13-Day Eastern & Northern Uganda

Welcome to Uganda. Depending on your arrival time, relax, settle in, and prepare for the adventure ahead. Enjoy dinner, meet your guide, rest for an early start.

Early morning you drive east to Jinja. Once there, you’ll meet your rafting gear: life-jackets, helmets, and your guide gives you instructions. You choose the rapids’ intensity and launch into the River Nile for an exciting but safe stretch of river adrenaline.

After lunch, explore Jinja town. Take a boat ride to the Source of the Nile - where a mighty river begins its long journey. Evening, enjoy local food, riverside views, and the rhythm of this iconic spot.

Leave Jinja and make your way toward Sipi Falls. The drive introduces you to Eastern Uganda’s changing landscapes: farmland, forest edges, local markets. In the afternoon hike around the Sipi area to stretch your legs, take in views, visit villages.

Spend a full day in Sipi: walk around the waterfalls, visit nearby caves, meet coffee farmers, taste local brews. As the waterfalls tumble and mist rises, time will slow down more than you expected. The terrain is green, the air crisp. You’ll witness Uganda’s rural heart here, see how people live, work, and celebrate the land. Evening at lodge, under stars.

You leave Sipi and journey north through Pian Upe Wildlife Reserve. Game drives here offer sightings of antelope, birdlife, and perhaps other species not common elsewhere. 

After crossing the reserve you will arrive in Moroto. We'll spend the evening in Moroto town, absorbing Karamoja’s rhythms.

Today you explore Moroto’s surroundings with local Karatunga guides. Visit sacred sites, learn about culture, walk through landscapes unique to this region. The pace is slower, more intimate; this is where cultural connection becomes part of the travel itself.

You will leave Moroto ealy in the morning and go north toward Kidepo Valley National Park. Scenery opens out; small settlements, rugged land, distant mountain views. 

We'll arrive in Kidepo in the late afternoon. Settle in at your lodge, relax and maybe walk around and take in the beautiful views.

Rise at dawn. With a ranger guide, embark on a full day of game driving. You’ll carry some packed lunch and snacks. 

The wide plains, forks between mountains, and the Narus Valley host animals like elephants, buffalos, lions, leopards, antelope, ostriches. Hot springs offer photography stops, vistas, moments of quiet. 

Evening at camp or lodge, watching sunset over a vast savannah.

Morning offers shorter guided walks: through Narus Valley, or for more adventurous folk, a hike toward the Lomej Mountains. Expect birdlife, palms, possibly wild grazing animals. 

In the afternoon, visit a Karimojong community. You learn about their culture: how they build homesteads, make beads, their folklore. Share meals, stories, walk among cattle enclosures. It’s raw, vivid, human.

Leave Kidepo in the morning. Embark on a long drive via Kitgum and Gulu, passing towns, rivers, pastures. 

Stop at Aruu Waterfalls for a break and more waterfall photos. We'll have lunch in Gulu and then continue into Murchison Falls National Park. 

Spend the evening at lodge. Let the sounds of the Nile and wildlife lull you into rest.

Start with a morning game drive: lions, elephants, giraffes, antelopes, buffalo - maybe a stealthy leopard. 

After lunch, head out for a boat cruise along the Nile toward the bottom of Murchison Falls. Watch hippos, crocodiles, birds along the riverbanks. Then approach where the river squeezes through a narrow gap and falls with thunderous power - a true spectacle of nature's power. 

Evening relax at lodge, reflecting on the force of nature.

Morning takes you to the top of the Murchison Falls - different, elevated view, dramatic perspectives, mist, roaring water from above. 

After that, drive to Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary. Here, rhino tracking on foot brings you surprisingly close to these endangered giants, in habitat that is ensuring their continued existence in Uganda. Evening lodging near Ziwa or en route.

Early morning, go out again with trackers to locate rhinos. 

Once done, begin your journey back toward Kampala or the airport. The drive offers one final stretch of country: fields, towns, roadside life. 

Arrive in the evening. 

Your safari ends, but you leave with stories, wildlife sightings, culture, and landscapes etched into your memory.