The Most Expensive National Parks In Uganda

Uganda has a total of ten national parks. Three of these are primate national parks, five of these are savannah national parks, and two of the ten are mountainous national parks. Each national park in Uganda is known for certain unique activities that usually set it apart from all the other national parks. However, sometimes the activities overlap. For instance, you can do a game drive in Queen Elizabeth National Park in search of lions, and the same in Murchison Falls National Park and Kidepo Valley National Park. Regardless of the overlap, there are some distinctions and variations in the costs of visiting particular national parks.

Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

Bwindi impenetrable national park is one of the most expensive national parks to visit in Uganda. Popular for gorilla trekking; the park is home to almost half of the remaining Mountain gorilla population in the whole world.

Cost of a Trip in Bwindi impenetrable national Park

Gorilla Trekking permits: $800 for foreign none residents, $700 for foreign residents, $500 for rest of Africa and Ugx 300,000 for East Africans. The permit grants you access to the mountain gorillas for one hour. It also covers the park entrance as well as the tour guides.

Accommodation ranges between $50 and above while car rental in Uganda will cost you anywhere between $300 and $400. Roughly, a gorilla trekking trip to Bwindi will cost you between $1200 and $1500 depending on where you choose to sleep before and after your gorilla trekking safari in Uganda.

Mgahinga Gorilla National Park

Similar to Bwindi impenetrable national park, Mgahinga gorilla national park is popular for mountain gorilla trekking. Though it had a bad record of visitors sometimes failing to find the mountain gorillas, it is now coming to a decade since such a story was last reported. Apart from the transport difference which might be a little beat higher than that of Bwindi, the other fees are more less the same.

The permit rates are the same. However in case of Mgahinga gorilla national park, a hike to the border point of Uganda, Rwanda and Congo is very possible. The park is also popular for the golden monkeys.

Murchison Falls National Park

Murchison falls is the biggest national park in Uganda. It is also home to the spectacular Murchison falls. Among all the savannah national park, Murchison falls is the most expensive in terms of park entrance. It has a totally separate rate card when compared to other savannah national parks in Uganda. However on the positive note, Murchison falls national park is one of the closest national parks to Kampala.

When compared to the other savannah parks, Murchison Falls national park comes second to Lake Mburo national park. Anyone interested in a short trip would highly receive Murchison Falls as one of the top recommendation. The park also offer chimpanzee tracking in Budongo forest. It is important to note that the Budongo chimpanzee permit does not include the park entrance fee.

In case you intend to have proper accommodation with in the national park, then you will have to budget for at least $1500 per person for a 5 days trip to Murchison falls national park. In case that is way above your budget, then you can consider sleeping outside the national park. It is often Pakwach side that is more recommended than Masindi side. If you sleep on the Pakwach side, you can easily connect to the game drive area.

Rwenzori Mountains National Park

Rwenzori mountains national park is one of the most expensive national parks courtesy of summiting the Rwenzori mountains. Though there are short hikes such as one day, two day or three day hikes, it is mainly the summiting experience that stands out of all the activities offered in this national park. This is also the reason that the national park is ranked among the most expensive national parks in Uganda.

Mount Rwenzori Trekking

Cost of a Trip to Rwenzori Mountain National Park

In case you are interested in a Summiting trip of Rwenzori mountains, it is wise to budget for at least $1500. That will cover the trek as well as accommodation, meals and transportation.

Kibale Forest National Park

This national park is offered talked about in regard to chimpanzee tracking. However besides chimpanzee tracking, there is a chimpanzee research activity that is rarely talked about. It costs around $600 per permit. The normal chimpanzee tracking cost $250 per permit while the chimpanzee habituation costs $300 per person. Though it is still the most expensive chimpanzee tracking destination in Uganda, the park offers more than chimpanzee tracking and that activity costs $600 per person.