Travel to Uganda
Flying to Uganda
Uganda's principal gateway is Entebbe International Airport (EBB), located on the shores of Lake Victoria approximately 40km south of Kampala. It is the country's only international airport handling long-haul and regional traffic, and serves as the base for the national carrier, Uganda Airlines.
Uganda Airlines operates direct services to London Gatwick (LGW) and Dubai (DXB), as well as regional routes across East, Central and Southern Africa, including Nairobi, Johannesburg, Dar es Salaam, Juba and Kinshasa. International carriers serving Entebbe include Emirates, Qatar Airways, Turkish Airlines, KLM, Brussels Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines, Kenya Airways, flydubai and EgyptAir, providing connections from Europe, the Middle East and across Africa.
There are no direct flights to Uganda from the United States, Canada or Australia. Travellers from these regions typically connect via hubs such as Dubai, Doha, Istanbul, Amsterdam, Brussels or Addis Ababa. From the United Kingdom, direct services with Uganda Airlines take 8 hours and 40 minutes.
Domestic flights link Entebbe with smaller airstrips near key national parks. Aerolink Uganda operates scheduled light-aircraft services to destinations such as Kisoro (for Bwindi and Mgahinga), Kihihi (for Bwindi's northern sector and Queen Elizabeth National Park), Kasese (for the Rwenzori Mountains) and Pakuba (for Murchison Falls). These internal flights significantly reduce travel times to remote parks.
Flight times:
From London to Entebbe: 8 hours 40 minutes (direct).
Travel by rail
There are currently no operational international passenger rail services into or out of Uganda.
Driving to Uganda
Uganda shares land borders with five countries, and road entry is possible from all of them, though conditions and crossing procedures vary considerably. The East African Community framework simplifies movement between several neighbouring states, but travellers should always confirm visa requirements and carry full documentation.
The busiest crossings are with Kenya. Busia and Malaba, both operating as One-Stop Border Posts on the main Kampala–Nairobi corridor, handle the largest volume of travellers and commercial traffic and have relatively well-organised immigration and customs facilities.
From Rwanda, the two main crossings are Katuna/Gatuna, linking Kabale with Kigali and serving as the primary route for visitors combining gorilla trekking in both countries, and Cyanika, further south near Kisoro, which provides access to Mgahinga Gorilla National Park. From Tanzania, the Mutukula border post is the principal crossing, connecting to routes heading towards Bukoba and eventually Dar es Salaam.
Crossings from the Democratic Republic of the Congo include several points along the western border, though conditions can be less predictable. The South Sudan border crossings at Elegu and Oraba serve the northern corridor but are subject to security conditions. All travellers entering by road should carry a valid passport, the relevant visa, a yellow fever vaccination certificate and, if driving, vehicle registration and insurance documents.
Getting to Uganda by boat
Uganda is a landlocked country and has no sea coast, but Lake Victoria forms part of its southern border with Tanzania and Kenya. Historically, ferry services operated across the lake between Ugandan, Kenyan and Tanzanian ports, but regular international passenger services are limited and not widely used by visitors. Local ferries and boat services operate between Ugandan lake ports, and the lake remains an important trade route, but it is not a practical entry point for most tourists.
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