Visiting the gorillas - advice on permits and transport etc.

USD 1700 is still much for a 3 days Budget Safari in Bwindi. Gorilla Permits are still at USD 500 even in the low season. Contact Connect Hemisphere Safaris (www.gorillatoursafrica.com) and am sure they will give you a good quote below USD 1500 inclusive of every thing.
I will not advise you to use Public transport, use a tour company which will cater for all your travel needs and you will not get any inconveniences. Connect Hemisphere safaris will also book for your Permit provided you give them a chance to take you around.

Gorilla permits for October are still available at UWA and sold at $500. Unless if you are looking at specific dates.

Good Lord....if there are still permits available from UWA as Katonatours says do it yourself! Get your permit from UWA - wire them the money. Take a bus from Kampala to Kisoro. If visiting the group in Mgahinga, have a motorcycle take you from Kisoro to the park. If going to Bwindi, get a matutu to drop you off. Check the UWA site for easy instructions on how to do this independently. I've done it twice myself. The bandas at the park are CHEAP!! Do it yourself and you'll save more than half of that $1700,00! Use that to pay for another visit!

Hi

Thanks so much for all the advice.

I have tried contacting the UWA but both email addresses responded with a Delivery Failure notification. They were info@ugandawildlife.org and uwa@uwa.or.ug

If anyone has the correct address I would appeciate it very much.

Thanks.

They are notorious for being slow in responding to e-mails. Most recommendations I've seen on here are to have your passport and dates handy and call them to make a reservation. Last time I e-mailed them, it was three weeks before I heard back!

I have a related question that hopefully you guys can help me with, i'm researching so much stuff for my overall trip at mo and haven't had time to look into this properly at all yet so apologies if my questions show real ignorance about the whole topic.
I am going to be cycling through east africa early next year and the gorillas are a must do on my itinery. I'll be cycling to the camp and have my own tent so i'll be avoiding the tour people and dealing directly with the wildlife authority.
So my questions are: when i apply for the permit do i have to stipulate the exact day/week that i'll be there, or if i book it for month of say, june, then i can rock up anytime in that month. secondly, what exactly do i get for my $500, is it for a day or week etc, all day or just part of day etc.

Unfortunately for you, the gorilla permits are for a SPECIFIC day. You pick the day you want to see the gorillas and pay for the permit in advance (via bank transfer). If you don't show up that day, you lose your deposit and some lucky stiff who just shows up gets YOUR reservation for that day. Depending on the time of year you will be in that area, if you have the time you can just show up at the Park Headquarters and hope that there is a cancellation. I think with a cyclist who cannot determine to a day when he/she will be at the Park, this would be your best bet. You might get lucky and they have an opening the first day you try....or you might be waiting for over a week.

The $500 is for a one hour visit to see the gorillas on the particular day you tell the Park Authoroties you want. You can't ask for a range of days, the number of people alowed to visit each group is limited to 8 (I believe) and there is no way they can just allow people to show up when they can. They have "X" number of groups and "Y" number of people allowed to see each group. They need reservations and advane payment to make it work.

The only rebate they give is if you go out to see the gorillas and the trackers can't find them. I've only heard one time that this happened.

I totally agree with ZoSo for do everithing by yourself, (accomodation, transport, etc) I did it last year and was totally fine.

just one think for speed up the permit, if UWA doesn't answer to you quickly, for this I suggest you to contact one of the several tour operators for get the permit. they will charge you more or less 50USD on top the permit.

Once you have the permit, you know which group you will go to treck and so in which area of bwindi and you have to book accomodation and transport.

I trekked Nshongi Group doing all the booking by myself and it was amazing

thanks for that zoso, and you miky76. yeah i think you are right, anything could change between me leaving egypt and getting to uganda so i'll chance my arm when i get there, should be arriving out of peak season so shouldn't have to wait too long. I am actually doing this trip to raise money for conservation projects worldwide, as i myself am a conservation biologist, however i have to say that $500 for an hours experience seems rather steep. I'm assuming that all funds from customers are piled back into the project, in which case i'm expecting a world class conservation projct here.