu forest and Kyambura forest.
Cultural tours
As a big part of Uganda, cultural tours are one of the tourist attractions in the country. Most of these tours are combined or done with the others like the safari, primate, hiking and water tours. The Batwa trail is mostly done alongside gorilla trekking in Mgahinga or Bwindi for example. Other tours are a visit to the nomadic pastoralists mostly done alongside a safari tour in Kidepo or a water and hiking tour in Sipi, visits to the various kingdoms like the Buganda and Tooro kingdoms and the communities around the crater lakes among others.
Safari tours
Safari tours are one of the biggest in Uganda as the country has 10 national parks. These parks have a variety of wildlife with most of them a home to the BIG 4- lion, elephant, buffalo and the leopard which makes them more interesting.
The national parks include Bwindi Impenetrable National Park that is home to half of the remaining population of mountain gorillas in the world, Mgahinga National Park the home of golden monkeys and a mountain gorilla family and Kibale National Park the primate hub of the world. Kidepo National Park, Queen Elizabeth National Park the home of climbing lions and Murchison falls National Park all home to the big five, Lake Mburo National Park, Rwenzori Mountains National Park, Mountain Elgon National Park and Semiliki Wildlife Reserve.
Apart from their main wildlife, all these parks have other attractions that tag tourists along. Kidepo for example offers game drives and over 400 bird species, Queen Elizabeth is home to the famous Uganda Kob and Murchison falls offers a boat ride at the Nile and a hike of the Murchison falls.
Water tours
With 20% of her land mass occupied by water, Uganda is one of the best places for water tours and sports. She is home to one of the biggest lakes in the world; Lake Victoria and the second longest river in the world; the Nile River. Other major waterbodies include Lake Kyoga, Lake George, Lake Albert, Lake Mburo, Lake Wamala, Lake Bunyonyi and Rivers Kagera, Rwizi, Sezibwa and Katonga. Boat rides are however mainly on Lake Victoria, The Nile River and the Kazinga channel that joins Lakes Edward and George. Other water activities like tubing and rafting are mainly done on The Nile River.
Hiking tours
With mountains on both the east and western borders of the country, Uganda is inevitably one of the places to go hiking. Do not come and leave Uganda without hiking Africa’s highest mountain ranges, The Rwenzori Mountains or one of the world’s largest calderas, Mountain Elgon. You can also air your gorilla trekking experience at Bwindi or Mgahinga with a hike at any of the 3 Virunga mountains- Sabinyo, Muhabura or Gahinga. A hike at Murchison or Sipi falls is also good enough.
