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If you have been pricing a gorilla trek and bracing for the $800 permit, there is a version of this trip that costs less. In February 2026, the Uganda Wildlife Authority introduced discounted permits for April, May, and November. A gorilla permit in those months costs $600 instead of $800.
From January 2027 that gap widens sharply. Standard permits rise to $1,200 while the low season rate stays at $600. In other words, choosing April, May, or November will soon cut your permit cost in half.
For two people trekking in 2026 that is $400 back. For two people trekking in 2027 it will be $1,200. This is a government rate set by the Uganda Wildlife Authority, not an operator promotion.
It also comes with trade-offs worth understanding before you commit, because these particular permits carry a condition that catches people out.
On 26 February 2026, the Uganda Wildlife Authority announced reduced permit rates for the country’s quieter travel months. The rates break down like this:
Most American travelers fall into the foreign non-resident category. Permit prices are set by the Uganda Wildlife Authority and are identical no matter which operator you book through. No company can discount a permit, and any company claiming to has told you something untrue.
One more piece of timing matters a great deal here. Our partner company in Kampala, a licensed Ugandan operator, has confirmed the 2027 structure: standard permits rise to $1,200 for gorillas and $300 for chimpanzees, while the low season rates hold at $600 and $200.
Read that twice, because it is the practical heart of this article. The discount is not being withdrawn. It is becoming far larger.
We are not saying that to rush you. We are saying it because a trip in 2026 and the identical trip in 2027 will not cost the same, and you should know that while you still have the choice.
The discount applies to April, May, and November.
We should be straightforward about why those months are cheaper: they are Uganda’s wetter months. That is the entire reason the rate exists. Anyone selling you the discount without mentioning the rain is not being honest with you.
What that means in practice is less dramatic than it sounds. Uganda sits on the equator, and rain there is usually a heavy downpour for an hour or two rather than a grey drizzle all day. Mornings are frequently clear. Treks go ahead in the rain.
What you actually get in exchange:
Low season discounted permits cannot be rescheduled.
This is the detail that matters most, and it is the reason we walk clients through this decision rather than simply pointing at the lower number. When you buy a discounted permit, you are committing to that exact date. If your plans shift, you cannot move the permit. You fall under the standard cancellation terms instead.
Standard-rate permits do not carry that restriction.
So the honest way to frame the choice is this. If your dates are genuinely fixed — you have the leave approved, the flights are the flights — the discount is close to free money. If there is any real chance your dates move, the $200 you save is buying you a risk you may not want. That is a judgment call, and it depends on your situation rather than on which is objectively better.
Either way, travel insurance that covers trip cancellation is worth having. It is worth more on a non-reschedulable permit.
Two things changed on 1 March 2026, and both matter regardless of which season you choose.
The seven-day permit hold is gone. Operators used to be able to reserve a permit for a week while a client finalized plans. That is no longer possible. Permits now require payment in full at the moment of booking.
The practical effect is that permits move faster than they used to. When a date you want is available, hesitating for a few days is now a genuine way to lose it.
Foreign visitors can no longer buy permits directly from the Uganda Wildlife Authority. Permits for international travelers are now issued through licensed Ugandan tour operators. Buying in person at the UWA office remains open only to Ugandan citizens and foreign residents of the region.
If your plan was to buy your own permit and build the rest of the trip around it, that route is closed to you as an overseas visitor. This is not an operator talking its own book — it is how the permit system now works.
We would rather tell you that plainly than let you discover it after you have started planning. Our partner company in Kampala is a licensed operator, which is how we obtain permits on your behalf.
Somewhat, and it is fair to think about honestly rather than wave away.
Bwindi’s trails are steep and often muddy in any month. In the wet season they are muddier. Footing takes more attention, and a trek that might take three hours in August could take longer in April.
Three things make more difference than the season:
Hire a porter. This is the single best decision most trekkers make. A porter carries your daypack and offers a hand on steep or slick ground. My wife has written about her own trek, and having someone assigned to help her was what turned a trip she was nervous about into one she would repeat.
Boots, properly broken in. Waterproof, above the ankle, worn enough to be comfortable. Not new.
Gaiters and a rain shell. Unglamorous, and they make the difference between wet and miserable.
Rangers also match trekkers to gorilla families by fitness. If you tell them honestly what you are capable of, they will assign you accordingly. There is no advantage to overstating your fitness at the briefing.
A $200 saving per permit is meaningful, but it is worth keeping in proportion. On a private safari running several thousand dollars per person, the permit is one line item among flights, lodges, vehicle, guide, and park fees.
Where the low season genuinely compounds is when lodge rates drop in the same months. That combination can move the total more than the permit alone.
What it should not do is push you into dates that do not suit you. A trip you take at the wrong time of year to save $400 is a poor trade on a journey you will likely make once.
