Narus Valley game drives
The valley's only permanent water sits here, so the buffalo herds, giraffe and lions work the same circuits your vehicle does. A UWA guide costs $20 for the whole vehicle, not per person.
Photo: Visit Africa Publishers
Uganda · national park since 1962
Kidepo Valley National Park Independent Guides & Information
Tucked between South Sudan and Kenya in Uganda's far north-east, Kidepo Valley is the country's least visited savannah park: two broad valleys, mountains on every horizon, and buffalo herds that fill the Narus swamps. Around 7,400 people a year see it. Most of Uganda's visitors never do.
Photo: Rod Waddington (CC BY-SA 2.0)
The current UWA tariff, read from the official PDF
Every lodge and camp, from UWA bandas to Apoka
Honest wildlife odds, including the species that are no longer here
Not an operator, and not paid by one
Where Kidepo Valley National Park is, and which gate you want
Kidepo Valley sits in Uganda's far north-east corner, against the borders of South Sudan and Kenya, 571 km and about ten hours from Kampala on the tarred road through Gulu and Kitgum. Almost everything a visitor uses sits around Apoka in the Narus Valley, with an alternative route running in from Kotido and Kaabong to the east.
- 1 Apoka (approximate) Park headquarters, UWA Rest Camp, Apoka Safari Lodge and the airstrip; the hub of the Narus Valley circuits
- 2 Kidepo Savannah Lodge / Kalokudo Gate area South-western boundary; the lodge publishes this position, 500 m from the gate
- 3 Kitgum (approximate) Last major town on the Gulu route; the tar ends here, and it is your last dependable fuel
- 4 Kotido (approximate) Fuel and supplies on the Karamoja routes; the road onwards to Kaabong runs via Kanawat
- Pan with a hide or viewing platform
- Dam
- Gate or barrier on the map
- Tarred trunk road
Why this guide exists, and where the numbers come from
This guide is written by someone who overlanded much of Africa in his own Land Cruiser with a rooftop tent, and for whom the national parks were what stayed. The information about them online was usually missing, wrong or years old: fees from three tariff sheets ago, camps that had closed, roads described by people who had never driven them.
So this guide runs on the park authority's own tariff document rather than a copied operator page, on thirty-year climate normals rather than brochure weather, and on what the camps tell us directly. Every claim carries a date. Where UWA is silent, so are we, apart from saying that it is silent.
Nothing here is for sale. Listing a camp is free and no position on any page can be bought. Some outbound links earn us a small commission, and that changes neither the order of a list nor a single figure on these pages.
Found something out of date? Tell us and it changes the same week.
Three ways to spend a day in Kidepo
The Narus Valley holds the park's only permanent water, and everything else here happens around it or heads out from it into the mountains.
Guided walks and hikes
Ranger-guided walks from Apoka find zebra and hartebeest on foot, and the Rionomoe Trail runs 15 km along the valley's southern side. Climbing Mount Lomej costs $40 per person.
Photo: Visit Africa Publishers
The Kidepo Valley drive
Thirty kilometres north from Apoka to the dry Kidepo riverbed and the Kanangorok hot springs on the South Sudan border, with views to Jebel Lotuke along the way. A ranger escort is required.
Photo: Visit Africa Publishers
Where to stay in Kidepo Valley National Park
Ten places to stay, from a UWA campsite to the one full-service lodge inside the park. These four are not the best four; they are the four that mark out the range.
The cheapest way in
UWA campsites: Kakine and Nagusokopire
UWA's own campsites on the Narus circuits, with shelter, water and firewood provided at the public sites, from UGX 40,000 a night.
Community-owned, on the edge
NAMONI Lodge
Ten tented cabins on a conservancy near the Nataba gate, where a tenth of every bed night funds the community associations that co-own it.
The sensible middle
Kidepo Savannah Lodge
One of only two Kidepo properties that publishes its prices, just outside the gate with the same Narus Valley views as the lodges inside.
The top end
Apoka Safari Lodge
The only full-service lodge inside the park, on a rock outcrop above the Narus Valley with a pool cut into the stone.
Everything you need to plan a visit
Entry fees
The official UWA rates: $40 entry per 24 hours, what game drives and walks cost, and why gate payment is now cashless.
See the fees →Lodges & camps
From UWA campsites and self-catering bandas at Apoka to one of Africa's most remote luxury lodges.
Browse lodges →Getting there
A 571 km drive from Kampala or a charter flight to Apoka. What the road is really like, and the flight myth to ignore.
Plan the route →Wildlife
Uganda's buffalo stronghold, a recovering Nubian giraffe population, and the honest story on Kidepo's lions.
What you'll see →Best time to visit
December to March is the real dry season here, whatever other guides say. Month by month, with the actual rainfall data.
Pick your month →Things to do
Narus Valley game drives, the wild drive to the Kidepo sand river and the hot springs, mountain hikes and Karamojong culture.
See activities →Our own research
We priced every park in Africa
We collect the official tariff of every park we cover, convert it, and hold each one to the same standard day. Twenty-nine parks are in the index now, the famous ones included. These three pages come out of that table.
The most expensive safari parks in Africa
Ngorongoro charges $278 for a standard day and $148 of that is the descent into the crater. The ranking straight down, with the line item behind each number.
See the ranking →The most expensive parks for self-drivers
One person, one car, no one to split the vehicle fee or the campsite with. Uganda's foreign-vehicle tariff turns the order upside down.
See the self-drive ranking →Africa's most expensive published safari beds
The highest nightly rates any camp in our network puts in writing, and why the real top of the market names no price at all.
See the rates →Latest updates to this guide
Every change to this guide, dated.
- 2026-09-13 Nineteen new pages: costs with the foreign-vehicle trap explained, the Ik and the park's hard history told honestly, health and the remoteness, camping at Apoka, flying versus the long road, Kitgum, the green season, and a page for every month. See the page
- 2026-09-08 Added hire-car and flight links to the getting-there page, marked as paid links because they are. See the page
- 2026-09-06 All outbound lodge links on this site are now nofollow, so a listing here is information, not a traded favour.