Make your way to Uganda today. Flights are not included. Quotes can be provided in August 2023 when the airlines publish their fares. Estimated cost $1700-$2000 from NYC area. 

Plan to arrive in Entebbe at the Entebbe International Airport. On arrival, meet your driver and guide from the Tourism Foundation and travel to the K Hotel. 

Relax this evening and settle into your hotel.

K Hotel is a newer boutique hotel in the heart of Entebbe offering view of Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest “Great” lake. Guest rooms are comfortable and offer every needed amenity for your stay including air conditioning. The hotel has onsite dining, meeting space, a bar, gym, swimming pool, spa and is located close to the business district.

All travelers will gather this evening with your national guide and receive further information on the program.

Dinner will be provided this evening at the hotel.

Overnight: K Hotel (or similar)

Included meals: Dinner

After breakfast, check out and make your way to Kahangi Village which is near the town of Fort Portal and the nearby Kibale National Park. 

Your driver guide will share information with you about the country as you make the 3–4-hour drive (stopping in route as needed to stretch your legs and use the restrooms). Upon arrival, you will check in at your lovely eco lodge where you will be staying for the next few days. 

Home Bliss Hotel is just outside Fort Portal, a tourist city known as the Pearl of Uganda as it is situated at the base of the Rwenzori Mountains in Western Uganda. It is the gateway to Uganda’s many adventures due to its proximity to various national parks in the region. The hotel has onsite dining, a terrace bar, 24-hour front desk, and a terrace in a delightful garden setting. Guest rooms have free wi-fi, bathroom amenities, room service, kettle and tv. Breakfast is available every morning and includes full English/Irish options.

After a provided lunch, you will have a guided tour of Fort Portal including a visit to the Tooro Kingdom Palace where you might get a chance to meet the youngest King in the world. The current Omukama of Toro is King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV. He took the throne in 1995 at the age of just three after the death of his father. After a visit to the palace head to the local markets to interact with the vendors and learn about Ugandan foods and spices.

Enjoy a special welcoming dinner at the hotel this evening. 

Overnight: Home Bliss Hotel (or similar)

Included meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

After breakfast at the hotel, you will head to the village to volunteer alongside the local people working on an environmental conservation initiative to construct nurseries tree beds or help transplanting trees to a degraded forest site. 

Your participation will ensure support toward climate change adaptation and management and will plant native and productive tree species to increase farm incomes, restore degraded soils, protect water sources, and increase habitat for biodiversity ecosystems.

After lunch in the village, you will visit the local markets to taste some of the best juicy Ugandan purely organic fruits such as the mangoes, guavas, pineapples and much more.

Dinner will be provided at a local restaurant this evening. 

Overnight: Home Bliss Hotel (or similar)

Included meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

After breakfast, you will join a village women’s cooperative to take a journey into the heart of the rural village to experience authentic Uganda villages lifestyle. Take part in their daily activities including time to visit small farms, learn about their indigenous crops, visit the local tea plantation, and to try picking tea with the local villagers. 

You will have time today to participate in cultural activities such as basket weaving, local textile crafting and preparing of local dishes, participate in banana wine making and traditional coffee processing and at the end of it all you will taste some of the banana wine, carry some of the produced coffee with you and have a chance to purchase some of the crafts made by the women cooperative. 

After lunch in the village you will wind up your day by being entertained to the traditional music and dances by the women cooperative groups. This will highlight the lives of these rural women, the custodians of traditions and indigenous knowledge. Their resilience and commitment to extended family and community have kept the African family intact through centuries of adversity. 

Dinner will be provided at a local restaurant this evening. 

Overnight: Home Bliss Hotel (or similar)

Included meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

After an early breakfast head out for Kibale Forest to meet with a wildlife ranger who will share the rules and process for going on your 2 to 3-hour Chimpanzee trek. Beside the estimated 1500 chimps that call this area home, there are twelve other species of primates like red tailed monkey and a plethora of birds that will be encountered. You will have an hour to watch the chimps before making your way back to the visitor center. A special permit will be obtained on your behalf for this activity as access to the chimps is limited. Your guides will share a plethora of information about the flora and fauna of the region. 

Depending on the trek time you will have a chance to visit the crater-lake area to view the magnificent scenery of Kibale National Park. Lunch will be provided in the park this afternoon.

