Rubondo Island sits in the south-west corner of Lake Victoria, in northern Tanzania, a national park given over almost entirely to forest and water. Rubondo Island Camp lies along its shore, eight thatched cottages hand-built from local timber, strung out on a sandy beach at the forest edge. Behind them the equatorial rainforest rises dense and green. In front the water lies calm, hippos surfacing in the shallows as the light goes.
Tracking them is the reason most guests make the journey.
The island’s chimpanzees were brought from European zoos in the 1960s and now live wild in the forest interior. Tracking them is the reason most guests make the journey, following guides through thick canopy where colobus monkeys move overhead and hornbills call. The terrain asks for a reasonable level of fitness, and the reward is a genuinely wild encounter rather than a staged one.
Rainforest runs down almost to the waterline here, which gives the camp two settings within a short walk of each other. Forest walks range from an hour-long stroll beneath the canopy to longer expeditions. Now and then a night is spent fly-camping or in a treehouse deeper in the woods, where the whole business of falling asleep becomes listening to the forest after dark.
Rainforest runs down almost to the waterline here
Out on the water, Lake Victoria offers catch-and-release fishing for Nile perch and tilapia, from a boat or from the shore. The lake stays calm around Rubondo, largely spared the trade winds and tides, so a fishing trip rarely loses a day to weather. The boats double as wildlife outings, tracing the shoreline past basking crocodiles, grazing hippos and fish eagles working the water.
The cottages are spread along the shore a short walk from the water, each with a private veranda facing the lake and a hammock for the hours between activities. Interiors are neutral and understated, with plush beds and en-suite bathrooms with hot showers. One family cottage sits closest to the main area and the pool, sleeping additional guests. Swimming happens in a pool on a deck near the beach, for the lake itself belongs to the hippos and crocodiles.
The heart of the camp is an elevated lounge and dining area built into a rocky outcrop, with wide views across the bay. Most meals are taken outdoors. Dinner is served on the sand under lantern light, lunch on a lookout deck, and now and then the chef cooks freshly caught fish on the shore. The kitchen draws on the camp’s own garden, with home-baked bread, cakes and sorbets. Sundowners on the beach tend to coincide with the hippos emerging at dusk to graze on the grass around camp.
At night the sounds are hippos grunting in the shallows, waves against the sand
Reaching Rubondo means a short flight, usually from the Serengeti, to the island airstrip, then a brief road transfer to camp. Once there, guests share the forest and shoreline with park wardens, researchers and camp staff, and little else. Bushbuck and vervet monkeys move through the trees around the cottages, and the park holds more than three hundred recorded bird species, from fish eagles to kingfishers. The days pass quietly, at whatever pace the forest and the water set.
Beyond the chimpanzees, the island supports elephant, giraffe and sitatunga, the swamp-dwelling antelope of the papyrus channels that boat safaris explore. Game drives cover habitats from forest to open grassland further south, and canoeing offers a quieter way to reach wildlife along the shore. Rubondo was gazetted a game reserve in 1965 and became a national park in 1977, and the chimpanzee tracking forms part of an ongoing habituation project, which supports research into the population alongside the tourism that helps fund the park’s protection. At night the sounds are hippos grunting in the shallows, waves against the sand, and the forest behind stirring with monkeys and insects.
accommodation
Eight hand-built cottages of local timber and thatch line the lakeshore, each with a private veranda and hammock facing Lake Victoria. Interiors are neutral and understated, with plush beds and en-suite hot showers. One family cottage, near the main area and pool, accommodates additional guests.
activities
Chimpanzee trekking through equatorial rainforest is the signature draw, alongside forest walks ranging from short strolls to longer hikes with occasional fly-camping. Catch-and-release fishing for Nile perch and tilapia, boat and canoe safaris, game drives and birdwatching round out the days. All activities operate under national park regulations.
conservation
Chimpanzee tracking at Rubondo forms part of an active habituation project supporting long-term research into the island's population, descended from chimpanzees rescued from European zoos in the 1960s. Camp revenue contributes to funding park ranger patrols and management, and staff are drawn substantially from nearby mainland communities.
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By air, onto the island's own airstrip, a twenty-minute drive from camp. Scheduled flights come across from Mwanza, a hop of about half an hour, and from the Serengeti's airstrips, roughly ninety minutes over Lake Victoria, which is how most guests arrive at the end of a northern safari. We can also arrange a private charter, typically a Cessna Caravan or Pilatus PC-12, from Arusha or elsewhere.
The light aircraft take soft bags only, around 15 to 20kg per person depending on the airline, which we confirm before you pack. Schedules over the lake shift with the seasons, so we lock the flights early.
No, and it matters that we say so plainly. The island's chimpanzees are semi-habituated, the tracking runs as part of an ongoing habituation project, and the forest is thick, so sightings depend on where the animals are, the weather and a measure of luck. Some guests find them in an hour; some walk hard for a day and hear them rather than see them.
The trekking carries a minimum age of twelve, asks for reasonable fitness, and the camp requires at least two nights so there is more than one attempt. We plan three where the chimps are the point of the trip, and the fishing, boating and forest fill the days either way.
Yes. Lake Victoria sits at around 1,100 metres, comfortably below the 1,800 metre line at which the CDC and the UK's official travel health advice place the fall-off in malaria risk, so antimalarial tablets are recommended for the island as for the mainland parks.
We do not give medical advice. We are travel planners rather than doctors, so the choice of tablets, and whether they suit everyone in the party, belongs in a conversation between you and your own doctor or a travel clinic. What we can be useful on is the non-medical part: cover up once the light goes, and carry repellent.
Children aged five and up are welcome, and the family cottage nearest the main area sleeps four. For younger children the island offers a gentler kind of safari, boats, beaches, forest walks near camp and hippos at dusk, while the chimpanzee trekking is held to ages twelve and over and the longer walking safaris to sixteen and over.
Tell us the ages and we will be honest about the fit, since the appeal for a family rests on the water and the forest rather than game drives.
The camp opens from June to March and closes for the April and May rains. June to October is the driest stretch and the most comfortable for trekking in the forest, while the green months from December to February are the pick for birdlife, when migrants pour through and the island turns emerald.
Rain is never impossible on an equatorial island, whatever the month, and the lake itself stays calm enough for the boats almost year-round, sheltered as this corner is from wind and tide.
Warm, green and gently humid the year round, without the parched extremes of the savannah parks; showers can arrive in any month and the forest holds its moisture. Days sit in the high twenties, nights stay mild.
Pack for the forest as much as the beach: proper closed shoes or light boots for the chimp trekking, long trousers and long sleeves against branches and insects, a light rain shell, plus swimwear, a sun hat and binoculars for the boats. Soft bags only for the flights in.
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