African Safari Trails · Travel Guide
Queen Elizabeth National Park is Uganda’s most visited safari park, known for the tree climbing lions of Ishasha, the Kazinga Channel boat cruise, open savanna game drives and chimpanzee tracking in the Kyambura Gorge. African Safari Trails runs guided Queen Elizabeth safaris covering all of these, handling the park fees, boat tickets and ranger guides. The park sits in southwestern Uganda on the rift valley floor between Lakes Edward and George, below the Rwenzori range.
The park carries two names. It was first set aside in the 1920s as a string of game reserves, gazetted in 1952 as Kazinga National Park, then renamed two years later after Queen Elizabeth the Second visited. Locals still call the core stretch Kazinga. The equator runs straight through, and a marked spot near the crater drive draws everyone who passes for the obligatory photo. African Safari Trails works every sector of the park, from the busy Mweya peninsula in the north to the quiet Ishasha plains in the deep south.
The Kazinga Channel boat cruise is the single activity most people book here, and it earns the spot. The channel is a natural waterway about thirty two kilometres long that links Lake George to Lake Edward, and the launch runs roughly two hours along banks crowded with one of the densest hippo gatherings in Africa. Buffalo wade in to drink, elephants come down in the dry months, and big Nile crocodiles lie out on the mud.
For those on a Uganda birding trip the channel is just as good, with pied kingfishers, African fish eagles, pink backed pelicans and saddle billed storks working the shallows. The afternoon launch tends to catch the most movement as animals return to the water. African Safari Trails books either the shared boat or a private one, which suits photographers who would rather hold a position than move on a schedule.
A tree climbing lion safari takes you to the remote Ishasha sector in the far south, one of only two places on the continent where whole prides regularly drape themselves over the branches of fig and acacia trees. The other is Lake Manyara in Tanzania. Researchers think the lions climb to catch a breeze, dodge biting flies on the ground and watch the Uganda kob herds below, though no single reason is settled.
Ishasha is quiet, with far fewer vehicles than the northern plains, so a sighting here feels private. The lions are not guaranteed; they move, and some afternoons the trees stand empty. The roads down here are rougher than at Mweya, which is why African Safari Trails sends a proper four wheel drive and a guide who checks the favoured trees first. Many trips fold Ishasha into the drive between the main park and Bwindi’s gorillas.
The game drive safari on the Kasenyi plains is where the northern wildlife concentrates. These open grasslands east of Mweya hold the park’s most reliable lion prides, drawn by huge numbers of Uganda kob, the national antelope. Early morning and late afternoon are the productive windows, when the cats hunt and the light is kind.
Alongside the lions you look for elephants, buffalo, warthog, waterbuck, topi and the odd leopard, plus the giant forest hog, which is shy and far from a sure thing. African Safari Trails times the drives around the kob breeding grounds, since that is where the lions tend to follow.
The northern hub. Game drives on the open plains, the Kazinga cruise launch, mongoose tracking on the peninsula and the busiest lodge cluster.
The southern sector famous for tree climbing lions. Remote, lightly visited and a natural stop on the road toward Bwindi.
A deep forested ravine known as the valley of apes, home to a habituated chimpanzee group and good forest birding.
A southern forest block for nature walks, monkeys, a bat cave and a quieter side of the park away from the savanna.
A chimpanzee tracking safari in the Kyambura Gorge adds a forest primate to a savanna trip without leaving the park. The gorge is a sunken band of green cut into the plains, often called the valley of apes, and a small habituated chimp community lives along its floor. The walk drops down into the ravine and follows the river, so it is shorter but steeper than the big forest treks elsewhere.
The community here is small and ranges widely, which means sightings are less certain than the fuller chimpanzee tracking at Kibale, and the guides say so plainly. What you get in return is the setting, a tight strip of forest hidden below the grassland, and good birding on the way. African Safari Trails arranges the permit and can swap in nearby Kalinzu Forest, where chimp odds are often better.
The lion tracking safari is a behind the scenes activity run with the Uganda Carnivore Program in the Kasenyi area. Rather than driving the public tracks, you ride with researchers who use radio collars to locate a pride, then watch while they record the animals. It is a longer, slower morning than a standard drive, and it goes places the regular vehicles do not.
Numbers are capped and the activity books out, so it needs arranging ahead. African Safari Trails handles the permit and pairs you with the research team for the session.
A nature walk safari in the Maramagambo Forest is the quiet counterpoint to the game drives. This southern forest holds several monkey species, forest birds and a well known bat cave that also shelters resident pythons. Guided trails wind through the trees and around small crater lakes, at a pace that suits anyone happy on their feet for a couple of hours.
Over on the Mweya peninsula a shorter banded mongoose tracking walk follows a habituated troop with researchers, which children tend to enjoy. African Safari Trails sets up either walk with a ranger who reads the forest signs.
