Gorilla permits, explained

A gorilla permit is the most expensive single item on most East African itineraries, and the rules around it are genuinely confusing. Here is what matters.

Uganda or Rwanda

Both track the same species in the same mountain range. The difference is money and driving.

Uganda (Bwindi): a permit is USD 800. Getting there means either a long drive from Entebbe — eight to nine hours — or a flight to Kisoro. The forest is dense, the walking is harder, and there are more habituated families, so permits are easier to secure.

Rwanda (Volcanoes): a permit is USD 1,500. Kigali to the park is a comfortable two to three hours on good roads, so the whole trip can be done in three nights. The terrain is more open and generally easier underfoot.

If cost matters more than time, Uganda. If time matters more than cost, Rwanda. Nobody who has done either has come back wishing they had chosen the other.

How far ahead

Six months for the June to September and December to February windows. Rwanda has a hard cap of 96 permits a day and they genuinely sell out. Outside those windows, two to three months is usually enough. We hold permits provisionally while you decide, but a provisional hold is not a booking and we will say so clearly.

What the trek is actually like

You are allocated a gorilla family on the morning, based on fitness and on where the trackers found them at dawn. The walk is anything from forty minutes to six hours, at altitude, often steep and often wet. Porters cost about USD 20 and are worth every cent — hire one even if you think you do not need one, because it puts money directly into the villages next to the park.

You get one hour with the family. It goes very quickly.

The rules that catch people out

Minimum age is 15 in both countries, strictly enforced. You cannot trek with a cold or flu — gorillas catch human respiratory illness and it kills them. If you are unwell on the day, say so; the loss of a permit is not worth the risk to an endangered animal.