Minimizing travel costs to Uganda is a desire for anyone visiting to explore the Pearl of Africa. The best way for budget Uganda safaris is to seek advice and guidance from a local tour operator such as Africa Adventure Safaris. We help you package the best affordable tourism services and amenities to enjoy on your Uganda wildlife safari. The cost of Uganda tours involves air tickets, accommodation, meals, ground transportation and tourism destination and activity fees and these can all be tricked around to make a tailor-made safari to achieve your planned travel budget. When it comes to exploring and discovering breath-taking landscapes, unique wildlife species and authentic culture with on low-cost travel budget, Uganda is second to none. Uganda appeals and serves all sorts of visitors with different budget plans. The country has one of the cheapest economies where a descent meal goes for as low as US dollar 3$. Having 300$ turns you into a millionaire if you convert it into Uganda shillings. For those who wish to travel at a low cost, Uganda is the place to be and an absolute possibility.
The Tips to make a low-cost trip to Uganda a possibility are explained in-depth as below:
Travel in a low season
There are two prevailing travel seasons in the tourism world, the peak and low seasons. The peak season starts from June through October, December, January and February and the low season is the period between mid-March through May and November. In the low season, tours and travel services like accommodation, park activities, ground transport, air ticket fares and other amenities tend to reduce in price due to their low demand because of the low influx of visitors. Therefore, like a traveller who wishes to have a low-cost safari take advantage of that opportunity to travel in April, May and November (low season) to enjoy tourism services at a discounted price. Interestingly, most travel activities in Uganda including gorilla trekking, game viewing, mountain climbing, chimpanzee tracking and birding among others can be done all year round regardless of the season
Fly Light
Air ticket fare is one of the expenses that take a lion’s share of a visitor’s safari budget. A return Air ticket to Uganda from Europe, Asia and America averagely cost 600$ which is quite some big funds to part with. However, there are budget airlines that fly from the western world to Uganda, namely Turkish Airlines, SN Brussels, Rwanda Air, Kenya Airways and Ethiopian Airlines and Uganda Airlines. On a lucky day, you can find an air ticket to Uganda at only 500$ from the aforementioned airlines and hence reduce the cost of Uganda travel.
Book with a Local Tour Operator
Instead of booking your Uganda safaris with an international tour agent, look for a locally based tour operator. Booking directly with the local tour operator, you dodged the facilitation or middleman fees of the international tour agent. Furthermore, local tour operators have vast travel information about Uganda and can identify and advise you on the best affordable lodges to stay in and activities to do. The local tour operators also ask for lower commission or mark up rates than the international tour agents.
Stay in Budget Lodges
When we think about safari travel, the first thing that crosses our mind is staying in a five or world-class hotel. Narrow down the needs to a two or three-star safari lodge if the intentions are about travelling at a low-cost budget. Uganda’s national parks and other cities like Kampala, Entebbe and Jinja have numerous low-cost lodges with services and facilities needed for an epic and cosy holiday vacation. Don’t hesitate to inform the tour company to identify the ideal and affordable lodge to stay in around the various national parks to visit as per your itinerary.
Eat like a local
Most of the times accommodation facilities integrate the meals in their rates but there are meals taken on the road or while engaging in certain activities. For off lodge meals, you should ensure that you order local foods as they are cheaper than international cuisines. Other than being affordable, enjoying a local meal is one way of embracing the culture of Uganda as a destination. Ugandan food is tasty and organic!
Avoid travelling alone.
Travelling in a group or as a couple is less expensive since the costs are shared and discount incentives are likely. For instance, the cost of a double room per person is less than that of a single room. This also works with the ground transport expenses whereby two or more visitors normally pay the same rate for the 4×4 vehicle, driver and fuel as a solo traveller does. Remember those travelling in a group share the expenses among themselves and it becomes less costly for them compared to the solo traveller who has to meet all the expenses alone.
Go for less costly park activities
Uganda has ten national parks; they host a series of activities as a way of exploring their wildlife and terrains. Uganda Wildlife Authority has contrasting rates for the various park activities. For example, as per Uganda wildlife Authority tariff plan of June 2022-2024, a park entrance at Murchison Falls National Park is 45$ per person and an extra 20$ is charged for ranger-guided game drives or 10$ for self game drives whereas gorilla trekking fees in Bwindi impenetrable national park are 700$ per person. Therefore, we advise taking up a game viewing expedition at Murchison falls national park because it is cheaper than gorilla trekking in Bwindi. Other less costly tour activities to take around the various national parks are nature walks, boat rides, cultural tours and sport fishing.
Travel by a budget vehicle
Tour operators have a fleet of vehicles to offer to their visitors during their Uganda safari travel for example 4×4 safari 8-seater land cruiser, Toyota Land Cruiser Prado TX/TZ, Land Cruiser VX/GX/V8 and Safari Van. It is the visitors’ discretion to choose a vehicle to travel by. For 1-3 visitors are advised to choose a Toyota Land Cruiser Prado TX while travelling because it has a low rental price and its fuel consumption is relatively low compared to the grand safari Land Cruiser or Land Cruiser VX/V8.
Conclusively therefore, you can still travel and enjoy Uganda safaris on budget. Africa Adventure Safaris makes tailor-made Uganda tours suitable for your budget and time.