At the end of your day head to the Kahangi Village and participate in the preparations for a traditional village banquet where you will join the locals in the cooking, making of traditional banana wine, coffee roasting and get into the traditional cultural music and dancing.

Overnight: Home Bliss Hotel (or similar)

Included meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

After breakfast check out and depart this morning for the domestic airport in Kasese for your flight to the Rift Valley.  {NOTE: many other Uganda safaris travel overland. For your comfort and superior experience flights have been included in your journey.}

Upon arrival you will be met and make the drive from the airport to the Bwindi National Park where your accommodations are located for the next two days.

This park is famous for the rare mountain gorillas and the drive to the park is incredibly scenic, passing through various local villages and the lush green countryside & hills which characterize so much of southwestern Uganda. Once there, the forest park is one of the richest ecosystems in Africa and the diversity of species is a feature of the park. It provides habitat for some 120 species of mammals, 348 species of birds, 220 species of butterflies, twenty-seven species of frogs, chameleons, geckos, and many other species. Floristically Bwindi is among the most diverse forests in East Africa, with more than 1,000 flowering plant species including 163 species of trees and 104 species of ferns.

Lunch will be provided.  

Buhoma Lodge is a charming property that commands spectacular and uninterrupted views of the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. One of only two lodges situated within the National Park it has free Wi-Fi, an open-air lounge and bar, and onsite dining. Guest chalets has insect proof window screens, a safe, and private bath with bathroom amenities.

Dinner will be provided this evening at the lodge.

Overnight:  Mahogany Springs (or similar)

Included meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

After breakfast at the hotel your guide will drive you to Bwindi National Park headquarters for your briefing on the gorillas from Uganda Wildlife Authority guides.

An advance party of guides will have gone ahead into the forest to locate where the gorillas slept the previous night and will have begun to track their movements. These guides will communicate with their team via a walkie talkie and the trek into the forest will begin. Locating the Gorillas can take a few hours or the whole day depending on how far they have moved from the place they spent the previous night. For conservation purposes, time allowed to view the Gorillas is one hour. 

As you trek in the forest, you will appreciate why the forest is called impenetrable. There are also a multitude of other animal that you might encounter including antelopes and rare monkeys not to mention the beauty of the forest itself. Once you have completed the trek you will return to the lodge for a well-earned rest and time to reflect a truly magical experience. 

Later in the afternoon (time permitting) you will take on a guided journey into the famous Batwa Pygmies community to learn and experience their lifestyle.

The Batwa are hunters and gatherers who used to get their food, shelter, medicine, and tools they needed from the forest. Explore the incredible traditional norms, music, dance, food, and their cultural lifestyle of the Batwa tribe. Learn more about their rich history, cultures, and traditions. You can envision days spent with the Batwa women, cooking, beading, dancing, telling, and listening to their stories, fetching water. 

A packed lunch and dinner at the lodge are included.

Overnight:  Mahogany Lodge (or similar)

Included meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

August 8, 2024 - Day 9

After breakfast check out and head to Kihihi Airfield for your short flight back to Entebbe International Airport. You will be met and transferred to your hotel for check-in and lunch.  

Enjoy a farewell dinner this evening.

Overnight: K Hotel (or similar)

Included meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

August 9, 2024 - Day 10

Depart today for home with arrival in the US August 10,

Please note: All itineraries are subject to change based on availability of hotels, flights and hosting organizations at the time of finalization of booking. Comparable meetings and activities will be arranged should an itinerary change be necessary. 30 days before departure, a finalized itinerary will be available and reflect final details.

Dr. Lynn Brinckmeyer is a long-time Nanda Journeys leader and avid traveler with a passion for community immersion and responsible travel.

She is Professor of Music and Director of Choral Music Education at Texas State University. During 2006-2008 she served as President for The National Association for Music Education (formerly MENC). She has conducted all state choirs and honor choirs, lectured, presented master classes and performed in forty-eight states in the United States and thirteen different countries, including China, and South Africa.

