12 Day Uganda Rwanda Tanzania Safari: Two Gorilla Treks and the Serengeti
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12 Days
Chimpanzees, two gorilla treks, golden monkeys, the Maasai Mara, the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater
Best for: Travellers who want primates and big game across four countries at an unhurried pace
Itinerary ref: MC-027
An 18 day four country safari is the full version of the East African circuit: chimpanzees in Kibale, lions and boat cruises in Queen Elizabeth, a gorilla trek in Uganda and another in Rwanda, then three nights in the Maasai Mara, three in the Serengeti and a morning inside Ngorongoro Crater. Eighteen days lets you drive through Uganda, which is how you see it, and fly only where flying saves a day.
Tell us your dates and group size and we will confirm permits and flights for your 18 day four country safari.
Enquire About This SafariThis route spends its first ten days with primates and its last eight with big game. Uganda is crossed by road, from Kibale to Queen Elizabeth and on to the Bwindi forest, because the scenery, the villages and the wildlife stops along the way are part of what you came for. Rwanda follows for a second gorilla trek and a morning with golden monkeys. After that the route flies: Kigali to Nairobi, into the Maasai Mara, across to the Serengeti and finally to Ngorongoro Crater.
We have arranged the countries so that your visa works. The East Africa Tourist Visa covers Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya and ends on entry to Tanzania, so Tanzania comes last. The entry section below sets out the detail and the dates we checked.
If you are short of time, the faster 14 day version flies the Ugandan legs and keeps the gorillas and the two big parks. If you would rather skip Kenya, the 12 day route through Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania goes straight from the forests to the Serengeti.
Where you sleep on each of the seventeen nights, and what it takes to get there. Times are the ones we plan with and are confirmed at booking.
| Night | Where | Where you stay | How you get there |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Entebbe, Uganda | Sienna Beach Hotel | Arrive at Entebbe airport |
| 2 and 3 | Kibale Forest | Primate Lodge Kibale | Drive of 5 to 6 hours (about 350 km) |
| 4 and 5 | Queen Elizabeth National Park | Mweya Safari Lodge | Drive of about 3 hours via Fort Portal |
| 6 and 7 | Buhoma, Bwindi | Buhoma Lodge, or Mahogany Springs | Drive of 5 to 6 hours via Ishasha |
| 8 and 9 | Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda | Amakoro Songa Lodge, or Five Volcanoes Boutique Hotel | A long transfer day over the Katuna border |
| 10 | Kigali | A boutique hotel in Kigali | Golden monkeys in the morning, then about 2.5 hours by road |
| 11 to 13 | Maasai Mara, Kenya | Naboisho Camp, or Kichwa Tembo Tented Camp | Flights Kigali to Nairobi, then Wilson Airport to the Mara |
| 14 to 16 | Central Serengeti | Kubu Kubu, central Serengeti | Air, road and air link from the Mara |
| 17 | Ngorongoro Crater rim | Lemala Ngorongoro, or Ngorongoro Serena Safari Lodge | Drive of 3 to 4 hours |
| 18 | Kilimanjaro airport | Departure | Crater floor in the morning, then the road to the airport |
If a lodge is full for your dates, we place you in a comparable lodge in the same area.
Eighteen days across four countries. The first week is by road through western Uganda, and the second is a series of short flights.
Your driver-guide meets you at Entebbe International Airport and drives you to Sienna Beach Hotel. The first day of the 18 day four country safari is a rest day. This evening we go through the plan, your permits and what to pack: boots, gaiters, long sleeves and a rain jacket for the forests.
A drive of five to six hours (about 350 km) west to Kibale National Park, with stops along the way for lunch and for tea estates. You arrive at your lodge in the forest in the late afternoon, in time for a walk in the grounds, where monkeys and birds are already active.
Rangers brief you and lead small groups into the forest to find a habituated chimpanzee community. Once found, you stay with them for one hour, watching them feed, groom and call. Treks vary from under an hour to several hours. The afternoon is free, or you can walk the Bigodi wetland for birds and monkeys.
A drive of about three hours (153 km) via Fort Portal brings you to Queen Elizabeth National Park and your lodge on the Mweya peninsula. You have an afternoon on the water, or a short game drive, depending on how you feel after the early start.
