Queen Elizabeth National Park is one of the best safari destinations in Uganda. It has a good abundance of wildlife. You have some different types of activities. This park is located between Kibale Forest (the most popular place to find chimpanzees) and Bwindi (the most important location to find gorillas), but it is much more than a small stopover. It has a unique ecosystem and great wildlife. Keep reading to discover more about this national park.

Tourist occurrence: Low

How to get here: 3 hours from Kibale Forest and 4 hours from Bwindi.

How much time needed: 2-3 days.

Different sectors

Queen Elizabeth National Park has 4 different sectors. These are different areas with different ecosystems, wildlife, and activities:

Mweya Peninsula

Possibly the most famous sector lies in-between the Kazinga Channel and Lake George. This is the sector where most boat tours (see later) will take off, and there are many birds here. You can also do game drives, but they are less interesting than other parts as there is a lower density of wildlife, although we found buffaloes (see below) and elephants, among others. It is also more difficult to find wildlife here because it has some dense forests. In my opinion this is not the best location to have your accommodation, but you should visit it to do a boat tour. This sector can be crowded because of the boat safaris. A good accommodation here in the Mweya Safari Lodge. 

Kasenyi Sector

The Kasenyi Sector consists of open grasslands and open savannah plains, which makes it a perfect spot to find wildlife and have some incredible views. This is the best sector to find the most important game in this national park. This is the reason I would recommend staying at least one night in this area. This sector is not very crowded. When we saw a leopard, there were five cars around. You can do a lion tracking here as well. A nice tented camp to stay in is the Kasenyi Safari Camp. 

Ishasha Sector

The Ishasha Sector is much further away to the southwest. It takes about 3-4 hours to get here from the other sectors. It is located close to the border with Congo (which you can see), which means that there can be some military camps around. Do not be scared about that; they keep you safe. Ishasha is famous for the tree-climbing lions, which are very cool to see and are absolutely possible to find, but there are way more great animals to lay your eyes on. It is also the only spot in the park where you can find topi (see below). The ecosystem is greener than Kasenyi. The area is less touristy than the first two. I would recommend staying here one night, but it has a lower wildlife density than Kasenyi. Nice accommodations in the area are Embogo Lodge, Ishasha Jungle Lodge, and the Ishasha Wilderness Lodge.

Kyambura Gorge

The sector that is the odd one out is the Kyambura Gorge, a green oasis of an 11 kilometers gorge going through the national park. The highlight of the green ecosystem is finding chimpanzees (see later). Sometimes there are also elephants, giant forest hogs, and other big wildlife visiting the gorge. There are resident hippos as well in the river going through it, which is cool when you are walking there. From the top you have a great view of the trees and the plains above it.  The gorge is not often visited by tourists, as we were the only ones with two others during that day.

Chimp trekking in Kyambura Gorge

Visiting the Kyambura Gorge was one of the absolute highlights of my trip in Uganda. You will try to find chimpanzees for about 2-3 hours, including one hour with the chimpanzees. During this walk it is possible that you will find other wildlife, but the main focus is on these great apes. There are other parks to do chimp trekking, but for me, this was my favourite (I did another in Kibale Forest) as there are way fewer tourists. Here we were only with 4 tourists (including us), and in Kibale I think there were 50 tourists on the same day. Besides, the scenery is outstanding, and the walk through it is so cool in itself (Kibale is also very gorgeous). In my opinion you cannot miss this highlight in Queen Elizabeth National Park. 

Wildlife

Queen Elizabeth National Park has a good variety of wildlife. The Uganda kob is the mammal you will find the most throughout the park. Other wildlife easy to spot are warthogs, buffalo, elephants, hippos, many bird species, and waterbuck. Hyena is a bit more difficult. Topis are easily spotted in the Ishasha sector but are absent in the others. When you are lucky, you find lions in the park, where the best chances are in Kasenyi and Ishasha (where you have a big chance of seeing them in the trees), and I saw them several times in both. If you are really lucky (as I was in both sectors), you can find leopards in Ishasha and Kasenyi. Note that there are giraffes, cheetahs, zebras, impalas, and wildebeests in Queen Elizabeth, but the others will make it up for you. 

How to get there

Queen Elizabeth is located in the west of Uganda, and it has the perfect location between Kibale Forest and Bwindi, so a combination of these parks is fantastic. The park is three hours away from Kibale and Bwindi is a four-hour drive. If you want to go to Kampala, it is around 8-9 hours away.

Boat safaris

Besides the game drives and the chimp trekking, another absolute highlight of Queen Elizabeth is the boat ride on the Kazinga Channel, which is at the Mweya Peninsula. The boat ride is with multiple people, but around 10 tourists. You can get very close to the wildlife. You will be floating a couple of metres from the hippos, which are guaranteed. Furthermore, you can find crocodiles, buffaloes, Nile monitors, birds, and antelopes. If you are very lucky (I was not), you can find elephants on the waterbeds. If you come to Queen Elizabeth, you should never skip the boat trip. It is such a unique safari activity!

Communities

A disadvantage for the bush vibe of this park is that there are eleven communities around it, so nature is limited in some areas. There happen some conflicts, but in general it goes well between the wildlife and the people.

Flamingoes and the salt pans

In the communities they are winning salt in salt pans. It is a fun thing to see, and you can even get a tour around it. In a small lake close to it, you can find many flamingoes, which is a very cool sight. The flamingoes are here mostly from October to January. They will go to Kenya and Tanzania in other months. This is a nice stop for 45 minutes in the Mweya Peninsula, but it is not a must-do. 

Itinerary

For me the perfect itinerary for a visit to Queen Elizabeth coming from Kibale Forest (the north) and afterwards heading to Bwindi (the south) is as stated below. Of course, you can always fill it in the way you like it. 

Day 1: Arriving from Kibale and heading to accommodation in Kasenyi. After lunch, have a game drive in the area.

Day 2: Morning game drive in Kasenyi, drive to Mweya, possible visit to communities and flamingoes, lunch in community, afternoon boat ride and drive back to Kasenyi with game drive en route.

Day 3: Drive to Kyambura Gorge for chimpanzee trekking, drive to Ishasha, lunch in accommodation in Ishasha, afternoon game drive.

Day 4: Morning game drive in Ishasha, drive to Bwindi

Final Thoughts

Queen Elizabeth National Park is the perfect stop in-between two famous ape trackings, but it also holds their own chimpanzee population. For me, take you time in this park as the safaris are good, it is not overcrowded, and there is a chimpanzee tracking. In my opinion, this national park cannot be missed in your itinerary in Uganda as the different sectors give different experiences. The boat safari is one of the best in Africa. 

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