Top 10 Tourist Destinations In East Africa : East Africa is believed to be a tourism hub in Africa due to the number of tourist attractions that are located in different countries of the region. The various destinations are amazing and offer everything in terms of wildlife and nature. Some tourist attractions include wildlife that is found in various national parks and game reserves within different countries and of late wildlife is the trending attractions that is liked by a big number of tourists who tend to come into east Africa. Other attractions include museums, monuments, cultures, capital cities and climate among others. The countries within the east African region include Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya. These offer unique tourism attractions and activities that offer satisfactions to tourists while on their safari. Currently the top 10 tourist destinations are various national parks that are found within different countries and each has different wildlife species. The most top attractions in east Africa include; Bwindi impenetrable national park
Murchison falls national park
Kibale national park in Uganda
Masai Mara national park
Lake Nakuru national park in Kenya
Amboseli national park in Kenya
Serengeti national park in Tanzania
Ngorongoro crater area in Tanzania
Nyungwe national park in Rwanda
Volcanoes national park in Rwanda
TOP 3 TOURIST ATTRACTIONS IN UGANDA
BWINDI IMPENETRABLE NATIONAL PARK
Bwindi national park is famous for having half of the world’s population of the mountain gorillas and offers the best gorilla experience in Uganda. The park is located in the southwest of Uganda and is known for the various gorilla families. Uganda is blessed to have 22 gorilla families and thus best for both gorilla habituation process and tracking process. Besides the gorillas one can have a batwa community experience where you can learn about their ways of living.
KIBALE NATIONAL PARK
Kibale national park offers the best experience of primate tracking within the wild which is not the same with other primate tracking destinations such as kyambura gorge and ngamba chimpanzee sanctuary. The national park is a home to 13 different primate species but mostly has over 1600 chimpanzees making it the best safari destination for chimpanzee trekking in Uganda.
Besides chimpanzee trekking, tourists can engage in other activities such as nature walks, birding, bush craft which is carried out by tourists under the age of 15years, community walks among others. The national park is the only park in Uganda and east Africa where chimpanzee habituation is carried out thus tourists take part in taming the stubborn primates
MURCHISONFALLS NATIONAL PARK
Murchison falls is the largest national park in Uganda with various tourist attractions and activities to take part while on a safari. The national park is a home to 76 mammal species such as the elephants, leopards, lion and African buffalo as well as 400 bird species which are spotted while on a boat cruise on the Victoria Nile such as the long-toed lapwing, African darter, giant kingfisher and osprey among others. The national park has the amazing Murchison falls which can be seen making their way through a narrow gorge of 7 meters producing the best noise in the wild.
While on the safari tourists can visit the ziwa rhino sanctuary which is the only place where one can have the rhino trekking where they can see how they feed, daily activities among others. Before reaching the national park tourists can as well have a chimpanzee trekking in the Budongo forest which has over 500 chimpanzees. Therefore within the national park, tourists can have game drives in the northern side of the park where a large concentration of animals is spotted grazing as well as have a launch cruise trip where you will spot amazing falls as well as wildlife species.
IN TANZANIA
NGORONGORO NATIONAL PARK
The ngorongoro national park is divided into two the conservation area which is part of the Serengeti national park ecosystem and the ngorongoro crater. The conservation area offers a chance to spot calving period of the wildebeest during the migration. The crater has a crater lake that is a home to birds mostly the water birds such as flamingos, pelicans, waders, ducks and herons. Other birds include grey crown cranes, secretary birds, and Kori bustards among others.
The ngorongoro crater has the big five animals and thus the existed of all animals has boosted the tourism in the area. Other attractions include Olduvai museum located in the Olduvai Gorge where the remains of early man where discovered thus making it a significant place for tourism.
SERENGETI NATIONAL PARK
Serengeti national park gives an amazing experience of the wildebeest migration because it’s believed to be the origin of the migration. Therefore tourist’s book in advance before the migration takes place and thus the tourists get a chance to take part in the whole migration process from the preparations.
Besides the park has amazing views for scenery viewing with the presence of mountain Kilimanjaro, bird species that flock the plains as well as the lake within the park and tourists are mostly attracted by the pelicans and flamingos which are found in large numbers.
