Can I book gorilla trekking with a lodge?
Can I book gorilla trekking with a lodge?: Yes, one can book gorilla trekking with a lodge in Bwindi if they are intending to trek mountain gorillas and spend a night or more in the park. A gorilla trekking safari in Bwindi requires 2 or more days in the park because the park is located far in the south western part Uganda where you can’t move in a few hours, trek mountain gorillas and come back.
From Entebbe or Kampala, a traveler needs 9-10 hours to get to the park if they are using road transport, and 4-5 hours from Kigali still using road transport. A traveler would therefore need to book a lodge while visiting the park for gorilla trekking. Gorilla trekking should be the first thing to be booked because you need a gorilla permit to carry out gorilla trekking and this must be booked in advance before you even think about the lodge. After securing yourself a permit, you can book the lodge of your choice based on your price. Below we are going to show you how to book gorilla trekking with a lodge.
Booking gorilla trekking
Using a local tour operator
To book a gorilla trekking in Bwindi, you go through different steps and procedures. You can book a gorilla trekking by yourself or a trusted local tour operator. However much you can book a gorilla trekking in Bwindi by yourself, it’s very important you google a trusted local tour operator or you can as well be recommended by a friend who has ever been in Bwindi to tell you the company they used in case it was good.
There are so many tour companies organizing safaris in Bwindi gorilla park and Africa Adventure Vacations is one of them. We are one of the leading local tour operators in the country organizing, booking gorilla trekking in Bwindi on behalf of our clients. To book gorilla trekking in Bwindi with us, you can send us an inquiry via our email at ww.africaadventurevacations.com for more details.
We shall use the information in the email to design and look for the best activities you can do on your safari, price them, price the lodges, and transport and then send you a total of how much your trip can take. We send the total cost of the safari together with different itineraries and it will be upon you to choose what is good for you.
After you have confirmed to travel with us, we look at how to secure you a permit. We do use the dates of the month and year you want to travel and check for the availability of the permits with the Uganda Wildlife Authority. If the permits are available, we shall send you an email containing the price of the permits and the different banking details so that you send the money for the permit. We shall thereafter secure for you a permit and you will be able to trek mountain gorillas when you visit the park.
From the gorilla permit, we shall go ahead and book an accommodation of your choice based on the price we agreed on. There are budget, mid-range, and luxury lodges in Bwindi gorilla park, and where to stay simply depends on your budget. As local tour operators, we have the best lodges we work with that give us accommodation at an affordable rate so we shall contact them to see if they have rooms available on the dates of your safari. Once the rooms are available then we shall simply go on and book the lodges for you where you will stay while on the safari.
Encounter the giants of the great Apes in Bwindi Forest
By yourself
A traveler can book gorilla trekking together with the lodge by themselves if they want to trek Bwindi gorillas. It’s not easy at all since it comes with a lot of challenges such as delayed replies from service providers as well as scammers. For a traveler to book gorilla trekking themselves, they will contact all the service providers and these include the accommodation owners, transport, and Uganda wildlife authority for the permits.
To book a gorilla permit with Uganda Wildlife Authority, you need to just contact the reservations office via email. You should tell them the dates of the month and year you want to visit the park and they will use this information to check for the availability of the permits. If the permits are available, they will send you an email containing the price of the permits and how you can send money. After sending the money, you will send them a scanned copy of the receipt and they will book the permits for you.
Once you sure your permit is available, you can look at booking where you will stay while in the park. It is very wrong to book accommodation before getting permits because there are seasons when permits are sold out and if you had already booked you might lose some of the money if you find out that the permits are not available. To book the accommodation facility, you google those in the sectors of Bwindi where you are going to trek.
Once you have found the lodge of your choice and price, you will contact them via email or WhatsApp and ask them if they have rooms available on the days of the month and year you want to be in the park. They will check and if they find the rooms available, they will send you banking details to send money for your room to be booked.
When to book gorilla trekking with a lodge
When to book gorilla trekking with a lodge depends on the season of the month and year to travel. Tourists that want to visit Bwindi in the dry season are advised to book gorilla trekking with a lodge early in advance of 3-4 months to avoid last-minute booking disappointments. The gorilla permits tend to sell out quickly in the dry season since that is when most of the travelers are coming into the country. You need to hurry to book the lodge in order to get one of your choice. Travelers coming in the rainy season can book gorilla trekking with a lodge even a few weeks to the final day because the permits are always available and lodges are empty looking for customers.
Best time to go gorilla trekking.
The best time to go gorilla trekking in Bwindi is the dry season and this is because the season is characterized by little or no rainfall. During the dry season of June to September and December to February, the vegetation is short and scattered giving unclear views of the mountain gorillas, the trekking trails are dry which doesn’t affect the speed of trekkers, and the roads leading to the park are passable.
Travelers can go gorilla trekking in the rainy season of March to May and October to November and this favors the budget travelers because lodges are at a discount. The issue with gorilla trekking in the rainy season is that there is plenty of rainfall that makes the trekking trails muddy and slippery, the vegetation is tall and thick giving unclear views of the park animals and the roads leading to the park are impassable.
