Pabidi Lodge
Luxury tented camp in forest · Kaniyo Pabidi forest in Budongo, about 20 minutes in from the southern gate · Great Lakes Safaris
High-end
Outside the gate
Safari company
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.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Only beds inside the forest where chimps are tracked
- Rare forest birds, including the chocolate-backed kingfisher, on site
- Pool, wifi, bar and an evening fire pit
- A honeymoon suite with its own veranda is planned
- Twenty-minute drive in from the main park gate
Cons
- No published rate card; enquire through Great Lakes Safaris
- Chimp permit is a separate purchase, $120 to $130
- Forest spa not yet built, still in the pipeline
- No minimum age found; the operator's site timed out
What's here
Arranged from the lodge:
- Boat trips
Read from Pabidi Lodge's own website in July 2026. Anything not listed we could not confirm, which is not the same as it being absent.
What the park charges on top
The rate above buys you a bed. Murchison Falls National Park charges its own entry fee for every day you are inside. Here is what that adds up to.
- Park entryCharged per 24 hours, and this is the only park in Uganda's top A+ band.
- $45per person, per day
- VehicleA Ugandan-registered 4x4, the usual hire car, at UGX 40,000 including Murchison's own surcharge; bring a foreign-registered one and it is $160.
- $11per vehicle, per day
Three nights means three days inside, so two adults sharing one vehicle pay $303 in park fees before anyone pays for a bed.
A ticket runs 24 hours from the hour you drive in, not until midnight. Leave before that same hour on your last day and three nights costs exactly three days of entry; linger past it and UWA counts another full day.
The full fee schedule for Murchison Falls National ParkRates at Pabidi Lodge
On request. No rate card is published. Enquire through Great Lakes Safaris. The chimpanzee permit is a separate purchase and is not a UWA product: Kaniyo Pabidi sits in a National Forestry Authority reserve and the tracking is sold by a private concessionaire at $120 to $130 for foreign non-residents.
What the rate covers is not confirmed. We do not know yet whether meals, drinks and activities are included, so read this as the bed only.
Every figure 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 Anyadwe House and Papa's Camp at the Bugungu airstrip. Anyadwe House turns out to publish its own site, a small high-end guesthouse on the south bank of the Nile beside the park, spotted thanks to a reader correction; Papa's Camp still publishes nothing we were able to check.
Questions about Pabidi Lodge
Is Pabidi Lodge good for families?
The operator's site timed out when we checked, so we found no child policy or minimum age; ask when you enquire. The lodge has eight tents plus one larger tented room, and chimpanzee tracking at Kaniyo Pabidi is sold separately by a private concessionaire at $120 to $130 for foreign non-residents, which is worth budgeting for if children will track too.
Is Pabidi Lodge good for a honeymoon?
A dedicated honeymoon suite, with its own veranda looking into the forest, is planned but not yet confirmed as open. The existing eight tents and one larger tented room sit inside Budongo forest itself, the only beds here where the chimpanzees are tracked, with a pool, bar and evening fire pit.
What does chimp tracking cost near Pabidi Lodge?
Chimpanzee tracking at Kaniyo Pabidi is not a Uganda Wildlife Authority product; it is sold by a private concessionaire inside the National Forestry Authority reserve, at $120 to $130 for a foreign non-resident. The lodge itself publishes no rate card, so ask Great Lakes Safaris for current prices for both.
How do you get to Pabidi Lodge?
The lodge says it is about a five-hour drive from Kampala, and once through the main park gate a twenty-minute drive brings you to the lodge. It replaced Budongo Eco Lodge, which has closed, and was built in the same patch of Budongo forest; the savanna gates are a further twenty minutes on.