Under canvas between two lakes

Camping in Queen Elizabeth National Park

Name: Queen Elizabeth National Park
Address: Uganda

Camping here splits two ways: UWA's own sites, which the tariff prices but the authority's website half denies exist, and a row of private campsites on the park edge that publish a rate and answer the phone. Both put you in an unfenced landscape where hippos come ashore to graze after dark.

If you only want the answer

Camping exists, it is cheap, and it needs a phone call. UWA's tariff prices three tiers: a Category A wilderness site at $40 per person per night for up to sixteen people, a Category B private site at $30 for up to twenty including non-paying staff, and a Category C public site at UGX 40,000, with a dormitory bed at UGX 25,000. UWA's own park brochure places campsites on the Mweya peninsula and in Ishasha. The complication is that UWA's website FAQ states the authority runs no accommodation facilities at all, which its own tariff and its own brochure both contradict, so treat every UWA site as something to confirm by telephone before you plan around it. The private alternative is more predictable: At The River Ishasha charges $10 per person, Simba Safari Camp at Kikorongo $11, and Engiri Game Lodge at Katunguru and Enjojo Lodge at Ishasha both $15. Book on 0392 176 196 for UWA camping and dormitory beds, or through reservations@wildlife.go.ug and 0800 100 960, and pay in full: since 1 March 2026 there is no reservation hold, so a booking only exists once the money has moved. Park entry of $40 per person per 24 hours and the vehicle fee are charged on top of every rate on this page.

What camping actually exists here

Two categories, and they behave very differently. UWA's own sites are the cheap, bare option inside the boundary, and the private campsites on the park edge are the reliable one. UWA's park brochure places its campsites on the Mweya peninsula and in the Ishasha sector, and adds that UWA offers bungalows with four or five bedrooms and smaller cottages on Mweya. For Katwe, Kasenyi and Lake George it publishes nothing at all, not a named site and not a rate.

The private sites are easier to pin down because their owners publish prices. Engiri Game Lodge at Katunguru, which calls itself the largest campsite in the park, charges $15 per person per night for private camping without meals, or $25 with meals on bed and breakfast. Enjojo Lodge, three hundred metres outside the Katookye gate in Ishasha, charges $15 with your own catering and $25 with breakfast, rising to $45 half board and $55 full board, all inclusive of Ugandan taxes. Simba Safari Camp at Kikorongo, on the boundary near the equator, takes $11 per person if you bring your own equipment, and has a pool, mains power and a shared kitchen. At The River Ishasha, on the Ntungwe a few minutes outside the park, is the cheapest published rate we found at $10, with platforms for roof tents.

A longer list of places advertise a campsite without ever publishing what it costs: Kabatoro Guest House by the main gate, Njovu Park Lodge and Lake Munyanyange Caves Lodge at Katwe, Tembo Safari Lodge at Katunguru and Irungu Forest Safari Lodge. Any of them may be fine. None of them can be budgeted for from a website, and two of those sites carry warnings we set out under booking below.

Option	Rate	What you actually get
UWA Category A, wilderness site	$40 pp per night	Maximum 16 people, advance booking required
UWA Category B, private site	$30 pp per night	Maximum 20 people, and the headcount includes non-paying staff
UWA Category C, public site	UGX 40,000 pp per night	Latrine, water, firewood, waste pit, fireplace, thatched shelter, security; students UGX 3,000
UWA dormitory bed, not a tent	UGX 25,000 adult	Children UGX 10,000, students in a group UGX 5,000, excluding local levies
At The River Ishasha	$10 pp per night	Eco-camp on the Ntungwe outside the park, roof-tent platforms, rooms from $25
Simba Safari Camp, Kikorongo	$11 pp per night	Own equipment, shared ablutions and kitchen, pool, mains power with generator
Engiri Game Lodge, Katunguru	$15 pp per night	Private camping without meals; $25 with meals on bed and breakfast
Enjojo Lodge, Ishasha	$15 pp per night	Own catering; $25 with breakfast, $45 half board, $55 full board, taxes included

UWA's tariff prices the Category C public site only in Uganda shillings and never states a dollar figure for it, so what a foreign non-resident actually owes there is undefined in the document. Settle that by email before you arrive rather than guessing at a conversion, or book the Category B private site, which is stated in dollars. Every rate here excludes park entry of $40 per person per 24 hours and the vehicle fee, which is UGX 30,000 a day for a Ugandan-registered 4x4 and $150 a day for a foreign-registered one. Enjojo states separately that the $40 entry and a $20 UWA ranger are not in its rate, which is the kind of clarity worth looking for in any quote you receive.

The contradiction to know about before you phone

UWA contradicts itself about whether it runs accommodation at all. The FAQ page on ugandawildlife.org states in plain words that the authority operates no accommodation facilities because that falls outside its mandate. The same organisation's Conservation Tariff prices a dormitory and campsites for this park, and its own Queen Elizabeth brochure describes bungalows and cottages on Mweya. Those statements cannot all be true at once.

The most likely explanation is that facilities UWA once ran have passed to concession holders, and that the FAQ describes the present while the tariff and the brochure describe an arrangement that has moved on. We cannot confirm that, so we will not write it as fact. What we can say is the practical consequence: do not treat a UWA campsite as bookable simply because a rate exists on paper. Phone first, ask which specific site is open, and get the total in writing before you pay.

One further caveat sits under all of it. The tariff these rates come from covered July 2024 to June 2026 and expired on 30 June 2026. On 18 September 2026 it was still the only full rate card UWA publishes, and no successor had appeared. Treat $40, $30 and UGX 40,000 as the last published figures rather than as a guaranteed 2026 price.

