Where to go
Bwindi Impenetrable Forest
Mountain gorillas — around half the world's remaining population lives here. The trek can take one hour or eight, through steep forest, and the hour spent with a habituated family afterwards is the reason people come. A World Heritage site. Permits months ahead; three days on site.
Queen Elizabeth National Park
Savannah, the Kazinga channel with its extraordinary density of hippos and birds, and the tree-climbing lions of Ishasha. Far fewer vehicles than the Kenyan or Tanzanian equivalents. Three days.
Murchison Falls
The Nile forced through a seven-metre gap and dropping forty metres — the most powerful waterfall on the river. Boat trips to the base, game drives on the northern bank, and Ziwa rhino sanctuary on the way. Three days.
Jinja and the source of the Nile
Where the river leaves Lake Victoria, and the centre of white-water rafting in East Africa. Two hours from Kampala and the standard weekend escape.
The Rwenzori Mountains
The Mountains of the Moon, glaciated and over five thousand metres, a World Heritage site. A serious multi-day trek through some of the strangest vegetation on earth — giant lobelias and groundsels.
Kampala
Seven hills, the Kasubi tombs of the Buganda kings — a World Heritage site — the Uganda Museum, and a nightlife with a considerable regional reputation. Two days.
Building the itinerary
- Three stops a week, no more. Every move costs half a day at minimum, often a whole one, and you see nothing of a place where you sleep one night.
- Alternate the pace. A dense city, then two quiet days: that is what makes travelling as a couple sustainable, especially if one of you lives there and works.
- Keep a buffer day before the flight home, in the departure city. Domestic transport delays are the leading cause of missed flights.
- Ask the person who lives there what they want to show you. Guidebook itineraries and the places that matter to them rarely overlap — and the second list is the better one.
Two reflexes that change a trip
Distances deceive. On a map two points look close; on the ground, road conditions, checkpoints and terrain double or triple the time. Plan fewer stops and more time at each.
Ask before photographing anyone, and never insist. Official buildings, soldiers, airports and bridges are best avoided almost everywhere — the most banal and most avoidable source of trouble.