Twenty verified places to sleep, from a sixty-bed government dormitory at Paraa to eight bandas on the south bank that cost more for one night than a week almost anywhere else in Uganda. The north bank holds the game circuits, the south bank holds the falls and the forest, and now that a bridge has replaced the old crossing at Paraa the choice between them is a matter of taste rather than logistics.
♥
Ownership at Murchison is more Ugandan than the price list makes it look. Marasa Africa, which runs both Paraa and Chobe, is the hospitality arm of the Madhvani group, a long-established Ugandan family business, so the two largest lodges inside the boundary are locally owned even though we file them under safari company. Beneath them sits a row of genuinely small Ugandan operators: Pakuba, Sambiya, Twiga, Heritage, Parkside and the two hotels at Masindi. The badge worth hunting for is Boomu Women's Group, a farming cooperative outside the Kichumbanyobo gate whose bandas were built and are run by its members. Twenty per cent of every park fee you pay is also shared with the parishes along the boundary, and that matters more here than most places, because wire snaring set for bushmeat is the single biggest threat to the animals you have come to watch.
Cottages, safari tents, river cabins and fitted camping tents · Ngwedo, Buliisa district, on the boundary west of Paraa
Opened at the end of 2011 by Chris and Georgie Higginson and still run by them, which shows in the small decisions. Four kinds of room share one plot on the Victoria Nile, from thatched cottages with a bed on a mezzanine floor down to fitted camping tents at seventy-five dollars with all meals included. The lodge is off grid, the pool has an honesty bar, and the pricing is about the most transparent you will find on this side of the river.
Rest camp with bandas, tents and a campsite · South bank at Paraa, 500 m from the boat jetty
Backpacker prices inside a national park, which barely exists anywhere else in East Africa. Red Chilli has held a UWA concession on the south bank at Paraa since 2002 and runs bandas, permanent safari tents and a campsite around a big thatched bar. Nothing comes with the bed, power runs off a generator for part of the day, and there is no wifi at all. The family behind it lost its founder to an ambush in 2005 and has funded village boreholes from camp takings ever since.
Lodge with river-facing rooms · North bank beside Pakuba airfield, at the edge of the Buligi circuits
Forty-six rooms on raised ground on the north bank, each with sliding windows onto the river, and the shortest possible drive to the game. Two things set it apart from its neighbours. It puts a complete price list on its own website, which almost nothing else at Murchison does, and it stands on the footprint of the original Pakuba Lodge from the Amin years, which fell derelict and was rebuilt under concession. The kitchen draws produce from the lodge's own farm.
Eco bandas · South bank of the Victoria Nile, on the boundary downstream of Paraa
The luxury end of Murchison, on a wooded riverbank downstream of Paraa. Eight bandas share thirty-two acres, every one with a private deck and an outdoor tub, and the rate covers three courses, house drinks and a cruise. Two things deserve a flag. The 2026 prices are extraordinary even by safari standards and sit well above the lodge's own history. And the sources disagree on where it stands: the lodge says it is in the national park, while UWA's management plan lists it among facilities adjacent to the protected area.
Fort-style rooms and shared-bathroom tents · Former Aswa Lolim reserve, 5 km from Tangi gate on the Albert Nile
Nature Lodges built this one as a piece of theatre: earth-coloured walls, a Swahili-flavoured tower and a rooftop terrace over the Albert Nile north of the park. Behind the set dressing it is a sensible mid-market lodge with twelve rooms, twelve cheaper tents under thatch, a pool with a baby pool beside it and a kitchen that bakes its own bread and grows its own vegetables. One practical warning it makes itself: it owns no vehicle and cannot take you on a game drive.
Cottages and raised safari tents · North of the park, about 10 km from Tangi gate
The Dal Lagos have lived in Uganda since 1986 and cook accordingly, which after a long day on the Buligi tracks turns out to be exactly what you want. The camp is deliberately small, six cottages and four tents on platforms, and it has been quietly improving: mains electricity and a rebuilt pool arrived in 2024, and the family also runs fly camping inside the park with real beds and a barbecue. Prices are among the lowest of any comfortable option here.
