Gorilla Trekking Uganda Reviews, Thoughts, and Prices

We are here and wanted to share some thoughts and details from our Gorilla Trekking Uganda Reviews, Thoughts, and Prices, as I know it’s on many people’s lists, as it was on so many of our clients and mine!

Disclaimer: We are professional experts, and we are here just to share our single experiences, Reviews, Thoughts and Prices. So, people who would like to know more, please jump in!

Rwanda vs Uganda

These are the only two places you can do it. The third place in DR Congo isn’t really an option due to political unrest.

Rwanda has the true FAT (Luxurious) lodges (Bisate, One&Only, and Singita), and they cost many thousands per night.

When learning and reading up, Uganda’s gorilla permits are $800 per person, and Rwanda permits are $1,500 per person, so many choose Uganda solely on that fact.

Getting to the park area in Uganda

Ok, so this gets much more of an adventure than you anticipated. We had to fly a small Cessna that flies 1x per day from Entebbe to Kisoro. Then, once you’re in Kisoro, you take a 4×4 on a VERY bumpy 2.5-hour drive to the lodge. The entire area is extremely undeveloped (no blacktops, no big park welcome centre or anything), so you really are in the mountains of Uganda. All the people you get to interact with have been wonderful, but there is a lot of rural poverty.

Picking a lodge

We picked Nkuringo Lodge based on the positive reviews online. I believe it sits as one of the nicer lodges in Bwindi, but a step below Clouds lodge, which goes for about double. We paid about $700 per night for the room and full board (I’ll detail $ at the end), though the extra costs added up quickly.

The lodge was spectacular, and it surpassed my expectations. We had an assigned butler who brought us freshly brewed coffee each morning to wake us up, lit a fire in our room during dinner, and placed warm water bottles in our bed at turndown service.

I would actually say our room and the main lodge area were at or near five-star standards. The 3/4 star parts were little details like: our bathroom wasn’t super elegant, food was a little more 4 star, not much in terms of facilities (no pool, no hot tub, etc.). Oh, and the internet is horrendous.

Anyways, if anyone wants to book here, I’ll try to get a referral discount going (no idea if they’ll bite, but I can ask!)

The trekking experience

All the trekking experiences are through the national park, so while your lodge can purchase your tickets, it’s not directly involved in providing the trek. I say this to emphasise that there are no “luxury” treks for people at the nicer lodges.

I believe there is some type of 4-hour habituation package ($1500) you can buy for more $, but we purchased the standard experience ($800 per person, 1 hour with the gorillas).

When we got to the park area (5 mins from the hotel, but I believe there is another one 45 mins away that is sometimes assigned), there was one other couple waiting. It was our group of four, and we did a briefing and then drove to the start of our hike with some armed guards, porters we were encouraged to hire for $20, and our bag lunches.

The trek was a moderate, slightly muddy 1.5-mile hike into the forest on a jeep road. For us, the gorillas were right at the edge of the perimeter, though sometimes you have to hike much longer.

Viewing the gorillas was spectacular. The silverback walked right up to us. We saw a baby swinging on the branches. It was amazing. The gorillas were totally unfazed by our presence, and contrary to what I saw online (maybe from Rwanda?), there really weren’t many rules or behavioural requirements.

The costs

• ⁠A 1-hour r/t flight from EBB to Kisoro was $580 per person booked through Wild Travel Safaris.
• ⁠The 2.5-hour 4X4 transfer from Kisoro to the lodge is $250 each way, booked through the lodge
• ⁠A room with full board was $700 per night for two people
• Gorilla permits were $800 per person plus admin fees
• We booked a few activities for around $150-200 each activity

So overall, it quickly got close to like $6k, though you could probably save a bit of money and self-book some of the components.

Summary: Spectacular time with the gorillas, lodge surpassed my expectations, the area was much more “untouched” and rugged than I was expecting, given the gorilla attraction, but I really felt a connection to Uganda and the people, which was a bonus. I’m a bit of a jaded traveller at this point, and this is the most “off the map” I’ve felt in probably 10 years.