Queen Elizabeth National Park Uganda: Holidays & Safari Guide

Queen Elizabeth National Park travel guide provides complete information to visitors planning to explore this park on a Uganda safari.

The detailed guide to Queen Elizabeth National Park encompasses the history, location, establishment, size, accessibility, things to do or activities, attractions, where to stay, and other travel tips. This complete guide is essential to tourists visiting the park for the first time or even on a repeat visit.

Queen Elizabeth National Park is Uganda’s premier wildlife safari destination. For tourists interested in exploring diverse savanna wildlife on a safari in Uganda, Queen Elizabeth National Park is an ideal destination to visit.

The Overview and History of Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda

Location (Where is the park found?): Queen Elizabeth National Park is situated in Western Uganda. Its boundaries stretch to cover popular districts in Western Uganda, including Rukungiri, Kamwenge, Kasese, and Rubirizi.

Establishment: It was gazetted as a National Park in Uganda in 1952. It takes the name from the late Queen Elizabeth II, in commemoration of her visit in the 1950s. The present-day Queen Elizabeth Safari Park was originally referred to as the Kazinga National Park.

Currently, Queen Elizabeth National Park covers 1978 sq. km. This vast protected area largely comprises key sections, including Maramagambo Forest, Kasenyi Plains, Kazinga Channel, Kyambura Gorge, Lake Edward, and Lake George.

The landscape of Queen Elizabeth National Park is characterized by extensive savanna grassland. The unique savanna landscape features mainly the open rolling plains along the Ishasha and Kasenyi Plains. This also includes acacia trees and shrubs.

The Kazinga Channel is a 40-km-long natural water channel that links Lake George and Edward. It is dominated by the Nile crocodiles and hippos, making it also a favorite spot for boat tours.

Kyambura Gorge: This features mainly a 100-meter-deep valley with lush riverine forest carved by the Kyambura River. It is most popular as “Valley of Apes.”

The humid forests within Queen Elizabeth National Park comprise largely dense tropical woodlands, particularly the Maramagambo Forest.

Top Tourist Attractions and Safari Highlights

Diverse attractions that make Queen Elizabeth Park famous consist mainly of the unique wildlife, birds, and sparkling crater lakes. The checklist of tourist attractions to explore on Queen Elizabeth Game Park safari includes;

Wildlife -Best Spotted on Uganda Safari Holidays

Over 95 mammal species have been recorded in the different sectors in Queen Elizabeth Park, Uganda. They make up the top list of abundant wildlife to be explored on Uganda safaris.

The park’s diverse wildlife includes 4 of the Big 5 game: African elephants, lions, buffaloes, and leopards. Other animals that share the same habitat with Big game include warthogs, spotted hyenas, and a variety of antelopes such as the reedbucks, waterbucks, Uganda Kobs, and topis.

Primate species that survive in Queen Elizabeth National Park include vervet monkeys, chimpanzees, colobus monkeys, olive baboons, and others. The different primates live mainly in the Kyambura Gorge and Maramagambo Forest.

The tree-climbing lions are Queen Elizabeth National Park’s major highlight. The park happens to be one of the only two locations where tourists can watch the unique tree-climbing lions in the wild. These survive only the Ishasha section of Queen Elizabeth National Park (the Southern circuit). The second location is Tanzania’s Lake Manyara National Park.

Bird species

Queen Elizabeth National Game Park is a prominent birding destination with a record of over 625 bird species. They include papyrus gonoleks, martial eagles, elusive shoebill storks, African skimmers, black bee-eaters, African finfoot, Egyptian vultures, long-chested eagles, helmeted guineafowl, and Rwenzori turacos.

Other birds include bare-faced go-away bird, white-crested turacos, malachite kingfishers, black-headed lapwing, African cuckoo-hawks, Eastern plantain-eaters, Ross’s turacos, red-chested sunbird, yellow-throated nicator, and western banded snake-eagle.

