Sambiya River Lodge
Thatched cottages · South bank, 15 to 20 minutes from the road up to the Top of the Falls · Not stated by the lodge
A drawing, because nobody has sent us a photograph of Sambiya River Lodge yet. Send five and this page changes the same week.
Mid-range
Inside the park
Locally owned
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.
Why you'd pick it
- The main full-service option on the south bank
- A 245 metre zip line and a canopy walk on site
- Around twenty minutes from the falls viewpoint road
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.
The full fee schedule for Murchison Falls National ParkRates
On request. The rates page on the lodge's own site renders empty and no figure is published anywhere on it. The lodge also names no owner or operating company, so the ownership badge here reflects Ugandan contact details and nothing stronger. Ask reservations@sambiyariverlodge.com.
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 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.