Four Country Safari Cost: The Fixed Fees, Route by Route

What does a four country safari cost? No single figure answers it, because most of the price is set by choices you make (lodges, flights, vehicles and guides) while a smaller, fixed part is set by governments and park authorities. This guide separates the two. It lists every fixed entry cost on a Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya and Tanzania route, adds up those fees for our six multi-country routes, and shows how to compare any two quotes line by line. We do not publish a package price here: every trip is quoted for your dates, and a quote that cannot show you the fixed fees is not worth trusting.

Written by Paramount Gorilla Expeditions Team East Africa. Facts last checked 11 October 2026.

Four country safari cost at a glance

Park authorities change tariffs without notice, so confirm any figure for your dates before you pay.

Four country safari cost: what the price is made of

Every four country quote is built from the same ten parts. Four of them are fixed by someone other than the operator, so they should match from one quote to the next. The rest are where quotes differ, and where a careful comparison starts.

This split is why a four country safari cost cannot be read from a headline price. A trip that looks lower may simply leave out the permits, the flights between countries or the visas. For the regional picture, our East Africa safari cost overview explains what drives prices across the whole region, and the country guides to Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya and Tanzania go deeper on one country at a time.

The fixed fees inside a four country safari cost

The table lists every fixed fee a four country route can meet, per adult, in US dollars. “Published tariff” means a tariff from the authority itself, “official portal” means the government site where you pay, and “reported” means several operators and travel sites agree but we have not seen the authority’s own page for your date.

Permits for gorillas, chimpanzees and golden monkeys

Park and reserve entry fees

Visas, authorisations and insurance

Children’s fees differ for parks (for example Serengeti USD 11.80 to 23.60 for ages 5 to 15, Mara USD 50 for children) and the minimum age for gorilla trekking is 15 in both countries.

The four country safari cost that is fixed, route by route

The sums below use the fees above and the number of nights on each of our itineraries. Permits sit inside our quotes. Visas and Tanzania insurance are bought by you, so we show them in their own column. Park and reserve fees are normally inside the quote too, and the range runs from the low to the high season rate.

Routes that start in Uganda: 14, 18 and 12 day

Routes that start in Rwanda: 10, 9 and 8 day

The last column adds the two columns before it and leaves out park fees, which depend on your month. The 9 day route also needs a Rwanda visa for some passports, and we did not verify that fee, so it is not counted. Our quotes include the permits, the park, reserve and crater fees and the flights named in each route, so the first and third columns are what you would see itemised.

How we did the arithmetic

For each route we took the permits it uses, then the visas and insurance its countries require, then the nights it spends in each fee-charging park and multiplied them by the per-night fee. We counted a night in a park as one 24-hour fee, which is how Tanzanian parks charge. The Mara is charged per day, so treat its line as approximate. A few lines are deliberately left out: the crater descent fee (USD 295 per vehicle, shared by whoever is in it), conservancy fees that the lodge already includes, any fee for activities such as balloon flights, and the Kenya eTA question.

How each country changes the four country safari cost

Adding a country does two things to the cost. It adds fixed fees, listed below, and it adds a transfer: a border crossing or a flight, and usually a night. The transfer is where most of the extra money goes, and it is the part no tariff publishes. Our guide to how many days a four country safari needs shows how transfers eat days, and the flights guide covers the air links.

The pattern is clear. Rwanda is the most expensive single fee on the route because of its gorilla permit, Tanzania adds the most paperwork, and Kenya and Tanzania together add most of the daily park fees. If you want the gorilla fee question settled before you choose a route, read our comparison of Uganda and Rwanda gorilla permits.

What decides the rest of the price

Everything outside the fixed fees is a choice, and the choices explain most of the gap between two quotes for the same route.

• Lodges and camps. The tier of the property, its location and its season set the nightly rate. Inside the Mara and the Serengeti the same camp can cost very different amounts between January and August.
• Flights. Whether the quote includes the Kigali to Nairobi leg, the Nairobi to Mara flight and the Mara to Serengeti air and road link changes the total by thousands. Bush flights carry baggage limits, covered in our luggage weight guide.
• Private or shared vehicle. A private vehicle and driver-guide for two people costs far more per person than the same vehicle with six, and the Ngorongoro descent fee is split the same way.
• Number of nights. A night spent on the road between two countries earns you no park fee and no activity, but it still costs a bed. Our days guide counts these nights.
• Season. The Mara fee doubles from July, Tanzanian park fees step up in the high season and lodges move to peak rates. The best time for a four country safari guide shows how the months line up.

Four country safari cost in 2027, and when to lock a price

Several fees move on dates you can plan around. The Kibale chimpanzee permit is reported at USD 250 until 31 December 2026 and USD 300 from 1 January 2027. Tanzania’s mandatory insurance began on 1 October 2026, so any quote written before that date may not show it. Uganda’s gorilla tariff is reported to stay at USD 800 for 2027, although one operator site claims USD 1,000, and that claim is unconfirmed. The Mara moves into its USD 200 high-season rate in July.

Permits are the item to secure first, because they are date-fixed and limited. Our guides to the best time to book a gorilla permit and when to book safaris and permits explain the lead times, and the guide to gorillas first or last shows how the permit date shapes the rest of the route.

How to compare two quotes line by line

Here is how to compare quotes without being misled by the total: ask each operator for the same ten lines. A quote that cannot supply them is not comparable, however attractive its figure looks. Then set the lines side by side and see where the gap sits.

• Which permits are included, how many, and in whose name they are held.
• The park and reserve fees, with the nights each is based on.
• Whether the Ngorongoro crater descent fee is included.
• Which flights are included: Kigali to Nairobi, Nairobi to the Mara, and the Mara to Serengeti link, with the baggage limit.
• Whether the quote assumes a private vehicle, and how many seats.
• Which visas and insurance you buy yourself, and the portals to use.
• Meals, drinks and activities included at each stop.
• Lodge or camp for every night, named.
• Cancellation terms for permits and for the flights.
• Date the prices were calculated, and how long they are held.

Our guide to questions to ask a safari operator before booking goes through the wider checks, and the entry documents are explained in the East Africa tourist visa guide and the travel insurance and evacuation guide.

Next steps: get your four country safari cost in writing

Choose the route that matches your days, then ask us for a quote for your dates. We itemise the permits, the park fees, the flights and the lodges, tell you which visas and insurance to buy yourself, and say plainly if a date or a permit is not available.

Written by Paramount Gorilla Expeditions Team East Africa. Facts last checked 11 October 2026.