A bird watching safari in Queen Elizabeth turns up more recorded species than any other park in Uganda, well over six hundred, roughly half the national list. The habitats stack up fast here: the channel shallows, the Kasenyi grasslands, the Maramagambo forest, the crater lakes and the papyrus around Lake George. That range is why the list runs so long.
Targets include the African skimmer, the black bee eater, the papyrus gonolek, the shoebill in the right wetland and flocks of flamingo on the salt crater lakes. Mornings are best, before the heat builds. African Safari Trails can put a birding guide in the vehicle who names a call before the bird breaks cover.
The crater drive and Katwe salt tour covers the park’s odder scenery. The explosion craters near the Queen’s Pavilion are deep green bowls left by old volcanic blasts, and the drive between them gives long views toward the Rwenzori. At Lake Katwe, salt has been mined by hand from the lakebed for centuries, and a community guide walks you through the pans and explains how families still work them.
It is a short, easy outing that pairs well with a morning game drive. African Safari Trails arranges the community guide at Katwe so the visit puts money straight into the local cooperative.
The park works year round, yet the drier stretches give firmer tracks and tighter wildlife around the water. The wetter months turn the country green, fill the bird list with migrants and drop the lodge rates, at the cost of muddier roads in Ishasha.
The long dry season and the busiest months. Best game drives, reliable Ishasha access and strong Kazinga cruises. Book lodges early.
A second dry window, warm and good for game viewing and the channel. Quieter than the mid year peak.
The wet seasons. Green country, peak birding and lower rates, with softer roads in the southern Ishasha sector after heavy rain.
The park lies roughly 400 kilometres west of Kampala, a drive of around seven to eight hours, usually broken with a night at the equator or in Kibale on the way. The road is good for most of the run, with the rougher sections inside the park and toward Ishasha.
Flying cuts that right down. Scheduled and charter flights run from Entebbe or Kajjansi to the Mweya, Kasese and Kihihi airstrips, the last being the closest for the Ishasha sector. Most travellers string Queen Elizabeth together with Kibale’s chimps and Bwindi’s gorillas on a single western loop across Uganda’s national parks, and African Safari Trails maps the road and air legs so the days link up without wasted hours in the car.
Park entry currently runs at about 40 US dollars for foreign non residents, 30 dollars for foreign residents and around 20,000 Uganda shillings for East African citizens, valid for 24 hours. The shared Kazinga Channel boat cruise costs roughly 30 dollars per person, while a private boat is higher. Game drives carry a fee of about 30 dollars by day and 40 dollars at night. African Safari Trails folds these into the trip price so you are not paying at every gate.
Chimpanzee tracking in the Kyambura Gorge is around 50 US dollars per person, separate from park entry. The lion tracking experience with the carnivore researchers is about 100 dollars, and banded mongoose tracking on Mweya is roughly 30 dollars. All sit on top of park entry and all have limited daily places, so African Safari Trails books them ahead and confirms the current figures, since the wildlife authority reviews rates from time to time.
Two to three days covers the headline pairing of a Kasenyi game drive and a Kazinga cruise, plus one extra activity such as Kyambura chimps. To add the Ishasha tree climbing lions and the southern forests you want four to five days, or you build Ishasha into the drive toward Bwindi. African Safari Trails shapes the days around what you most want to see rather than a fixed template.
Not guaranteed. The Ishasha prides do climb regularly, far more than lions almost anywhere else, but they move and some afternoons the fig trees are empty. Going in the heat of the day, when lions seek shade and a breeze in the branches, and using a guide who knows the current favoured trees both improve your odds. Honest expectation setting is part of how a good operator works here.
Yes. The mix of an easy boat cruise, open game drives with high wildlife numbers and short walks suits first timers and children well, and the lodges range from simple bandas at Mweya to riverside camps in Ishasha. The dry season holidays line up with the best viewing, so a family trip can pack a lot into a few days without long uncomfortable drives inside the park.
Easily, and most people do. Bwindi’s gorillas sit a few hours south, and the Ishasha sector is right on the route, so a classic western loop runs Kibale chimps, then Queen Elizabeth, then Bwindi gorillas. African Safari Trails secures the gorilla permit in the right sector and lines up the park days so the whole circuit flows in one direction.
Pulling together the cruise, the game drives, the Ishasha detour and the chimp permit is a lot to juggle on your own, and you do not have to. African Safari Trails has spent years running Queen Elizabeth trips, with guides who grew up beside these plains and know which trees the Ishasha lions favour and where the Kasenyi prides have been hunting. They will tell you plainly when a sighting is likely and when it is not, and the fees and boat slots are sorted quietly in the background.
Want a proper quote, or just a steer on how to fit the park into a wider Uganda safari loop? Reach out to African Safari Trails and a real person gets back to you.
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