Gorillas
The expensive version and the modest version see the same thing
Permits are issued by an authority at a fixed price, the number of visitors per family per day is capped, and the time with them is one hour. Gorilla trekking is close to unique in luxury travel: money cannot buy better access.
The sequence
Four decisions, in this order
Get the order wrong and the trip has to be rebuilt, because the permit will not move to suit your flights.
Rwanda or Uganda
A short, comfortable, expensive trip on tarmac, or a longer, fuller, cheaper one with a good deal of driving.
The comparison
Permits
Dated, capped, sector-specific in Uganda, and generally non-refundable. Book these first and build the trip around them.
How allocation works
Where to stay
The lodge follows the permit. In Uganda a permit in the wrong sector means a pre-dawn start on a difficult road.
Trailheads and lodges
The real cost
The permit is usually the largest line and goes to an authority, not a lodge. Why a first quote surprises people.
What it totalsThe advice that matters most
Book two treks, not one
It is the commonest planning regret we hear, and it is entirely avoidable at the enquiry stage.
A trek is unpredictable. The family may be forty minutes from the trailhead or four hours. It may be clear or in cloud, the gorillas active in an open clearing or asleep in dense vegetation on a slope. One permit is one roll of the dice on what will be, for many people, the most expensive hour of their travelling lives.
Two treks on consecutive days roughly doubles the permit line and transforms the odds of getting the morning you are picturing. If the budget has to give somewhere, give it here last.
- The trek length is genuinely unpredictable, from under an hour to most of a day
- Weather at altitude changes what you see and what you can photograph
- A second morning is a second family, and often a completely different experience
- Permits are generally non-refundable, so insurance matters more than usual
Free download
The Permit Is The Trip
Why the permit decides everything, how to get the dates you want, and the one thing money cannot buy here.
- The thing money cannot buy
- Rwanda or Uganda
- How permits are allocated
- When to book, realistically
- Sectors, trailheads and why the lodge follows the permit
- What the trip really costs
- Who should not book one
- What to add on either side
No cost, no obligation. We ask for an email so we can send it and, if you want it, follow up once.
Before you ask
The questions that decide the trip
Does a more expensive lodge get us better gorilla access?
No. Permits are issued by the national authority at a set price, the number of visitors per family per day is capped, and the time with them is one hour. None of it varies with your room rate.
What a lodge genuinely affects is how far you drive to the briefing, how well you sleep at altitude beforehand, and what happens to your soaked clothing afterwards. Those are worth something and they are not access.
How far ahead do we need to book?
For the drier months, a year ahead is not early. Over Christmas and New Year it is close to necessary. Permits are limited per family per day and the popular dates go first.
If your dates are fixed and close, we will tell you honestly what is available rather than taking the enquiry and hoping.
Rwanda or Uganda?
Rwanda for a short, comfortable trip: roughly two hours on tarmac from an international airport, no internal flights, and six nights is a complete holiday.
Uganda for more days and more to do at a lower permit cost — chimpanzees at Kibale, tree-climbing lions, the Nile — accepting a good deal of driving and a thinner field of top lodges.
How fit do we need to be?
Fit enough for a steep, muddy, unpredictable walk at altitude, possibly for several hours, possibly in rain. It is a genuinely demanding day and it is not a stroll.
Porters help enormously and are worth taking whether or not you think you need one. Minimum ages apply in both countries — commonly fifteen — and are not negotiable.
Who actually arranges my safari?
This site is a planning guide. When you send an enquiry it goes to Nomad Africa, our partner travel agency in Kenya, who prepare your itinerary and quote and handle the booking, the payments and you on the ground.
You deal with one team from the first email to the airport transfer home.
Start planning
Send us your dates before anything else
Permits are dated, capped and generally non-refundable, so availability on your dates is the first fact and everything else follows from it.
Our gorilla specialist replies within 24 hours with what is available, the country that suits you, and an itemised price with the permits shown separately.
- Permit availability checked for your actual dates
- Permits itemised rather than folded into a nightly rate
- Lodges matched to the trailhead your permit fixes
- No deposit to see a plan, and no obligation at any point
Who answers
Nomad Africa, our partner travel agency in Nairobi, builds and prices every itinerary we send. You deal with one team, on the ground, for the whole trip.
Founded in 2017 as East Africa’s only dedicated travel magazine, Nomad still publishes — so the people planning your trip are the ones who write about these places for a living.
Get your tailored itinerary and quote
Our gorilla specialist replies within 24 hours with a costed plan built around your dates.
More from our Rwanda and Uganda guides
Specialist guides across our Rwanda and Uganda network
Each of these is a focused guide we publish. Same gorilla specialist behind every enquiry.