Cottages · North of the park, 2 km from Tangi gate
Cottages on the northern approach, close enough to Tangi that you can be through the gate and onto the game circuits before the light goes flat. Rooms are sold by the room rather than the head, which is unusual at Murchison and works out well for two people travelling together. The catch is that the lodge is hard to reach online, and it publishes neither a board basis nor the name of whoever runs it, so everything here needs confirming by telephone.
Historic country hotel · Masindi town, 21 km from Kichumbanyobo gate
Built in 1923 by East African Railways and Harbours for travellers heading north to the falls, the Congo and Sudan, and still standing in its own gardens at the edge of Masindi. It is a National Heritage Site. Hemingway recovered here in room 8 after surviving two plane crashes in 1954, and Hepburn had room 3 and Bogart room 5 while The African Queen was being made; the wings still carry those names. It is plain rather than smart, and the point is the position: twenty-one kilometres from the Kichumbanyobo gate, with early breakfasts and packed lunches arranged for dawn starts.
Town hotel with a campsite · 4 km outside Masindi on the Kampala road
A town hotel rather than a safari lodge, four kilometres out of Masindi on the road you will be driving in on anyway. Standard rooms start at sixty dollars and the top suite is a hundred and fifty five, all listed openly, which puts it among the very few places around Murchison you can price before picking up the phone. There is a pool, a gym, a football pitch and a campsite, and the Uganda Tourism Board rates the group at three stars through to 2027.
Riverside lodge · North bank at Paraa, on the bluff above the crossing
The grande dame of Murchison, opened in 1954 on the high ground above the crossing and still the busiest address inside the park. Rooms feel like a good hotel rather than a bush camp, and scale is what you are buying: two restaurants, a pool cut into the slope over the river, and a position that puts the Buligi game tracks and the boat jetty a few minutes apart. It is run by Marasa Africa, the hotel arm of the Ugandan Madhvani group.
Lodge and tented rooms · North bank at the eastern end of the park, above the rapids near Karuma
Marasa's second property sits at the opposite end of the park from Paraa, on the north bank where the Victoria Nile still tumbles over rock on its way down from Karuma. The noise of the rapids is the point, and so is the fishing. The trade-off is distance: the giraffe country on the Buligi peninsula is a long morning's drive west, so people usually pair Chobe with the drive up to Gulu or Kidepo rather than treat it as a game-viewing base.
Thatched cottages · South bank, 15 to 20 minutes from the road up to the Top of the Falls
Thatched cottages set back in the woodland of the south bank, about twenty minutes from the turning up to the Top of the Falls and half an hour from the jetty at Paraa. It has traded under this name since the 1990s and has more capacity than anything else on this side of the river. Two things to know before you commit: the website contradicts itself on how many cottages exist, and it publishes neither a rate nor the name of whoever runs it.
Exclusive-use mobile tented camp · Mobile, pitched at a site chosen for each booking
Not a fixed address at all. Wild Frontiers erects an eight-tent camp wherever a booking requires one, brings its own chefs, guides, vehicles and boats, and strikes it afterwards. It suits a family or a small private group who want a corner of the park to themselves, or who want to sleep somewhere that has no permanent beds. You can also arrive in your own vehicles and buy the camp services alone, which is a rarity in Uganda.
Dormitory beds and campsites · North Paraa, plus camping at the Top of the Falls and designated bush sites
UWA's own beds, whose existence the authority's public FAQ page oddly denies while its tariff and its park brochure both list them in detail. What is actually there is a dormitory-style students' centre with sixty beds at North Paraa, a campsite next to it, and designated camping elsewhere in the park including at the falls themselves. Everything is self-catering, none of it is comfortable, and all of it must be booked ahead.
Self-contained rooms and a campsite · A few hundred metres outside Mubako gate, south side
A small owner-run place built around one good idea, which is bamboo: the deluxe rooms are floored in it and much of the rest of the fabric uses it too. Fourteen self-contained rooms with balconies sit on twenty acres of savanna a few minutes from the Mubako gate, so the run in to the crossing at Paraa is short. There is a pool, a viewing deck for sunsets, and driver accommodation, which matters if you are travelling with a guide.
