Amanda had the opportunity to travel to Uganda three times in 2018 (March, August and October) for work. It was never high on ‘the list’ and due to a busy work schedule she didn’t have the chance to see much of the country. That being said, it has sparked her interest in traveling more to East Africa.
How to Get Here
These trips originated from Seattle so it was quite a trip. Due to client requirements Amanda was restricted to flying domestic airlines out of the country which made United & Delta the most logical choices. Had that restriction not have existed, Emirates offers a flight through Dubai that would have made travel much easier. Entebbe is the major airport in Uganda and was the destination airport for all three trips. One trip routed from Seattle>DC>Brussels>Kigali>Entebbe…it was almost as painful as it sounds. The final trip was a bit more direct with a Seattle>Amsterdam>Kigali>Entebbe. It’s good to note that all flights Amanda found into Entebbe are routed through Kigali, Rwanda. Unfortunately you cannot deplane as it is just a quick stop. It’s definitely on the list for East Africa (think trekking to find gorillas!) Twenty-two hours later (give or take) only the approximately 1 hour drive remained to the final destination of Kampala.
Trip Length
It’s hard to say what the ideal trip length would be due to the fact that the trips Amanda took were focused on work and she only was able to squeeze in a bit of fun. Likely 7-10 days would give enough time to visit the highlights.
Where to Stay
In the larger cities like Entebbe and Kampala there are larger hotel chains available. On two of the trips, Amanda stayed at the Sheraton Kampala on the third trip she stayed at the Golden Tulip Kampala. Both were great. Extremely clean, comfortable and safe.
What to Do
There are many things that Amanda didn’t get to experience. However, on the third trip due to the stay being two weeks long and having a weekend of ‘downtime’, she was able to finally experience a safari in Africa! Now, if you do a quick online search you will quickly see that Uganda isn’t really known for being the best place for safari. However, if you have never been you have nothing to compare it to and should you ever find yourself in Uganda, don’t let the opportunity pass you by.
Amanda and two client-colleagues decided to take advantage of the weekend and take a trip outside of Kampala. A few colleagues had been there the weekend before and booked a weekend trip with African Adventure Travellers. It was nice having a reference from a trust-worthy source. The group chose the 2-day Murchison Falls/National Park trip with Moderate Accommodations. The guide picked the group up from the hotel (6am Saturday) and was with us the entire two days until our return to the hotel (7pm Sunday).
African Adventure Travellers has pre-defined trips, but they also allow a bit of flexibility. The drive from Kampala took around 5 hours. We first headed to Murchison Falls. Our driver arranged for a local guide to take us on a hike from the top falls down to the Nile River. Such a powerful falls and we spotted a crocodile from a very safe distance.
After our hike in the hot, humid weather we were ready to sit down and relax on our boat ride down the Victoria Nile (fun fact – there are multiple sections of the Nile River that have unique names but are all part of the Nile). Tons of birds, hippos, monkeys, giraffes and antelope are seen as the boat navigates down the river.
After disembarking, we rejoined our driver and headed to the National Park for our first of two safari drives. It is quite an surreal experience seeing these beautiful animals up close. We spent the night at Heritage Safari Lodge as part of our trip package. The staff was extremely friendly and ensured we had dinner prepared for us even though we returned late and breakfast in the morning before we headed out for our sunrise safari.
We headed back to Kampala after a fun-filled but exhausting 2 days.
