5-Day Queen Elizabeth Park Luxury Safari including Chimpanzees-Wildlife-Tree-Climbing Lions
A 5-Day Queen Elizabeth Park Upmarket Safari enjoying Queen Elizabeth National Park – Uganda
This Private 5-Day Queen Elizabeth Park Luxury Safari combines vast Savannah Plains, Forests, Lakes, the Explosion Craters, and Crater Lakes. The Western Rift Valley, the fantastic Kyambura Gorge, the Kazinga Channel with its birds and wildlife, and Maramagambo Forest. All in the shadows of the tallest Mountain Range in Africa –the Rwenzori Mountains of the Moon.
Queen Elizabeth Park is the best place in East Africa for seeing Tree-Climbing Lions, and the Park has a thriving Elephant population of over 3,000 of them. It is here where you can participate in the Lion-Tracking Research, a joint venture of the Uganda Wildlife Authority and the Uganda Carnivore Project.
Discover an underground forest in what BBC called the Lost Valley, the Kyambura Gorge, which is like a vast gash in the Savannah. Take a Boat Safari on the famous Kazinga Channel with its hippos, wildlife, reptiles, and an abundance of birds. Take the scenic Katwe Explosion Crater.
Queen Elizabeth National Park is one of the best Savannah Parks for Wildlife. You can add to that the spectacular scenery shaped by the Western Rift Valley with the Rwenzori Mountains in Distance.
Fly-In Safari Option:
This 5-Day Queen Elizabeth Park Luxury Safari can be done as a Fly-in Safari. You fly from Entebbe into Kihihi in the Ishasha region of the Park and, at the end of the 5th day, fly back to Entebbe from Kasese, which is close to the northern area of the Park. If you use the fly-in option, the order of the safari will be reversed, beginning in the Ishasha area of Queen Elizabeth Park.
5-Day Queen Elizabeth Park Luxury Safari Highlights:
- Stay in two exclusive Luxury Lodges: Stay the exclusive Kyambura Gorge Lodge and the Ishasha Wilderness Camp.
- Tree-Climbing Lion: This is the best spot in Africa to see the famous Tree-climbing Lions of Ishasha.
- Optional – Lion Tracking Research Experience: Track the collared lions and leopards with the Uganda Carnivore Project Researchers.
- The Scenic Explosion Crater Drive: See twelve crater lakes along one of the most scenic drives in Uganda.
- Kazinga Channel Boat Cruise: This is one of the highlights of a safari in Queen Elizabeth Park.
- Wildlife Game Drives: Safe Game drives with an Uganda Wildlife Authority Ranger. There is not much wildlife that you will miss seeing.
- Chimpanzee Trekking: You can trek chimpanzees in the Kyambura Gorge, or Kalinzu Forest is the second-best Chimpanzee Trekking Location in Uganda.
Your 5-Day Queen Elizabeth Park Luxury Safari in Detail:
Day 1 – Queen Elizabeth Park:
Your 5-Day Queen Elizabeth Park Luxury Safari begins. Depart your Hotel in Kampala or Entebbe at 6:00 am and head west toward Queen Elizabeth Park.
It is a six-hour drive to the Park. It is a scenic drive through the Ugandan countryside with its idyllic African villages, farms, and cattle pastures. You can see the Ankole Cows with enormous horns you have ever seen on a cow.
Arrive at the luxury Kyambura Gorge Lodge where you are welcomed and taken to your private Banda (cottage).
Kyambura Gorge Lodge:
Kyambura Game Lodge took an old coffee plantation and gave it new life in the form of a luxury Lodge bringing another level of service to the area by restoring a Karen Blixen-style coffee plantation to contemporary life using some of the remnants as decor in the Lodge in most distinctive ways.
Each Banda (Cottage) oozes subdued elegance and style. No cottage is the same, but it comes with its own style that guests enjoy. There are standard and several deluxe cottages.
You can enjoy the sunrise over the Savannah and Kyambura Gorge with a fresh, locally grown, and processed cup of coffee by a women’s group that the lodge supports.
The Lodge has a spa with services such as massage therapies and a sauna. There is a great swimming pool for guests to enjoy.
You will enjoy the creative meals that are served here for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Vegetarians, vegans, and others with dietary requirements will not miss out.
