Choosing between Rwanda and Uganda for gorilla trekking depends on your travel style and preferences, as each destination offers exceptional mountain gorilla viewing. This handy safari guide comparison should help you weigh your options based on our first-hand gorilla trekking experience.
If affordability and a broader wildlife safari are key, Uganda might be ideal. Rwanda might be the better fit if your goals include a luxurious stay, an easier trek, and maximizing gorilla viewing.
Where gorillas live in Rwanda and Uganda?
In Rwanda, the mountain gorillas live in Volcanoes National Park, which is two hours’ drive from Kigali and the international airport. For a gorilla trek in Rwanda, you would need a minimum of two nights’ stay; three nights would be optimal. Rwanda has more than twice the number of habituated mountain gorilla groups than Uganda, so gorilla trekking permits are typically easier to obtain.
In Uganda, the mountain gorillas reside in both the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and Mgahinga National Park. It takes two days of driving to reach Bwindi from Entebbe, usually broken up with an overnight stay halfway. Once at Bwindi, visitors are advised to stay at least three nights while gorilla trekking, before continuing on a safari around Uganda.
Which gorilla trek is easier, Rwanda or Uganda?
Both Uganda and Rwanda offer great opportunities for a gorilla trekking adventure but which trek is easier? In Rwanda, most of the terrain encountered on a gorilla trek is more open and less surrounded by jungle vegetation. This can make it easier to get a good view of these magnificent creatures. The terrain is also less difficult for tracking when compared to Uganda, although altitudes can be higher which adds to the difficulty. In Rwanda, travel distances are also relatively shorter given that Rwanda is simply a smaller country.
Uganda’s infrastructure is less developed and gorilla trekking here can be more challenging. It rains often in Bwindi, even in the dry season, so conditions may be slippery. Each gorilla family in Bwindi also covers large territories, and tracking time can vary widely from day to day, from 30 minutes up to eight or nine hours.
The vegetation can also be extremely thick, hence the name Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. Slopes are steep and there are no trails, so gorilla trekking in Uganda is not for the faint of heart.
Accessibility Uganda Gorilla Trekking Vs Rwanda Gorilla trekking
Accessibility to the Gorilla trekking destination from the nearest airport matters a lot especially if you prefer shorter drives. Therefore, note that Rwanda’s Volcanoes national park is the most accessible gorilla trekking destination, with the driving distance being only 2 hours from Kigali City Rwanda’s capital. To access Bwindi on the other hand requires a minimum of 4-5 hours if you are coming from Kigali, and a maximum of 9 hours if you are coming from Entebbe/ Kampala capital city.
There are more luxury lodges in Rwanda
If you’re able and willing to pay a premium for accommodation, then you have more high-end choices on the doorstep of Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda than you do next to either of Uganda’s gorilla parks.
While there are multiple four- and five-star accommodations to choose from near Volcanoes, there are just a handful near Bwindi, and no truly high-end options near Mgahinga. Also, the quality of the four- and five-star accommodations in Rwanda tend to be higher than those with the same ratings in Uganda.
The reason for this discrepancy is that Rwanda decided a while back to target wealthier tourists. You can see this simply in the fact that its gorilla trekking permits are roughly double the price of those of Uganda. Also, you may have picked up that celebrities like Ellen De generes opt to go to Rwanda, not Uganda.
It’s easier to get a trek permit in Uganda
Visitors aren’t allowed to visit just any mountain gorilla troop on a trek. Only troops that have become habituated to the presence of humans (a process that takes park rangers about two years to complete) are visited on gorilla treks. Also, only one group of eight trekkers is allowed to visit each gorilla troop per day. This is done to minimize the disruption humans can have on the primates’ environment and daily habits. These rules apply in both Uganda and Rwanda.
Yet because Uganda has more gorillas and has subsequently undertaken to habituate more of its troops, the country’s authorities are able to issue more trekking permits per day.
In Uganda about 110 gorilla trekking permits are issued for any given day, compared with roughly 80 in Rwanda. This makes obtaining a gorilla trekking permit in Uganda a little easier, especially if you aren’t booking very far in advance.
If you’re trying to book gorilla trekking permits for a specific date, or fairly last minute, you might not have success in Rwanda, but you could still possibly obtain them for Uganda or for Bwindi, to be precise.
You can spend more time with the gorillas in Uganda
Something on offer only in Uganda is the gorilla habituation permit. This permit allows the visitor to spend four hours with a mountain gorilla troop in the south of Bwindi. A habituation permits costs 1,500USD, which is the same price as the one-hour gorilla trekking permit in Rwanda.
With a gorilla habituation permit you can spend four hours with these beautiful creatures.
The habituation permit was introduced only recently in response to visitors’ desire to spend more time with the mountain gorillas. Only two gorilla troops have been set aside for these habituation experiences. And only about eight habituation permits are issued per day, so you have to book well in advance if you want one.
Just note that the mountain gorillas you visit on an habituation experience could be shyer than those of the habituated troop, especially if you visit them early in the habituation process. This might mean you don’t get as close to them as you would on a regular gorilla trek.
Which is safer for Gorilla Trekking?
Gorilla trekking is an activity that brings tourists up close to the jungle since it involves walking and therefore security is important. Both Rwanda and Uganda are safe to visit and so is Gorilla trekking. Yes, it is safe to trek Gorillas both in Uganda and Rwanda.
To ensure Gorilla Safaris are safe, each Gorilla trekking group is accompanied by armed park rangers to ensure the safety of each trekker. These ranger guides are familiar with the jungle and will do the needful if need be. Before each trek, tourists are advised on how to keep safe while trekking Gorillas in Uganda, you just have to follow what your guide tells you. Gorillas are gentle animals and very peaceful. Their social life is so accommodative and can interact with humans as long as you keep a distance and treat them as wild animals.
Always follow the rules and be cautious while in the forest, the gorillas will always mind their business and you will share this amazing habitat for a while.
The over roll safari
Most people will incorporate a gorilla trek into a longer safari. For this, Uganda has more options than Rwanda. Uganda’s Murchison Falls and Queen Elizabeth National Parks are two top-notch savannah reserves. You’ll see most iconic safari animals here, including elephants, lions, buffalo and giraffes. All the Big Five (lion, leopard, buffalo, elephant and rhino) are present except for rhinos, which can only be seen in Ziwa Rhino and Wildlife Ranch. Uganda is also a top destination for chimpanzee trekking, while Lake Bunyonyi is a great place to chill out for a couple of days at the end of an action-packed safari.
Rwanda is less established as a stand-alone safari destination, but it has a few very good off-the-beaten-track gems worth tagging onto your gorilla trek. Most notable are Akagera National Park, a scenic Big Five savannah park, and Nyungwe National Park, a highland rainforest, which is home to 13 primate species, including habituated chimpanzees that can be tracked by tourists.
In conclusion
Both Uganda and Rwanda offer a unique experience in gorilla tracking depending on your travel needs. You can also choose to visit all the 2 countries or trek in the three national parks depending on your budget and time allocated for this trip.
