Where to go: Gorilla Trekking Safaris
Where a gorilla trekking trip goes: the countries, parks, islands and coasts, and what each one is for.
Gorilla Trekking destinations
Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park is the shortest trek from an international airport, around two and a half hours by road from Kigali to lodges on the edge of the park. Permits cost more in Rwanda and the lodges match. Uganda's Bwindi is a longer journey with permits at a lower price and an older, denser forest; many routes add Queen Elizabeth National Park or Murchison Falls on the Nile.
Gorillas combine well with a savannah safari. Kigali and Entebbe are a short flight from Nairobi and Kilimanjaro, so a trek can sit at the start or end of a Masai Mara or Serengeti trip, and a few nights on Zanzibar or in the Seychelles can close it.
Rwanda: Kigali, Volcanoes National Park, Akagera
A compact highland country, visited above all for gorilla trekking in Volcanoes National Park.
Rwanda is the compact gorilla trip. Kigali to Volcanoes National Park is a few hours, and the country is small enough to add chimps or a savannah park without a second week of travel.
The permit is the heart of the cost and the reason most people come. The rest - Lake Kivu, Nyungwe, Akagera - is what makes it more than a single trek.
Rwanda destination guide
Kigali
Rwanda's capital, and the night before or after a gorilla trek.
Volcanoes National Park
The Virunga volcanoes in north-west Rwanda, where most mountain-gorilla treks in the country start.
Akagera
Rwanda's savannah park on the eastern lakes, with plains wildlife rather than a gorilla trek.
Uganda: Bwindi, Queen Elizabeth National Park, Murchison Falls
Gorilla trekking in Bwindi, plus savannah parks and the source of the Nile region.
Uganda is gorillas, chimpanzees, and a proper savannah, with the Nile at Murchison Falls. It is greener and more spread out than Rwanda.
A first trip is usually Bwindi for gorillas and one other park, not all three famous parks in a single week.
Uganda destination guide
Bwindi
Impenetrable forest on the edge of the Albertine Rift, and one of the main places to trek mountain gorillas.
Queen Elizabeth National Park
A savannah and channel park below the Rwenzori, known for boat trips and tree-climbing lions.
Murchison Falls
Uganda's largest park, where the Nile is forced through a narrow gorge.
Tanzania: Serengeti, Arusha, Ngorongoro Crater, Zanzibar and 1 more
The Serengeti, Ngorongoro, and a long Indian Ocean coast, with Zanzibar as the classic beach finish.
Tanzania holds the Serengeti, the Ngorongoro Crater, and a beach on Zanzibar. The northern circuit is the famous one. The south - Ruaha and Nyerere - is the quieter one.
The wildebeest migration is in Tanzania for most of the year. River crossings in the north are a mid-year event. Calving in the south is around February. Neither is guaranteed on a given morning.
Tanzania destination guide
Serengeti
Tanzania's great plains park, continuous with the Masai Mara, and the path of the wildebeest migration.
Arusha
The northern safari hub, sitting between Kilimanjaro and the road to the crater highlands.
Ngorongoro Crater
A collapsed volcano whose floor holds a full spread of wildlife in a single day's drive.
Zanzibar
The Spice Island off Dar es Salaam, with Stone Town, reefs, and a string of north and east coast beaches.
Tarangire
A baobab-studded park south of Lake Manyara, especially busy with elephants in the dry months.
Kenya: Masai Mara, Nairobi, Amboseli National Park, Samburu
Savannah reserves, highland lakes, and a palm coast, usually linked by short flights from Nairobi.
Kenya is the original safari map: the Masai Mara, Laikipia and Samburu to the north, and a coast when you want to stop driving.
The migration river crossings, when they happen, are in the Mara from roughly July into October. The rest of the year the reserve is still one of Africa's great big-cat parks.
Kenya destination guide
Masai Mara
Kenya's best-known reserve, continuous with the Serengeti, and the stage for the Mara River crossings.
Nairobi
Kenya's capital and the usual first night, with a national park on the edge of the city.
Amboseli National Park
Open plains and swamps beneath Kilimanjaro, known for big elephant herds and a clear view of the mountain.
Samburu
A dry northern reserve on the Ewaso Ng'iro, home to species rarely seen further south.
South Africa: Cape Town
Cities, vineyards, mountains, and some of the continent's best-known wildlife reserves, all easy to join into one trip.
South Africa can be a city, a wine valley, a malaria-free reserve, and a beach in one trip. The roads and the flights make that practical.
Kruger and the private reserves beside it are the wildlife. Cape Town is the start or the finish. You do not have to choose.
South Africa destination guide
Cape Town
A harbour city between Table Mountain and the Atlantic, useful as a start or finish to a longer safari.
Zimbabwe: Victoria Falls
Victoria Falls, Hwange's elephants, and the canoe country of Mana Pools.
Zimbabwe is Victoria Falls, Hwange's elephants, and Mana Pools on the Zambezi. The falls town is also the easiest place in the region for a scenic flight or a day on the river.
Dry-season wildlife is excellent, and the country links cleanly to Chobe and to the Zambian side of the falls.
Zimbabwe destination guide
Victoria Falls
The waterfall on the Zambezi between Zimbabwe and Zambia, with the town of Victoria Falls on one bank and Livingstone on the other.
Congo: Odzala-Kokoua, The forest clearings
Forest parks in the Congo Basin, including lowland gorilla tracking that needs extra travel time.
The Congo is a forest safari, not a savannah one. Lowland gorillas, forest elephants, and very few other visitors.
It takes more planning than Rwanda: longer flights, stricter permits, and camps that are not a road transfer from a capital hotel. Come for that, or choose Bwindi.
Congo destination guideOdzala-Kokoua
The best-known gorilla and bai area in the north of the Republic of the Congo. Camps are deep in the park and reached by light aircraft.
The forest clearings
Bais are the place you actually see animals in the open. Trails between them are the rest of the day, with a guide who knows the families.
Botswana: Chobe National Park
Water and desert in one country: the Okavango, Chobe, and the Kalahari, usually flown camp to camp.
Botswana is water and desert in one country: the Okavango's channels, Chobe's elephant herds, and the open Kalahari.
Most safaris here are fly-in. Camps stay small, and the north is set up for boats and mokoros as well as game drives. Cape Town, the Namib, and Victoria Falls are straightforward to add before or after.
Botswana destination guide
Chobe National Park
A northern park famous for elephants along the Chobe River and for the drier Savuti interior.
More places that suit a gorilla trekking trip
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