IMPORTANT: As certain elements of the program to Uganda are non-refundable, the terms and conditions vary to the usual Nanda Journey terms. Please review and download Booking Terms & Conditions  HERE

PAYMENT SCHEDULE

Time of registration - $1250 deposit

150 days prior to departure - 50% program cost

120 days prior to departure - 75% program cost

90 days prior to departure - 100% program cost

REFUND POLICY 

150+ days - Full refund less $1250

149-120 days prior to departure - Full refund less 30%

119-95 days prior to departure - Full refund less 50% program cost

94 days prior to departure - No refund

Dear Travelers,

We are delighted to partner with the Founder of the Justice Tourism Foundation on this special journey to Uganda (JTF) to visit the local people as well as treks to see both the incredible Mountain Gorilla and local chimpanzee. JTF is a not-for-profit grassroots heart-centered innovative social impact travel organization focusing on socially responsible slow travel as a way to connect travelers with the indigenous communities with the aim of promoting the local economy and to uplift wellbeing of host communities in Uganda through creation of sustainable livelihoods opportunities in support of many United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) including access to quality formal and vocational education, access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene facilities, climate change adaptation and management, environmental conservation, improved food security, promotion of Human rights, gender equality and the preservation of diverse and indigenous cultures while giving travelers the chance to explore Uganda through customized tours.

We feel their mission and goals align closely with Nanda Journeys with an aim to build a global community of impact-minded travelers through sustainable tourism beyond the traditional. 

I hope you can join me on this incredible journey to explore Uganda! We welcome you to the Nanda Family and can't wait to journey the world with you!

Globally yours,

Nicola Balmain

Travel Requirements (Visa and Current Passport both required)

You must have a valid passport for this journey, in good condition that is valid for no less than six months beyond your scheduled return date to the United States. You must have 1-2 blank pages for entry and exit stamps. Note that the blank pages labeled Amendments and Endorsements are not acceptable, it must be the pages labeled Visas. 

You will need to get a tourist visa for this journey. You will be directed to apply individual for your Uganda entry visa prior to your travel. 

Uganda visa application can be applied for online through their official government website. If your application is approved, they will provide you with an electronic Travel Authorization/Visa Approval Letter to take with you for travel. This cost is currently $50 per person. 

Official Website: http://www.visas.immigration.go.ug/

https://immigration.go.ug/mandatory-online-visa-applications-all-visa-prone-travellers-uganda

Step 1: Log onto www.visas.immigration.go.ug and start a new application and accept the disclaimer.

Step 2: Choose the application type (you will need an Ordinary / single entry visa).

Step 3: Fill in the electronic form with y our personal details.

Step 4: Add the required documents depending on the category you choose including reason for travel. Note you will need to have a copy on your computer of a passport size photo along with a clear copy of your passport photo page, a copy of your yellow fever certificate prior to submitting your application. 

Step 5: Submit the application and required documents.

Step 6: Make payment for your single-entry visa ($50 USD)

Once the application is submitted and paid for, it will be reviewed by an Immigration Officer after which a decision will be made within 2-3 days. If approved, an email with the Travel Authorization/Approval letter will be sent to you on the email provided on the website so you can download it, print it and take it with you on your trip.

Please note that during the approval process additional information may be requested. You can track the status of your application by using the manage your application provision on the same portal. All applicants are advised to submit their visa applications at least ten days before their intended date of travel but we would recommend 30 days prior. 

Travel Requirements (Vaccinations)
To travel to Uganda, you will need to get a Yellow Fever Vaccination and must show you are fully vaccinated for Covid-19. There are other vaccinations that are recommended, but not required. To review those, visit the travel health notice and vaccination information on the CDC website. You should plan to make an appointment with your personal physician or a travel doctor to discuss what they may recommend for you based on your current health. 

https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/destinations/traveler/none/uganda

More information on the Yellow Fever Vaccine can be found on the CDC website: https://www.cdc.gov/yellowfever/vaccine/index.html

Travelers who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 will need provide a valid certificate of vaccination to enter Uganda as well as when you apply for your travel visa. Travelers who are not vaccinated must provide a negative PCR test completed no more than 72 hours before departure to both enter and exit Uganda. Please note that COVID-19-related entry requirements may change without warning. Further information and updates can be found on the website of Uganda’s Ministry of Health. Costs for this are not included in the program pricing and should you have a negative PCR test, program costs are NON-REFUNABLE

Tips: The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has a search tool by state for U.S. Yellow Fever Vaccination Centers (and keeps an official registry). You will need to find an authorized vaccination center as they will need to issue you the appropriate proof of vaccination for travel.https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/yellow-fever-vaccination-clinics/search

Additional FAQs

Are local guide tips included? 