Chimpanzee permits follow the same pattern, holding at $200 in the low season months while the standard rate rises to $300.
For a couple trekking in 2027, that is $1,200 in gorilla permits in a low season month against $2,400 in any other month. On an itinerary combining gorillas and chimpanzees, the gap grows further.
All in Africa Safaris USA is registered in Utah. You sign a contract under US law and pay a US company, in dollars, with a phone number you can call during your own business hours. There is no wire transfer to an individual overseas and no request for payment in cryptocurrency or gift cards, both of which are common markers of safari booking fraud.
The trip itself is run by our partner company in Kampala, which has operated in Uganda since 2017 and holds the operator license required to obtain permits. They handle guides, vehicles, park logistics, and the permit purchase itself.
Every trip we arrange is private. Your own vehicle, your own guide, your own pace. Your journey is private; the wildlife encounter is shared.
For a low season trek specifically, what we do is confirm your dates are genuinely locked before buying a non-reschedulable permit, and tell you plainly when we think the standard rate is the safer choice for your situation.
A Uganda gorilla permit is not just an entry ticket. The fee includes park entrance for the day, the ranger guides and trackers who locate the family before you set out, armed escort, and the one hour with the gorillas themselves.
It does not include a porter (roughly $20 and worth every dollar), tips, transport to the trailhead, or accommodation. Those sit inside the trip we quote you rather than inside the permit.
Around $600 of every $800 standard permit goes toward conservation and the surrounding communities. That is the honest answer to why a single hour costs what it does — and why the mountain gorilla is the only great ape whose population is currently rising, from a few hundred in the 1980s to over 1,000 today.
Roughly 160 to 176 standard gorilla permits are issued per day across Bwindi and Mgahinga combined. Eight habituation permits a day are available in Rushaga.
That is the entire national supply. Each habituated family takes a maximum of eight visitors per day, which is a conservation limit rather than a commercial one, and it does not flex in peak season.
Combine a hard daily cap with the removal of the seven-day hold in March 2026, and permits for June through September now move quickly. That is the practical reason we ask for firm dates before we start looking.
Most people pricing a gorilla trek look at both countries, so here is the straight comparison.
Rwanda is closer to an international airport — Volcanoes National Park is a two to three hour drive from Kigali, where Bwindi is a long drive or a light aircraft hop. You are paying roughly double the permit for that convenience and for a more polished lodge scene.
In a low season month the gap becomes $600 against $1,500. For a couple that is $1,800. We arrange both and will tell you plainly which suits your trip, but that is a large difference to weigh.
Refunds. Standard permits fall under UWA cancellation terms, which reduce what you recover as your date approaches. Discounted low season permits are non-reschedulable, and cancellation terms apply rather than a date change. If a park warden judges you too unwell to trek on the day, a partial refund is possible.
Documents. Permits are issued against your passport details, so we need full names and passport numbers exactly as they appear, along with nationality and date of birth. Getting a name wrong is a genuine problem at the gate rather than a formality.
Insurance. We ask every client to carry travel insurance covering cancellation and medical evacuation. On a non-reschedulable permit it matters more, not less.
No. Gorilla families are tracked daily by rangers who know their location before you set out. Success rates for locating a family are very high year-round. What changes is the walking conditions, not the wildlife.
Not with a discounted low season permit. Those are date-specific and non-reschedulable, which is the trade-off for the lower price. Standard-rate permits offer more flexibility. If your plans are uncertain, we will say so rather than sell you the cheaper option.
You can verify our Utah business registration independently before you pay anything. Beyond that, look for the same signals with any operator: a real street address, a phone number a person answers, a written contract, and payment to a company rather than an individual. An operator who only communicates through a messaging app and asks you to wire funds personally is showing you something important.
You need to be able to walk uphill on uneven ground for a few hours, with breaks. That is a real requirement but a broader one than most people assume, and trekkers in their sixties and seventies complete it regularly. Porters help considerably. Tell the rangers honestly about your fitness at the briefing and they will match you to a suitable gorilla family.
Standard permits rise on 1 January 2027, to $1,200 for gorillas and $300 for chimpanzees. The low season rates for April, May, and November stay where they are, at $600 and $200. So the discount does not disappear in 2027 — it roughly triples in value, from a $200 saving to a $600 one.
Both discounts apply in the same months, so an itinerary covering Bwindi and Kibale saves on both permits. This pairing is one of the most common requests we get, and the two parks sit within reasonable reach of each other on a private itinerary.
If April, May, or November could work for you, it is worth pricing properly — and increasingly so the further into 2027 you look. Ready to start planning your private African safari? Contact All in Africa Safaris USA today for your personalized itinerary.
You can also read more about gorilla trekking in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, browse our Uganda safari itineraries, or see what our pricing includes. Permit rates and booking rules are published by the Uganda Wildlife Authority.