The park also contains birds such as the Northern carmine bee-eaters, white-headed barbet, brown-snake eagle, Nubian woodpeckers, double-toothed barbet, chocolate-backed kingfishers, temminck’s courser, red-billed oxpeckers, rufous-necked wryneck, and crimson-rumped waxbill.

The Sparkling Crater Lakes

Beyond wildlife and birdlife, Queen Elizabeth Protected Area is known for its incredibly charming Crater Lakes. They include the famous Lake Katwe, most popular for salt mining.

Activities that can be done in Queen Elizabeth National Park

Guided game drives

Queen Elizabeth National Park is one of Africa’s preferred destinations for game viewing. The park features a unique landscape for guided game drives, and tourists get a chance to view their lovely animals in a 4×4 safari car with a pop-up roof.

The standard game viewing/game drive session can extend between 2 and 3 hours, with key areas of interest being the Kasenyi and Ishasha.

Boat/launch cruise tours

Kazinga Channel is the best place to enjoy boat cruise excursions in Queen Elizabeth Wildlife Park.

Along the Kazinga Channel, visitors can spend about 2 to 3 hours and on a safe boat, they can spot the massive Nile crocodiles and hippos.

Bird watching

Queen Elizabeth Safari Park is a rich ecological system worth exploring by birders. A successful birding tour in this park rewards enthusiastic birders with sightings such as shoebill storks, kingfishers, eagles, and forest species.

Chimpanzee trekking

Chimpanzee trekking is an amazing adventure to spice up your standard game viewing excursions. The Kyambura Gorge is where all chimpanzee tours are conducted.

During the guided trek with chimpanzees, the park guides takes lead and expect to have an in-depth learning on how they survive in the jungle. Over 100 chimpanzees thrive in the Kyambura Gorge with a great section of them already open for tourism.

Lion trekking/tracking

Lion trekking is a must-do activity on a safari in Queen Elizabeth Park.

Unlike the usual safaris, lion tracking lets you to enjoy a close encounter with lions, learn their behaviors, and take pictures.

It is an exceptional experience where you have a chance to go off-track thus increasing your chances of finding lions.

Other activities that are offered in Queen Elizabeth Park include mongoose tracking, hippo census, community visits, forest walks, and Crater Lake tours, etc.

When it comes to nature walks, the ideal areas to consider include Maramagambo Forest, Ishasha, and Mweya Peninsula.

Visitor Tips for Planning Queen Elizabeth National Park Uganda Safari

Best time to visit Queen Elizabeth Park

Queen Elizabeth National Park can be reached for a safari at any time of the year.

However, the dry season is the best period, especially for travelers on game viewing or chimpanzee tracking tours.

The longest dry months run from June to September while the shorter dry session begins from December to February.

How can a visitor reach Queen Elizabeth Game Park for a holiday?

The key access options to Queen Elizabeth Wildlife Park include road and air.

By road, you can drive starting from Entebbe or Kampala through the Mbarara-Kasese route (approximately 7-8 hours).

Or you can use the Kampala via Mityana-Mubende-Fort Portal-Kasese route, which may require about 6-7 hours.

Visitors can also cut the long hours of road travel by taking a flight from Entebbe Airport to Kasese Airstrip.

From the Kasese Airstrip, you can reach the park on road in less than an hour drive.

Where Can I Stay?

Luxury lodges to stay at on a Queen Elizabeth Park tour include Ishasha Wilderness Camp, Mweya Safari Lodge, Elephant Plains Lodge, and Kyambura Gorge.

The mid-range accommodation options include mainly Mweya Safari Lodge, Jacana Safari Lodge, Enganzi Game Lodge, Buffalo Safari Lodge, Parkview Safari Lodge, Bush Lodge, Ihamba Lakeside Safari Lodge, and Kikorongo Safari Lodge.

Conclusively, Queen Elizabeth National Park is a unique destination to explore on a safari in Uganda. To enjoy in-depth wildlife experiences, simply reach out to Flawless Adventure Planners to book your Uganda safari holiday.