Kabiza Wilderness Safaris — Attraction in Kampala

We just completed a 10 day safari with Kabiza, starting in Kigali and ending in Entebbe with 10 glorious days in between. We had the most wonderful time! Jon Blanc, who handled our booking and custom itinerary did a superb job of communicating from the initial contact through departure. This was going to be the trip of a lifetime with it’s highlight, an all day Mountain Gorilla habituation. It was all that and more. Brian, our driver, was phenomenal. We dubbed him Brian Uganda! He is representing some of the best Uganda has to offer. Always cheerful, polite, informative and going above and beyond even at the end of an arduous 13 hour day! We will remember him and our 10 days forever! The lodges were mid range and all delivered in their own unique ways, some had stellar service, others incredible food or phenomenal settings, in all though, none fell short in delivering on expectations. The journey itself was wonderful, we enjoyed between parks to experience Uganda and observing its people, an eye opener even for experienced travelers. The parks all rounded out a fuller picture of wildlife and ecosystems, so varied in a relatively small country. Bwindi is truly the impenetrable forest..the hike to the gorillas and back was challenging, but Adrenaline and your porter will push you forward and when you are in their midst for those glorious 4 hours it is truly life changing. We also did the chimpanzee habituation in Kibale and it turned out to be amazing. The unhabituated group was not cooperative, but the rangers took us at the end over to the habituated group and allowed us to stay longer with them than the folks who only paid for the trek. That really made up for the earlier miss and the larger amount of people on this side that could only stay mere minutes with each primate. No tree climbing lion sightings for us in QEP but a good amount of elephants even in large groups and with many babies in close proximity. The Kazinga Channel boat ride is amazing, much better than that at Murcheson Falls with respect to abundant wildlife, however, MF made up for it if you take the hike up to the top of the falls to marvel at its power...mind blowing. We were lucky to see a total of 6 lions and a leopard as well and were super excited to track many giraffes. We even witnessed the ugly and other side of wildlife protection in Murcheson, as during a game drive with a ranger we spotted three poachers chasing a large herd of buffalo. Like marathon runners they sprinted across the Savannah with their spears and our land cruiser was quickly outmatched. With that and the risk to our own safety we had to abandon a chase, but we were able to alert the other rangers in the park and hope they were captured. All in all we could not have asked for more and would highly recommend Uganda, Kabiza and especially Brian for anyone looking to have a great...

Wish I could have given a much better review as the gorilla/primate experiences were amazing. Our guide/driver, Geoffrey, was great. However, I just can't recommend Kabiza due to the following.

We arrived early in Kigali in order to get over jet lag and stayed at another hotel which wasn't part of our itinerary. The itinerary we had been given multiple times had another hotel listed, and we were told that the hotels and not the guide typically do the pickup from the airport. We were doing a city tour through a different agency that day, so figured that we'd just have the guide pick us up at one hotel and drop us off at the hotel sent on our itinerary. We did just that, and when we arrived at the hotel, they couldn't find our reservation. The hotel was extremely nice and tried to call the 2 numbers on our itinerary with no answer. I looked up the Kabiza website and found another number, which finally answered. The hotel spoke with the person on the phone and asked if they would like to speak with us to explain the situation. The person from Kabiza said no and hung up. The people at the hotel explained to us that Kabiza didn't book the first night of hotel, so we don't have a reservation there. I immediately call Kabiza and the person explained to me essentially the same thing. They recommend a hotel, but don't book it unless the client asks. I have NEVER seen an itinerary with a hotel listed that isn't included. Moreover, after additional research, the person at Kabiza admitted that they never mentioned to me that they were just recommending a hotel. Even so, they doubled down explaining that they normally mention it and that somehow I should have known better even though this is the only time I've ever dealt with them. This hotel didn't have any reservations, so we found another hotel online that was significantly cheaper ($63 vs $200-250). I asked to be reimbursed and was told no and that the first night hotel was not included in the package. I found this quite ridiculous since we're now talking about ~1% of the total trip cost.

The same contact at Kabiza got in contact with me about a week before the trip started and gave me our guide's contact information. I immediately contacted him via Whatapp. I hadn't received a response in multiple days and figured he was just on another trip and didn't have service. Long story short, I find out that one digit was off and I had been given a wrong number.

They advertised golden monkey trekking for $90 per person. However, after receiving a revised itinerary, the cost had gone up $500-$600. This was due to it being an extra night hotel and extra day of car and driver. The explanation made sense, and it was done well in advance so I could have reverted to the original itinerary. However, this...

We highly recommend Kabiza Safaris. Our planning started only 2 months prior as we had been invited to weddings in Rwanda which prompted unexpected travel to Africa. I feel blessed to have found Kabiza thru google search. Their website is the most comprehensive of all I looked at. Jon was helpful in letting us individualize our tour, adding in extra days for community overnight visits at Boomu Woman's Village and at Ruboni Community Camp to connect with the African people and make our time more meaningful during our 12 days. We were fortunate that two gorilla trekking permits had come available due to someone else cancellation, and our trip was adjusted according to the gorilla permit dates. Communication is key when planning and carrying out such an event. Jon was excellent at returning my emails, answering my many questions and offering suggestions. Carlos our driver/guide was also a great communicator, always giving an overview of the next days events the evening prior. Our initial pickup spot in Entebbe was at an Air BnB not in the center of Entebbe and he called the location the afternoon prior to get exact directions to be on time for our safari start. In preparing for the next day, while in Queen Elizabeth NP Carlos contacted the Lion Researcher to confirm our time with him the next morning. The researcher was no longer available on our scheduled date but was willing to meet us in half an hour so Carlos came by our room to ask if we would like to switch our game drive to having time with the Lion Researcher. If he had not been proactive, we would have missed out on one of the most awesome and entertaining events of our trip. Carlos had a great rapport with Park and Lodge staff and got us connected with a great guide for the chimp trek. At our last NP, Carlos suggested we change out the boat cruise for a Ranger Walk thru the park being up close to the zebras, Impalas and Elon which had not been at the previous NP. It was the perfect sendoff from our five NP tour. Having a private tour in our own comfortable safari jeep, without a doubt was the best way to travel. We witnessed the BIG 5 and so much more. It took me two months to convince my husband to travel to Africa but he totally loved it and so often throughout the trip has told me I absolutely chose the BEST SAFARI company-KABIZA!!! THANK YOU for a trip of...