The Part-Time Explorer

Like Kenya, Uganda is a popular spot for mission trips, and for first time travelers to Africa. It’s relatively safe, the Nile is pretty amazing, and there are some good parks throughout the country, and even gorillas in the southwest. They speak English, for the most part, and is somewhat easy to get around. The weather is good, and consistently good year-round.

So, as far as African countries go, it’s a good one to go to, but it won’t have the same wow factor that other African countries have. It’s not the best, but certainly isn’t the worst that sub-Saharan Africa has to offer.

If you decide to go, spend a day and night in Jinja, and then either go see the gorillas in the southwest (or go in Rwanda). I’ve heard the north is nice, and there are a lot of aid organizations there, but I never went that far.

Entebbe – (spend 0 time here, only a city to transit through)

There are some cool things to see here, but mostly for cultural differences more so than anything. Lake Victoria is neat, food here is okay, and the zoo is downright sad, but still interesting to see.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — The beach at Lake Victoria

wp_20140508_14_20_26_pro — The first time I ever felt like I saw a lion resembling Scar and not Mufasa

Jinja, Uganda (Spend a day here and do the source of the Nile, and then raft it)

If you go to Uganda, I highly recommend seeing the source of the Nile and then going white water rafting there. It’s a ton of fun, has some beautiful scenery, and is a well-run operation, especially by Africa’s standards.

Whitewater rafting the Nile by trying to go upstream apparently…

Kampala (spend 0 days here if possible)

Really, nothing exciting here. The pollution is awful, it is very crowded, and resembles literally every other African capital I have been to, but with more hills.

Aru (Skip if you can)

Aru is a border town with Congo and I traveled through it multiple times. It’s nothing much, but safe enough to go to if you have a hotel in advance. I used to commute through here if we weren’t able to fly from the mine.

Country level of difficulty – 6/10