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Emilie
US
Visited:
June 2016
Reviewed: Oct 14, 2016
Email Emilie | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Speechless!
This was my first time in Uganda, and I arrived at Queen Elizabeth within days of entering the country. I felt like my brain stopped forming coherent thoughts except thinking "sensory overload" over and over. As my first ever safari experience, I found Queen Elizabeth expansive, especially from the view at Kingfisher Lodge where I stayed. My guide, Herbert, was booked through Moses Tours, and he was so hospitable about showing me all that we could see within a day (that's all the time I had). But, by the end of my one-day safari, I had over 2000 photos of all kinds of wildlife (incl. almost 70 bird species). The only times when I saw a lot of other tourists was when Herbert took me to view a young lion pride and when I boarded a ferry to tour the Kazinga Channel. I had a great time, and my boss told me that any future safaris are going disappoint me after this incredible first experience.
Nelvino
Dont waste yr Time and MONEY
I still recovering from the disappointment. QUEEN ELIZABETH PARK has almost no wildlife at the moment. One pays a lot to see nothing around even if one drives for hours. Even antelopes, which are normally abundant, are rarely seen therefore spotting the lions is almost impossible. The guides and the company rep, only after your first hours of game drive, start telling that it s been years not much animals are seen in the park n the government needs to open new tracks. My guide even lied to us about the number is lions in the parks. There are many villages within the area of Queen Elizabeth hence wild animals are destroying people crops and livestock n sometimes kill people and in revenge lions have been killed decreasing the numbers in the park. I would say don't fall into the trap unless you want to waste your money and time driving around an almost wildlife less park.
The park is huge and the number of animals are insignificant comparing to the massive area of the park. Won't recommend it to anyone.
Daniel Salgueiro
PT
Visited:
April 2021
Reviewed: Apr 4, 2021
Email Daniel Salgueiro | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Amazing Experience
The day started in the best possible way: Reaching the main road of the park, we spotted a Hyena. As we were moving towards the park entrance, we also spotted elephants and crocodiles near Katunguru bridge.
But when we reached Kasenyi plains... Thatºs when the magic started.
Large herds of Ugandan Kob and buffalos were easily spotted. Waterbucks are also common in this area. Warthogs and hippos are abundant in QENP.
I was expecting to see a larger variety of herbivores, but it seems the park is a bit limited when it comes to that - no giraffes, zebras, etc.
The main gold for the morning was not achived, tho: Tracking lions and leopards.
Then we moved to Mweya so we could have lunch. The dense vegetation didn't allow us to see more than a few waterbucks and some baboons, but when we reached Mweya
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Lodge - which is indeed a lovely place - we could see the elephants on the other side of the lake. Warthogs are also around.As we decided that Ishasha should be postponed (it was about to rain and our guide called another guide to check the situation in that sector - no lions were spotted in the morning), we came to the conclusion that we should go back to Kasenyi plains to track the big cats.
We drove for almost an hour when we finally spotted them: A lioness, with four cubs. After driving around, we were lucky enough to spot a few more lions.
But the best was yet to come. The leopard. We spotted her on top of a tree, with a warthog in her mouth. She climbed down, and we stood near her for more than one hour and a half. We watched her drinking water, cleaning herself, resting, anyway, a true lifetime experience.
All in all, I must say it was one of the best days in my life. I truly recommend this experience and this park to anyone.
Wilderness Adventure Camp
The lodge we stayed at was called Wilderness Adventure Camp. The lodge was a beautiful large dining hall, open to the wild on three sides. It also is on the shore of the Ngtungwe River, which as the guide says has an old resident hippo (and you will probably hear it grunting throughout the night).
One of the most unique features was the sleeping arrangements... Tents. I was very excited to go camping on the savannah (although in reality you are in more of a jungle than a plain). To my delight, the tents were incredibly clean, relatively bug free and had a porta-potty within. They were actually cleaner than many of the upper end resorts I stayed at.
The game drive started out quite well, one of
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the first sights you see is the natural destruction caused by elephants. If you think teenage vandals are bad, you should see what a bored herd of elephant can get up to!All the normal animals you'd expect to see are there: oribies, antelope, buffalo, waterbuck, warthogs, monkeys, baboons. The big draws are the elephants and lions. Oh wait, did I say lions, I meant tree lions!
