You can now fly between Uganda’s national parks and Entebbe airport with the available scheduled and chartered flights.
The places in Uganda you can fly to appeal to travelers who not only want to escape the vibrant, thrumming city energy but also crave to reach the wilderness calmness faster and more comfortable than a four-by-four can cruise through remote country roads. These short domestic flights also allow travelers to marvel at the magnificence of the Pearl of Africa’s vast landscapes like an eagle.
When your local guide on the safari game drive mentions mountain backdrops and vast savannah plains, your memory of the aerial viewpoint will give a better picture of the experience.
Uganda’s most famous safari attractions are pretty far from the capital and the only international airport at Entebbe; transfers between attractions by road can be exhausting for many travelers. With a light aircraft, you can fly between Uganda’s far-flung attractions, saving time traveling between places for more meaningful experiences on your Ugandan trip.
A typical mid to high-range safari in Uganda will catch a scheduled (or charter) domestic flight out of Entebbe International Airport in a light 4-11 seater caravan aircraft and fly between national parks for the safari duration. It is ideal for exploring Uganda’s remote attractions without wasting endless hours riding across country roads in the back of a safari truck.
We highly recommend flying between national parks for solo travelers and couples or two people traveling together to save on time and transport expenses.
If you’re traveling in a group of four or more, driving would be cheaper and more fun than flying between destinations. If the group doesn’t have the time and doesn’t mind the price tag, take the aerial transfer: it’s worth it.
Bar Aviation and Aerolink are the two major players we use, offering reliable scheduled and chartered flights between Uganda’s main national parks. Their network is quite similar with the western Uganda safari circuit getting the most flight traffic and also connecting as far as Masai Mara in Kenya.
Entebbe — Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (Kihihi airstrip in the north of Bwindi and Kisoro Airstrip in the south of Bwindi)
The most outstanding safari experience on Uganda tour packages is tracking the mountain gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and Mgahinga National Park. Both parks are located in the remotest region in the extreme southwestern corner. The distance between Entebbe International Airport (Uganda’s entry point) and Bwindi is about 500 kilometers (310 miles), which takes about 10 hours of drive-time.
If you’re not interested in driving through the rugged southwestern highland, want to get to your forest retreat fast, and spare your energy for the gorilla trek, take a scheduled one-hour flight from Entebbe to Bwindi.
Due to afternoon high winds, there’s only one daily morning flight (either by Aerolink or Bar Aviation) which lands either in the south at Kisoro Airstrip or in the north of Bwindi at Kihihi Airstrip. If you have booked your accommodation in Buhoma Sector in the north of Bwindi, take the flight to Kihihi, which is about a 2-hour drive to the lodges in Buhoma.
However, if your accommodation and gorilla permit are in the Bwindi southern sectors (Nkuringo and Rushaga Sectors), you’ll book the Entebbe—Kisoro flight. Kisoro airstrip is about a 2-hour drive outside Rushaga and Nkuringo sectors.
If the idea of driving ten hours in the back of a safari cruise across mountainous country roads makes you weak, then you should take the one-hour flight. The one-hour aerial show is like flying over Nepal’s acclaimed rugged highlands, and it’s arguably worth taking for aerial surfers.
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A Uganda safari offers a more varied experience than famous safari destinations like Kenya or Tanzania. There are more adventure experiences you can add to your primate experience in the tropical rainforests, including game drive ventures onto the open savannah plains to catch the extraordinary big game drama, climb snow-capped summits, and explore the Pearl of Africa’s most hidden cultures in the remotest places.
After tracking the mountain gorillas in the extreme southwest, you can connect, by flight, to other remote places like Queen Elizabeth NP, Murchison Falls, and Kidepo National Park.
Aerolink and Bar Aviation operate daily scheduled and chartered flights between Entebbe—Bwindi, Queen Elizabeth, Murchison Falls, Kidepo, and Semiliki National Parks.
You can also fly between Entebbe and Masai Mara in Kenya, or Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, allowing you to watch the endangered mountain gorillas in Bwindi and also experience the wild magnificence of the Serengeti-Mara triangle.
