Uganda Self Drive: Our Route, Costs and Practical Tips

Uganda was one of those countries that surprised us in a really positive way straight away. We entered from Rwanda and immediately had a good feeling about it. The country felt green, lively and friendly. And although the border crossing was a bit chaotic at first, everything worked out fine in the end, without any hassle. Travelling through Uganda by 4×4 turned out to be surprisingly relaxed.
In this article, we share how we experienced Uganda while travelling with our own 4×4. So not a standard travel guide, but our own story about the route we drove, how safe it felt to us, where we slept, what the roads were like, roughly what we spent and what we would do differently next time.

Uganda at a glance

• First impression: warm, friendly and surprisingly relaxed
• Safety: we never felt unsafe during our trip
• Visa: we travelled with the East African Tourist Visa
• Vehicle import: with a Carnet de Passage, this was easy for us
• Roads: generally good to very good along our route
• Wild camping: not a great option for us because of how busy it was
• SIM card: MTN worked well, but we found it relatively expensive
• Cash withdrawals: no problems along our route
• Fuel: easy to find
• Best time to travel: the dry season; we were there in February and found it very manageable
• Average cost: around €74 per day, including campsites, fuel and our fixed costs

Our route through Uganda

We entered Uganda from Rwanda at Kisoro. From there, we headed towards Bwindi National Park and then continued to Queen Elizabeth National Park.
After that, we drove via Mbarara to Jinja, where we visited the Source of the Nile. From Jinja, we continued towards Sipi Falls. From there, we drove via Suam to the border with Kenya.
Our route looked roughly like this:
Rwanda → Kisoro → Bwindi → Queen Elizabeth NP → Mbarara → Jinja → Sipi Falls → Suam → Kenya
We spent around three and a half weeks in Uganda in total. For the route we wanted to drive, that felt like a good amount of time.
If we had stayed longer, we definitely would have gone north as well. We skipped that this time, mainly because several national parks there were above our budget at that point.
For a route like ours, we would allow around three to four weeks. If you want to explore Uganda more extensively and include the north as well, we would personally plan at least six weeks.

Driving yourself in Uganda

We found self-driving in Uganda surprisingly relaxed. Outside the bigger cities, we really enjoyed driving around.
In the cities, it was immediately a lot busier. Especially the many boda bodas and large buses require some extra attention. We therefore drove defensively and preferred to take a bit more time in busy traffic.
Still, we found Uganda a pleasant country to travel around independently. For people who want to drive through East Africa themselves for the first time, Uganda is definitely a country we would consider.

Do you need a 4×4 in Uganda?

Not always for the main roads on our route. A lot of roads were surprisingly good.
Still, we would always choose a 4×4 ourselves. Especially if you want to drive smaller roads, visit national parks or head off the main route now and then, a 4×4 simply gives you more freedom.
Around Bwindi and Queen Elizabeth, we also liked having a bit more ground clearance and grip.
If you only plan to drive the larger main roads, a 4×4 is not necessary everywhere. But for the kind of travelling we do, we would absolutely bring one again.

Safety while driving

We never felt unsafe during our trip through Uganda. To us, the country felt calm and pleasant to travel through.
Of course, every trip is different and circumstances can change. Our experience is therefore mainly a personal impression, not a general safety assessment of the country.
One thing remains important to us: we prefer not to drive in Africa after dark.
We basically never drive in the evening, and we did not do so in Uganda either. People regularly drive without lights, and you never know what you might come across on the road. So our rule stays simple: when it gets dark, we stop.

Police, roadblocks and navigation

We came across roadblocks fairly regularly, but we were rarely actually stopped.
Once, we had to show our driving licence. Everything was relaxed and without any problems.
Our main tip is simple: stay calm, be friendly and just act normal. We did not have any unpleasant experiences during our trip.
For navigation, we mainly used Google Maps. It worked really well along our route through Uganda.
We also had Tracks4Africa as extra support, but here we found it less useful and functional than Google Maps.

