Toursit Attractions in Uganda, Rwanda, DR. Congo, Tanzania and Kenya

Queen Elizabeth National Park is understandably Uganda's most popular tourist destination. The park's diverse ecosystems, which include sprawling savanna, shady, humid woodland forests, sparkling lakes and fertile wetlands, make it the ideal habitat for classic big game, ten primate species including chimpanzees, mankeys, baboons and over 600 species of birds.

Kidepo Valley National Park lies in the rugged, semi-arid valleys between Uganda's borders with Sudan and Kenya, some 700kilometers from Kampala.

Volcanoes national park is probably the most popular park in Rwanda. There are so many things to see and enjoy in this park. You can go gorilla trekking, golden monkey tracking, volcano climbing, volcano climbing and hiking, birding, nature walks, cave exploration, visiting Diane Fossey's research camp and so much more.

Murchison Falls National Park lies at the northern end of the Albertine Rift Valley, where the sweeping Bunyoro escarpment tumbles into vast, palm-dotted savanna. First gazetted as a game reserve in 1926, it is Uganda's largest and oldest conservation area, hosting 76 species of mammals and 451 birds.

This extinct volcano is one of Uganda's oldest physical features, first erupting around 24 million years ago. Mt Elgon was once Africa's highest mountain, far exceeding Kilimanjaro's current 5,895meters.

Rwenzori Mountains National Park protects the highest parts of the 120km long and 65km wide Rwenzori mountain range. The national park hosts 70 mammals and 217 bird species including 19 Albertine Rift endemics, as well as some of the world's rarest vegetation.

Akagera National Park offers thrilling Big five safaris which expands your luck to spotting leopards search for black rhinos, savanna elephants and lions. The national park is home to over 500 species of birds, making it a top destination for birding tours in Rwanda.

One of Tanzania's smallest and often bypassed protected areas, Arusha National Park is more than worth a visit. It is home to the impressive Mount Meru whose irregular shaped peak raises high above the green scenery.

At 5895 MASL, the Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain on the African continent, and the world's highest freestanding mountain. Its majestic appearance and the fact that it's one of the most accessible high summits draw every year thousands of visitors to the base to conquer its peak.

In Tanzania's popular northern circuit, Lake Eyasi and Lake Natron form an ideal highlight for those who wish to escape the majority of the tourists and go off the beaten track.

With sun scorched plains stretching to kiss the slivery golden horizon, Serengeti National Park is no doubt Tanzania's oldest and most popular national park. A UNESCO World Heritage Site that is famed for its Great wildebeest Migration, zebras and gazelles.

Named after the Tarangire River this national park is especially known for its large elephant herds, arguably the largest numbers in the whole of Africa. Herds of up to 300 elephants come to the marshlands or river to quench their thirst, while zebras, wildebeest, impalas, and elands gather around the shrinking lagoons for their treat.

Lake Kivu in Rwanda is a perfect place to relax after days of Rwanda safari activities, such as hiking, gorilla trekking, biking the Nile Congo trail, or exploring the Nyungwe forest, you will certainly need a good place to chill, relax, and come down before your long flight back home.

Semuliki Forest Reserve was created in 1932 and upgraded to national park status in 1993. It is the only tract of true lowland tropical forest in East Africa, hosting 441 recorded bird species and 53 mammals.

The Zziwa Rhino Sanctuary is a protected area located in Nakasongola district, Uganda. It was established in 2005 with the primary objective of reintroducing and conserving the endangered southern white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum) in Uganda.

Pian Upe Game Reserve is a highly desired tourist destination located in the Karamoja region of northeastern Uganda. This expansive reserve covers an area of approximately 2,788 square kilometers, making it the second-largest protected area in the country.

Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park lies in southwestern Uganda on the edge of the Rift Valley. Its mist-covered hillsides are blanketed by one of Uganda's oldest and most biologically diverse rainforests, which dates back over 25,000 years and contains almost 400 species of plants.

Kibale Forest National Park contains one of the loveliest and most varied tracts of tropical forest in Uganda. Forest cover, interspersed with patches of grassland and swamp, dominates the northern and central parts of the park on an elevated plateau.

20% of the park's entrance fee is used to fund local community projects such as building clinics and schools. Lake Mburo National Park is a compact gem, located conveniently close to the highway that connects Kampala to the parks of western Uganda.

Mgahinga Gorilla National Park is a protected area located in southwestern Uganda, on the border with Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is one of the two national parks in Uganda that are home to the endangered mountain gorillas, the other being Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park.

Located in southwestern Rwanda, Nyungwe is a Rainforest forest park, probably the best preserved montane rainforest in Africa. It has a canopy walk through the forest; one of only three in Africa.

