Perfect service, very attentive and friendly with very comfortable 4×4 car rental vehicle. I had a Land Cruiser Prado which did a great job going around Rwanda and Uganda on my own. I had a great time and can highly recommend 4×4 Car Hire Uganda. Thanks to Moses and Mike especially for the good advises to our route that we took from Rwanda’s parks to Uganda’s most loved Kidepo in the North-eastern Uganda.

Rwanda is hidden gem of wildlife with the way it has positioned itself as one of the most exciting tourism destinations in Africa is seriously admirable. Most people will go to Rwanda for the gorillas, but everyone should stay for the prolific wildlife, world-class birding and its cool, arty capital, Kigali, which is deserving of at least a couple of nights. It’s a tiny country, so it’s easy to drive everywhere.

With its many families of habituated mountain gorillas, Volcanoes National Park in the northwest of the country is unquestionably the most famous (and popular) of Rwanda’s protected areas. Rwanda’s biggest draw is the opportunity to track mountain gorillas in Volcanoes National Park. It is one of only three countries where these gentle giants live (the others are Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo). Rwanda is perhaps the most famous gorilla country as it was here that Dian Fossey first habituated these great apes.

Sadly, most visitors to Rwanda simply come to spend time with its world-renowned mountain gorillas and then leave without sampling any of the country’s other safari offerings. While gorilla trekking is definitely Rwanda’s top safari attraction, Akagera and Nyungwe national parks are great additions to your Rwandan safari experience

Akagera was ransacked during the civil war, but this beautiful park with its lakes, papyrus swamps, hills and Savannah is now a Big Five safari destination. I’ve been twice so far and seen lions, elephants, rhinos, buffaloes, hyenas, hippos and even a leopard (in the northern Magashi concession). The birding is excellent, too there are nearly 500 birds in the park.

Nyungwe Forest is another great birding destination. Proclaimed in 2004, Nyungwe Forest is a relatively new national park. The 1020km² protected area comprises dense and largely untouched tropical montane rain forest, prolific mountain streams, cascading waterfalls, over 130km of forest hiking trails, spectacular bird watching and exciting primate-spotting excursions. The bio diverse forest is also home to 13 primate species, including chimpanzee and Rwenzori colobus both of which can be tracked on foot as part of a guided safari trek. On occasion, colobus monkey aggregations have been known to number several hundred animals in a single troop: quite a sight to behold.

But, for most visitors, it is Nyungwe’s chimpanzees that are the star attraction and most sought-after safari experience. Setting out early in the morning, chimps are tracked in groups of no more than eight tourists and, when located, you will have just one hour in their company. Sightings typically aren’t as consistent or as clear as the gorillas, since the chimps tend to reside in dense forest, but provided you manage to locate them their entertaining playfulness makes the long forest trek all the more worthwhile.

While Rwanda’s chimps are not as habituated or readily seen as those in more popular chimp trekking destinations (such as Kibale in Uganda), the Nyungwe experience is much more enjoyable. You have to work for your chimp sightings, but you get a real sense of privilege and true wilderness adventure. It is hard not to feel a connection with the towering forest of ebonies and mahoganies, as you search for our closest relatives with only a handful of like-minded intrepid safari aficionados for company.

Even if you aren’t lucky enough to enjoy a quality chimpanzee sighting, the forest’s 310 brightly coloured bird species (including 27 Albertine Rift endemics) are constantly flitting around, butterflies are everywhere, and orchids abound. But to get a real sense of the scale of Nyungwe Forest, try out East Africa’s highest canopy walkway with its gravity-defying bridge suspended 70m above the forest canopy. It’s not for the faint of heart (especially not for anyone with a fear of heights), but for those brave souls that scale it the views of Nyungwe sprawling out below you are unforgettable.

Later, we had to return to Kigali and meet with my other family members that were joining us after we had enjoyed Rwanda for the first  10 days. They arrived in the night and we picked them and we had our night at Discover Youth Hostel and then in the morning we took them around the Kigali city tour visiting to the Kigali Genocide Memorials and other historical places. After this experience we had to go to Haven Restaurant for our lunch and after we drove down to Uganda via Katuna border to Kabale and we had our first night in Uganda at the shores of Lake Bunyonyi.

While planning our self-drive holiday we had so many discussions with Mike and he advised us not miss the gorilla trek experience in Uganda, and with him we managed to secure our 04 gorilla permits for the Rushaga sector and still here we stayed at the sister lodge the Rushaga Gorilla Camp with Bunyonyi Overland.

Road tripping across Uganda was not our option but after reading the interesting reviews of 4×4 Car Hire Uganda and Mike’s experience in this service we ended up going to Rwanda and Uganda on self-drive for about 28 days rental and we were so lucky seeing all the African big5 and experiencing the culture in both countries.

For Rwanda the Intore dance was the best culture highlight as in Uganda the Karamoja region did it wonderful and from this region you experience it as you would be with the Maasai warriors of Kenya and Tanzania. Karamoja has got the Nakapelimuro village which is among the biggest East African historical and unique villages. The time you spend here is worthy to tell that you had a nice and unique cultural tour in Uganda.

To make it short when you take this route you will feel the value for your visit to some of the best places in the region like the Kidepo Valley National Park and the jeep from this local Uganda car rental agency is well maintained and can take you anywhere you would like to visit. More other highlights that we made include the visit to the other villages like in Moroto, where you typically feel the real life of the Africans and enjoying their local meals like beans mixed up with chicken and rice, visit to the Pian Up Game Reserve and it has much more wildlife and interesting landscapes to explore, go to the Sipi falls and here don’t miss the village combined with the coffee tour and here you get involved in the experience of harvesting coffee, roast it and enjoy it in your cup and you will have the best taste for the Uganda coffee.

Drive to Jinja and here you can stay as many days as you want and you can do a lot of activities you want from Bungee Jumping, Water Rafting, Water sliding, boat rides along the River Nile, Tubing, quad biking and visit to various falls in the region like Busowoko, Kalagala, Itanda and the Source of the Nile.