Communities around Bwindi National Park 2024 – 2025.

Communities in the vicinity of Bwindi National Park in 2024–2025: Different communities, such as the Bakiga and Batwa people, live in the surrounding areas of Bwindi National Park.

Through the money generated by the activity, community tours help the residents of Bwindi National Park’s surrounding settlements. This activity can be done before or after the gorilla hike around Bwindi National Park, and reservations are not necessary.

Additionally, visitors can purchase various mementos from the craft stores run by the local Bwindi National Park villages. These stores sell a variety of arts and crafts, such as jewelry, paintings, sculptures, and apparel made from local resources. You can purchase these goods at reasonable costs to help the community.

Communities in the vicinity of Bwindi National Park 2024–2025: Batwa community tour

It is commonly known that the Batwa people were the first people to live in the Bwindi forest. They are also renowned for their distinct culture and way of life, which may be encountered during community visits that take place around the national park.

The traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyle of the Batwa pygmies is how they obtain their sustenance. Additionally, they rely on the forests for medicines and other medicinal herbs, which tourists can experience when they go on community excursions with the Batwa.

When visitors visit the Batwa, they also participate in traditional dance performances with the inhabitants, which include dancing and chanting indigenous Twa songs as a way of welcoming them to the village.

Additionally, the Batwa serves as a guide for visitors taking the Batwa route, which entails strolling through the Bwindi forest. Along with getting closer to nature and seeing various monkeys and bird species while taking a guided tour of the forest, it also allows visitors to experience the way of life that the Batwa people lead while they are there.

While visiting the Batwa community, visitors also take in other demonstrations, such as the Batwa people’s custom of making fire with sticks. During their tour of Bwindi National Park, visitors can actively engage and take turns building the fire with the assistance of the Batwa people.

During the community visits in Bwindi National Park, the Batwa can also instruct visitors on how they gather honey.

The Batwa can also be seen during tours of Mgahinga National Park and Lake Bunyonyi, in addition to Bwindi National Park.

The Batwa trip in Bwindi National Park costs between $30 and $40 USD per person and may be taken in Rushaga, Buhoma, Ruhija, and Nkuringo sectors, among other areas of the park.

Communities in the vicinity of Bwindi National Park 2024–2025: Bakiga community visit

Among the tribes residing in the surrounding regions of Bwindi National Park are the Bakiga, who have a distinctive culture that visitors can experience when they visit their villages.

There are several things to do when you visit the Bakiga people on tours in Bwindi National Park, such as sampling the coffee that the natives grow on the park’s perimeter. Arabica and Robusta coffee are among the varieties of coffee that are farmed.

Tourists who participate in coffee tours in the Bwindi National Park area get to see the farms, learn how to harvest coffee by hand, see how it is pounded and ground by hand, and sample the locally produced coffee that is packaged and sold for a reasonable price.

Around the terraced hills of Bwindi National Park, tourists can also visit the Bakiga people’s farms, where various products, such as bananas, are farmed.

Communities in the 2024–2025 vicinity of Bwindi National Park

The Bakiga community tour experience in Bwindi National Park includes storytelling as well, which allows visitors to learn more about the Bakiga people’s customs and culture.

During tours of Bwindi National Park, the Bakiga community tour lasts roughly two to three hours and costs about forty dollars per person. It may be taken by individuals or in groups.

Other community activities that take place in the vicinity of Bwindi National Park include the Buniga woodland walk, the Buhoma community tour, and the Nkuringo community tour.

In addition to community tours with the Bakiga and Batwa people, Bwindi National Park offers a variety of other activities, such as butterfly tours, bird watching, hiking, guided nature walks, and gorilla trekking tours around the Rushaga, Ruhija, Nkuringo, and Buhoma sectors.

Tourists can stay at the affordable, midrange, and luxury lodges located throughout Bwindi National Park after finishing these activities.

How to travel to National Park Bwindi

During trips in Uganda, visitors can go by air or by car to the southwestern region of Bwindi National Park.

Several airports are available for use during flights to Bwindi National Park, including Nkuringo Airport and Kisoro Airport, which are utilized for gorilla tours in Rushaga. Tours surrounding the Buhoma and Ruhija sectors use the Kihihi airstrip, another airport in the national park.

Additionally, visitors can drive to Bwindi National Park via a variety of roads, including the 8–9-hour Kampala–Mbarara–Kabale route. Via the Gatuna or Cyanika borders, Bwindi National Park is also reachable from Rwanda.