IN RWANDA
NYUNGWE NATIONAL PARK
Nyungwe national park is a home to a number of primates and especially chimpanzees. Other primates include vervet monkeys, red-tailed monkeys, white and black colobus monkeys among others. Besides the primates the park has the best canopy walkaway where tourists can have a canopy walk. Tourists can engage in hiking different trails that have different adventures within the park such as muzimu trail where views of lake kivu can be spotted, karamba birding trail where one can spot a number of bird species, Isumo waterfall trail which takes you to the isumo waterfalls among others. All these make your safari a memorable one.
VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK
The volcanoes national park is an amazing Rwanda safari destination which is best for Rwanda gorilla safaris due to the existence of the mountain gorillas which can be spotted after carrying out a hike within the Virunga Mountains in Rwanda. Rwanda is a home to 5 of the 8 virunga mountains such as mt Muhabura, mt. Gahinga, mt Karisimbi, mt. Sabyinyo and mt. Bisoke all of which have different gorilla families.
The Rwanda gorilla families include the amahoro gorilla family, karisimbi gorilla family, Susa gorilla family among others which once visited can be of a great experience to the tourists. Besides the gorillas tourists can as well spot other primates such as monkeys, vervet monkeys, baboons and many more as well visit the Dian Fossey grave who was an American primatologist who worked on fighting against poaching of these primate species thus making her a strong pillar in Rwanda’s tourism.
Besides gorilla trekking, one can have a golden monkey trekking in the volcanoes national park. These are seen in the bamboo trees of the mountains within the park. These kind of species can be found in the virunga national park in Congo as well as kibale national park in Uganda.
IN KENYA
LAKE NAKURU NATIONAL PARK
Lake Nakuru is generally known for having a variety of bird species that can be seen and its best for the bird watchers. The national park has a number of endemic and migratory bird species and in particular flamingo birds which can be spotted on the shores of the lake as they feed on the algae.
The flamingos offer an amazing colours of white and pink on the lake which boosts the experience of tourists in the park. Flamingos are spotted on Lake Manyara national park which is another hidden gem. Besides flamingos, the national park has animal species such as monkeys like vervet monkeys, baboons, wildebeest, hippos, lions and impalas among others. Therefore this can be spotted while on the east African safari.
AMBOSELI NATIONAL PARK
The national park has its own uniqueness amongst the Kenyan national parks. Amboseli national park has thrilling experiences of tree climbing lions which is a rare characteristic in lions. The national park is known for having large numbers of elephants mounting to over 1000 in number unlike other parks. The national park as well has amazing views of mountain Kilimanjaro which is the highest in east Africa and the tallest in Africa. Besides national parks Kenya still has many tourists activities which are worthy a safari.
MASAI MARA NATIONAL PARK
The national park has various activities that tourists have to participate in to make their experience a memorable one within the park. The national park is a home to the big five animals such as the African elephant, buffalo, leopard, rhinoceros and lion and it’s among the few parks with all the big five animals in east Africa. Other countries include Tsavo national park and Serengeti national park among others.
Besides wildlife, the national park is a home to a number of bird species which attracts bird lovers. The national park has over 500 bird species where the recorded species are many and aren’t found in anywhere else. The bird species include long-crested eagles, merlin, black kite, vultures, marabou storks, ostriches among others, reptiles as well are spotted such as monitor lizards, tortoise, terrapins, tropical house gecko, black-necked spitting cobra, forest cobra, frogs such as red banned rubber frog, Victoria clawed frog among others.
Attractions within the park include the wildebeest migration which is involves over a million wildebeest where zebras, gazelles migrate from Serengeti region to the southern part of masai Mara in search of rains, pastures among others. Animals have to cross the Mara River in order to access the reserve and most of them loose their lives and others are eaten by the crocodiles as they are crossing.
The Masai Mara region is also a place where tourists can visit the Masai community which has unique cultural values such as the masai believe that all cattle is god given and once they carry out cattle rustling, they believe they are just retrieving what they lost since they believe all cattle belongs to them among others. Therefore while on a safari at Masai Mara, you will enjoy many more interesting attractions.