uganda & kenya
gorillas, riding and laikipia rhino
Fourteen nights linking Uganda's gorilla forests with riding and rhino country on Kenya's Lewa Wildlife Conservancy.
- Private Safari
- From $19,380 pp
- 2 guests
- 14 nights
trip highlights
- Swim and canoe on Lake Bunyonyi, a high lake of 29 islands where more than 200 bird species have been recorded.
- Track the Nyakagezi gorilla family and golden monkeys in the quiet forest of Mgahinga Gorilla National Park.
- Look for lions and Uganda kob on the Kasenyi Plains and hippos along the Kazinga Channel in Queen Elizabeth National Park.
- Follow chimpanzee tracking from the Kanyanchu trailhead in Kibale Forest, home to more than 1,000 chimpanzees.
Scroll for the full itinerary
From Kigali to the Crater Lakes
The route begins in Kigali, Rwanda’s capital, then crosses into south-western Uganda and the lakes of the Kigezi highlands. Lake Bunyonyi, an island camp and Lake Kayumbu lead to Mgahinga, where one gorilla family lives beneath three Virunga volcanoes. Lake Mutanda, the savannah of Queen Elizabeth National Park and the rainforest of Kibale follow, ending on the crater rim above Lake Nyinambuga.
You travel by road with a private driver-guide over 15 nights, moving from lake to volcano to forest. Days hold gorilla and golden monkey tracking, canoe crossings, community walks, game drives and time on the water. The places to stay range from a five-star city hotel to hillside cottages and lightweight mobile camps, each chosen for its setting.
Daily Itinerary Breakdown
Kigali, Rwanda's Capital
Land in Kigali and settle into Rwanda's capital, a city spread across ridges and valleys and widely regarded as the cleanest in Africa. With a day here you can walk Kimironko Market, visit the Inema Arts Center or spend a quiet few hours at the Kigali Genocide Memorial at Gisozi. The Kigali Serena Hotel is the city's established five-star address on Boulevard de la Révolution, a composed granite-atrium base about twenty minutes from the airport for a first night before the road west.
- Accommodation at Kigali Serena Hotel
Lake Bunyonyi and the Kigezi Highlands
The road from Kigali crosses into south-western Uganda to Lake Bunyonyi, a deep lake of 29 islands high in the Kigezi highlands, its name meaning place of many little birds. The water is safe to swim and holds no crocodiles, and dugout canoes cross between the islands at an unhurried pace. Grey-crowned cranes, weavers and herons work the reeds, part of more than 200 bird species recorded here. Birdnest at Bunyonyi Resort is a Belgian-run lodge tiered into a terraced hillside, known for a table of lake crayfish and Belgian-style chips served above the water.
- Accommodation at Birdnest at Bunyonyi Resort
Habukomi Island by Dugout Canoe
Lake Bunyonyi is a natural base for community trekking, built from village-to-village walking across the terraced ridges and crossing arms of the lake by dugout canoe. Today you cross to Habukomi Island and overnight at an island homestay, sharing the everyday texture of life on the water rather than watching it from a lodge. The camp is lightweight and set up for a single night close to the shore, so the day is about the crossing and the community, not the room.
- Accommodation in a lightweight mobile camp
Walking on to Lake Kayumbu
The walking continues across the terraced hills of the Kigezi highlands, from homestead to homestead and market to small school, the most direct way to understand how people live on this water-laced terrain. Tonight you camp at Lake Kayumbu, a lightweight mobile camp pitched by the water for a single night before the drive on to the volcanoes. The days here turn on the walking and the daily life along the way rather than the accommodation.
- Accommodation in a lightweight mobile camp
Gorillas and Golden Monkeys at Mgahinga
This is gorilla country. Mgahinga Gorilla National Park is the smaller and quieter of Uganda's two gorilla parks, home to the Nyakagezi family, the single habituated group here, along with golden monkeys that move through the bamboo. Because the park holds just one family and sees far fewer trackers than Bwindi, the forest feels unhurried, with Sabinyo, Gahinga and Muhavura on the skyline. Mount Gahinga Lodge sits a short walk from the park gate, eight hand-built stone-and-thatch bandas with fireplaces and private verandas, and it is the only high-standard lodge at Mgahinga's doorstep.
- Accommodation at Mount Gahinga Lodge
Lake Mutanda Below the Virungas
Drop down from the volcanoes to Lake Mutanda, a lava-dammed highland lake at 1,800 metres with Muhabura, Sabinyo and Gahinga closing off the southern skyline. There are no crocodiles, so you swim straight from the shore, and days pass with canoeing among the islands, paddleboarding and walks into the terraced hills; African clawless otters surface within sight of the lodge. Mutanda Lake Resort stands on a private peninsula, its tented cottages raised on wooden platforms and angled across the water to the volcanoes.
- Accommodation at Mutanda Lake Resort
Savannah Game in Queen Elizabeth
North to Queen Elizabeth National Park and open savannah. From the escarpment the land falls away to Lake Kikorongo and Lake George, with the Rwenzori Mountains beyond. The Kasenyi Plains, a short drive away, carry high densities of Uganda kob that draw lions, and the Kazinga Channel within an hour is alive with hippos, crocodiles and waterbirds. Elephant Plains Lodge sits at 941 metres on the western escarpment, eight grass-thatched cottages looking down on Lake Kikorongo where elephants gather to drink, the whole lodge run on solar power.
- Accommodation at Elephant Plains Lodge
Chimpanzees and the Kibale Forest Edge
Two nights tracking chimpanzees in Kibale, setting out from the Kanyanchu trailhead into a tall block of rainforest holding thirteen primate species and more than 1,000 chimpanzees, with sightings on most mornings. Your base is Sunbird Hill, a protected private site on the forest edge on former farmland regenerating since 2005, governed by the NGO In the Shadow of Chimpanzees. Days here turn on the conservation work and the forest edge, from weekly bird and butterfly monitoring to the Butterfly Village, with the accommodation kept simple and secondary to the place.
- Accommodation at Sunbird Hill
Ndali and the Crater Rim
End on the rim of an extinct volcano above Lake Nyinambuga, an hour from the chimpanzees of Kibale Forest and a place to slow down for several days. You can swim in the crater lake, paddleboard and kayak its forested edges, or walk the rim, the tea plantation and across to Mahoma Waterfall, with the Rwenzori Mountains holding the last light at dusk. Ndali Lodge is a family-run estate whose eight stone-and-thatch cottages face west over the lake, with candlelit dinners drawing on the estate's own fruit and vegetables.
- Accommodation at Ndali Lodge
Ed Charles, BBC Producer
Fitzroy are true specialists in accessing the wilderness. They know where to go and importantly, when to go there. Highly recommended.
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uganda
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- Private Safari
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- 2 guests
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rwanda & uganda
both sides of the virungas
Seven nights from Kigali into Uganda's Mgahinga and back to a Rwandan ridge, tracking gorillas along the Virunga chain.
- Private Safari
- From $11,295 pp
- 2 guests
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rated five stars by our clients
our approach
remote, exclusive
& personal
Every journey starts with a conversation. We take the time to understand your vision before we start planning.
Whether by phone or in person, we work with you directly to shape something that is considered, personal, and expertly delivered.
Every journey starts with a conversation. We favour a direct, personal approach: understanding your vision before anything else.
Whether by phone or in person, we work with you directly to shape a journey that is both thoughtfully considered and expertly delivered.
Get in touch to start planning yours.