Rwanda–Uganda and Uganda–Kenya border crossings

The border crossing from Rwanda into Uganda at Kisoro was a bit chaotic for us. In the end, though, everything went fine.
What we especially liked was that we could cross the border without hassle and without corruption.
We found the border crossing from Uganda into Kenya at Suam a little more difficult. Finding the right place in particular took some time.
One important tip: do not blindly trust Google Maps at Suam. For us, the location it showed was not completely correct.
On the Ugandan side, we first went to immigration and then to customs. With our Carnet de Passage, that was fairly straightforward for us.
On the Kenyan side, we first had to go through a health check, then immigration and finally customs.
There, we paid around $40 for something that felt to us like a local vehicle registration or road levy. It was not complicated, but it is a process where you should simply take your time.

Staying overnight in Uganda

In Uganda, we mainly stayed at campsites.
Wild camping felt less straightforward here than we had expected beforehand. In many places, there were simply lots of people along the road. Because of that, we preferred a campsite where we could park up quietly.

Kasenyi Lake Resort

Kasenyi Lake Resort, just outside Queen Elizabeth National Park, stood out to us mainly because of its location.
The campsite is beautifully located on Lake George, and hippos came close to our tent every day.
The sanitary facilities were definitely nothing special, but the location made up for everything. For us, this was one of those places where the surroundings mattered more than luxury.
With a 4×4, we found it easy enough to reach.

The Haven

The Haven on the Nile was a very different kind of campsite for us.
We found it one of the best-organised campsites we visited in Africa, and without doubt one of the most beautiful campsites of our trip through East Africa.
Both campsites cost us around $10 per person per night. Prices can of course change, so see this mainly as what we paid at the time.

Food and groceries in Uganda

If we could give one golden tip for Uganda, it would be this: eat local.
Eating local is how you get a taste of the country and how you very easily get talking to people.
Our lunch was almost always a rolex, Uganda’s well-known street food: a kind of rolled omelette in a chapati.
We paid around 50 cents for one.
Not only tasty and easy, but often cheaper than cooking for ourselves too.
A simple local meal usually cost us around €1.50 to €2.
We also bought delicious fruit and a lot of our vegetables at local markets. We often found that tastier, cheaper and more practical than looking for larger supermarkets.
For groceries, we noticed that there were not large supermarkets everywhere along the way. Small shops, on the other hand, were easy to find. The iOverlander app regularly helped us with that.
Cooking for ourselves was perfectly doable, although we sometimes found meat a little harder to get.
What stood out most was that some basic products were relatively expensive. We paid almost €3 for a litre of milk, and yoghurt was pretty pricey too.

Internet and SIM cards in Uganda

Internet was readily available for us.
We bought an MTN SIM card and it worked well. We did find the cost relatively high, though.
For two SIM cards with a combined 30 GB of data, we paid around €65.
That was during our travel period, of course; prices and data bundles may have changed by now.

Withdrawing cash and paying

Withdrawing cash was no problem for us along our route.
Our Revolut card worked well and we could withdraw money in many places.
Paying by card also worked fine at larger petrol stations.
At bigger petrol stations such as Total and Rubis, we could simply pay with our card.

Fuel

Fuel was easy to find along our route. We never really had to plan far ahead for it.
At larger petrol stations, we could pay by card too.
During our trip, we paid around €1.10 per litre. Fuel prices constantly change, of course, so this is mainly an indication of what we paid at the time.

The best time to travel through Uganda

We were in Uganda in February and had a great time there.
If we go back, we would personally choose the dry season.
Our trip was beautiful, but we noticed that in a wetter period you can sometimes be a bit more limited. Especially if you want to drive smaller roads and 4×4 routes, the dry season seems more pleasant to us.
That does not mean you should skip Uganda during the rainy season. The landscape can be beautifully green then. For us, the choice mainly depends on the kind of trip you want to make.

How much does it cost to travel through Uganda by 4×4?

During our trip, we spent an average of around €74 per day.
That included our campsites, fuel and fixed costs.
Our situation is important here: we travel with our own Toyota Land Cruiser 79 Series and camp in our own camper. Our costs are therefore not directly comparable to a holiday where you book hotels, a rental car and organised excursions.
These are some of the costs we came across during our trip:

Our highlights in Uganda

When we think back to Uganda, Sipi Falls, Queen Elizabeth National Park and the Source of the Nile stand out most.

Sipi Falls

We found Sipi Falls really special.
We walked there for around five to six hours and enjoyed the beautiful surroundings. The combination of waterfalls, hills and local villages made this one of the most beautiful places in Uganda for us.

