Nile Safari Lodge

Nile Safari Luxury Lodge at Murchison Falls NP.

Rating: Luxury high-end
Price: $680 (single), $1060 (double) pp/night

Located on the southern riverbank of the Victoria Nile between the Albert Delta and Paraa jetty, Nile Safari Lodge offers an exclusive and eco-friendly family escape in the heart of Murchison Falls National Park. The lodge’s ingenious design blends seamlessly with the surrounding environment, showcasing the most luxurious and tranquil setting in the park.

Nile Safari Lodge is situated 20 km downstream from the thunderous Murchison Falls, providing easy access to prime game safari activities in the park. The lodge’s minimally intrusive design, crafted from locally sourced materials such as eucalyptus wood, perfectly combines comfort and aesthetics while blending with the surrounding scenery.

Nile Safari Lodge is a perfect choice for family travel or luxury Uganda safari holidays in Murchison Falls National Park.

Murchison Falls National Park is a well-known but relatively remote wildlife reserve in northwestern Uganda, bisected by the Victoria Nile and situated between Lake Albert and Lake Kyoga. The park boasts a reasonable amount of wildlife, including elephants, hippos, Rothschild’s giraffes, buffalo, crocodiles, and lions. Visitors can enjoy the popular Paraa stretch boat safari cruise along the Nile to the waterfall base, offering the vast richness of the park. For birdwatchers, the Nile Delta is home to the sought-after shoebill stork.

The park forms a significant part of the Murchison Falls Conservation Area, covering 5,308 square kilometers of forest, savanna, and riverine landscapes, with particularly beautiful scenery in parts.

How to get there

Nile Safari Lodge is accessible via a 5-hour (305 km/189 mi) drive from Kampala via Masindi, Kichumbanyobo Gate, and Mubako Gate through the park. For more adventurous visitors, the lodge can also be accessed via the escarpment road passing through Bulisa and Wanseko.

Nile Safari Lodge has a helipad for private helicopters, with GPS coordinates of 2°15’08.7” N 31°31’10.2” E. The lodge can arrange a jet-ranger helicopter for 3 passengers at $3900. For small chartered flights from Entebbe International Airport, the nearest airstrip is Bugungu Airstrip, about a 25-minute drive from the lodge.

Accommodation at Nile Safari Lodge

Nile Safari Lodge boasts eight luxurious bandas secluded among tall trees and thick shrubbery along the Nile banks. These fine sleeping rooms feature en-suite facilities with both indoor and outdoor showers, a mini-fridge, and a private deck. The exquisite wooden décor and luxurious double beds offer ultimate comfort and relaxation.

Each banda showcases creative and purposely simple designs, with its unique style providing ultimate privacy for a wilderness or romantic getaway. Guests seeking a more exclusive experience can opt for the romantic Exclusive Banda, which features a private plunge pool and star bed.

Nile Safari Lodge offers three types of bandas: Deluxe Bandas, Exclusive Bandas, and a Family Banda with shared living space, a private swimming pool, and an outdoor viewing terrace.

Food & Dinning

The restaurant offers excellent dining spaces for communal eating, but guests can also choose from private dining options. These include the terrace, shaded pergola, or a candlelit dinner on your private deck for intimate moments.

The in-house lodge chef prepares a sumptuous menu featuring international and continental dishes with a safari twist, along with fresh-baked bread and pastries daily. The cocktail bar is the perfect place to meet other travelers and chat away the safari evening.

2021 Rates

2022 Rates

Activities at Nile Safari Lodge

Nile Safari Lodge’s prime location provides unparalleled access to a wide range of guided activities in Murchison Falls National Park. Many of these activities may be included in your room price, but it’s always best to check with your booking manager or safari operator to ensure that you don’t miss out on any of the adventures.

Boat Safari

One of the most popular activities is the motorboat safari to the base of the Murchison Falls. This three-hour round trip takes you up the Victoria Nile, where you can spot hippos, crocodiles, buffalo, Rothschild’s giraffes, elephants, and lions along the Nile banks.

For a more tranquil experience, guests can take a three-hour motorboat safari in the other direction, downstream towards the delta at Lake Albert. This trip is an excellent opportunity to view rare shoebill storks and other papyrus endemic bird species. Guests can choose between an early morning ride with breakfast onboard or a late sunset ride.

Wildlife Viewing Game Drives

Game drives are also a must-do activity in Murchison Falls National Park. The savannah grasslands of the Buligi area, around the Victoria Nile delta on Lake Albert, offer the richest wildlife for game drive safaris. Guests can access this area via the Paraa Vehicle Ferry, a motorized pontoon that offers crossings every couple of hours in each direction. On the southern side of the Victoria Nile, where the landscapes are more heavily wooded, guests can explore the trails on their way to the Top of the Falls.

Chimpanzee Tracking in Kniyo Pabidi & Budongo Forest

Chimpanzee tracking is another exciting activity that guests can experience in the nearby Kaniyo Pabidi Forest. This natural forest is home to over 800 chimpanzees, about 90 of which are habituated for tourism and available for chimpanzee trekking. Black-and-white colobus monkeys, blue monkeys, and olive baboons can also be spotted in the forest. The forest is also a bird-watching paradise, with highlights such as chocolate-backed kingfishers, white-thighed hornbills, and the exclusively endemic Puvel’s illaposis.

Budoongo Forest is another great place to watch primates and bird species near Nile Safari Lodge. This forest is an island of tropical river forest set in a sea of grassland in the southeast of the conservation area, with sightings likely to include a similar range of wildlife but without the habituated chimpanzees.

Nature Hiking

For guests who prefer hiking, the trail to the top of the waterfalls is a popular option. This 45-60 minute trail offers breathtaking views of the mighty cascade from different angles and elevations. Guests can also reach the trail as part of a game drive safari or a motorboat safari up the Paraa stretch.

Balloon Safari

For a unique experience, guests can opt for a balloon safari with Dream Balloons, which operates from a take-off site on the river’s north bank, around 17km from Nile Safari Lodge. The balloon uses an 8-passenger basket with a pilot and flies either east towards the Murchison Falls or west towards Lake Albert, depending on the prevailing wind conditions. Flights last 45-60 minutes and include a bush breakfast wherever the balloon lands.

Birdwatching

Birdwatching is a wildly endowed activity in Murchison Falls National Park, with over 450 recorded species. The park offers an opportunity to spot incredible bird species such as ground hornbills, secretary birds, black-bellied bustards, open-billed storks, weavers, swallow-tailed bee-eaters, red-throated bee-eaters, woodland kingfishers, francolins, grey herons, martial eagles, African fish eagles, papyrus gonoleks, lesser flamingoes, greater flamingoes, white-tailed larks, Verreaux’s eagle owls, and shoebill storks.

Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary

Finally, guests can visit the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary, a 70 sq km sanctuary that offers guided walks to get up close and personal with the last of Uganda’s white rhinos. While the sanctuary is over 100km south of most of the lodges in Murchison Falls, it is a project well worth supporting, and guests can make it a long day trip if they’re driving out from Kampala.