Best of Eastern Uganda
Trip highlights
Sipi falls, cultural tourism, scenery, rock paintings, hiking, wildlife parks
Day 1
Early morning: Departure for Mbale from Kampala. Total distance to be covered is 224kms. The trip will take on a road trip arrangement as opposed to express drive. The first stopover will be at Uganda’s adventure capital, Jinja (if you wish to explore any tourism activities choice such as, quad biking, horseback riding, bungee jumping…..)
Early afternoon: Drive to Mbale continues.
Late evening: Checking into Hotel of choice.
Day 2
7:30am: Breakfast at Hotel.
8:30am: The two hours hike to Wanale Hill starts to catch panoramic views of this cosmopolitan city, Mbale.
12:30am: Sampling of local dishes of the people to whom this part of the country is home, the Bagisu. This will be at a homestay. If you wish, you can witness what goes on behind the scenes as the food is prepared.
02:00pm: Departure for Sipi falls(as found in Kapchorwa District).
04:00pm: Arrival at your home for the next one day as you explore Kapchorwa. The safari lodge you will be staying at overlooks the Majestic falls, which comes across as Uganda’s highest.
06:00pm: Brace yourself for a captivating sunset that will melt your senses.
Day 3
07:30am: Exploring of Sipi falls through a hike to its top or abseiling excursion.
10:00am: Rock climbing challenge
01:00pm: Lunch at Lodge
03:00pm: Head out for a coffee tour in the surrounding community. Many subsistence farmers here offer Agro-tourism adventures. Through this activity which usually lasts half day, one gets to know the respective stages and processes Uganda’s favourite coffee goes through before its consumable. It’s called Arabica coffee. It starts with a tour of the fields where they are grown to the local factories where they are processed. The experience is incomplete without sampling the coffee. This activity costs roughly Sh50, 000 for a full board experience.
Day 4
08:00am: Safari to Pian Upe, Uganda’s second biggest conservancy (measuring 2,275 Square Kilometers). If you wish, you can start the day with breakfast at the lodge, or, you can carry packed breakfast.
11:00am: Arrival at Pian Upe Game Reserve
01:00pm: Bush Lunch at a park of the reserve that boasts of birds with very colourful plumages.
04:00-06:30pm: Photographic nature of the reserve.
Day 5
Visit to Karimojong Community. The experience is about immersing in the cultures of this tribe of nomadic warriors. Like their sister tribe the Masai, the Karimojong are pastoralists. Through this experience, you will get nourished with their exciting traditional ways of life; how they cook, how they get married, how they construct their bee hive huts…….the list is endless.
Day 6
On this day, the choice is yours on whether to return to Kampala or visit Kidepo Valley National Park for a three day tour. Kidepo is a multi-award winning destination in a semi-arid setting. The big catch with it is fact that you are guaranteed of seeing all the wildlife to which it is home. This includes the biggest land birds, the ostriches.