10 Days Maasai Mara & Uganda Gorilla Honeymoon
A private journey for two: a Mara balloon, canoes on Bunyonyi and gorillas in Bwindi
10 Days Maasai Mara & Uganda Gorilla Honeymoon
This journey is built for two: your own vehicle, your own guide and a pace that leaves room for long breakfasts. It opens in the Maasai Mara, where you rise before dawn to drift over the plains in a hot-air balloon, watching the basket's shadow slide across herds of zebra and topi. That evening a table waits for you out in the bush, lit by lanterns, with only a ranger, the stars and a distant hyena for company.
From there you fly to Uganda and the softer, greener country of its south-west. At Lake Mburo you ride horses or walk among zebra, eland and impala, then take a boat out at dusk as hippos surface around you. Lake Bunyonyi is the slow heart of the trip: dugout canoes, terraced hills dropping steeply to the water, islands with stories of their own and whole afternoons with nothing on the schedule.
The last big moment is shared on a muddy slope in southern Bwindi, where you trek together to sit quietly for sixty minutes beside a family of mountain gorillas. Permits for both of you are included. A short flight from Kisoro then brings you back to Entebbe for the journey home, with a honeymoon album unlike anyone else's.
Ideal for: Honeymooners and couples marking a milestone who want privacy, slow mornings and a few truly big moments to share.
The journey in brief
Once you've rested in Nairobi, a light aircraft takes you to the Maasai Mara for two nights of private game drives, a dawn balloon flight with breakfast in the bush and a lantern-lit dinner for two. Flights via Nairobi take you to Entebbe for an evening on Lake Victoria, and a drive across the equator brings you to Lake Mburo for a dusk boat trip and a morning on horseback or on foot among the plains game. Two slow nights on Lake Bunyonyi follow, with canoe outings among the terraced islands and time simply to rest. You finish with an early drive to southern Bwindi, a gorilla trek together and a flight from Kisoro to Entebbe to connect home.
Highlights
Day by day
Just the Two of You
A private driver-guide meets you at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, and from this moment the trip runs to your rhythm. The drive across the city brings you to a quiet room in Nairobi's garden suburbs with nothing to do but shake off the flight. If you arrive in daylight, take a slow lunch outdoors and let the jet lag drain away in the shade. Your guide drops by in the evening for a short, relaxed briefing on the 15 kg bag limit for the small planes, what to wear in the balloon basket and how to prepare for the gorilla trek. Then dinner for two and an early night.
Flying South to the Mara
Your guide drives you to Wilson Airport for the short flight to the Maasai Mara, the Ngong Hills sliding past below as green farms give way to tawny plains. A Mara guide meets you at the airstrip in a vehicle reserved for the two of you, so every window seat is yours. Spend the afternoon on an unhurried drive: a lion pride sprawled beneath a balanites tree, giraffes drifting along the skyline, elephants pulling at grass with their trunks. As the light turns honey-coloured, your guide stops on a rise with folding chairs and a cool box for a sundowner, then drives you back to camp under the first stars.
Dawn Balloon, Lantern Dinner
An early knock at your door, coffee, and a drive in the dark to the launch site, where the burners roar and the balloon swells. You lift off as the sun rises and float for about an hour over the plains, low enough to hear hyenas whooping and watch buffalo shoulder through the mist. You land wherever the wind decides, and breakfast is laid out in the grass with a glass of sparkling wine. The hours until evening are yours for a siesta. At night your guide leads you to a private dinner in the bush: lanterns in the trees, a table for two, a crackling fire and a ranger keeping watch at a discreet distance.
Lake Victoria by Evening
Linger over a final Mara breakfast before a light aircraft takes you back to Nairobi, timed to connect with an afternoon flight to Uganda. From Jomo Kenyatta International it is roughly seventy-five minutes to Entebbe, the plane crossing the northern reaches of Lake Victoria on the way in. Your Ugandan guide meets you on arrival and drives you to the lakeshore, only a few minutes from the runway. Spend the evening by the water as fishing canoes slide home and the sky shifts from orange to violet. Dinner is quiet and unhurried, and tomorrow begins at a gentle hour.
