Top Tourist Destinations in Uganda

Are you looking for top tourist destinations in Uganda? Don’t confine yourself only to Uganda city destinations because there are other Uganda top best destinations in the upcountry.

Unless you are looking for Uganda honeymoon destinations that’s when you should look for town destinations but for anyone who loves adventure, you should go for tourist destinations found all over Uganda where you will experience the total hospitality with Uganda destination resorts.

Uganda Safari Destinations

Sprawling across both sides of the Equator, a network of 10 national parks and several other protected areas offers wildlife enthusiasts a thrilling opportunity to experience Uganda’s biodiversity.

The mesmerizing tracts of thorn-bush savannah teeming with antelope, buffalo, and elephant one tends to associate with Equatorial East Africa, lush expanses of tropical rainforest, shimmering with lakes and rivers heaving with aquatic life, and the glacial peaks of Africa’s tallest mountain range, make Uganda a Wonderland Safari destination in Africa.

Below are the top ten tourist destinations of Uganda. For a perfect Uganda safari that can take you through these beautiful destinations.

Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

Located in South Western Uganda occupying 331 sq km. It lies on the edge of the Western Rift valley (Albertine rift) and is shared by Kanungu, Kabale, and Kisoro districts. The park occupies different vegetation zones but predominantly a tropical rain forest. This ancient rainforest is one of the few remaining forests in Africa to have flourished throughout the last Ice Age.

Bwindi is home to the great giant apes the gorilla and is the most visited park in Uganda. It’s situated in the southwest; 9 Hours drive from the capital city (Kampala).

These apes are identified to be endangered and are only found in Uganda, Rwanda, and DR Congo. Half of the gorillas’ population is found in Uganda and they are known to be humble and gentle primates. You can track gorillas both in Uganda and Rwanda.

More information about Gorilla tracking. More on Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.

Queen Elizabeth National Park

This Park derives its name from Queen Elizabeth II; the park is situated southwest covering the whole of the Kazinga channel that connects Lakes Edward and George.

Set majestically in the shadow of the Rwenzori, flanking Lakes Edward and George, the lush savannah of Queen Elizabeth National park offers prime grazing to buffalo, elephants, and various antelope.

The park is well-known for harboring a large number of species ranging from predators, herbivores, antelopes, birds, and other small organisms. A game drive in the park usually boosts sights of animals like the Lions, Leopard, buffaloes, elephants, Uganda kobs, bushbucks; side stripped jackals, and hyenas.

A checklist of over 606 bird species testifies to the extraordinary ecological diversity of this park. The Primates here include Chimps, Black and White Colobus Monkeys, Blue, Black Faced Red Colobus, and Red Tailed monkeys, and Olive Baboons.

The park is also gifted with reptiles including; the African Rock Python, Spitting Cobra, Gabon Ripper, Puff adder, Green Mamba, turtles, and crocodiles, which are frequently sighted on the Mweya Peninsula. More on Queen Elizabeth National Park.

Murchison Falls National Park

Murchison falls national park was named after the mighty Murchison Falls that are formed as a result of the Calm Nile forcing its self through a narrow gorge to explode into a thunderous roar of white waterfalls which provide an outstanding scenic view of the falls.

The park which is located at the northern end of the Albertine Rift valley is one of the oldest conversations areas in Uganda. The park is home to a large number of animals including the giraffe, elephant, buffalo, lion, leopard, a diversity of antelopes and several birds.

While in the park you can do activities like a game drive, chimpanzee tracking and a boat ride on the Victoria Nile to the bottom of the falls is so rewarding. More on Murchison Falls National Park.

The source of the Nile

Acknowledged by John Speke in 1862 as the source of the mighty River Nile, the area has not lost its scenic view and it has attracted many tourists into Uganda since then.

The Nile has a diversity of adventure to offer for tourists as the boat rides to the actual point (source), artifacts, bungee jumping, and white water rafting. More on The source of the Nile.

Kibale Forest National Park as a Top Tourist Destination in Uganda

Kibale Forest National Park is located on the elevated Fort Portal plateau. It’s most known for its chimpanzee population although it harbors the largest number of primates in Uganda.

A walk through this tropical rainforest does not only reward you with primates but also with other animal species and also plenty of fauna.