The tips for your local guides are not included. Tipping is recommended for the two driver guides who will be traveling with you on this journey. We recommend a minimum of $50 per person for each of the 2 guides ($100 total). They can be tipped in cash at the end of your journey in either USD or local currency, but they will prefer the Uganda schilling. 

Are Gorilla and Chimp trekking ranger tip included?

They are not priced in, but tipping is recommended. They should be tipped at a minimum of $25-30 per trek ranger ($100-120 total for the trip should be set aside). You will have two rangers with you for the Gorilla trek and 2 different rangers for the Chimpanzee trek so plan for $25-30 per ranger. 

Summary of tips needed: (at a minimum)

· Village representative tip: $50 per person

· Gorilla Trek Ranger tip: $50 (2 rangers so need to give $25 to each)

· Chimp Trek Ranger tip: $50 (2 rangers so need to give $25 to each)

· Additional Porter tip $25-30 per person per instance of hire (paid in equivalent in Uganda shilling)

· National Guide/Driver Tip: Will recommend they tip them at $50 person guide (as they will have 2).

· There is no need to tip Justice Tourism Foundation person at the airport.

Are internal flights in Uganda included? 

Yes, in coach class of service with the noted baggage limits outlined below. 1 bag of no more than 33 pounds is the weight limit to avoid additional bag fees. Excess fees will apply for an additional bag or overweight bag and can be paid to the airline directly. 

Checked baggage:

v On all services, the maximum luggage weight is 15 kgs /33lbs in soft sided bags. 

v As a guideline, standard checked luggage should have the three dimensions of 24 inches (60cm) height, by 18 inches (45cm) length and 13 inches (33cm) width. 

v For hand luggage, 12 inch- es (30cm) height, by 21 inches (53cm) length, by 9 inches (23cm) width. 

Excess/ Additional Luggage:

v On Scheduled flights, to accommodate additional luggage, you will need to book and pay for an additional freight seat in advance. The extra seat will allow for an additional 75kgs/165lbs excess luggage. Please note that any additional luggage must still meet the baggage policy described above. 

v If you wish to carry additional luggage on space availability, prevailing rate of USD 3 will apply per kilo for local flights in Uganda. Additional luggage bookings must also be booked in advance prior to your flight date.   

Are Gorilla and Chimpanzee permits included?

Yes, we will secure the permits on your behalf. Note permit costs are non-refundable, therefore a $1,250 non-refundable deposit is required at time of registration. 

Can I get a single room? 

Yes, an additonal supplement of $499 applies for guests in a single room. NOTE: Accommodations for all guests at the Bliss Hotel or either in a shared double-bedded room, or a single room. There are no twin-bedded rooms at the Bliss Hotel. 

Can I extend my time in Uganda? 

Please check with our office, we are happy to assist if you want to fly in early or extend your stay. 888-747-7501 or email info@nandajourneys.com

Packing recommendations?

Casual clothes like jeans are fine for this journey. You will need sturdy hiking boots (broken in), a camera with no flash, gardening gloves (village activities), long-sleeved shirts, sweater or sweatshirts for cooler days, insect repellent, and sunglasses. Nanda Journeys will provide additonal recommendations and periodic email updates to prepare you for travel to Uganda. 

Is Uganda a recommended country to visit?

CNN recently name Uganda as one of the best countries to visit in 2023. Read why HERE

Should I be worried about Ebola?

On January 11, 2023, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Ugandan Ministry of Health declared that the Ebola outbreak was over after zero reported infections for 42 days. The US State Department also ended testing for returning travelers to the USA. 

I am concerned about the recent LGBTQ proposed law in Uganda. 

Nanda Journeys and the Justice Tourism Foundation are inclusive grassroots social impact travel organizations which welcomes LGBTQ+ community in Uganda with open heart and pure love and tolerance for gender diversity. Yes, it’s a sensitive subject in reference to the recent proposed Anti homosexuality Bill which was passed by the Uganda parliament. 

The Bill is still under legal scrutiny process and has not yet been turned into a law. It is our hope that the President of the Republic of Uganda will reconsider the decision taken by the legislative arm of government and repeal this law to ensure that Ugandans can live without fear of violence and harassment. The safety of our clients is our number one priority and we will always make sure that our guests are in a safe environment to enjoy and experience an undiluted Ugandan authentic hospitality during their visit to Uganda. 

For further information or to discuss an of your Uganda questions, call Nanda Journeys 888-747-7501 or email info@nandajourneys.com