Acholi round-hut cottages, tents and a campground · Tangi gate, Pakwach, above a hot spring on the Albert Nile
The pitch here is cultural rather than purely scenic. The cottages are traditional Acholi round huts, built from materials supplied by the surrounding community and put up by local artisans, with modern bathrooms fitted inside them. The view runs east to sunrise over the hot spring, south to where the spring meets the river, and west across the Albert Nile to canoes going about their day. Bedding is arranged to order, from a single up to a family, and there is a campground for anyone carrying a tent.
Luxury tented camp in forest · Kaniyo Pabidi forest in Budongo, about 20 minutes in from the southern gate
The only place to sleep inside the forest itself, which matters because chimpanzee tracking at Kaniyo Pabidi begins early and the drive up from Masindi eats an hour. Great Lakes Safaris opened it in the same patch of Budongo as the old eco lodge it replaces, and built it as a tented camp rather than a row of cabins. Birders come for the restricted-range species in these trees as much as for the chimpanzees, and the savanna gates are twenty minutes further on.
Community bandas and a campsite · Beside the Masindi road near Kichumbanyobo gate
A farming cooperative that turned itself into a guesthouse, and the most direct way to put your money into a household beside the gate rather than into a company. The bandas are simple thatch, the gardens are busy with weaver birds, and the women who own the place also do the cooking. It sits on the Masindi approach close to the Kichumbanyobo entrance, which puts both the savanna and the Kaniyo Pabidi chimpanzees within easy reach of breakfast.
Lodge, cottages and tents · Southern bank of the Nile, on the park's outskirts
A Ugandan-run lodge on the southern bank at the park's edge, with cottages and tents facing the water. Guests consistently mention hippos audible from bed and a kitchen better than the price suggests. Handle it with a little care all the same: the website has been frozen since 2022 and publishes no rate, no room count and no owner, so treat the position as the only firm fact and telephone for everything else.
Eco hostel with dorms and camping · Masindi, on the Kampala road next to Kabalega Resort
An eco hostel on the Masindi approach, right beside Kabalega Resort, and the answer for anyone travelling without a car. There are dorms, private rooms, a family room and a lawn to pitch on, plus a tour desk that arranges vehicles into the park and forest walks in Budongo. You get here on a Link bus from Kampala and a ten-minute motorbike ride, which is not something you can say about any bed inside the boundary. The road outside is audible at night.
Swimming pool
Wi-Fi
Restaurant
Bar
and 3 more
On requestYear-round
Nothing matches all of those at once. Take one filter off and try again.
Every price on this page is in US dollars.
Rates were read in July 2026 from each property's own website, rate-card PDF or published government tariff. A lodge that publishes nothing says On request, and any figure that came from somewhere other than the property is labelled. Park fees are extra almost everywhere: $45 per person per 24 hours for foreign non-residents, plus a vehicle fee that carries a surcharge unique to Murchison. Deliberately left out, so you know why you cannot find them here. Baker's Lodge is closed, with a flood notice still standing on its operator's site, and Murchison Bush Camp has taken its place in that portfolio. Budongo Eco Lodge is closed too, confirmed by Great Lakes Safaris, which now runs Pabidi Lodge in the same forest. Geo Lodges no longer has any Murchison property despite older guides saying otherwise. Yebo Safari Camp near Mubako gate, Kabalega Wilderness Lodge and Shoebill Camp Site appear across the directories but have no website of their own that we could reach, so we cannot confirm their rates, their capacity or that they are still trading. Amuka Safari Lodge is filed under Murchison by many sites and is not here, because it sits at Nakasongola on the Kampala road roughly two hours short of the park. Aerolink's 2026 route network also names Anyundwe House and Papa's Camp at the Bugungu airstrip, which is decent evidence that both exist, but neither publishes anything we were able to check.
Facilities and activities come from each property's own website, read in July 2026. We only record what that property's own page states. A blank means we could not check it, not that it is missing. Filtering on a facility shows only what we confirmed, and tells you how many places we could not check.
