With the greatest populations of mountain gorillas in the world found in Uganda, Rwanda, and Congo, these nations are well-liked by ecotourists hoping to see this threatened species. Thousands of tourists travel to Rwanda and Uganda each year to go on gorilla trekking excursions.

In addition to offering a close-up view of these amazing animals, these excursions contribute to the funding of mountain gorilla conservation. Every visitor needs a permission in order to see the mountain gorillas.

Permits are acquired from the RDB in Rwanda and the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) in Uganda by tour operators or safari companies. A gorilla permit costs $1500 in Rwanda and $800 in Uganda.

A Gorilla Permit: What Is It?

A gorilla permit is a document that grants permission to visit mountain gorillas in Rwanda or Uganda. You can spend an hour with one family of mountain gorillas with this permit, which is paid for per person.Gorilla permit fees are crucial because they restrict the amount of visitors that can enter the parks and support gorilla conservation initiatives. The cost is the same for an hour, regardless of how long you take to see the gorillas.

Permits for Gorilla Habituation

Acclimating wild gorillas to human presence is known as “gorilla habituation.” This is crucial for gorilla tourism because it enables visitors to engage with these incredible creatures in a safe manner. Because gorilla habituation licenses let visitors spend four hours with the gorillas instead of just one, they are more costly than standard gorilla permits.

You can contribute to the additional time required to gradually acclimate the gorillas to human presence. This procedure aims to guarantee that gorilla tourism has as little of an impact as possible on gorilla populations while also ensuring the safety of both people and gorillas. In Uganda, gorilla habituation licenses, which guarantee four hours with the gorillas, cost $1500.

What is the price of a gorilla permit in Uganda?
The price of gorilla safaris

The cost of a gorilla permit is $800 per person for a one-hour trek with the primates.
Per excursion, a gorilla habitat permit costs $1500 (four hours with the gorillas).
Although different tour providers have different prices, a three-day excursion to visit the gorillas starts at $1300 per person, which includes transportation, lodging, and meals. Mount Mgahinga Gorilla National Park or Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park are your options.

Rwanda Gorilla Permit Cost
Go to Rwanda

In Rwanda, each gorilla permit costs $1500. For those who want to experience a luxurious gorilla trek in Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda offers choices for both luxury trekking and upscale lodging. Select either Bisate Lodge or Kwitonda Lodge when you visit Rwanda’s gorillas.

Permit for Congo Gorillas
Trekking with the Congo Gorillas

Congo is the least expensive place to undertake gorilla tracking because each person must pay $400 for a gorilla trip permit. You will get the opportunity to travel to Congo’s Virunga National Park.

How to Get a Permit for Gorillas
Uganda’s Gorilla Pass

Gorilla permits are issued by the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), a government organization in Uganda. The UWA is in charge of the nation’s tourism and wildlife preservation. Although UWA permits can be bought directly, using a trustworthy tour operator is the most practical option.

Purchasing a permit to view the endangered mountain gorillas is typically included in the cost of a Uganda gorilla safari. Make reservations at least six months in advance to ensure availability. You can obtain a permit in Rwanda from any Rwanda safari business or the Rwanda Development Board.

How Can My Gorilla Permit Be Cancelled? Any reimbursements
Rwandan silverback gorillas

Please be aware that the government, not the tour operator or safari business, is responsible for refunding any cancellations. The gorilla permit payments are paid to the appropriate governments.
Only after the government reimburses the tour operator may a travel agent issue a refund. Therefore, before scheduling your journey date, it’s crucial to confirm your travel dates, airlines, etc.
The following is the refund policy.
1. You will not be eligible for any compensation if you cancel and only paid a deposit.
2. You can get a refund of up to 75% if you cancel three months prior to your trekking date.
3. You will receive a 50% refund if you decide to cancel one and a half months before to your expedition.
4. Only a 25% refund will be given a month in advance.
5. You won’t get a refund if you cancel within a week or less before.

