East Africa 5 of the Best National Parks

East Africa’s 5 Best National Parks

In no particular order, we take a look INSIDE EAST AFRICA and get out the best East Africa 5 of the Best National Parks.

Five of the best national parks in East Africa, consistently recognised for their exceptional wildlife viewing and unique experiences, are Serengeti National Park, Maasai Mara National Reserve, Murchison Falls National Park, Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda, and Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

Serengeti National Park, Tanzania.

Est. 1951, it’s the country’s oldest national park, 14,750 km2. Receives over 350,000 tourists a year and is famous for the “Annual Wildebeests and Zebras migration”

Serengeti National Park is a vast and renowned wildlife sanctuary in northern Tanzania, famous for the annual Great Migration of wildebeest and zebra across its plains. The name “Serengeti” comes from the Maasai word serengeti, meaning “endless plains”. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site and home to the highest concentration of large mammals on the planet.

Best season to visit: June to July and January to February.

Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda.

Est.1991 on an area of 331 km2 is home to a multitude of the forest; birds, butterflies and endangered species, including the mountain gorilla. Some 300 wild gorillas live in the park, accounting for nearly half the world’s population.

Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage site and a top destination for gorilla trekking in southwestern Uganda. It is an ancient, dense rainforest that is home to roughly half of the world’s remaining mountain gorillas.

Mountain gorilla trekking

Gorilla trekking is the park’s primary and most popular activity, offering a chance to see mountain gorillas in their natural habitat.

Maasai Mara National Park, Kenya.

Est. 1961, named in honour of the Maasai people, the ancestral inhabitants.
In addition to an impressive population of big cats, rhinos and elephants, it plays host from July through to October each year to one of the world’s more spectacular movements of wildebeest.

Known as the Great Migration, the phenomenon involves more than 1 million wildebeest and hundreds of thousands of gazelles, zebras and other animals, which migrate from the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania.

Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda.

Est 1952 boasts an impressive series of waterfalls from the Nile River. Sir Samuel White Baker named the falls “Murchison” in honour of geologist Sir Roderick Murchison, mid-1860s. One of the best parks in the country for the game experience.

Murchison Falls National Park is Uganda’s largest and oldest national park, famous for the powerful Murchison Falls, where the Nile River is forced through a narrow 7-meter gorge before plunging 43 meters. The park is home to a wide array of wildlife and offers activities such as game drives, boat cruises, and chimpanzee trekking.

Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda.

Home to the rare and majestic Mountain Gorilla, this park is made up of 5 active volcanoes covered in thick rainforests and mountain peaks. The park is also home to Golden monkeys, Spotted Hyena, buffalo, elephants, black-fronted duiker, and bushbuck. The park also harbours 178 bird species, 29 of which are only found in this area.

Volcanoes National Park (Parc National des Volcanos) is renowned as one of the best places in the world to see endangered mountain gorillas in their natural habitat. Located in the northwest of Rwanda, it is part of the larger Virunga Mountains and is about a two-hour drive from the capital, Kigali.