Tracking chimpanzees in this forest is the most revealing and fascinating forest walk you will ever get. More on Kibale Forest National Park

The Kasubi tombs are also Top Tourist Destinations in Uganda

This world heritage is known to be a masterpiece of the Buganda cultural tradition in Uganda with one of the largest huts/Banda in the world.

Four royal tombs now lie within the “Muzibu Azaala Mpanga” (meaning “A tough one produces a Cock”), the main building, which is circular and surmounted by a dome and the main palace.

The tombs are the major spiritual center of the Baganda and it’s one of the most active places in the whole of the Buganda kingdom. It is located in Kampala, 10 minutes drive from the city center.

Uganda Museum as a Top Tourist Destination in Uganda

This is where Uganda’s cultural heritage is displayed and one can observe ethnological and natural-historical exhibitions.

It is a scenic reminder of the splendid past of the country with a compilation of musical instruments, photos, pictures, materials of the past.

The museum contains lots of materials starting from pre-colonial times. A visit to the museum usually gives tourists a clear picture of the past.

Ssese Islands one of Uganda’s Top Tourist Destinations in Uganda

Ssese Islands are a collection of 84 attractive Islands situated in the northwestern part of Lake Victoria, the biggest freshwater lake in Africa.

These Islands are an increasingly popular tourist destination in Uganda often, described as a cross between the Hebrides and the Caribbean.

The islands offer scenic views coupled with plenty of activities including fishing, swimming, nature walks, and other sports in addition to great relaxation. Spending a weekend on this island is regarded is many as being extremely adventurous.

Lake Mburo Nationa Park

This Savanna National Park is located in the Mbarara district the park is a 3 and half hours drive away from the capital city.

The park is famous for its richness in biodiversity which is attributed to the variety of micro-climates the park has.

This park is mainly known for antelopes like the Impala from which Kampala the capital city was named. It also has animal species like leopards, zebras, jackals, hyenas, buffaloes, Topis, and plenty of birds.

A boat trip on Lake Mburo from which the park derives its name rewards you greatly with a view of several water birds, and lake wildlife. More on Lake Mburo National Park

The Rwenzori Mountains National Park

The Rwenzoris as one of the Top Tourist Destinations in Uganda, commonly to as the mountains of the moons are found a few kilometers north of the equator, rising over 4000m above the floor of the Albertine Rift Valley, is the highest mountain in Uganda.

The region’s glaciers, waterfalls, and lakes make it one of Africa’s most beautiful alpine areas. The mountains have extraordinary flora and fauna which includes Buffalo, bushbuck, chimpanzee, elephant, giant forest hog, and leopard are present although rare.

To hike the great mountains you require a minimum of seven days for a rewarding hike. However, 10 days is the best for the hike to the peak (Margherita: 5109 m). More on The Rwenzori mountains National Park.

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How to Avoid Uganda Car Rental Scams

Have ever been in a car rental scam? If not , this a page that will guide you about car rental Uganda scams. After arriving at your holiday destination, you’re usually tired from the flight, bogged down with luggage and just wanting to get to your hotel.

If you’ve hired a car, you want to get in it and go as soon as you can. Many of the car hire firms know this, and many will take advantage of the fact.

The ‘discovered damage’ ploy is one of the oldest tricks in the car hire book, and this costs tourists millions money each year.

When you arrive at the car rental office, glance over the car, sign the papers, take the keys, and drive to your hotel.

Throughout your holiday you drive carefully, taking good care of the vehicle. You will return it to the office on the day of your departure, only to have the tiniest of dents or the smallest of scratches pointed out to you.

You dispute it but it’s too late, you find your credit card – which you needed to provide details of to get the car in the first place has been hit with a huge bill for repairs.

To the saddest, this scene will be a reality to many visitors each year. More and more car hire firms are catching on to the fact that there’s even more money to be made out of tourists than just the cost of the rental. But this doesn’t mean that renting a car should be avoided as long as you know what to do and how to protect yourself, you can avoid becoming just another statistic.

After arriving at the rental lot, don’t appear to be in a rush so that you cant be cheated by these Uganda car Rental scams.