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Entebbe — Queen Elizabeth National Park (Kasese and Mweya airstrips)
Uganda’s most celebrated tourism asset, Queen Elizabeth National Park, is one of the most recommended places you can fly, allowing tourists to easily connect to the two extreme corners of Uganda and beyond. The park alone is a massive 1978 sq km of protected reserve, offering incredible wildlife viewing moments, especially for independent travelers.
Queen Elizabeth National Park is about 392 kilometers (248 miles) from Entebbe, which take about six hours to drive via the Kampala-Fort Portal highway and about seven hours on Masaka-Mbarara highway.
Flying between Entebbe and Kasese or Mweya will cut the journey to just below an hour, saving a significant chunk of time to explore the park’s adventures or relaxing time at the camp.
Aerolink operates chartered flights between Queen Elizabeth National Park and Bwindi (Kihihi/Kisoro airstrips), Murchison Falls National Park (Pakuba, Bugungu, and Chobe airstrips), and Entebbe International Airport.
All our highly curated, personalized, all-inclusive fly-in Uganda safaris include local flight fees to save you the booking hustle and the drive time, a double win for you.
Entebbe — Murchison Falls National Park (Pakuba, Bugungu and Chobe airstrips)
A bit stretched from the western Uganda safari circuit sits Uganda’s largest national park, Murchison Falls National Park, a gigantic attraction of the world’s most powerful falls and some of the most endearing animals to watch on safari.
The nearest park to Murchison Falls is Kidepo National Park (250 km, about 5 hours drive) and Kibale National Park (500 km, about 8 hours drive). There’s a bone-jarring 13-hour drive between Bwindi and Murchison Falls. That is a legitimate reason why most safari operators avoid the route, and others add expensive stops at other parks.
Whichever number of days you want to spend at the safari camp, you can still fly between Murchison Falls National Park (Pakuba, Bugungu, Chobe airstrips) and Queen Elizabeth National Park (Kasese and Mweya airstrips) or Kibale National Park (Semliki), or Entebbe International Airport.
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Entebbe — Kidepo Valley National Park (Pakuba airstrip)
Because of its remoteness, Kidepo Vally National Park is one of the places you can fly, connecting you to other major attractions in Uganda. Kidepo is one of the most underrated national parks CNN Travel Magazine named the Mara of Uganda. It sits in the extreme northeastern corner of Uganda and Its location has historically made it impossible to include on most Uganda tours.
However, with Pakuba Airstrip just outside the park and three others (Pakuba, Bugungu, and Chobe) minutes away in Murchison Fall, travelers can fly to Kidepo and explore its vast richness without enduring the arduous drive.
Kidepo Valley’s semi-arid landscape hosts an incredible number of wildlife, a spectacularly rugged landscape, and some of the most fascinating cultural tribes in the country. Many of our guests have reported the best wildlife viewing experiences, notably pointing out the advantage of very low tourists in the park.
A typical Kidepo fly-in Uganda safari will usually include 3 nights in Bwindi, a connecting flight to Kidepo via Entebbe, and another 3 nights. Kidepo Vally offers an excellent wilderness environment to celebrate a honeymoon or Romantic Safari in Uganda.
Nkuringo safaris local guides can tailor your journey in Uganda curating places you can fly to with minimal airfare while saving you time to have more meaningful experiences in the Pearl of Africa.
We run the gamut of experiences from shorter jaunts lasting just a few days to month-long itineraries. Our remote Africa safari trips explore the adventure-filled country, giving our travelers authentic local and wilderness experiences.
You can save time for your experiences by flying between Uganda’s national parks with our fly-in safaris. We take care of the local flight reservations, transfers between the camp and airstrip, room reservations, park activities, and local expert guides. This gives our travelers the power to experience a rewarding safari vacation in the Pearl of Africa.
Get one of our safari experts to help you start planning. Send an email to info@nkuringosafaris.com or request a no-obligation, free quote.
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