Across the Equator to Lake Mburo
Drive west out of Entebbe along the Masaka road, pausing at Kayabwe for a photograph with one foot in each hemisphere and a browse through the craft stalls. The journey takes about four hours, past papyrus swamps and into the rolling country of the long-horned Ankole cattle as you approach Lake Mburo National Park. In the late afternoon a boat takes the two of you out on the lake as the light fades. Hippos rise and blow around the hull, crocodiles slide off the banks and African fish eagles call from the treetops. Keep watch for the shy African finfoot paddling along the shaded shoreline.
In the Saddle Among Zebra
Lake Mburo is one of the few places in Uganda where you can explore wildlife country on horseback, and its plains game is relaxed around horses. Ride out in the cool of the morning with an experienced guide, moving quietly through acacia woodland and open grassland among zebra, eland, impala and topi, close enough to hear them breathe. Prefer to stay on your own feet? A ranger-led walk covers similar ground, with more attention to tracks, birds and small creatures. The afternoon is free for reading in the shade or a nap. At sunset, a short drive to a hilltop for a quiet drink above the lake.
Up into the Kigezi Highlands
After breakfast the road runs south-west through Mbarara and Kabale into the Kigezi highlands, about four hours. The hills grow steeper and greener, every slope carved into terraces of sorghum, potatoes and beans, until Lake Bunyonyi appears below you, long and twisting and scattered with 29 islands. Settle into your room above the water, then head down to the shore for your first outing in a dugout canoe. A local guide paddles while you sit back and glide between the islands as the breeze dies and the surface turns to glass. Grey crowned cranes call from the reed beds as dusk falls.
A Day with Nowhere to Be
Today has no fixed plan, and that's deliberate. Sleep in, take breakfast on the terrace and decide later. When you're ready, your boatman can paddle you out among the islands, telling the stories behind them, from the old mission and leprosy settlement on Bwama to the tiny islets tied up in local legend. Or walk a ridge path to a viewpoint where the terraces fall away in every direction and children's voices carry up from the valley. Keep an eye on the water for spot-necked otters. Otherwise, a hammock, a book and the lake are all the itinerary you need.
Gorillas, Together
Leave Bunyonyi before dawn for the drive to the Rushaga sector of southern Bwindi, about an hour and a half on winding hill roads, with the Virunga volcanoes appearing on the skyline as the light comes up. After a ranger briefing, you set off on foot with a group of no more than eight visitors, following trackers into steep, wet forest. It might be an hour, it might be five. When you reach the family, you have one hour with them: a silverback resting against a tree, juveniles somersaulting, a mother nursing her baby. Both permits are included. By the fire that evening, there is plenty to talk about.
Kisoro to Entebbe, and Home
A slow last breakfast in the hills, then roughly an hour on the road to the Kisoro airstrip, with the Virunga volcanoes rising behind the town. A light aircraft carries you north-east over the lakes and ridges of western Uganda to Entebbe, a flight of under two hours. Your guide meets you on landing for the transfer to your international departure, or to a connecting flight to Nairobi if that's how your ticket runs. Somewhere over Lake Victoria you will start sorting the photographs: a balloon at sunrise, a canoe on still water, and a gorilla looking straight back at the two of you.
Your route
The parks, lakes and towns you'll travel through, in order.
What's included
Prices
Priced per person for a private safari for two.
Rates are per person per day, sharing a room, and cover everything under what's included. Your tailored quote confirms the final price for your dates. International flights are not included.
Frequently asked questions
Is the whole trip private?
We've never ridden a horse. Can we still do the horseback safari at Lake Mburo?
How demanding is the gorilla trek, and is there an age limit?
How much luggage can we bring?
When is the best time to go, and what about visas?
How long is the 10 Days Maasai Mara & Uganda Gorilla Honeymoon?
How much does the 10 Days Maasai Mara & Uganda Gorilla Honeymoon cost?
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What is included in the 10 Days Maasai Mara & Uganda Gorilla Honeymoon?
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Let's plan your safari
10 Days Maasai Mara & Uganda Gorilla Honeymoon · 10 days
Tell us when you'd like to travel and who's coming. A Geob safari specialist in Nairobi will reply within one working day with availability, a tailored quote and any changes you'd like.
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- Every itinerary can be adjusted to your dates and pace
- Prefer to talk? +254 728 136 167
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