What a gorilla permit costs, in Rwanda and Uganda

A gorilla permit costs USD 1,500 in Rwanda and USD 800 in Uganda for a foreign visitor. Both buy the same thing: a guided trek into the forest to find one habituated gorilla family, and one hour with it once you are there.

Everything else about the two countries differs, and so do the discounts. Residents of East Africa, and anyone willing to trek in the rain, can pay a great deal less than those headline prices.

Gorilla permit prices side by side

Rwanda’s figures are from the Rwanda Development Board’s booking portal, which marks its lower rates as promotional and not applicable from June to October 2026. Uganda’s are from the Uganda Wildlife Authority’s tariff and its February 2026 announcement of the low-season permit.

Both authorities change prices with little notice. We check the rate for your dates and your passport when we quote, and we book the permit before anything else, because without it there is no trip.

What the permit pays for, and what it does not

The permit covers your entry to the park for the day, the ranger guides and trackers, and your hour with the gorillas. In Rwanda, RDB shares part of its park revenue with the communities that border Volcanoes National Park.

It does not cover the lodge, the transfer from Kigali or Entebbe, a porter, or tips for the rangers. A porter carries your daypack and gives you a hand on the steep sections. They are paid a set daily fee, it goes straight into the villages at the park edge, and we suggest everyone hires one, however fit.

On the day, you report to the park office at 7:00, are briefed and assigned to a family, and drive to the trailhead. The trek can take anything from under an hour to most of the day, depending on where the family slept. Once you reach them, the hour starts. Groups are at most eight people, and you keep about seven metres from the gorillas. The gorilla trekking page describes the walk itself.

Rwanda or Uganda: which trek suits you?

Choose Rwanda if time matters more than cost. You can land in Kigali, visit the Genocide Memorial, be at the park by afternoon and trek the next morning. The lodges around Volcanoes run from comfortable to some of the most expensive in Africa, and the country is easy to travel. A three-night gorilla trip fits on the end of a Kenya safari without much planning. See Rwanda.

Choose Uganda if cost matters more than time, or if the trip is longer. The permit is little more than half the price, the forest is wilder, and Uganda has more to see around the gorillas. The walk can be harder, and getting there from Entebbe takes a full day. Bwindi’s southern sectors are closer to Kigali than to Entebbe, so a common route is to fly into Kigali and cross into Uganda by road. See Uganda.

The gorilla habituation experience

Uganda offers a second kind of permit in Bwindi. Instead of one hour with a fully habituated family, you spend around four hours with a family that is still being habituated to people, working alongside the researchers and trackers. Groups are smaller, and you see the process as well as the gorillas.

It costs USD 1,500 for foreign non-residents, the same as a standard Rwanda permit, and several operators report an increase to USD 1,800 from January 2027 that we have not yet seen in a published UWA tariff. There are few permits a day, so it books up early. See gorilla habituation.

Discounts, low-season rates and resident prices

For a traveller booking from Nairobi, the resident prices matter most.

In Rwanda, RDB lists USD 200 for East African citizens, which includes Kenyan citizens, and USD 500 for African citizens and for foreign nationals who are resident anywhere in Africa, which includes expatriates living in Kenya. Neither applies from June to October 2026, when everyone pays USD 1,500. For a Kenyan resident, trekking between November and May is the difference between USD 200 or 500 and USD 1,500.

Foreign non-residents in Rwanda get 30% off from November to May if they add at least two nights in Akagera or Nyungwe National Park, with a paid activity there. That makes the permit USD 1,050 and adds chimpanzees or a savannah safari to the trip.

In Uganda, East African citizens pay UGX 300,000. The low-season permit, USD 600 for foreign non-residents and USD 500 for foreign residents, applies in April, May and November. Operators report that low-season permits cannot be moved to another date once bought.

The trade-off in both countries is rain. The discount months are the wet ones, with muddier trails and a real chance of trekking in a downpour. Our best time to visit Rwanda guide sets out the seasons month by month.

How permits are booked

Permits are sold by the two wildlife authorities and are dated and named. In Rwanda they are bought through RDB. In Uganda they are bought through UWA, which since March 2026 is reported to require full payment at the time of booking, with no more week-long holds.

For June to September we book permits as soon as your dates are firm, often six months or more ahead. In the wet months a few weeks can be enough. Once we have the permit, we build the lodges and transfers around its date.

Age, health and the rules on the day

The minimum age is 15 in both countries, and it is checked at the briefing. There is no maximum age, but the walk is at altitude on steep, wet ground. Rangers assign families at the briefing and can put slower walkers with a family that is usually closer, so tell us your fitness plainly and we will pass it on.

Anyone with a cold, flu or other infection can be refused on the day, because gorillas catch human respiratory illnesses. RDB states that it does not refund permits for late arrivals or flight delays, so plan to arrive the afternoon before, and have travel insurance that covers the permit. Our gorilla trek packing list covers the boots, gloves and waterproofs.

What the whole trip costs around the permit

The permit is the largest single line, but not the only one. A typical Rwanda gorilla trip adds two or three nights in a lodge near Volcanoes, transfers from Kigali, and a flight from Nairobi. Rwanda’s lodges range from midrange hotels in Musanze to very expensive forest lodges, so the lodge you choose can cost as much as the permit.

Our trips show what that adds up to, with prices on the trip pages where the lodges publish them:

• Rwanda Journey: seven days with the gorillas at Volcanoes, then chimpanzees and the canopy walk in Nyungwe.
• Big Five and Gorillas Safari: the Masai Mara, then Kigali and a trek, in nine days.

For what the trek itself is like the first time, read our first gorilla trek post. Then send us your dates, your passport and your residence, and we will tell you which permit applies and whether it is available.