How booking works in 2026

There is no working online booking for this. UWA's payment portal at pay.ugandawildlife.org refused connections when we checked on 18 September 2026, and the authority's own pages give contact details rather than a calendar. Anyone describing an online campsite booking system for Queen Elizabeth is describing something that does not currently answer.

1. Decide which tier you want, a wilderness, private or public site, or a dormitory bed, and which sector: Mweya in the north or Ishasha in the south, which are about 107 km apart.
2. Call 0392 176 196, the number printed in the tariff for the Queen Elizabeth dormitory and campsites, or email reservations@wildlife.go.ug. General UWA reservations run on 0800 100 960, +256 414 355000 and +256 312 355000, and the park office at PO Box 22, Katwe, Kasese is on +256 483 44266.
3. Ask the question that matters: is this specific site open, and is it run by UWA or by a concession holder. The answer decides who you actually pay.
4. Confirm the total, including whether park entry and the vehicle fee are inside it. Neither is included by default anywhere in UWA's paperwork.
5. Pay in full. Since 1 March 2026 the seven-day reservation window has been suspended, so nothing is held while you think about it. Payment runs through MTN MoMo Pay, Airtel Money Pay, a card machine or bank transfer; cash in foreign currency is not listed as an accepted method in the tariff.
6. Carry your confirmation offline, printed or saved to the phone, and keep every receipt until you leave the park.

Private campsites book directly and more simply. Engiri takes 60 per cent deposit outside 45 days and settles in dollars or shillings only. Two warnings for the edge of this market: the domain theelephanthome.com no longer belongs to The Elephant Home and now serves affiliate spam, and the website of Irungu Forest Safari Lodge has injected casino spam in its pages, so use the phone rather than those sites.

The email, ready to copy

This covers everything a reservations office needs in one message:

“Hello, I would like to book camping in Queen Elizabeth National Park. Tier: [wilderness / private / public / dormitory]. Preferred sector and site: [Mweya / Ishasha / no preference]. Dates: [arrival] to [departure], [x] nights. Party: [x] adults, [x] children with ages. Vehicle: [type, for example Land Cruiser, Ugandan or foreign registered]. Please confirm that this site is currently open and operated by UWA, and confirm the total including park entry, the vehicle fee and whether the vehicle is charged per 24 hours or once per trip, plus how you would like it paid.”

For a private campsite the message is shorter: your dates, party size, whether you are in your own tent or hiring one, your vehicle type, and whether park entry is included in anything they quote.

Hippo discipline on the Mweya peninsula

Hippos walk through the camps on the Mweya peninsula at night. The peninsula sits between Lake Edward and the Kazinga Channel with grazing on three sides, the park is unfenced, and hippos come out of the water after dark to feed on exactly that grass. More than three quarters of Uganda's hippo population lives in this park, so this is a nightly event rather than an occasional one.

None of that is a reason to sleep elsewhere, and the discipline it asks for is small. What gets people hurt is walking between a hippo and the water in the dark, which cuts off its escape route and turns a grazing animal into a cornered one.

Zip your tent fully at night, every time, even for five minutes
Never walk between a hippo and the water; if one stands between you and the channel, wait it out
Carry a torch and sweep the ground ahead of you before stepping outside after dark
Lock food into a vehicle or a sealed box rather than leaving it on a table or in an open tent
Never feed a baboon or a monkey, and keep the tent closed whenever you are away from camp
Do not wade or swim in the channel or the lakes, for the hippos and crocodiles as much as for the water itself

Which option suits you

First trip into big-game country, or travelling without full kit: take a private campsite. Simba Safari Camp at Kikorongo and Engiri at Katunguru both put you within reach of the Kasenyi plains and the Kazinga Channel, with ablutions, staff and a published price, and you can book them without unpicking who runs what. Enjojo and At The River Ishasha do the same job in the south if the tree-climbing lions are your reason for coming.

Equipped, self-sufficient and willing to settle every detail by telephone: a UWA site gives you a much plainer version of the park, at $40 per person for a wilderness pitch, $30 for a private one, or UGX 40,000 for a public site. Bring everything, including drinking water, because the tariff's own description of a public site is a latrine, water, firewood, a waste pit, a fireplace and a thatched shelter, with security. That is the complete list.

Either way, camp in the sector you actually came for. Mweya and Ishasha are about 107 km apart on murram, which is two and a half to three hours, so a campsite in the wrong half of the park costs you the early mornings, which is when the game is worth watching.

The rules that catch people

Gate hours in the tariff are 07:00 to 19:00, and your entry ticket runs 24 hours from the moment you drive in rather than until closing time
The speed limit inside the park is 40 km/h, and speeding carries a UGX 100,000 charge per offence
Off-track driving costs $150 per person in the vehicle, charged to the driver; hitting an animal costs $500
Sitting on top of a vehicle is $100 per offence, hooting is UGX 100,000 and leaving litter is UGX 100,000
Night driving is only allowed on a guided night game drive, which is sold to guests sleeping inside the park and requires a UWA guide
Motorcycles are banned from the protected area outright
Payment is listed as cashless: mobile money, card or bank transfer, with no cash option in the tariff
Keep every official receipt for inspection; failing to pay a fee carries a charge of $150 per person

Something this page does not answer?

Campsite booking in these parks is rarely a website. If you cannot work out who to write to, ask us.

Ask us. We answer questions about the park itself, and we can usually tell you which camps work on one route and who to write to. If what you want is a trip someone else arranges, we will say so and hand you to an operator we know, and we earn a commission if that becomes a booking.

Nothing on this site sits behind the form. Every figure we have is already on the page.

Ask a question