Red Chilli Rest Camp
Rest camp with bandas, tents and a campsite · South bank at Paraa, 500 m from the boat jetty · Red Chilli Hideaway Ltd
Budget
Inside the park
Owner/family-run
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. Every banda and safari tent has a proper bed; the rate simply covers the bed only, with meals bought at the restaurant as you go or added as a plan: bed and breakfast $7, half board $14, full board $20 per person. The generator runs 08:00 to 14:00 and 18:00 to 23:00, an inverter keeps the lights on in between, and there is no wifi at all. Self-contained bandas have their own power sockets; everyone else charges cameras in the bar. The family behind it lost its founder to an ambush in 2005 and has funded village boreholes from camp takings ever since.
Pros and cons
Pros
- The only genuinely cheap bed inside the national park
- Five hundred metres from the jetty for launch trips
- Hippos graze through camp after dark
- Family banda sleeps four or five, from $90 a night
- Self-contained bandas have their own power sockets
Cons
- No wifi anywhere in camp
- Generator runs only 08:00 to 14:00 and 18:00 to 23:00
- No minimum age found; the site blocked our check
- No public transport reaches the camp directly
Getting in without your own vehicle
Public transport cannot take you to the camp. UWA bans motorcycles from the park outright, and buses and matatus are only allowed through on the designated Tangi to Bugungu transit route, so they can drop you at Masindi or Pakwach but no closer. From there it is the camp's own transport, priced as follows.
| Leg | Detail | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| Safari van hire, per day | Car, driver and the driver's expenses; fuel is extra. Hires start and end in Kampala. The same van can run your game drives, the Top of the Falls walk or chimp tracking, which beats paying for those separately | $90 plus fuel |
| Pick-up from Masindi | The southern approach: coaster buses run Kampala to Masindi, then the camp collects you | $150 one way |
| Pick-up from Pakwach | The northern approach, coming from Gulu or the West Nile side | $80 one way |
| Private taxi from Masindi | Arranged locally rather than through the camp | UGX 300,000 to 350,000 |
- A pick-up anywhere else in Uganda is possible on a van hire, but the fuel from Kampala is yours, and a long approach can add a day of hire because the drivers do not drive after dark.
- The coaster buses are the cheap leg and the standard is basic. They get you to Masindi or Pakwach; they cannot take you into the park for a visit.
Prices from Red Chilli's reservations office, 6 September 2026. The vehicle rules come from UWA's own transit guidelines for Murchison Falls and its conservation tariff.
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, once for the trip
Three nights means three days inside, so two adults sharing one vehicle pay $281 in park fees before anyone pays for a bed.
UWA's tariff charges vehicles per 24 hours, except for concessionaire visitor vehicles, who pay once per trip. Staying at a lodge inside the park puts you in that second group, so the vehicle is counted once above rather than three times.
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 Red Chilli Rest Camp
From $8 per person camping. Confirmed unchanged by the camp in September 2026, so the 2022 and 2023 card still holds through 31 December 2026: camping $8 per person, twin safari tent $35, twin banda $40, twin en-suite banda $55, triple $65, family banda $90 to $100 and a superior banda $85 to $115. All bed only. From 1 January 2027 the camp's new card, sent to us in September 2026, applies: camping $10 per person, twin safari tent $40 or $20 when booked as part of a Red Chilli safari, twin banda $50, twin self-contained banda $65, triple self-contained $80, family banda $100 for four or $115 for five, and the superior eco-banda $95 for two sharing plus $15 per extra person up to five. All rates include VAT and hotel tax.
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 Red Chilli Rest Camp
Is Red Chilli Rest Camp good for families?
The site blocked our check, so we found no child policy or minimum age for Red Chilli; ask when you enquire. It does offer a family banda, which under the 2026 card costs $90 to $100 a night and from 2027 is priced at $100 for four people or $115 for five. Self-contained bandas have power sockets; everyone else charges devices in the bar.
How do you get to Red Chilli Rest Camp without your own vehicle?
Public transport cannot reach the camp directly, since UWA bans motorcycles in the park and allows buses only on the Tangi to Bugungu transit route, dropping you at Masindi or Pakwach. From there the camp's own transport runs: a safari van at $90 a day plus fuel, a pick-up from Masindi at $150 one way, or from Pakwach at $80 one way.
What does it cost to stay at Red Chilli Rest Camp?
Red Chilli's 2026 card, confirmed unchanged through 31 December, runs from $8 a person camping to $115 for a superior banda, all bed only; breakfast, half board or full board can be added at $7, $14 or $20 a person. From 1 January 2027 a new card applies, with camping at $10 and the top banda at $95 plus $15 a head.
Is there wifi or power at Red Chilli Rest Camp?
There is no wifi at all. The generator runs 08:00 to 14:00 and again from 18:00 to 23:00, with an inverter keeping lights on in between. Self-contained bandas have their own power sockets, while everyone else charges phones and cameras in the camp bar.