Katwe Explosion Crater Lake Drive
In the late afternoon, we drive to the highest area of Queen Elizabeth National Park. Here is the Katwe Explosion Crater trail, with some of the most stunning scenery in all of Uganda. This is a 27-kilometer drive, and you will see the various explosion craters along the way. We will drive slowly and stop where you want to take some pictures, and there are many opportunities for photos along the scenic Journey.
Not only is your competent driver-guide there to point out various things, but an Uganda Wildlife Authority Ranger is along for the drive. Both will give you the background and insights about the craters. There are twelve crater lakes, and some contain a lot of salt, which is evident by the whiteness at the lake’s edge. Others are pristine crater lakes, while other craters are covered by savannah grass or forest.
You can also look down the Western Rift Escarpment and see the vast savannah below, along with Lake George and Lake Edward, the Rwenzori Mountains, and the Democratic Republic of Congo Blue Mountains. The late afternoon will be best for taking this drive since you can take better pictures as the equatorial sunlight diminishes.
There is not the abundance of wildlife found as below on the savanna; most often, you will see various herds of elephants and buffaloes here on the drive; not too often do predators come into this area of the park, and neither do many visitors to the Park take this most scenic and panoramic drive.
Meal Plan: Lunch – Dinner
Day 2 – Queen Elizabeth Park:
Morning Game Drive:
Choose breakfast or an early game which can begin at 6:30 am as dawn breaks over the Savannah at Queen Elizabeth Park. The equatorial sun rises over the horizon bathing the candelabra euphoria trees in the early morning glow. An Uganda Wildlife Authority Ranger accompanies you. The ranger and driver-guide will point out animals you would otherwise miss.
The morning game drive is an excellent time for good picture-taking of the predators who are returning from the night’s hunt, elephant herds, buffaloes, antelopes such as the majestic Uganda Kobs, Bush Pigs, Warthogs, savannah birds, and you have both the driver guide and the Uganda Wildlife Authority Ranger to point out the various wildlife to you that you might otherwise miss.
Option: Instead of the morning Game Drive, go on Lion Tracking Research with staff from the Uganda Carnivore Project started by Dr. Siefert, who in Uganda is an institution in himself and knows Carnivores as few do. This is done in a Tracking Vehicle and must be booked in advance by us.
Kazinga Channel Wildlife Boat Cruise:
Afternoon boat ride on Kazinga Channel, leaving the Mweya and heading for Lake Edward along with the safari, you will see hundreds of hippos – the highest concentration in Africa.
There are about 1500 hippos found along the channel, with almost 5000 in the Park. There are hundreds of various kinds of birds that you will see here. On the shore, elephant herds can number over 50 in the dry season. Buffaloes, Antelopes, Monitor Lizards, and Crocodiles can all be seen here during your slow-moving boat ride along the channel.
Crocodiles had been absent from the track for a thousand years, but once villages and paths were established along the Semliki River into which Lake Edward flows, they returned in the 1950s to the Park and thrived here. The boat safari is one of the highlights of your 5-Day Safari at Queen Elizabeth Park.
hA private Boat Ride can be arranged for you where you have the undivided attention of the guide steering the boat, allowing you to take the best pictures and have a longer boat ride.
Meal Plan: Breakfast – Lunch – Dinner
Day 3 – Queen Elizabeth Park:
Breakfast, and we head off for Kyambura Gorge – the Valley of the Apes or the Lost Valley as BBC once called it. It is like a giant gash in the middle of the savannah and drops down into a valley – an impressive sight to behold.
At the bottom of this Gorge, you will find chimpanzees and other primates, birds, and other mammals. This is also a guided chimpanzee trek. It would be best to wear light hiking shoes, have a backpack with bottled water, a wide-brimmed hat is good, jeans, long-sleeved shirt to not incur cuts by vines and or branches.
The Chimpanzee Trek is about three hours plus in length – they have to be tracked since they move daily and build new nests daily. They are habituated and therefore used to human beings being near them.
Kalinzu Forest Chimpanzee Trekking Option: For better Chimpanzee Trekking, you can choose to trek them in nearby Kalinzu Forest. This is the second-Best Option for Chimpanzee Trekking in Uganda.
Late afternoon Game drive with Uganda Wildlife Authority Ranger – each game drive is different and done in another game track of the Park in the Mweya area.
