Updated 15 October 2026

Mgahinga Gorilla National Park, in Uganda’s far south-west on the slopes of the Virunga volcanoes, is the only place in Uganda where you can track both mountain gorillas and golden monkeys from the same park office. A 3-day trip gives one day for each, with a night or two near Kisoro, which has an airstrip with flights from Entebbe. Mgahinga has just one habituated gorilla family, Nyakagezi, so only eight gorilla permits are sold per day and must be booked early. Here is a practical plan.

Day 1: To Kisoro and Mgahinga

Fly from Entebbe to Kisoro in the morning, or drive from Kampala, about 9–10 hours via Mbarara and Kabale, or from Kigali in Rwanda, about 3–4 hours via the Cyanika border. Lodges lie near the park gate at Ntebeko, in Kisoro town or on Lake Mutanda, with views of the volcanoes Muhabura, Gahinga and Sabinyo. If time allows, take a short walk in the afternoon. See our guide to Mgahinga Gorilla National Park.

Day 2: Gorilla trekking

Report to the Ntebeko park office for the 8:00 am briefing, then trek through farmland edges and bamboo to find the Nyakagezi family. Treks often climb steadily at around 2,500 metres, and the family’s location determines how long it takes. You spend one hour with the gorillas. The permit costs US$800, or US$600 in April, May and November. In the afternoon, a Batwa Trail walk with Batwa guides shows how their ancestors lived in the forest. See our guide to the Batwa Trail.

Day 3: Golden monkeys and departure

Golden monkeys, an Albertine Rift endemic with orange-gold backs, live in the bamboo zone and are usually found after one to three hours of walking, followed by an hour with the troop. They move fast through the bamboo, so they are lively to watch and to photograph. Tracking costs about US$60 plus park entry; a longer habituation experience is also offered. After lunch, fly from Kisoro or start the drive back. See our guide to golden monkey tracking.

Planning tips

Because Mgahinga has only eight gorilla permits a day, consider booking a permit in nearby Rushaga or Nkuringo in Bwindi as a fallback; both are 1–2 hours from Kisoro. Bring warm layers and rain gear, as mornings on the volcanoes are cold. With an extra day, climb Mount Gahinga or Sabinyo, or rest on Lake Mutanda. See our Lake Mutanda guide.

Frequently asked questions

The Mgahinga Combo Day’s Logistics

A single day that combines golden monkey tracking in the morning with gorilla trekking in the afternoon at Mgahinga is operationally feasible but requires a specific alignment of morning track start time, monkey community location, and gorilla family position that is not guaranteed on any given day. The golden monkey tracking departs at 8am from Ntebeko gate and typically lasts 2 to 3 hours depending on the community’s position. If the track finishes by 11am, a 2-hour break before the afternoon gorilla briefing (typically at 2pm) is manageable at the lodge. If the monkey track runs to 11:30am or noon — not unusual when the community is in its more remote bamboo range — the afternoon gorilla briefing window becomes tight.

Visitors who want to maximise the probability of a successful combined day should book through an operator who has recent on-the-ground information about both communities’ current ranging patterns and can advise on whether the combined day is operationally realistic for the specific dates being considered. The alternative — allocating separate days to the two primate experiences — eliminates the timing risk and allows full attention to each encounter. Mgahinga’s single Nyakagezi gorilla family means that a visitor who misses the gorilla trekking slot due to morning overrun cannot simply rebook to a different family on the same or next day, making the combined day’s logistics more consequential than at a multi-family sector like Buhoma or Rushaga.

The accommodation logistics for the Mgahinga combo day require a property that is genuinely close to the Ntebeko gate — within 20 minutes’ drive — to make the two separate briefing times manageable without excessive early rising. The guesthouses and lodges in Kisoro town (35-45 minutes from the gate) are the most commonly booked base for Mgahinga visits, but the properties closer to the gate near Garama community provide a tighter logistical fit for visitors doing the full combo day. A pre-trip conversation with the operator about the specific accommodation’s distance from both the golden monkey and gorilla briefing points prevents the timing squeeze that several reviewers describe as the only weakness of their otherwise successful combined Mgahinga day.