A brief Overview of Kidepo Valley National Park
The game is good up in this park, with around 77 mammal species including elephant, buffalo and zebra, and predators including lion, leopard and cheetah. Interestingly, this is Uganda’s only park where giraffe and zebra are found together. These can be seen during a game drive in open-sided vehicles, with safari picnics, bush breakfasts and sundowner drinks included!
This park has very low tourist numbers so it will often feel like you have the entire park to yourself! Because of the low tourist numbers, the accommodation variety is quite limited but we would highly recommend Apoka Safari Camp which is part of the Wild Places Uganda Portfolio (who own Clouds Mountain Gorilla Lodge and Semliki Safari Lodge).
Do see our best camps & lodges in Kidepo Valley National Park picks for 2026/27 on this page.
Park activities
Whilst visiting the park, you can also see some of the cultural heritage of the area which includes spending some time in a Karamojong village learning about their traditional way of life. The Karamojong people are seen by other Ugandans as behind the times and uneducated as the have opted to hold on to their traditional beliefs and have resisted formal education and modernization for decades.
It is an interesting visit if you want something cultural as well as a safari experience and, unlike the Masai village visits in Tanzania and Kenya which can feel quite commercialized, the few tourist numbers in Kidepo Valley mean that the Karamojong village trips are very authentic.
Do see our best camps & lodges in Kidepo Valley National Park picks for 2026/27 on this page.
Best time to visit Kidepo Valley National Park
Kidepo Valley National Park is a semi-arid region with average temperatures around 30C. The park tends to get a fair bit more rain than other areas of Uganda, with the main rainy season running from April through to September but that said, the rains are erratic and do not disrupt things too much. During the rainy season, the vegetation is very green and the grasslands are dense, so it makes game viewing more difficult.
Do see our interactive best time to visit Kidepo Valley National Park guide on this page as well as on our parent guide to uganda page for more in-depth information on when to go.
Or call us on +44 1525 840 149. That’s what we’re here for.
Need more help?
As much as AI has changed the way we all approach our lives, there is still no substitute for picking up the phone and having a chat through the options with one of us on +44 1525 840 149
This allows us to completely tailor the property choices, costs and itinerary length to your needs…but we also understand that this is not always possible with the busy lives we all lead.
With this in mind, we have also put together a safari finder tool that should help you to narrow down the initial stages at which point we can jump in to “round off the edges” as it were.
Alternatively please feel free to >send us an email with your timings, group size and rough likes and dislikes and we can get the ball rolling.
Get help with a Safari to Kidepo Valley National Park
As much as AI has changed the way we all approach our lives, there is still no substitute for picking up the phone and having a chat through the options with one of us on +44 1525 840 149
This allows us to completely tailor the property choices, costs and itinerary length to your needs…but we also understand that this is not always possible with the busy lives we all lead.
With this in mind, we have also put together a safari finder tool that should help you to narrow down the initial stages at which point we can jump in to “round off the edges” as it were.
Alternatively please feel free to >send us an email with your timings, group size and rough likes and dislikes and we can get the ball rolling.
Where is Kidepo Valley National Park?
Kidepo Valley National Park