What is covered by a gorilla permit?
Africa’s Gorilla Tours

The entire walk with armed guides—from the moment you enter the forest, until you meet the gorillas, and back to the starting point—is covered by a permit. Water, meals, lodging, transportation, porters, and other expenses are not covered.
When traveling to Uganda or Rwanda for a gorilla safari, it’s crucial to ask your tour operator if you will need a porter, trekking pole, rain gear, or other items to carry.

How to hike the mountain gorillas on a tight budget, which businesses in Rwanda and Uganda provide inexpensive and low-cost gorilla safari trips, how to save money on your Uganda safari, and where to find less expensive lodging near the animals. View all of Uganda’s low-cost safaris.

Please be aware that as of 2024, Rwanda and Uganda will no longer offer cheap gorilla permits. Rwandan gorilla permits cost $1500, whereas Ugandan gorilla permits cost $800.

A list of safari businesses that provide affordable gorilla tours has been collected by us.

Presently, 152 gorilla permits are sold daily by the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), the government agency in charge of tourism in Uganda, to visit 19 habituated gorilla groups dispersed throughout 4 sectors of Bwindi National Park.

How Many Permits Are Issued for Gorillas Each Day?
infant gorilla

Additionally, eight gorilla habituation licenses are offered daily in Bwindi Forest, which is situated in two habituation gorilla groups to the south of the forest. There is only one gorilla population in Mgahinga National Park, and they grant eight permits every day.

The dry season, which spans the months of December to February and June to October, has the highest demand for gorilla trekking permits. The other months are less competitive but still completely booked. To guarantee your seat and be prepared for your Uganda gorilla safari, it is crucial to reserve your gorilla permit at least ten months in advance.

The UWA offices in Kampala issue all gorilla tour permits, allowing visitors to trek and witness gorillas in their natural environment. It is not possible to obtain trekking permits from the forest headquarters; they can only be issued at the UWA headquarters in Kampala.

To ensure that visitors do not pass up the once-in-a-lifetime chance to follow mountain gorillas, UWA then implemented subsidized gorilla permits for the low seasons (April, May, and November) in 2011. Since UWA started offering these cheap permits, an increasing number of visitors have expressed interest in monitoring gorillas and engaging in other low-season activities like mountain hiking, Batwa cultural route, and golden monkey tracking. The cheap permits were later discontinued by UWA.

The current cost of 2025 and 2026 gorilla permits in Uganda
All Ugandan gorilla permits in Bwindi and Mgahinga national parks must be purchased for $800 each as of July 1, 2024, with no discounts for the off-season.

The cheapest gorilla permit is still available in Uganda today, and there’s a high chance of seeing mountain gorillas in the wild. Uganda has seen a surge in travelers seeking to see gorillas since Rwanda raised the cost of Rwanda gorilla trekking licenses from $750 to $1500 because it is now much more cheap and a guaranteed deal.

Since the local communities are essential to the effective conservation and maintenance of gorillas in Uganda, the Uganda Wildlife Authority has worked for the past four years to keep the gorilla permit price at $600.

The demand for gorilla permits in Uganda has rapidly increased over the last two years as a result of many tourists bypassing the expensive cost of Rwandan gorilla licenses to travel from Rwanda into Uganda for mountain gorilla trekking.

Benefits of Gorilla Tourism for Communities
Around Bwindi National Park, the Batwa Pygmies make up the majority of the population, with some Bakiga tribes heavily reliant on the park for their livelihood. These tribes have large populations, huge birth rates, and extremely poor quality of life. In order to provide space for gorilla conservation, the Batwa pygmies, who historically resided inside the forest and relied on it for food and shelter, were relocated to the forest’s edge. Because they used to live with gorillas, these tribes have a wealth of knowledge about them, which makes them essential to gorilla protection initiatives.

With effect from January 2020, the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) has raised the rates for other permits.
The price increases for other tourist attractions begin in January 2020, as explained below, while the higher gorilla permit fees for Uganda comes into effect on July 1st, 2020.

Permits for tracking golden monkeys
All foreign visitors to Mgahinga National Park now pay $100 instead of $90, while foreign residents pay $90 instead of $80.

