I cannot recommend Bamboo Ecotours highly enough! Edison was attentive, professional and an absolute pleasure to work with. Herbert was friendly, knowledgeable and so eager to make our trip a memorable one. The scenery in Rwanda and Uganda was breathtaking, the people working in the lodges were kind and very welcoming, the accommodation was beautiful, the animal viewing was second to none. I will certainly remember this experience forever.
When I was researching for this trip, I was like, do I really want to bring my family to Uganda? It's like, remote and third world and ... should we even go there?
But I wanted to see mountain gorillas so much, and it's cheaper than Rwanda, and reviews seemed okay ... so I booked it through Bamboo Ecotours. Edison seemed very professional in his emails, always answered fast, and it made me feel like, these are legit tour operators. We'll be okay.
Looking back, I can say, "Excellent choice!" Uganda is the most hospitable country I can imagine. And it's not fake hospitality because people are getting paid, it's coming from people who are genuinely happy to have your visit their country because it's awesome, they have so many incredible animals and national parks, and for a long time tourists didn't go there. And they're happy to make money too of course. A lot of the country is pretty poor, and any extra they make from tourism is super helpful to families with kids in school, public works improvements, etc. And it keeps these incredible animals safe in their natural habitats.
Our family felt looked-after, safe, and very much enjoyed the expertise, good advice, and friendship of our driver, Fred. It might sound like a not-important thing, but he made sure there was always plenty of water in the safari truck. In Uganda you're gonna need water and it felt so good to know we didn't have to worry about it.
The 5-day trek:
We started in Kigali. Getting the East Africa visa, which works for Uganda, proved near impossible from Kenya (where we went first), but we got the visa in Rwanda airport easy-peasy. Used a credit card. Hopefully this is a thing Rwanda immigration continues to do.
We opted to do the Genocide memorial museum in Kigali. It's hard, but don't miss it. It's so important and good to have the information about what causes people to harm one another, and all the stories of heroes along the way.
The border crossing from Rwanda to Uganda was wild! But easy. That's where they check your yellow fever vaccination card.
We stayed in mid-range accommodations, and I can't say enough wonderful things about the 2 lodges we chose. Lake Chahafi Lodge (on TripAdvisor it's listed as Lake Chahafi Resort) and the Buffalo Safari Lodge. The hospitality of the people running and working in these places is unmatched. They really seem to love what they do, and they are genuinely kind. I wrote separate reviews of both these lodges on their pages.
The gorilla trek in Bwindi National park was honestly worth all the work and angst (I have my anxious traveller moments for sure!) and many hours of travel. It's not so much trekking to see gorillas as it is spending quality time with gorillas in their leafy house. I wrote a separate review of our Bwindi experience too.
Queen Elizabeth National Park: We saw so many hippos on the channel boat cruise! And a whole family of elephants having water playtime! A tiny crocodile and a giant, scary one. Lots of very cool birds, including African eagles. A lady from S. Africa said she's been on many boat cruises in Africa and this one was by far the best one. On our boat, we had Angela as our guide. She is the kind of person you want to bring to a party, and made the boat trip delightful. She is friendly, smart (knew all kinds of facts about the animals we saw and the area), and can have a nice chat with anyone. It's a 2 hour trip. Pee before you go.
Game drives, or driving around QE National Park looking for elephants and lions etc., can be exciting but can also be kind of long if you don't get lucky finding the animals. We saw three lions including one big guy just trotting down the road. He was enormous! Somewhere among the dusty roads is a cool little market you can go to and they have African crafts, including fabrics like the ones the women wear everywhere, for sale. There's a lake with a zillion flamingos below the market.
The sunsets and sunrises are INCREDIBLE in this park.
On the chimp trek we didn't get as lucky. We did see plenty of chimps but they stuck to the treetops so it was hard to see them well. Only a couple came to the ground and didn't really get close to us. But it was still great to see them in their home--they are so much bigger than I realized! I had thought they were about the size of baboons, but they're much bigger.
A perk of going to the Kalinzu forest wildlife office is that there are baboons in the back yard, and they are used to people so they let you take their picture. I mean, I had never seen a baboon, and they are so funny! They, like the chimps and gorillas, stick with their family. The big alpha male is in charge, and keeps an eye on everyone.
We left there and did the long drive to Entebbe, where we flew out from. It was nice of Edison to have Fred take us there instead of back to Kigali because the flights were cheaper for us from Entebbe. And on the way we got to see more parts of Uganda, which is a country we now love!
Uganda is nothing to be afraid of. If you book the tour, you'll be so happy with it. It wasn't just us--every other family/couple/single traveler we met in Uganda was having a fantastic trip and couldn't believe the kindness of the Ugandan people.
M3980LWkarenl
27 Feb 2024
We were so glad we chose Bamboo Safaris for our trip to see the gorillas and chimps in Rwanda. Edison took time and was very understanding, making sure we had the perfect safari. The communication was great and I instantly felt I could trust him.
Our driver/guide, Jackson was excellent and always on time. He was very likeable. We always felt safe and he gave us a good insight in to what life was like in Rwanda. He had a good knowledge on the wildlife and was always willing to stop if a photo opportunity arose.
Trekking the gorillas and being so close to them for a whole hour was truly amazing and something I will never forget.
Rwanda is a beautiful and very clean country. It is very lush and green and very interesting to travel around.