I and my wife in 2024 we planned our visit to Uganda in April – May 2025. At first, we wanted to take an escorted tour, but we found this to be a bit expensive depending on our duration of travel. Our Uganda trip was about 3 weeks’ time and we could not affordable all the expenses if we could go on an escorted trip.
At first, we contacted Uganda tour for the safari and in the discussions with Moses and us informing him we couldn’t afford such trip and asking him an alternative to do such safari he advised us to do self-drive with the 4×4 rooftop tent car and straight away gave us a quote of the jeep with the rooftop tent and we found this so affordable. Few years back we had done road trip in Namibia and we found this so comfortable to us financially and to enjoy our leisure without hassle.
After agreeing on the discounted rate per day of $ 80 USD per day we started discussing the suitable Uganda route with Moses and sincerely speaking is much informed and he helped us to tailor-make the very interesting route from Eastern up to Western Uganda.
At first, we wanted to first explore Entebbe but with Moses advise we did this destination at the end and it was really interesting. Upon our arrival at Entebbe International Airport, representative from Green Valley Guest House picked us up and we took a 30 minutes’ drive to the guest house to retire after the long flight.
Next day in the morning after breakfast, the 4×4 rooftop tent jeep arrived to us and we were taken through the briefing process about the car, tent and camping items use, driving rules and regulations on the road, time to start and stop driving every day, responsibility to take while using the car and then notice of the access insurance for the car.
To travelers visiting Uganda always come with your personal insurance since the car rental agencies only insure the jeeps minus travelers in this car, come with home driving license and remember while driving in Africa/Uganda it is prohibited to drive after or while taking alcohol. You should also take in mind that the driving speed in Uganda is between 50Km/hr. in town and then 80Km/hr. highway.
Always while on your road trip, after like 3 days you are advised to check on the water of the radiator and the cooling reserve and for much more to know and to have a very interesting road trip follow the car rental agreement that will be shared to you in hard copy to keep while exploring Uganda.
After all this informative briefing from Moses he handled the key car to us and he said the car it is now owned by you for the entire 3 weeks, no one should ask you the key for this car and you give out, once you do it, it is your obligation to handle over the car to me on your last day of rental. He told us never to even never give a key to their company safari guide if found out in the field.
After all this we started our journey to Jinja and through Kampala traffic jam it took us like 03 hours’ drive to reach our first stop over ‘Nile River Explorers’ later in the evening we enjoyed the water sliding as we relax for the next day activities. Breakfast, after we took the white water rafting along the River Nile rapids and after this extreme adventure relax at the camp in our rooftop tent. Spend the early night on the set campfire.
Today, after breakfast we had to transfer to Sipi Falls and leisurely driving through the eastern landscapes we visited some of the local fruit markets and you can buy the fresh fruits like mangoes, paw paw, tomatoes among others. Upon our arrival at the Sipi falls beautiful landscapes we had to straight away to visit the falls and it is was awesome and then we took the camping ground with our rooftop tent at Moses’ Camp.
Early morning we took our own made breakfast and fruits bought along the way yesterday from Jinja to Sipi. With our local recommended guide, we took the Arabica coffee tour experience and this takes you from garden up to the cup for taste. After all this experience we continued with our route to Moroto, Kotido, Kidepo, Murchison, Kibale, Queen, Bwindi, Lake Bunyonyi, Lake Mburo and then lastly visiting the Mabamba wetland for the shoe bill search and after return back to Entebbe Airport for our return flight back home. I highly recommend this self-drive routing exploring Uganda and see more of culture, wildlife, birds and primates in the all the protected areas.