Queen Elizabeth National Park

We did not visit Queen Elizabeth National Park as a classic safari.
We did drive through the area on the main road and saw several elephants along the way.
That was exactly what we liked about it: without an expensive organised safari, we could still get a little taste of the atmosphere of a national park.

Source of the Nile

We found the Source of the Nile in Jinja special mainly because of the idea behind it.
You are standing at the beginning of a river whose water eventually flows all the way to the Mediterranean Sea.
We found that surprisingly impressive.

Chimpanzee trekking

We did not do a gorilla trek ourselves. At that point, it simply did not fit our budget.
A chimpanzee trek was something we could afford.
We did this near Masindi and paid around $50 per person at the time. For us, that was a much more affordable way to see chimpanzees than some of the other options we came across during our trip.

What disappointed us about Uganda?

Honestly, we had very few real disappointments.
If we had to mention anything, it would mainly be the sometimes slightly messy border crossings, the crowds around bigger places and the fact that wild camping felt less straightforward than we had expected.
In many places, there were simply a lot of people along the road. Because of that, a campsite often felt more comfortable to us.
We may also have expected Bwindi National Park to feel a bit more impressive. That does not mean we had a bad experience there, but for us it was less impressive than some of the other places we visited during the trip.
Uganda did not really disappoint us anywhere.

Who is Uganda suitable for?

In our opinion, Uganda is suitable for overlanders, but also for people who want to drive around independently in a rental car.
The country has a lot to offer, the people are friendly and it is perfectly possible to travel around on your own.
Especially if you want to drive through East Africa yourself for the first time, we would seriously consider Uganda.
As long as you drive defensively and take the crowds in bigger cities into account, we found it a really nice country to explore independently.

What would we do differently next time?

If we return to Uganda, we would stay longer.
At least six weeks sounds ideal to us, so we can include the north of the country too.
We would also like to go back during the dry season. Then we would want to drive more smaller roads and 4×4 routes.
Kidepo National Park in the north is still high on our list, for example. It is one of those places we would really love to visit on a future trip.

Our honest conclusion

Would we go back to Uganda? Yes, absolutely.
Uganda really surprised us in a positive way.
The country is beautiful, the people are friendly, the roads were better than we expected beforehand and we felt welcome everywhere during our trip.
For us, Uganda is mainly a country where you can travel around very well on your own. You do not need to book an organised excursion every day to have a good experience.
If we go back again, we will probably choose the dry season once more and allow at least six weeks.
There is still plenty left for us to discover.

Our personal tips for Uganda

• Take your time at border crossings.
• Do not blindly trust Google Maps at the Suam border.
• Eat local and have a chat with people along the way.
• Buy fruit at local markets.
• Prefer a 4×4 if you want to visit smaller roads and national parks.
• Travel during the dry season if you want to drive more 4×4 routes.
• Choose campsites if wild camping in busier areas does not feel comfortable to you.
• If you want to see chimpanzees, also look into the options around Masindi.
• Keep in mind that prices for campsites, fuel, data and excursions can change.

Frequently asked questions about travelling through Uganda

Is Uganda safe to drive in yourself?

Based on our own experience: yes. We never felt unsafe during our trip. We do recommend driving defensively and being extra alert in bigger cities because of the crowds, boda bodas and large buses.

Can you travel through Uganda in a camper?

Yes. We travelled through Uganda ourselves with our Toyota Land Cruiser 79 Series and our own camper. We found the country easy to travel through independently. For smaller roads and some areas around national parks, we would choose a 4×4.

Do you need a 4×4 in Uganda?

Not always for the main roads. We would personally choose a 4×4 if you want more freedom, want to drive smaller roads or plan to visit national parks and more remote areas.

How much does travelling through Uganda cost?

During our trip, we spent around €74 per day, including campsites, fuel and fixed costs. Because we travel with our own vehicle and camper, this is not directly comparable to a trip where you rent a car and stay in hotels.

What is the best time to travel to Uganda?

We were in Uganda in February and found it very manageable. If we went again, we would choose the dry season, mainly because we would want to drive more smaller roads and 4×4 routes.

Can you wild camp in Uganda?

We mainly stayed at campsites. Wild camping felt less comfortable to us in many places, mainly because there were relatively many people along the roads. That is why we usually chose a campsite.

Further reading

Want to know more about our trip through East Africa? Also have a look at:

• Our Uganda overlanding adventures
• Our Rwanda overlanding adventures
• Overlanding in Kenya