Nestled below the dramatic Rift Valley escarpment, Lake Manyara was flattered by Hemingway as “the loveliest lake I had ever seen in Africa”. It is one of Tanzania's smaller national parks but offers a compact game-viewing circuit with a great diversity of habitats, animals and birds.

Adjacent to Serengeti National Park, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area covers a large area of short-grass plains as well as a range of large ancient volcanoes and the Ngorongoro Highlands.

Among the most renowned hikes in Volcanoes National Park found in Rwanda is that to Dian Fossey's Tomb as well as the nearby gorilla cemetery within the formerly Karisoke Research Camp.

Some of the memorial sites in Rwanda include: Nyamata church genocide memorial site, Murambi Genocide Memorial Site, Gisenyi genocide Memorial Site, Bisesero Genocide Memorial Site and many others.

The source of the Nile, alluded to hazily in the ancient writings of Ptolemy, stood as one of the great geographical mysteries of the Victorian Age. Closer to home, the Nile downriver from Jinja, Uganda, offers some superb white water rafting and game fishing.

Sempaya Hot Springs in Semuliki National Park, Uganda, are a captivating natural attraction with cultural significance and therapeutic properties. The male and female springs, Bintente and Nyasimbi, offer visitors a chance to witness boiling geysers and bubbling pools while immersing themselves in mineral-rich waters.

Sipi Falls is a stunning waterfall located in eastern Uganda, near the town of Kapchorwa. It is considered one of the most beautiful natural attractions in the country and draws tourists from all over the world.

