Queen Elizabeth National Park is one of the top national parks visited on road trips in Uganda. Located in Western Uganda, Queen Elizabeth National Park can easily be accessed by motorists. To reach Queen Elizabeth national park it takes about 5-7 hours driving at your own pace. There are several stopovers that one can have – at Masaka, Mbarara and any other area of interest to admire nature among others.
Driving Routes
The park is located in the South western part of Uganda and there are several driving routes for the visitors taking road trips. From Kampala, it can be accessed by very several routes which include
- Kampala Masaka via Mbarara, Bushenyi to the park, this route covers a distance of about 420Km,
- Kampala Mubende via Fort portal up to the park, this covers a distance of about 410km
From Kisoro the park can be accessed from Bwindi impenetrable national park via Ishasha. This is the shortest among all routes.
The park is known as one of the top most visited Uganda national park housing a wide biodiversity of wildlife species some of which can’t be found elsewhere like the tree climbing lions which are found only in the lshasha side of the park. They are amazing to see when sited on fig trees or tree branches. Other animals inhabit the park include elephant, leopard, buffalo, water buck, Uganda kob, warthogs among others, all these games can best be seen during a game drive perhaps in your hired vehicle while taking photography at any interested point of time.
For primate lovers the park is endowed with over 12 species of primates including chimpanzee our most close relative, baboons, civet monkey, the black and white colobus monkey among others, the park is also a home to very many species of birds over 600 species are recorded to live in this park. Chimpanzee tracking is one of the most done tourist activities at the park, others include boat cruise along the Kazinga channel which connects Lake Edward and George. Here you will be fortunate to spot more species of animals which live within and along the shorelines like hippos, crocodile, buffaloes and elephant and many species of birds all can be seen just meters from the boat, visits to lake Katwe which is a salt mining place, the Maramagambo forest, Mweya peninsula and many others, and the park can be visited at any time of the year.
Many accommodation options are available at the park ranging from up- market to budget accommodation catering for all people including the choice is yours to choose where to sleep. Most popular places to stay in Queen Elizabeth National Park include Mweya safari Lodge, Katara Lodge, Jacana safari lodge, Kyambura game Lodge, Ihamba safari Lodge samba safari Lodge, Engazi lodge just to mention but a few. Most rooms are self-contained with comfortable beds with chefs being readily available at any time and they prepare both international and local dishes depending on your taste. Bars are well-stocked by a number of drinks.
You can start planning a road trip to this park with several car rental agencies. You can rent a car in Uganda from as low as USD40/day and enjoy an astonishing adventure to Uganda’s Combination of Wonders.