A morning game drive on the Kasenyi plains looks for lions, buffalo and Uganda kob. After lunch you take a boat on the Kazinga Channel, where hippos, buffalo, elephants and water birds line the banks. Both activities are on our standard programme for this day.
Today is a travel day with a purpose. You drive south through Ishasha, about two hours on a murram road, looking for the lions that climb fig trees, and continue for two to three hours more to Buhoma, the northern gateway to Bwindi. The road can be impassable in heavy rain, in which case we use the tarmac route, which is longer.
You trek in the tall, steep forest of Buhoma to find a habituated gorilla family and spend one hour with them. Treks last from an hour to most of the day, and your guides decide the pace. In the afternoon you can walk with the Batwa community or visit the village near your lodge.
This is the long transfer day of the route, and we plan it as the only thing you do. You drive from Buhoma towards Kabale, cross the border at Katuna and change to a Rwandan driver-guide, then continue to Volcanoes National Park. We cannot give a precise driving time because border queues vary, so plan on most of the day. Dinner and an early night follow.
An early start at the Kinigi headquarters, then a trek on the open volcanic slopes to find your second gorilla family. The terrain is different from Buhoma, with bamboo, meadow and mist. After your hour with the family you return to the lodge for the afternoon.
A shorter and easier trek this morning takes you into the bamboo zone to meet the golden monkeys, which are quick, bright and often close. After lunch you drive about 2.5 hours (105 km) to Kigali. If you arrive early, you can visit the Kigali Genocide Memorial before dinner.
The first flight of the morning takes you to Nairobi in about 1h50. After immigration you transfer to Wilson Airport for the afternoon flight to the Mara, a flight of about 45 minutes, and land near your camp in time for a late game drive. We keep a buffer in the day, because it relies on three flights.
The first full day of game drives on the 18 day four country safari runs from the camp, with an early drive, breakfast in the bush and a second drive in the late afternoon. Lions, cheetahs, leopards, elephants and huge herds of plains game all live in the Mara, and your guide chooses the route each morning from the latest sightings.
Today the route turns to the Mara River, where from about August to October the herds can gather and cross, though never to a timetable. In a conservancy camp you may also have walking safaris and night drives, which are not allowed in the national reserve.
A morning flight at about 08:05 takes you from the Mara to Migori, followed by a road transfer over the border at Isebania and Sirari and a second flight to Seronera in the central Serengeti, arriving around 12:30. In AirKenya's 2026 timetable the link runs daily to 31 December except 1 April to 20 May, and needs a minimum of two passengers (four from 1 November to 15 December). You have an afternoon game drive.
On the 18 day four country safari this is the day for the Seronera valley, the best area of the park to see lions and leopards in every month. Your guide may take you to the kopjes or the riverbanks, and you eat a picnic lunch in the bush.
A second full day lets you choose again. Many guests ask to return to a sighting from the first day, and with a full day free you can. Others follow the herds towards the plains beyond Naabi Hill.
After a morning game drive you drive south-east for three to four hours on a rough road, past Naabi Hill gate, to the rim of Ngorongoro Crater. You arrive in the afternoon and look down over the caldera from your lodge before an early night.
You descend at 06:00, soon after the gate opens, for a morning on the crater floor, then climb out and drive three to four hours towards Arusha and Kilimanjaro International Airport. Because of the drive, only evening departures work on this day, and we advise booking nothing earlier. If you want to continue to the coast, Zanzibar is a short flight away.
Three primate treks make the first half of this route different from any shorter combination. At Kibale you track habituated chimpanzees, which are noisy, quick and often in the treetops. In Bwindi and Volcanoes you spend an hour each with mountain gorillas. In Rwanda you add golden monkey trekking, a shorter and easier trek in the bamboo zone that most guests enjoy as a counterpart to the gorilla days. The details of the chimpanzee trek are in our guide to chimpanzee trekking in Kibale.
Permits are per person. As checked on 10 October 2026: a Uganda gorilla permit is USD 800 (USD 600 in April, May and November), a Rwanda gorilla permit is USD 1,500, and a Kibale chimpanzee permit is USD 250, rising to USD 300 from 1 January 2027. The minimum age is 15 for gorillas and 12 for chimpanzees. We confirm each figure against the official tariff when we quote, and the golden monkey permit is priced in your quote. We secure permits first and build the dates around them.