{"<p><span style=\"color: var(--main-text-color);\">The Congolese people are extremely friendly and helpful and the eastern Congo is a lush and enormous landscape of beautiful mountains and lakes simply gorgeous! Kahuzi Biega National Park is the last major sanctuary of Grauer's lowland gorillas.</span></p><p><span style=\"color: var(--main-text-color);\">They are larger and potentially more endangered than the mountain gorillas of western Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo north of Lake Kivu.</span></p><p><span style=\"color: var(--main-text-color);\">A visit to Kahuzi Biega National Park operated by the Institut Congolais Pour La Conservation de la is high-adventure travel to an environmental paradise!</span></p><h2><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">History of Kahuzi Biega National Park</span></h2><p><span style=\"color: var(--main-text-color);\">A small zoological and forest reserve was established around Mount Kahuzi in 1937. A larger Kahuzi Biega National Park operated by the Institut Congolais Pour La Conservation de la was established in 1970.</span></p><p><span style=\"color: var(--main-text-color);\">The park became a World Heritage Site in 1980 to protect 200-300 eastern lowland (Grauer's) gorillas occurring mainly in the forests at 2,100-2,400 m, but also in the lower rainforest. The 'mosaic' of biotypes makes the park an excellent gorilla habitat.</span></p><p><span style=\"color: var(--main-text-color);\">Other primates include eastern chimpanzees, and numerous Cercopithecinae and Colobinae. Other mammals include elephants, forest hogs and many antelope and duiker.</span></p><p><span style=\"color: var(--main-text-color);\">Avifauna includes the endemic Rockefeller's sunbird, Grauer's broadbill, Grauer's warbler and Shelley's crimsonwing.</span></p><p><span style=\"color: var(--main-text-color);\">Endemic mammal species include giant gennet, Aquatic civet, Maclaud's horseshoe bat, Rwenzori least otter shrew, owl-faced monkey, eastern needle-clawed galago, Thomas' tree squirrel and Alexander's bush squirrel.</span></p><p><span style=\"color: var(--main-text-color);\">Fifteen villages of shifting cultivators were located in the eastern sectors of the park when it was created and continue to be occupied. The park is situated in one of the most densely populated areas of the country.</span></p><p><span style=\"color: var(--main-text-color);\">Some 90% of the population of Kivu is rural, mainly dependent on agriculture. Seven separate tribal groups live around the park including the Pygmy, Barega and Bashi peoples. Traditional livelihoods are based on shifting agriculture and subsistence hunting.</span></p><h2><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">Landscape of Kahuzi Biega National Park</span></h2><p><span style=\"color: var(--main-text-color);\">The park consists of two sections; the lowland (closed for visits) and the highland (open for visits). The park is situated in the eastern part of the country, 50 kilometers west of the town of Bukavu, near Lake Kivu and the Rwandan border.</span></p><p><span style=\"color: var(--main-text-color);\">It consists of a smaller sector on the eastern side covering part of the Mitumba Mountains, and a larger western sector in the Zairean central basin. The two zones are connected by a narrow corridor. The entrance to the park is at Tshivanga, on the eastern side. The 75,000 ha eastern sector is entirely montane.</span></p><p><span style=\"color: var(--main-text-color);\">The massif is part of the Mitumba Mountains range, the western mountains of the Great Rift Valley. The two main peaks, Mount Kahuzi (3,308 meters) and Mount Biéga (2,790 meters) are extinct volcanoes, and the massif dates from the late Tertiary or early Quaternary.</span></p><p><span style=\"color: var(--main-text-color);\">The lowland sector in the Zairean central basin covers the watersheds of the tributaries of the Luka and Lugulu rivers. These both drain into the River Lualaba. The extension lies below 1,500m apart from isolated peaks such as Mount Kamani (1,700 meters), and consists of mountains cut by deep valleys.</span></p><p><span style=\"color: var(--main-text-color);\">Undulating terrain in the west forms a belt between the two zones. The western zone is forested by equatorial rainforest, with transition forest between 1,200 meters and 1,500 meters. In the eastern zone, six different primary vegetation types have been distinguished: mountain rainforest, high-altitude rainforest, swamp forest, bamboo forest, subalpine heather and swamp and peat bog.</span></p><h2><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">Flora and fauna</span></h2><p><span style=\"color: var(--main-text-color);\">The park is home to some of the last remaining populations of Eastern lowland gorillas in the wild. There were an estimated 600 living in the park in 1990, but there are only believed to be a couple hundred still alive after the tumultuous fighting of the 1990s and 2000s.</span></p><p><span style=\"color: var(--main-text-color);\">In comparison to the western lowland gorillas, with a population of over 100,000 in Congo Brazzavile, the total population of eastern lowland gorillas numbers at less than 4,000. They are also not to be confused with the mountain gorillas sought by tourists in&nbsp;</span><a href=\"http://localhost:8080/destinations/Rwanda\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color: var(--main-text-color);\">Rwanda</a><span style=\"color: var(--main-text-color);\">,&nbsp;</span><a href=\"http://localhost:8080/destinations/Uganda\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color: var(--main-text-color);\">Uganda</a><span style=\"color: var(--main-text-color);\">&nbsp;and Virunga National Park in&nbsp;</span><a href=\"http://localhost:8080/destinations/Democratic-Republic-of-Congo\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color: var(--main-text-color);\">Democratic Republic of Congo</a><span style=\"color: var(--main-text-color);\">.</span></p><p><span style=\"color: var(--main-text-color);\">The Eastern Lowland Gorilla is noteworthy for being larger than their western counterparts or mountain gorillas. They are the largest known primates, measuring in at 1.76 meters (5 ft 9 in) for males and 1.60 meters (5 ft 3 in) for females.</span></p><h2><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">Geting to Kahuzi Biega National Park</span></h2><p><span style=\"color: var(--main-text-color);\">The park is accessible by a decent road from Bukavu.</span></p><p><span style=\"color: var(--main-text-color);\">Taxis, buses, and car hires can be made to reach the park.</span></p><p><span style=\"color: var(--main-text-color);\">You need a letter of invitation to apply for your&nbsp;</span><a href=\"https://www.visahq.com/congo-democratic-republic/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color: var(--main-text-color);\">Democratic Republic of Congo visa.</a></p><p><span style=\"color: var(--main-text-color);\">Book your airline tickets to Kigali,&nbsp;</span><a href=\"http://localhost:8080/destinations/Rwanda\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color: var(--main-text-color);\">Rwanda</a><span style=\"color: var(--main-text-color);\">&nbsp;(KLM or similar) and to Kamembe-Cyangugu-Ruizi (Rwandair) in advance.</span></p><p><span style=\"color: var(--main-text-color);\">You need a copy of your paid airline e-ticket to apply for a Democratic Republic of Congo visa, which costs $115 for a single entry.</span></p><p><span style=\"color: var(--main-text-color);\">You may not need&nbsp;</span><a href=\"https://www.visitrwanda.com/facts/immigration-visas/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color: var(--main-text-color);\">a visa to visit Rwanda</a></p><p><span style=\"color: var(--main-text-color);\">Do not try to cross the Democratic Republic of Congo border without someone from Democratic Republic of Congo government, hopefully from the ICCN (Institut Conglais de Conservation de Nature) who run the Kahuzi Biega National Park (Parc National de Kahuzi-Biega). If they are with you, your crossing will be smooth and quick.</span></p><p><br></p>","Kahuzi Biega National Park operated by the Institut Congolais Pour La Conservation de la Nature (ICCN) is a World Heritage Site. Kahuzi Biega National Park is famous as the largest refuge of the highly endangered Eastern Lowland (Grauer's) Gorillas. The last census of the gorillas in 2013 counted only 145 individuals."}

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