That was definitely the highlight of the park for me. I never thought I would get to see lions hanging out in a tree. Hell, lions sleeping on the ground are pretty cool in my book. To up the ante even more, our guide had tea and coffee for us so we sat in our vehicle under a lion having tea and cookies.
The drive ended with us returning to the lodge at dusk with a storm raging behind us over the Blue Mountains in the Congo. It was one of the most beautiful and memorable experiences of my life.
only reviewed the park from my computer,but i certainly recommend a personal visit if possible.
I am a 90 year old male. I am no longer able to get around as I did when I was younger. But what I have seen from my computer has convinced me that I would encourage my friends and relatives to visit Queen Elizabeth
National Park if possible.
Thije Kor
NL
Visited:
December 2011
Reviewed: May 18, 2012
Email Thije Kor | under20 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Fantastic wildlife experience in an overly complicated park
This continued as I arrived at the chimp tracking site on a motor taxi. As it turned out, my reservation hadn't come through at all. Luckily I was able to take somebody else's place. Then there was the problem of my transport. I didn't have my
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own car, even though that's usually a requirement for the Chimp tracking safari, since the tour guide has to bring us to a yet to be defined location in the park (and of course the company doesn't have its own transportation). Unfortunately none of the at least six people I spoke to over the phone to try and make a reservation, had the courtesy of telling me this. Again luckily, I was able to drive along with another tourist who did have his own car.The Chimp tracking safari itself turned out to be amazing. Our tour guide, Stephanie, lead us through a lush piece of rainforest in the beautiful Kyambura gorge, sharing all sorts of information with us about the things we stumbled upon. The site wasn't the ideal place in Uganda to do Chimp tracking (this is most likely Kibale Forest NP), and we were aware of the reasonable possibility of not finding any chimps at all. After a three hour walk uphill, downhill, through bushes and pools of mud in the middle of the jungle, our guide finally spotted several chimps in the distance. Before that, we had already seen a wide range of tropical birds, hippos, baboons, crocodiles, velvet monkeys and an elephant. Even without the chimps it would've been worth the $50. Our guide was an absolute genius and the scenery was beyond beautiful
Almost every other activity happens all the way on the other side of the park, which is about an hour and a half away by car from the chimp tracking site. In the meantime you drive through scenic pieces of savanna, where elephants play games with each other, gazelles graze freely and baboons block the road just to take the piss out of you. Passing the main gate, you arrive at the Mweya peninsula, where you can find a tourist information office, a gas station, a cute restaurant/bar and a wide range of hotels and hostels. I can't judge any of these accommodations as I haven't spent a night in any of them, but the general opinion seems to be that they are remarkably good and well priced for national park standards. The scenery around here is once again brilliant, as you're surrounded by beautiful nature on one side and the stunning lake Edward and the Kazinga channel on the other side.
At the end of the afternoon I went downhill to the shores of the channel, to do the Channel launch trip. This is being done in a standard type touring boat in groups of about 20 people. This was an absolutely amazing experience not many other moments during my time in Uganda can compete with. From the upper deck of the boat I was able to see loads of elephants, hippos, African buffalos, crocodiles, gazelles and monitor lizards on the shore of the channel, living in peace with each other and not caring the slightest bit about us tourists coming so close. Our tour guide was a slightly nervous, but funny man, who enthusiastically provided us with tons of information about literally everything that moved around us. Lastly, seeing the sun setting above the horizon over Lake Edward was a very nice bonus.
Going back wasn't as much a pain in the ass getting there, but only because the staff of the fancy Mweya Safari Lodge were so kind to help me getting a taxi and use their phone to call him, even though I wasn't even a guest of theirs. The taxi brought me to the village of Katunguru, near the main entrance next to the freeway, seperating one side of Queen Elisabeth from the other. From there I was able to take public transport back to civilization.
All in all, Queen Elisabeth National Park provides some of the best tourist attractions in the whole country, for better prices than your average safari in Kenya or Tanzania. It's a major hassle to get there, and dealing with all the complications and the bureaucracy isn't easy if you're on a tight budget, but there's no doubt it's very much worth it.