Tracking chimpanzees in Kibale National Park
costs $200 instead of $150 for all foreign visitors, although foreign residents of East Africa are eligible for a $150 reduction from the previous $100 per permit. Ugandan, Rwandan, Kenyan, Tanzanian, and South Sudanese citizens will now pay UGX 150,000 instead of the prior UGX 100,000.

The cost of a chimpanzee habituation permit in Kibale National Park has also gone up, from $220 for foreign visitors who are not residents to $250 for foreign residents in East Africa. To encourage more residents to try the chimpanzee habituation experience, licenses for East African citizens have been kept at UGX150,000.

The charge for commercial chimpanzee filming has gone up from $630 to 40% of the permit.
The severe rains in Uganda from April to May and the winter in Europe, which discourage travel, are the main causes of the low tourist turnout during the off-peak seasons. Discounted gorilla permits were added as a way to entice travelers to visit during specific times. Since Bwindi is located in a high-altitude region, it rains at any time, even during the dry season.

Therefore, the fear of excessive rain should not deter prospective gorilla trekkers from traveling to the country during the off-peak months to experience the amazing activity. Usually, tourists are led to believe that these discounted permits are only available during rainy seasons when the trails are impassable. One benefit of gorilla trekking during the off-peak season is that there aren’t many people, giving you the amazing impression that the whole jungle is yours.

The past

The gorilla permits used to be sold for $450 during the months of April, May, and November instead of the regular $600 for foreign non-residents, saving $150. When the discounted permit feature was first implemented, international non-residents were paying $350, but the cost was up by $100. Foreign resident permits (for people who are in Uganda and hold a valid work permit) are now available for $400 instead of $500, saving $100.

Initially, international residents were only paying $300, but that amount was raised by $100, while East African citizens’ payments were reduced from Shs 250,000 to Shs 150,000, saving Shs 100,000. Rwanda did not, however, offer low-season gorilla permit discounts; instead, the standard annual fee of $1500 was maintained. Because of this, the majority of touristsn to decide on Ugandan gorilla trekking.

Lake Victoria and wildlife in the National Parks (climbing lions, other primates including chimpanzees, and the Big Five animals) are just a few of Uganda’s many attractions, which continue to draw tourists away from Rwanda.

It appears that during the off-peak months, even the lodging facilities in Bwindi and Mgahinga National Park provide visitors a discount. The introduction of discounted permits reduces the seasonality in gorilla trekking revenues because more tourists will be encouraged to travel to Uganda for gorilla trekking, but budget travelers can still afford gorilla trekking safaris and have the experience of a lifetime.

How to get the gorilla permits at a discount

Any traveler who would like to purchase these inexpensive permits can get in touch with us to find out if the permits will be available on the days that they are interested in. You will be provided with the company’s bank account to pay for your gorilla safari once it has been verified that the gorilla permits are available for the dates you want to visit.

We can still obtain that permit for you if you don’t want to make a full safari reservation with the company, but you will have to pay a commission. Following payment, UWA will obtain your permissions after requesting your passport information (name, country, and number). To verify your involvement in gorilla trekking, you will receive a scanned copy of the permit.

Therefore, those who want to go gorilla trekking in April, May, and November should reserve their permits in advance, and the tracking dates they select should coincide with those months that provide discounts.

Check out this website for some intriguing deals.

FAQs on Uganda Gorilla Permits
Gorilla Permits: What Are They?
Gorilla permits are necessary passes that tourists must obtain in advance in order to track critically endangered mountain gorillas in their native environment for a brief period of time. To reduce human influence and control crowds, only a limited number of gorilla safari permits are allowed each day (a maximum of 96 in Uganda).

Why is a gorilla permit required in Uganda in order to visit mountain gorillas?

Human-gorilla interaction, which is essential to the survival of these threatened species, is restricted by gorilla permits. Direct contact can change the gorillas’ natural behaviors and increase the potential of human-to-gorilla disease transmission.

Crowds are kept under control and overexposure is decreased by the daily cap on the number of licenses granted to each group. The money raised supports community initiatives including constructing schools and health facilities close to the national parks, veterinary treatments, habituation of new gorilla populations, and heightened forest patrols against poachers.

What is the price of a gorilla permit in Uganda?

