Queen Elizabeth Wildlife Safari
Game drives on the Kasenyi plains, a launch cruise along the hippo-lined Kazinga Channel, and the famous tree-climbing lions of the remote Ishasha sector: Uganda's classic savannah safari in one unhurried circuit.
- Duration
- 4 Days / 3 Nights
- Group size
- 2-8 people
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Best time
- Jun-Sep & Dec-Feb (best game viewing)
- Ideal for
- First-time safari-goers & photographers
- Destination
- Queen Elizabeth National Park
Your Journey, Day by Day
- 1Day 1 of 4
Kampala to Queen Elizabeth
Depart south-west across the Equator at Kayabwe and through Mbarara’s Ankole longhorn-cattle country, roughly 6-7 hours with stops. The last hour runs between the Katwe-Kikorongo explosion craters (a field of steep-sided volcanic bowls, some holding lakes, some dry and grazed) before the land drops away to the Mweya Peninsula, a spit of high ground where the Kazinga Channel meets Lake Edward. You settle in above the water in the afternoon, with elephant and buffalo often visible from the terrace and the option of a short evening game drive.
Equator crossingAnkole longhorn countryOptional evening game driveMeals:Lunch, DinnerOvernight:Mweya / Kasenyi area lodge - 2Day 2 of 4
Kasenyi Game Drive & Kazinga Cruise
A dawn game drive on the open Kasenyi plains, where Uganda kob gather on traditional breeding grounds, the same patches of short grass used year after year, which is precisely why the lions hunt here and why this is the park’s most reliable predator country. You can go a step further with ranger-led lion tracking, following a collared pride alongside the researchers who monitor them. After lunch, a two-hour launch cruise on the 32km Kazinga Channel, the natural strait linking Lake George to Lake Edward. Hippos line it in pods of dozens, elephants come down to drink at close range, and the shoreline is a wall of birds: pelicans, African skimmers, saddle-billed and yellow-billed storks, and pied kingfishers working the shallows.
Dawn Kasenyi game driveOptional lion tracking2-hour Kazinga cruiseHippos, elephants & birdsMeals:Breakfast, Lunch, DinnerOvernight:Mweya / Kasenyi area lodge - 3Day 3 of 4
Kyambura Chimps & Ishasha
An optional morning tracking chimpanzees in the Kyambura Gorge, a 100-metre-deep slash in the savannah, invisible until you are at its lip, holding a strip of riverine forest and a small chimp community cut off from the larger forests to the north. Sightings are less certain than at Kibale; the setting is unmatched. The alternative is an explosion-crater drive to Lake Katwe, where salt has been cut from the pans by hand for centuries and still is. In the afternoon, transfer south to the wild, thinly visited Ishasha sector, famous for the lions that drape themselves along the limbs of the big fig trees.
Optional Kyambura chimp trackingExplosion-crater & Katwe driveTransfer to IshashaMeals:Breakfast, Lunch, DinnerOvernight:Ishasha sector lodge - 4Day 4 of 4
Ishasha to Kampala
A final morning game drive through Ishasha, working the fig trees along the river for the lions and the open ground for topi, which are common here and almost nowhere else in the park. Then the return journey to Kampala or Entebbe via Mbarara, with lunch en route and an afternoon arrival.
Morning Ishasha lion driveScenic returnAirport drop-offMeals:Breakfast, LunchOvernight:Departure
What's Included
- Park entrance fees
- 4x4 safari vehicle with driver-guide
- Lodge accommodation (3 nights)
- Game drives & Kazinga launch cruise
- Meals as specified & bottled water
Not Included
- International flights
- Uganda visa
- Kyambura chimp / lion tracking (optional)
- Drinks
- Tips & personal expenses
