Bwindi

Currency

The permit is the budget: $800 per person for a foreign non-resident in high season, $600 in April, May and November, booked through the Uganda Wildlife Authority or an operator, and it sells out months ahead. Bring dollars in clean post-2013 notes for permits and tips; shillings for everything else.

ATMs & cards

There are no reliable machines near the park. Draw shillings in Kampala or Kabale, and carry dollars in cash for the lodge and the tips. Stanbic and Absa in the towns are the ones that take foreign cards.

Bring clean, post-2013 dollar notes for the permit, the lodge and the tips; older or torn notes are refused across East Africa.

Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.

Safety

The trek is the risk: steep, muddy, at 1,500-2,500m altitude, and harder than most people expect — take it seriously and hire a porter. Gorillas are habituated but wild, and the rules on distance and on not going when you are ill are absolute, because they catch our diseases. Uganda is generally safe for visitors and this corner is well policed for tourism; the border areas with the DRC are a different matter and are not somewhere to wander.

Our own assessment, not a sourced index.

Entry & visa

Health & emergencies

Required to enter

• Yellow fever certificate — required of all arrivals and checked at Entebbe

Worth having

• Routine vaccinations up to date
• Hepatitis A and typhoid
• Malaria prophylaxis, year-round
• Rabies for longer stays
• Meningitis and cholera for some itineraries — ask a travel clinic

Getting treated

Kampala has good private hospitals — the Surgery, IHK — and the southwest has small clinics and a long drive to anything better. Gorilla lodges are hours from a hospital, and the trek itself is at altitude. Evacuation cover is essential.

Yellow fever certificates are checked on arrival and refused entry follows without one. Malaria is everywhere below 2,000m. Gorilla trekking has a health rule that runs the other way too: if you have a cold or a stomach bug you will be refused, without a refund, because the gorillas catch what we carry.

Orientation, not medical advice. Entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history and where you have been — check with a travel clinic or your national health service four to six weeks before you go.

Food tip

Lodge food, mostly, and it is home cooking rather than haute cuisine: matoke, groundnut sauce, beans, and tilapia from the lakes. Ugandan coffee is grown on the hills around the park and sold at the gate by the farmers who grew it. The rolex — an omelette rolled in a chapati — is the national street food and is worth stopping for on the drive.

Getting around

• Fly to Kihihi or Kisoro — an hour from Entebbe, and it saves a full day on the road
• Drive — eight to ten hours from Kampala on roads that are good and then suddenly are not; most people break the journey at Lake Bunyonyi
• The trek itself is on foot, uphill, in thick forest — it can take one hour or seven, and there is no way to know in advance
• Porters — hire one at the trailhead for about $20; they carry your bag, haul you up the steep bits, and it is the most direct money the community sees
• Four sectors — Buhoma, Ruhija, Rushaga and Nkuringo — and your permit names one, so book the lodge to match

Internet speed

Broadband here runs at 24% of the global median of 128 Mbps.

Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured May 2026

Must-see

Things to do

• Trek to a gorilla family and spend the allotted hour with them
• Hire a porter, which is both practical and the point
• Take the Batwa community walk with the forest’s displaced first people
• Bird the Ruhija sector, which has the Albertine Rift endemics
• Spend a day on Lake Bunyonyi afterwards, which is what your legs will want
• Go in the low season if the price matters — $600 instead of $800, and the forest is greener

Nearby day trips

Say a few words

English (Uganda)

• Hello (Luganda)Oli otyaoh-lee OH-cha
• Hello (Rukiga, southwest)Agandiah-GAHN-dee
• Thank you (Luganda)Webaleweh-BAH-leh
• Thank you very muchWebale nnyoweh-BAH-leh nyo
• Yes / NoYee / Neddayeh / NEH-da
• How much?Ssente meka?SEN-teh MEH-ka
• How are you?Osiibye otya?oh-SEE-byeh OH-cha
• GoodbyeWeerabaweh-RAH-ba

English is official and widely spoken; Luganda is the language of the centre and Rukiga and Runyankole of the southwest, where Bwindi is. Greetings are long here — expect to be asked after your family and your journey before anything else, and to ask back.

Religion

Christian, split Catholic and Anglican, with a Muslim minority

Around 85% Christian, divided almost evenly between Catholic and Anglican, with about 14% Muslim. Faith is public and prominent, church services are long and musical, and religious language enters ordinary conversation. It also underwrites some deeply illiberal politics: the anti-homosexuality legislation has broad church backing, and LGBT visitors should understand the legal position before travelling.

Do's and don'ts

Do

• Greet at length — how are you, how is the family, how is work — before getting to the point
• Shake hands, and hold on longer than feels natural; it is warmth, not a mistake
• Hire a porter for the gorilla trek, which is both practical and the most direct way money reaches the community
• Cover shoulders and knees in villages and churches
• Follow the gorilla rules exactly: seven metres, no flash, no visiting if you are ill

Don't

• Do not photograph police, soldiers or government buildings
• Do not show public affection, and be aware that Uganda’s anti-homosexuality law is severe and applies to visitors
• Do not use your left hand to give or receive
• Do not hand money or sweets to children; give to the community projects the lodges work with instead
• Do not go into the forest without a guide, or off the trails at all