Book the permit, then build the trip around it

How allocation works

Permits are issued by the national wildlife authority, per gorilla family, per day, in strictly limited numbers — typically eight visitors per family per day. They are dated, and in Uganda they are tied to a specific sector of Bwindi.

They are priced by the authority, identically for everybody, and no operator can obtain a different version. What an operator can do is hold them early and secure the dates you want.

The four consequences

• Your dates are set by the permit. Book it first; the flights, the lodge and the rest of the itinerary follow.
• In Uganda the sector matters. Bwindi’s sectors are far apart on difficult roads, so a permit in the wrong one means a pre-dawn start or a lodge change.
• Peak months go first. A year ahead is not early for the drier months and is close to necessary over Christmas and New Year.
• They are generally non-refundable, and transfer rules are restrictive. Travel insurance matters considerably more here than on an ordinary safari.

Two treks, not one

The strongest single piece of advice on this site.

A trek is unpredictable in a way that is hard to convey in advance. The family may be forty minutes above the trailhead or four hours. You may find them in an open clearing in good light or asleep in thick vegetation on a steep slope in cloud. It may rain for the whole hour.

One permit is one roll of the dice on what will be, for many people, the most expensive single hour of their travelling lives. Two treks on consecutive days roughly doubles the permit line and transforms the odds — and the second morning is a different family, which is frequently a completely different experience.

If the budget has to give somewhere, give it here last. Two treks at a simpler lodge beats one trek at a grand one, and it is not close.

Rules on the day

Briefing at park headquarters early, allocation to a family, then a drive to the trailhead and the walk. One hour with the gorillas, timed from when you reach them.

A minimum viewing distance is required and has been increased in recent years for the gorillas’ protection. Health rules — including requirements around masks and staying away if unwell — have changed more than once and are properly a matter for the current authority guidance rather than for a page written months earlier. We confirm the position for your dates as part of the planning.

Flash photography is not permitted. Porters are available, cost very little, and are worth taking whether or not you think you need one — they carry your bag, they haul you up the steep parts, and the work is a meaningful local income.

Minimum age

Both countries set a minimum age and do not negotiate it — commonly fifteen. It is worth confirming for your dates if you have a family member close to the line, because a birthday on the wrong side of the trek date is a genuinely unhappy discovery at the briefing.

What happens if you cannot go

If you are unwell on the morning, you will not be allowed to trek — the health rules exist to protect a small population from human disease and they are applied.

Permits are generally non-refundable in that situation. This is the single strongest argument for comprehensive travel insurance on a gorilla trip, and for building at least one spare day into the itinerary.