Bwindi Impenetrable Forest

An ancient rainforest in southwestern Uganda protecting close to half of the world's remaining mountain gorillas, tracked on guided daily treks.

Bwindi’s name is not an exaggeration. This is a genuinely dense, tangled forest — steep ridges, thick undergrowth, and a canopy old enough to have survived the last ice age largely unchanged, which is part of why it supports such extraordinary biodiversity within a relatively small area. Somewhere between 400 and 500 mountain gorillas live within its boundaries, making Bwindi home to close to half of the entire world population of the species.

A gorilla trekking permit buys entry into one of several habituated family groups, tracked daily by rangers so that visiting groups can be guided in on relatively fresh trails. The trek itself varies wildly in length and difficulty depending on where the gorillas have moved that morning — anywhere from an hour to most of a day, often on steep, muddy terrain — but the reward is a strictly limited hour in the company of a family group, watching silverbacks, mothers and juveniles go about entirely undisturbed forest life at close range.

Beyond the gorillas, Bwindi’s forest holds over 350 bird species, a healthy population of habituated chimpanzees in the nearby Nyungwe and Kibale ecosystems, and a network of community-run cultural visits with the Batwa, the forest’s original inhabitants. Most treks are based out of one of four trailhead sectors around the park, each offering slightly different terrain and access to different gorilla families.

By Air

Scheduled flights connect Entebbe to airstrips at Kihihi or Kisoro, close to the park’s various sectors.

By Road

A private transfer from Kigali, Rwanda takes around 4-5 hours and is a common route for travellers combining Uganda and Rwanda.