The two gorilla forests are quite different. Buhoma, in the north of Bwindi, is steep and tall, with a lodge community on its edge. Volcanoes is open, high and volcanic. Our Uganda versus Rwanda comparison and our Bwindi sector guide help you choose, and our Volcanoes guide covers the Rwandan trek.
After the chimpanzees, Queen Elizabeth National Park gives you two nights of open country. The Kazinga Channel links Lake George and Lake Edward and holds some of the highest hippo and buffalo concentrations in Africa, which you see from a boat at close quarters. On land you drive the Kasenyi plains for lions and the Mweya peninsula for elephant. On the way south, the Ishasha sector is known for lions that climb fig trees, though sightings are never guaranteed.
The southward road is the part of Uganda most guests remember: terraced hills, tea estates and villages, and the park's crater lakes. It is also why we drive here rather than fly. For more about the park, read our Queen Elizabeth guide.
Once you leave Rwanda you stop driving long distances. Kigali to Nairobi is a flight of about 1h50, and the Wilson Airport to Mara flight is roughly 45 minutes. You spend three nights in the Maasai Mara, where the camps near the airstrip keep transfers short, and three in the central Serengeti. Our Maasai Mara guide and Serengeti guide explain how the two parks differ.
The Mara-to-Serengeti link is an air, road and air connection via Migori in Kenya and Tarime in Tanzania, and it saves a day over the route through Nairobi and Arusha. Our safari flight logistics guide sets out its operating dates, baggage limits and the fallback.
Ngorongoro Crater closes the route. You spend the night on the rim and descend at first light, when the animals in the crater are most active.
June to September is when this route works best. The forest paths in Kibale, Bwindi and Volcanoes are drier, the savannas are open and the herds are in the Mara from about August. Crossings of the Mara River usually peak in August and September, and are never guaranteed.
The 18 day four country safari can run all year, with seasonal changes. March to May is the long rains: forest paths are slow, and in AirKenya's 2026 timetable the Mara to Serengeti link does not operate between 1 April and 20 May, so we use the fallback via Nairobi and Arusha, which adds a day. November brings the short rains and a lower Ugandan permit price.
For a deeper look at each country, see our guides to the best time to visit Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.
Seventeen nights at classic comfort and premium level, each lodge chosen for its position: inside the forest at Kibale, on the Mweya peninsula, at the trailhead in Buhoma and near the airstrip in the Mara.
If a lodge is full for your dates, we use a comparable lodge in the same area and tell you before you pay.
The full rules for each country are in our visa requirements guide, and we keep dated changes on the entry alerts list. Travel insurance with medical evacuation is advised on this route; see our insurance guide. These are checked facts, not promises, so please confirm on the official portals before you apply.
This 18 days four country safari is complete as it stands, but many guests end with four nights on the coast. From Kilimanjaro airport the flight to Zanzibar is about 1h20, non-stop, and we arrange the beach resort and the transfer in place of your flight home. Instead of leaving Ngorongoro by road, you can also fly from Seronera to Zanzibar in about 1h40 on a small aircraft with a 20 kg baggage limit. Our guide to adding Zanzibar to your safari covers the options. Zanzibar has its own mandatory insurance requirement, so check it separately.
We quote the 18 day four country safari per person for your dates and group size, so the price is on request. The quote itemises each of the lines below.
| Cost line | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Primate permits | Uganda gorillas USD 800 (USD 600 in April, May and November), Rwanda gorillas USD 1,500 and Kibale chimpanzees USD 250 (USD 300 from 1 January 2027), per person, as checked on 10 October 2026 |
| Road transport in Uganda | A private vehicle and driver-guide for the six days from Entebbe to Bwindi, then the Katuna border transfer to Rwanda |
| Flights | Kigali to Nairobi, Wilson Airport to the Mara and the Mara to Serengeti link, with a 15 kg soft-bag limit on bush flights |
| Lodges and camps | Seventeen nights at classic comfort and premium level, with meals as listed in your quote |
| Park and reserve fees | Daily fees for Kibale, Queen Elizabeth, the Mara, the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater, itemised |
| Visas and insurance | Paid by you to the government portals; we guide you through the order |
Our guide to what an East Africa safari costs explains how each line changes with the season.
Everything below is included in your quote for the 18 day four country safari unless it appears under not included.
The guides and routes we suggest reading before you decide.
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