Ask for the car to be driven into a well lit area, or even outside if it’s during the day. You need to examine the car as thoroughly as possible, both inside and out. Take your time with this, if you notice any damage whatsoever, however small, report it to the rental staff and make a note of it yourself.

If you have a digital camera, take photographs, with the date/time stamp on if possible. Check underneath the car for signs of an oil leak or any other damage.

Inspect the windscreen for chips, and examine the doors and bumpers for dents or scratches. Open the car and check the upholstery and all the fixings to make sure they’re clean and without scratches or tears. Open the boot and ensure the spare wheel is present, with air in the tyre.

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Meet Ugandan Herbalist Victor Kiwalabye

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Obote: The Premier’s Own Story

The Premier’s Own Story – as told to “Argus” Reporter John South

The European secretary came into the small office at 3 p.m. carrying a tray on which was a pot of tea and three cakes. “This is my breakfast, lunch and possibly my dinner”, said the Prime Minister as he ate the three cakes.

For 37-year-old Apolo Milton Obote, Prime Minister of Independent Uganda, is a man who does not believe in sparing himself, and such trivial things as eating go by the board with Mr. Obote when there is work to be done. He frequently comes into his office in the morning, and works through, without bothering with food, until his work is done.

MAKERERE STUDENT
And National Assembly secretaries will tell how they have worked with him until the small hours of the morning when the rush is really on.

This is typical of Mr. Obote and is only one of the many facets of the man who is now the Prime Minister of Uganda.

The man who is known as plain “Milton Obote” by all his followers was born the son of a chief, went to Makerere College in Kampala – and then took a job as a labourer in order to gain trade union experience.

He has been speared in the back, clubbed by a thief, and has faced unarmed three Mau Mau intending to shoot him, two snakes and a leopard.

Milton Obote is one African politician who does not need to wear a funny hat or wave a flywhisk to make himself noticed – he relies on his speeches. True, he never goes far without his hefty walking stick, and he uses a cigarette holder when he smokes. But these are more practical than a fad with a man who, at the moment, is not enjoying the best of health.

The Prime Minister of Uganda, Mr. Milton Obote, presenting the Uganda flag to the captain of Uganda’s Commonwealth Games team Lawrence Ogwang at the boxing at Nakivubo on Friday night, October 5th, 1962 “London v. Uganda at Nakivubo Stadium. During the interval the Prime Minister presented the flag to the Uganda team, which is to take part in the VIIth Commonwealth Games at Perth, Australia in Nov.
from the Uganda Argus

Walking stick
Every day that the National Assembly sits, the doorman’s office is now filled with walking sticks – deposited with him by National Assembly members.

And it is not uncommon to see a labourer in bare feet, and perhaps with a ragged shirt, proudly carrying a walking stick.

And the famous Obote walking stick was placed along the front of the desk as we talked in his small office in the National Assembly building. The office was used by Mr. Obote when he was Leader of the Opposition before the U.P.C.-K.Y. swept the power in the last elections.

A much more sumptuous Prime Minister’s office was up on the next floor. But it was typical of Mr. Obote, that, when he became Prime Minister, he decided he had become so used to his small office that he would keep it.

So now the Prime Minister receives visitors in his small office, while the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Basil Bataringaya, receives his visitors in style upstairs.

Mr. Obote paces up and down energetically as he talks to you in his deep and authoritative voice.

Nine children
Born in 1925 – he doesn’t know the date – in Akokoro, a little village in Maruzi County, Lango – he is the third of nine children of Stanley Opeto, a Lango chief, and his wife Pulisikira.

“I think I was my father’s favourite, and he didn’t want me to go to school, but wanted me to stay home with him”, he said. “I stayed at home while my younger brothers went to school”.

When his father was transferred about 33 miles from his home, some of the family went with him and some stayed at home and young Milton went to stay with his maternal grandfather.

“I used to look after my grandfather’s goats”, recalled the Prime Minister. “Crowds of us boys would take the goats to a small hollow where they would graze. We would carry spears with us and, before we got to the hollow, would throw spears into it, hoping to hit one of the birds that used to settle there.

One morning I went out early, and, being quite skilful at throwing a spear, I managed to kill a bird in the hollow.