Meal Plan: Breakfast – Lunch – Dinner
Day 4 – Ishasha Sector of Queen Elizabeth Park:
Breakfast and we leave Mweya Safari Lodge and head south to the unvisited part of Queen Elizabeth National Park called Ishasha, home of the Tree Climbing Lion and the premier camp in the area – Ishasha Wilderness Tented Camp – experience the African Wilderness in Uganda.
Ishasha Wilderness Camp:
Ishasha Wilderness Camp is an experience in the African Wild in the unvisited part of Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda – the Ishasha region of the Park
Simply a place in the African Bush along the Ntungwe River- up-market luxury staying in en-suite Tented Cottages
Have lunch with elephants and hippos, and listen to the sounds of the African night.
There is superb food and care offered in an upmarket style that, with the new tents, is merely excellent, and you are near the best place in all of East Africa for Tree Climbing Lions, yet most tourists bypass this significant part of Queen Elizabeth Park.
Ishasha Wilderness Camp is just that – an experience in the African Wilderness.
Optional activity – Sundowner in the Bush: Have a traditional sundowner drink and snacks provided by Ishasha Wilderness Camp in the Bush. Read more Here.
See Tree-Climbing Lions on a Game Drive:
Get settled in your Tented Camp and get ready to enjoy the hunt for the Tree Climbing Lions, who sleep the day away in the Fig Trees of Ishasha.
Lunch at Ishasha Wilderness Tented Camp along the Ntungwe River, enjoying a great meal and seeing wildlife while you eat.
After lunch, we search for the tree-climbing lions of Ishasha and spend m st of the day in the fig trees sleeping the day away. Ishasha is the best place in Africa to see tree-climbing lions. There are about 50 lions found in the area, and it is unknown whether the tree-climbing the lions is a cultural habit or whether it is to avoid insects by the lions.
It is, however, a most unusual experience to see the lions in the trees; they are not the only animals you will see. Often you will see Leopards, usually alone in some trees with their latest kill beside them.
There are about 1,500 elephants present in the area, and you typically see large numbers. There are Topi and Uganda Kob Antelopes in high numbers, and along the lake, in the swampy area, you can spot the elusive shoebill stork, the most sought-after bird in Africa.
This game drive means some fantastic photo opportunities for you – and you will wonder why Ishasha is the unvisited part of Queen Elizabeth Park.
Meal Plan: Breakfast – Lunch – Dinner
Day 5 – Return to Kampala:
Breakfast at Ishasha Wilderness Tented Camp and a Morning Game Drive to see the Tree Climbing Lions and other wildlife along our game drive with an Uganda Wildlife Ranger onboard the vehicle. Once, we enjoy the tree-climbing lions and other wildlife found at Ishasha. It is a fantastic wilderness area not to be missed.
We head back to Kampala – Lunch along the way and a stop at the Equator.
Reach Kampala during the early evening hours.
Flying Option: You can choose to fly back to the Entebbe area. There are now two Domestic Safari Air Carriers offering flights, which we can arrange for you.
Morning and afternoon flights are available for you, making connecting with your outbound flight in Entebbe easy.
The safari can be adjusted to a fly-in Safari, where you can see the Equator from above.
What is included in this 5-Day Queen Elizabeth Park Luxury Safari?
- Experienced Ugandan Driver-Guide: A Safari becomes more enjoyable when you go with a knowledgeable and professional Local Driver-Guide.
- Full-Board Lodging: All meals are included except alcoholic drinks, sodas, and snacks that you might order apart from meals. Some luxury Lodges have non-premium alcoholic beverages and sodas.
- Private 4×4 Land Cruiser Safari Vehicle with pop-Up Roof: The vehicle has a
- WiFi Internet Access: Most Lodges only provide a WiFi Internet Connection in the main lodge. We offer you a MiFi Router that gives you and your party access to the internet in your cottage or room, depending on nearby transmission towers. Read Staying in touch with home.
- Spanish, French, Italian, German, Russian, Mandarin, Arabic Speaking Driver-Guides: At an extra cost.
- Your Dietary Needs can be met: Notify us if you are a vegan, vegetarian, or need a gluten-free diet. Halala dietary requirements can be met in most instances. Strictly kosher nutritional requirements cannot be met on safari. a.
- ;Automatic AMREF-Flying Doctors Air-Medivac Insurance coverage: Our clients have covered in the case of a rare need for medical evacuation to a hospital that meets international standards.
Not included: Visas, Travel Insurance, Laundry, Tips, drinks at lodges such as Alcoholic drinks and sodas, and optional listed activities.
