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Top Most Tourist Attractions in Queen Elizabeth National Park

Attractions in Queen Elizabeth National Park

Are you a wildlife enthusiast planning to visit Queen Elizabeth national park in Uganda? And are you still wondering what exactly to do on your Uganda safari to this rich destination? It is one of the most popular wildlife safari destinations with various exciting things to do due to its high biodiversity rating along with scenic landscapes like craters, hills and a peninsular.

Queen Elizabeth national park is the second largest game park in Uganda covering a total land area of 1,978sq.km. This comprises different habitats varying from savannah, wetlands, bushland to lush forests harboring an incredible range of attractive wildlife. The park is home to 96 mammal species, 10 primate species, an incredible checklist of birds of over 600 and reptiles. The best way to explore the treasures in Queen Elizabeth national park is to get on a guided tour with a professional safari guide to take you around the major sites such as Mweya, Kasenyi, Ishasha, Kyambura and Maramagambo forest among others. Self drive tours around Queen Elizabeth national park are as well popular and almost every tourist that goes there independently enjoys their trip.

Located about 390 km from Kampala, most visitors on adventure hire a car and access this large park by road through Mbarara or Fort Portal route which are both entertaining road trips. It is advisable to rent 4WD vehicles to keep travelers more comfortable and flexible along the way and in the park as they maneuver in the tracks during the game drives and transfers to areas like Ishasha where the park’s main attraction-the tree climbing lions are found. If you are looking forward to travel to Queen Elizabeth national park, find more about the top attractions in the park here and plan for your favorite to have the best of the wildlife safari.

Top attractions in Queen Elizabeth national park and the popular activities 

The list of activities to do in Queen Elizabeth ranges from scenic viewing to adventure and each of them has a highlight for an intended attraction. The park is a rich destination with a blend of wildlife, lakes, craters, a prominent water channel and the back drops of landscapes like the Rwenzori ranges. The most famous attractions of Queen Elizabeth national park include;

Tree climbing lions

Lions can be seen in many parts of Africa but the tree climbing lions can only be seen in East Africa that is Queen Elizabeth national park in Uganda and around Lake Manyara national park in Tanzania. However much many will say that tree climbing lions can be spotted anywhere else, these two destinations remain exceptional for these predators as they are a common sighting unlike other areas where it is a rare sighting.

If you want a reliable location for the tree climbing lions, hire a car and travel to Queen Elizabeth national park. Get on a dirt road for a game drive and navigate through bushlands and thickets to the savannah grasslands in the Ishasha sector in the southern part of the park. Here, prides of lazy-looking lions are seen resting on branches of fig trees. They are commonly found there after sunrise following the morning hunt and one of the reasons given for this behavior is that the predators enjoy the cool fresh air there.

With our company safari guides, a number of travelers have had thrilling moments in the Ishasha sector after coming across these amazing cats.

Game

Safari vans are often seen frequenting the northern part of the park known as Kasenyi every morning for game drives. The area is dominated by savannah plains where different species of game wander during favorable hours in the morning and evening. Animals including Uganda kobs, elephants, buffaloes, waterbucks and warthogs are clearly viewed in large numbers while lions are sighted in their small prides.  The solitary leopards are spotted occasionally in the candelabra trees and sometimes in the dotted thickets in the park. 

Spending a night at Mweya Peninsula makes the game drive more enjoyable as it starts right from the peninsular through the tracks connecting to Kasenyi and en route, any kind of mammals are expected to be sighted in addition to the scenic landscapes like craters and Kazinga channel.

With a 4WD, you can get through all tracks in the park year round while saloon cars are highly not recommended during the wet season since the roads get slippery.

Night game drives are available all year round to see nocturnal. Sightings expected on night wildlife drives include leopards, lions and hippos among others.

Kazinga channel

The best part of this water vessel is that close to Mweya which is a must see for almost every visitor who travels to Queen Elizabeth national park. Visitors explore around the area on a 2 hours boat ride which starts and ends at the jetty below Mweya peninsula.

This section of Kazinga channel is packed with lots of hippos, crocodiles, birds and buffaloes. Elephants come to cool their bodies on hot days while leopards are also occasionally sighted as well. The boat cruise on Kazinga channel offers beautiful views of Mweya and an opportunity to see where the channel pours water into Lake Edward.

Chimpanzees

Their home alone, the Kyambura gorge is a picturesque landscape. It is a 100m deep forested landscape with a river running at its bottom. Also known as an underground forest, Kyambura gorge is home to man’s closest relatives, the chimpanzees along with some monkeys and baboons. Chimpanzee trekking in Queen Elizabeth national park is cheaper than in other major destinations like Kibale and is very adventurous as it involves descending and hiking the hilly terrain of the gorge. Trekking can be done in the morning or afternoon and morning hours are best.

Birds

If you are looking for a terrific experience full of bird watching, game and scenic viewing, explore Queen Elizabeth national park. It has the highest number of bird species among all national parks in East Africa. The park records 612 bird species and it has specific sites where bird enthusiasts get immersed in the experience, for example Kazinga channel, Ishasha sector, Mweya, Maramagambo forest, Kasenyi, Kyambura gorge, the Crater area and at Lake Kikorongo.

Some of the birds in this park include the white-barked pelicans, African Emerald Cuckoo, Pied kingfisher, African Wattled plover, long-tailed cormorant, African Jacana, Palm-nut Vulture, African white-backed vulture, Martial Eagle, Grey backed Fiscal and Red-chested sunbird among others.

Explosion craters

Located in the Albertine rift valley, Queen Elizabeth is dotted with numerous explosion craters some of which are filled with water to form crater lakes while others remain dry. Easy to reach and see craters are Nyamunuka along the track to Mweya and Bunyampaka in Kasenyi which is visited by tourists after the game drive. Visit the Katwe craters and learn about the initial stages of salt processing. There are many more craters in Katwe which can be explored for scenic views and photography.

Are you ready for the remarkable Queen Elizabeth wildlife safari? Contact us via info@gorillaugandasafaribookings.com or call us directly on +256-775630809 or +256-701343598  to speak directly to our reservations team to book for any of the above activities. You can also get more information about other things to do such as Maramagambo bat cave and things to do such as lion tracking.

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