Gorilla trekking in Uganda

Where Uganda's gorillas live

Most gorilla trekking in Uganda happens in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, 331 square kilometres of steep rainforest on the Albertine Rift in the far southwest of the country. Nearly half of the world's remaining mountain gorillas live there, in families that rangers visit every day.

The park is entered through four sectors: Buhoma, Ruhija, Rushaga and Nkuringo. A permit is for one sector, and it decides where you sleep the night before, because the trek starts from that sector's headquarters. We book the lodge to match.

Uganda's second gorilla park is Mgahinga, on the slopes of the Virunga volcanoes near Kisoro. Our seven-day Mgahinga safari pairs a gorilla trek there with golden monkeys and a volcano hike.

How a trekking day works

The day starts early, with a briefing from Uganda Wildlife Authority rangers at the sector headquarters: the rules of the forest, how the hour with the gorillas works, and what to expect underfoot. Trekkers are then split into groups of no more than eight, and each group is given a habituated family, matched as far as possible to fitness.

Ranger guides lead the way while trackers radio in where the family is. How long the walk takes depends on where the gorillas moved overnight. On our treks it has taken anything from forty minutes to seven hours, on steep, muddy and uneven ground.

When you reach them, you have one hour: a silverback feeding, juveniles in the branches, mothers keeping their infants close. Back at headquarters there is a trekking certificate and, where time allows, a visit to a community project on the forest edge.

The permit

A gorilla trekking permit in Uganda costs $800 per person for one trek in 2026, rising to $1,000 in 2027. It covers the trek, the rangers and trackers, and the hour with the family. Only eight people may visit a family in a day, and the minimum age is fifteen.

Almost every gorilla safari we run includes the permit in its price, and each safari page lists it under what is included. For a longer encounter there is the gorilla habituation experience in Rushaga: four hours with researchers and a group still getting used to people, with four permits a day at $1,500 each in 2026, and $1,800 in 2027.

Our guide to gorilla permits sets Uganda's permits beside Rwanda's.

When to go

Gorillas can be trekked all year. The dry months, June to August and December to February, bring firmer trails and shorter treks, and permits are hardest to get: book six to nine months ahead. March to May and September to November are wetter, with rain most afternoons and mud underfoot, but far fewer people, and eight weeks' notice is often enough.

Getting there

By road, Bwindi is eight to nine hours from Entebbe. The quicker way is a scheduled flight of about ninety minutes to Kihihi or Kisoro, then an hour's drive. Bwindi is also closer to Kigali than to Kampala, so many travellers fly into Rwanda and cross the border at Cyanika or Katuna, depending on their sector. Our guide to gorilla safaris from Kigali covers that route.

What to bring

Mornings in the forest are cool and rain can come at any time of year. Bring a warm layer, a rain jacket, boots with good grip and a pair of gardening gloves.

Adding to a gorilla trek

Bwindi sits well with Queen Elizabeth National Park for game drives and a boat on the Kazinga Channel, with Kibale for chimpanzees, and with Lake Bunyonyi for a quiet night or two. Across the border, Volcanoes National Park gives you a second trek in a second country.

For what the hour itself is like, read Seven Minutes with the Mubare Group.