Communities around Bwindi National Park 2024 – 2025
Places near Bwindi National Park in 2024 and 2025: In the places around Bwindi National Park, there are different groups of people, such as the Batwa and the Bakiga.
People who live in the towns near Bwindi National Park benefit from community trips because they bring in money for the communities. You don’t need to make a reservation to do this adventure, and you can do it before or after your gorilla walk in Bwindi National Park.
The people who live in Bwindi National Park also run art shops where tourists can buy different kinds of gifts. You can buy paintings, statues, jewelry, clothes made with local materials, and other arts and crafts at these places for prices that won’t break the bank and help the local artists.
Community walk with the Batwa in the area around Bwindi National Park
The Batwa people are thought to have lived in the Bwindi bush for the first time. They are also known for their unique culture and way of life, which you can learn about by going on community walks of the national park and talking to them.
The Batwa pygmies are native hunters and gatherers who get their food from the wild. They also depend on the woods for drugs and different plants that help people feel better. Tourists can also do this when they go on community trips with the Batwa.
Tourists who come to the Batwa also take part in traditional dance performances with the locals. These performances include singing and dancing to local twa songs as a way of welcoming newcomers to the community.
As part of the Batwa trail experience, which includes walking through the Bwindi forest, the Batwa also work as guides for tourists. Tourists can also learn about the way of life the Batwa people live when they live in the woods. While on the guided tour in the forest, tourists can get closer to nature and see different kinds of birds and monkeys.
While guests are in the Batwa community, they can also watch examples of things like how to make fire with sticks, which is another practice among the Batwa people. During their tour of Bwindi National Park, tourists can take part and make fires with the help of the Batwa people who live there.
During the community walks around Bwindi National Park, the Batwa can also show guests how they gather honey.
The Batwa can be seen on trips around Mgahinga National Park and Lake Bunyonyi, as well as in Bwindi National Park.
There is a Batwa tour in Bwindi National Park that costs between 30 and 40 USD per person. The tour can be done in Rushaga, Buhoma, Ruhija, and Nkuringo areas, among others.
2024–2025: Community walk with the Bakiga in the area around Bwindi National Park
The Bakiga are one of the groups that live near Bwindi National Park. They have their own unique culture that guests can experience when they visit their towns.
You can do many things while on tours of Bwindi National Park to learn about the Bakiga people. One of these is to try the coffee that the people who live on the edge of the park grow. There are many types of coffee plants, such as Robusta and Arabica coffee.
Tourists who go on coffee tours around Bwindi National Park can see the farms, learn how to pick coffee by hand, see how coffee is harvested, learn how to pound and grind coffee by hand, and taste the local coffee, which is packaged and sold at a reasonable price.
People from the Bakiga tribe also have farms that tourists can visit. On these farms, foods like bananas are grown in the sloping hills around Bwindi National Park.
2024–2025: Towns and cities near Bwindi National Park
A walk of the community with the Bakiga
People who go on a community tour with the Bakiga can also learn how to use traditional fermentation methods to make banana gin from banana leaves. People from outside the area can take part in this process and also drink some of the local gin.
Learning how to make local food is another thing that people do on community trips with the Bakiga. During this cultural experience, tourists can learn how to grind millet by hand using a stone and then cook and serve the millet with women from the area.
As part of a community walk with the Bakiga in Bwindi National Park, guests can also hear stories. This is a great way to learn more about the Bakiga culture and practices.
The Bakiga community walk lasts for two to three hours and costs forty dollars per person during tours of Bwindi National Park. It can be done by one person or by a group during tours of the park.
The Buhoma community tour, the Nkuringo community tour, and the Buniga forest walk are some of the other community events that can be done near Bwindi National Park.
In and around Bwindi National Park, you can do a lot of different things besides community tours with the Bakiga and the Batwa people. These include gorilla trekking tours in the Rushaga, Ruhija, Nkuringo, and Buhoma sectors, gorilla habituation in the Rushaga sector, bird watching, hiking, guided nature walks, and butterfly tours.
After doing these things in Bwindi National Park, tourists can spend the night at one of the cheap, moderate, or fancy hotels in the area.
The best way to get to Bwindi National Park
Bwindi National Park is in the southwest of Uganda. It can be reached by plane or car while on a tour of Uganda.
There are several airstrips that can be used for flying to Bwindi National Park. These include Nkuringo airstrip and Kisoro airstrip, which can be used for gorilla tours in Rushaga forests. There is also an airport in the national park called Kihihi. It is used for tours of the Ruhija and Buhoma sectors.
Tourists can also drive to Bwindi National Park. One way is to go from Kampala to Mbarara and then to Kabale. This trip takes eight to nine hours. You can also get to Bwindi National Park from Rwanda by crossing the Cyanika or Gatuna borders.