“Then I decided that a better way to catch the birds would be by setting snares. I was bending down in the hollow, setting some snares, when another boy arrived. He did not know I was in the hollow, and he threw his spear down into it. It went into my back. It was a deep wound and I had to be carried by foot 50 miles in a snare net to hospital at Aduku. I was in hospital five or six months.”

When he came out of hospital he started his first schooling – at a catechist class. But young Obote was to go through more narrow escapes before he began his serious education.

“One evening I was standing with my sister in the doorway of our house”, he recalled. “I felt something like water pouring onto my< head and shoulders. It was dark and I could not see what it was. But when I went inside, my neck and shoulders began to irritate and I started scratching myself. My father noticed this and, when he had a look at my shoulders, he saw they were all white. He said it was a snake which had been over my head and had been squirting its poison down on to me. I was too small for it to reach down to me, but if I had looked up the poison would have blinded me. “My father went out and killed the snake”.

Milton Obote was not much older when he was walking alone along a track at dusk – and found a leopard in his path. “We just stood looking at each other”, he said. “I thought that if I tried to run, the leopard would jump on me, so I just stood still and hoped it would think I was a tree or something. I knew that a little while before a girl had been killed by a crocodile and her family said, if she had kept still it would have released her. “As I stood there someone else came along the path and to my relief, the leopard disappeared into the grass”.

Saved
As Mr. Obote recounted this incident, it reminded him of another lucky escape before he was even big enough to carry a spear. “I saw a small animal in the cotton field near our house, and as I was too small to throw a spear, I took a knife from the house to throw at the animal. I started to crawl towards the animal and as I was about 10 yards from it, I saw something else – a python very near me. I knew I could not run, because it could move too swiftly for me. But fortunately the python too had seen the small animal, which had its back to us. I lay and watched as it wriggled to slowly, so slowly up to that little animal – and wound itself round it. I ran towards home and the cries of the animal brought people running to the field. They found the snake, which had by then killed the animal, and they killed the snake. But I am positive that little animal saved my life.

Only a few years later young Obote was clubbed by a thief. “We were having a lot of trouble with thieves in the cassava fields, and so organised night patrols to keep them out.

Never behind
-“One night, we surprised some thieves in a field, and as one of them ran towards me, I tried to catch him. Of course he was much bigger than me and he promptly knocked me unconscious with his stick.”

So it was back to hospital again for a short time. His education started at Ebuye Primary School, Lira, and went on to Gulu High School. “From Primary I to Primary 6 I was never behind anyone in examinations”, he told me. “In my last exam in Primary 6 I was second by two marks, and it disappointed me terribly. I was always top through Junior Secondary.” Then the young scholar went on to Busoga College at Mwiri, near Jinja. “I was never on top in the first year, but I was in the first four. The second year I think I was second, and in the third year, always first or second”. Came the time to leave school and young Obote wanted to go to South Africa to study agriculture. His parents had other ideas and he sat the entrance exam to Makerere College. Two out of 18 boys from Mwiri passed for Makerere – and one of them was Milton Obote. In 1948 he began to study English, political science, economics and geography. “I was not happy at Makerere and I left after two years, before completing my course,” he recounted.

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List of Uganda’s Attorney Generals

The attorney general of Uganda is the principal legal advisor of Uganda’s government. The office of the attorney general is a cabinet level position. Here is the list of the different attorney generals that have served Uganda since independence.

P.J. Wilkinson, 1954-1961
C.G.F.F Dreschfield, 1961-1962
Godfrey Lukongwa Binaisa, 1962-1967
Lameck Lubowa, 1967-1971
P.J. Nkambo Mugerwa, 1971-1974
Godfrey S. Lule, 1974-1977
Matthew B. Matovu, 1977-1979
Dani Nabudere Wadada, 1979
George W. Kanyeihamba, 1979-1980
Stephen Omoding Ariko, 1980-1985
Samuel K. Kutesa, 1985-1986
Joseph N. Mulenga, 1986-1988
George W. Kanyeihamba, 1988-1991
Abubakar Kakyama Mayanja, 1991-1994
Joseph Kalias Ekemu, 1994-1996
Bert Magunda Katureebe, 1996-2000
Francis Joash Ayume, 2000-2004
John Patrick Amama Mbabazi, 2004-2005
Edward Khiddu Makubuya, 2005-

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