A UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the oldest rainforests in Africa, Bwindi is the beating heart of mountain gorilla tracking. Its name is well earned: a tangle of ancient trees, ferns and vines so dense it feels primeval. This is where most travelers come to meet the gorillas, and it rarely disappoints.
Bwindi shelters roughly half of all the mountain gorillas left on Earth, with more habituated families and more available permits than anywhere else. Beyond the gorillas, it’s a biodiversity treasure: a haven of Albertine Rift endemics, exotic birds, butterflies and other primates, wrapped in some of the most atmospheric scenery you’ll ever walk through.
The star is the mountain gorilla, tracked across four forest sectors. Bwindi also offers a longer gorilla habituation experience for those who want more time. Keep an eye out for L’Hoest’s monkeys, black-and-white colobus and baboons, and for birders, a long list of sought-after species.
Lodging clusters around each sector, from simple, characterful community bandas and comfortable mid-range lodges to refined retreats perched on the forest edge. Whatever your budget, we’ll place you within easy reach of your trailhead, so mornings are calm rather than rushed.
By road, Bwindi is roughly an eight to nine hour drive from Kampala or Entebbe, often broken with a stop en route. To save time, you can fly to the Kihihi or Kisoro airstrips in around one to one and a half hours, then transfer by road to your sector. We arrange all transfers.
Trekking is possible year-round, with the drier months (roughly June to September and December to February) offering firmer trails.
