Queen Elizabeth National Park

Boasting a wide range of habitats – grassy plains, tropical forest, rivers, swamps and a zone of old volcanic craters – the flagship Queen Elizabeth National Park is Uganda’s second largest protected wildlife area and offers an excellent safari experience in diverse habitats.

• Boat trip on the Kazinga Channel along the MweyaPeninsula– superlative close up big game viewing and bird watching
• Hot air ballooning over the Kasenyi Plains
• Searching for tree-climbing lions in the southern Ishasha sector
• Chimp tracking in the nearby Kyambura Gorge

Originally gazetted in 1952as Kazinga National Park and renamed two years later to commemorate the Queen’s first visit to Uganda, Queen Elizabeth National Park is situated in the Rift Valley just south of the equator and covers a remarkably biodiverse area of rolling grassland, acacia woodland, volcanic calderas, lakes, swamps and rivers.

The two lakes of Edward and George are shadowed by the mighty Ruwenzori Mountains and are linked by the Kazinga Channel, a waterway that is incredibly rich in wildlife and hosts one of the highest concentrations of hippo in Africa, as well as good numbers of elephant, buffalo and Uganda kob, anda prolific array of birdlife with 610 species recorded in the park.

An early morning or afternoon boat trip along the channel allows a close up look at the big game which come to the banks to drink; there are also some beautiful game drive tracks, which take you through savannah grasslands and acacia woodlands and to some stunning crater lakes.

You can also enjoy chimp tracking in the nearby Kyambura River Gorge, whilst the remote Ishasha sector in the far south of the park offers beautiful landscapes of open grassland and fig trees favoured by tree-climbing lions.