Planning to go visit gorillas in Congo and Uganda, it’s very important to secure your gorilla permit in advance, either through Nature Adventure Africa Safaris, Uganda or from Uganda Wildlife Authority.
Ordinarily when you book a safari package with us, a gorilla permit is included in the price quotation. Upon payment of a deposit for you safari with us, we normally email you a scanned copy of your gorilla permit – thus you are assured of participating in the gorilla trekking safaris experience.
When buying a gorilla permit you must be in position to respect all the Eco-tourism rules and regulations governing gorilla trekking taking place at secured, nature and tourist friendly stations. Tourists are welcomed directly by the official tourism bodies selling permits and managing gorilla trekking and other tourism activities.
Therefore, tourists are required to contact their tour operators to decide on the specific dates and month of the year intended to trek gorillas. Depending on the availability of gorilla permits, it’s easier to effect payments and confirmation for your gorilla trekking permit with the online gorilla permit booking means.
Gorilla permits must be booked and paid for in advance of 2-3 months because there are few permits which completely sold out daily, hence the earlier the booking the higher the guarantee for your permit.
Gorilla permits in Uganda are directly and officially sold by the Uganda Wildlife Authority for Bwindi impenetrable forest national park with 12 habituated gorilla families and Mgahinga gorilla national park with 1 gorilla family. The number of tourist visiting each group of gorillas is 8 per day. Hence a total of 96 permits are sold out daily, thus one must have booked and secured one in advance. Each gorilla permit costs 600 USD per foreign non-residents, 500 USD for foreign residents.
Bwindi is divided into 4 gorilla trekking sections (Buhoma, Ruhija, Nkuringo and Rushaga) all with habituated gorillas monitored by the Uganda wildlife guides, tracker and rangers who give tourists a memorable experience with gorillas. Given the different gorilla trekking trail heads, trekkers should be able to stay in lodges or camps within or near the park since trekking is starts early morning.
Trekkers can use an electronic wildlife card to avoid carrying large sums of money during transfer from Kampala to south western Uganda. Upon entry into the park, tourists present the card for registration and verification for gorilla trekking.
Gorilla trekking permits for Virunga National Park in Democratic Republic of Congo can be officially and directly obtained from the park headquarters which works closely with Congolese institute for wildlife and nature conservation. Each gorilla permit is sold at 400 USD per person and $ 200 USD low season. Virunga has 6 habituated gorilla families, contrary to Rwanda and Uganda, the number of trekkers is limited to 6 people per gorilla family for 1 hour per day.