Gorilla permits in Uganda cost $800 per person for visitors who are not residents of the country. The cost of each permit is reduced to $700 for foreign residents. For East African community members, the lowest cost is only 300,000 Uganda shillings per person, or around $68 USD at the current currency rate. Although they are permitted to monitor gorillas, children over 15 do not receive a discounted rate. Depending on their residency status, all visitors must pay the same permission fees.

What are the costs for children, inhabitants of East Africa, and foreigners?

The cost of a gorilla permit varies according to residency and citizenship. The highest fee, $800 per person, is paid by foreign visitors who are categorized as non-residents. A slightly reduced permission price of $700 per person is granted to foreign residents who reside in other East African countries. East African residents are eligible for the lowest cost, which is only 300,000 Ugandan shillings per permit, or roughly $68 USD.

In Uganda, where can I buy a gorilla permit?

Gorilla tracking licenses can be purchased by tourists directly from the Uganda Wildlife Authority office or through authorized tour operators or Uganda safari companies. All passes are provided by the government, but these African safari firms can help and combine the permits into a vacation package. Due to their limited daily availability, permits must be obtained well in advance.

Does a gorilla permit need to be acquired in advance, or can I get one when I get there?
In Mgahinga and Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, no gorilla permits are offered for sale on-site. All tracking passes must be bought many months in advance through tour companies or directly from the Uganda Wildlife Authority in order to avoid crowding and strictly regulate the daily visitor count. Permits for walk-ins are never a possibility.

When is the best time to buy a gorilla permit?

In particular, during the busiest dry season months of June-August and December-February, when permits are most in short supply, experts advise scheduling your gorilla tracking permits at least three to six months in advance. Making a thorough itinerary well in advance guarantees your permit for the preferred date and avoids last-minute shortages or sold-out days.

Can I modify the date on my gorilla permit or receive a refund?

Regretfully, if your trekking date is less than eight days away, gorilla tracking licenses are fully non-refundable. You will receive a 25% refund between 9 and 45 days. From 46 to 90 days, the 50% applies. You get 75% back after 91 days. Reselling the permit privately prior to the appointed date is your sole option if your trip plans change and you must cancel. The passes are only valid for a single gorilla group and date; there is no flexibility with regard to transfers or date changes. Because of this, it’s crucial to reserve your permit through a safari operator so that it can be sold to other travelers.

What is the daily number of gorilla permits available?

There is a rigorous daily cap of 96 gorilla tracking permits available to tourists throughout Uganda. Permits for tourist trips are distributed to habituated family groupings. Each gorilla group may only be tracked by a maximum of eight visitors per day.

Which Ugandan places are best for tracking gorillas?

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How can I decide which tracking site to go to?

When choosing between Mgahinga Gorilla National Park and Bwindi Impenetrable, take into account variables like permit availability, degree of difficulty, preferred scenery, and other local activities. Mgahinga has more difficult terrain but fewer gorilla families to see; Bwindi has more permits but denser jungle hiking.

How much time does it take to track gorillas?

On average, each group spends around one hour each day in-person observing gorillas. However, depending on how quickly rangers identify the gorillas and how far away their range is on a given day, the entire door-to-door trekking experience usually lasts between two and eight hours.

What is involved in a gorilla tracking day?

It takes almost a whole active day to track gorillas. Starting early in the morning, attending the ranger briefing, traveling through dense forests with guides to find the particular gorilla troop, taking quiet photos and observations after you’ve found them, and making the long, exhausting trip back out of the national park to your accommodation are all included. Total time varies greatly.

What rules and regulations apply while going to see the gorillas?

Visitors must wear masks, stay in designated trekking groups of no more than eight people, maintain a 7-meter distance from gorillas at all times, restrict noise, refrain from eating, drinking, or smoking while there, carefully follow ranger instructions, and never leave trash in order to safely reduce human influence. Rangers strictly enforce adherence to all regulations.

You spend how much time with the gorillas?

Direct interactions with gorillas are tightly limited to one hour each group every day. During the brief, restricted visit, this time restriction shields the endangered mountain gorillas from the dangers of excessive human presence and exposure.