Uganda and Botswana offer very different safaris. Uganda is green, hilly and forested, and its highlights are on foot: mountain gorillas in Bwindi, chimpanzees in Kibale, plus savannah parks and boat trips on the Nile and Kazinga Channel. Botswana is flat and dry, with the water channels of the Okavango Delta and huge herds of elephants along the Chobe River, explored by vehicle, boat and mokoro canoe in small, expensive camps. Choose Uganda for great apes and variety at a moderate cost, Botswana for big game in remote wilderness.
Wildlife
Uganda’s unique draw is primates. It holds about half of the world’s mountain gorillas, chimpanzees in several forests, and many monkey species, along with over 1,000 bird species, including the shoebill. Its savannah parks, Queen Elizabeth, Murchison Falls and Kidepo, have elephants, buffalo, lions, giraffe and many antelope, but in smaller numbers than southern Africa’s best parks, and there is no wild rhino outside the Ziwa sanctuary. See our guide to Uganda’s birds.
Botswana has the largest elephant population in Africa, estimated at around 130,000, and large numbers of buffalo, lions, leopards and African wild dogs, one of the best places to see them. The Okavango Delta adds water-adapted species such as red lechwe and sitatunga, and the Kalahari has desert-adapted animals such as gemsbok and meerkats. There are no great apes.
Landscape and safari style
Uganda changes every few hours: rainforest, crater lakes, volcanoes, the snow-capped Rwenzori Mountains, the Nile and the Rift Valley savannah. Safaris are active, with a gorilla trek of one to six hours or more on steep slopes, chimp tracking on forest trails, and long road transfers between parks. Accommodation ranges from simple guesthouses to luxury forest lodges. See our gorilla trekking guide.
Botswana is flat and wide open: the papyrus channels and islands of the delta, the Chobe riverfront, the Makgadikgadi salt pans and the Kalahari. Game is viewed from open vehicles, motorboats and mokoros, and many camps run walking safaris. Most visitors fly between camps in light aircraft rather than driving, and the government deliberately limits visitor numbers through a high-value, low-volume policy.
Cost
Botswana is one of Africa’s most expensive safari destinations: delta camps in the high season often cost well over US$1,000 per person per night, plus light aircraft flights. Uganda covers a wider range. Mid-range lodges are far cheaper than in Botswana, and the main extra costs are permits: the gorilla permit costs US$800, or US$600 in April, May and November, and the Kibale chimp permit US$250, rising to US$300 from 1 January 2027. See our gorilla permit guide.
When to go
Uganda is best in the drier months of June to September and December to February, though gorilla trekking runs all year. Botswana’s peak season is the dry winter from about May to October, when animals gather at water and the Okavango floodwaters, which arrive months after the Angolan rains, are at their highest. The green season from November to March brings lower prices, newborn animals and migrant birds, but some delta camps close and roads in the Kalahari can be difficult.
Combining the two
There are no direct flights between Entebbe and Maun, the delta’s gateway, so most travellers connect through Johannesburg or Nairobi. Both trips work well together: a week in Uganda for primates and a week in Botswana for big game makes a very complete African trip, ideally in July to September when both are in their dry season. Compare also our Uganda vs Rwanda comparison.
Frequently asked questions
Botswana for classic big-game safari; Uganda if gorillas and chimps are your priority.
Generally yes, though gorilla permits add a significant cost.
No. Mountain gorillas live only in Uganda, Rwanda and Congo.
Yes, by connecting through Johannesburg or Nairobi; July to September suits both.
The Uganda versus Botswana comparison ultimately rests on what a traveller considers the core purpose of a wildlife trip. Botswana’s Okavango Delta and Chobe deliver the savannah megafauna experience in extraordinary settings, with high-end mobile camps and boat-based game viewing that define the top end of the African safari market. Uganda offers something structurally different: wildlife encounters that require physical participation, ecosystems that reward curiosity rather than passive observation, and a conservation story — the mountain gorilla’s recovery — that gives the experience a narrative context the established savannah destinations rarely provide. The traveller who has done Botswana and is asking what is different about Uganda will find an answer in the first morning’s gorilla trek.
