Responsible Travel
Responsible Travel
We want you to enjoy Uganda in a way that not only benefits you the traveller with a host of new experiences, but also benefits the people you encounter and the animals you witness on your safari. At Experience Uganda we are dedicated to ensuring all aspects of your trip are conducted in a responsible manner and have long term benefits to Uganda as a whole. Please see our policy in details below:
Economic Responsibility
Tourism is one of Uganda’s key employment sectors, a way for our up-and-coming country to provide sustainable, viable employment and development opportunities to its young and eager population.
Experience Uganda is a grass-roots company based in Entebbe, Uganda; the vast majority of your holiday price goes directly to supporting Ugandan service providers, wildlife foundations, Ugandan people and their families.
We’re not paying office rent in somewhere like Surrey or Central London, so not only can we give great value for money, you know that the end recipients of the money you are paying are real people here in Uganda, many of whom you will meet when you travel with us.
Experience Uganda is a Corporate Sponsor of the Uganda Conservation Foundation. In addition to this, US$15 per person from each trip sold goes directly to this cause. Our clients are given the option to match the above donation should they wish. We also dedicate a further US$15 per person to a local charity – please see the Social Responsibility Section below.
Environmental Responsibility
Our reservations and operations office is located at our Entebbe guest house. Here we sustain an organic permaculture garden which provides over half of the vegetables in our restaurant. We also harvest rain-water during the wet-season, which is pumped into our tanks to supply guest showers and other water needs, reducing reliance on the country’s water mains provider. Many of the lodges used on our safari circuit run on the same ethos – some by necessity when they are located in National Parks away from mains utilities such as power lines, water mains and sewage systems.
Most of the plastic water bottles we use are recycled, some go into a new form of construction where plastic bottles filled with sand are used to construct the main formation of a house’s walls. Our glass bottles from wine, spirits and olive oil are donated to a local women’s group who turn them into beautiful wine glasses, coasters, candle holders, ash-trays and flower vases – some of which we buy back.
All chimpanzee and gorilla permits purchased in Uganda contribute directly to the conservation of both these remarkable and endangered primates. A portion of all trekking permits is also given back to communities in the local area to foster symbiotic relations between the rural villages and neighbouring protected wildlife areas.
All of our guides are selected on a number of criteria, one of which is showing a true passion for the environment and the conservation of it. We are all trained to respect the laws of our National Parks, not driving outside of the designated areas and maintaining an appropriate and respectful distance from any wildlife we encounter.
We use mostly pdf and other electronic format for all of our quotations and trip documentation. Our paper use is limited to a handful of documents for our clients’ trip packs that we feel are more comfortable read while physically held in the hand.
Social Responsibility
When there is a “community visit” or similar on our trips, it will have been vetted by us personally. Some projects we have had a hand in actually setting up in previous jobs, others we have been referred to and experienced first-hand. Any excursion that we feature, we’ve ensured no-one is being exploited and all involved benefit positively from the exercise.
Travelling with Experience Uganda you’ll be guided by and meet “real people”; guides or other service providers whom we’ve known and worked with for years and in some cases; know their families as well.
We also allocate US$15 per person from each trip sold to a fund which every six months (or when there is a reasonable amount) is donated to a deserving charity or organisation in our local community. We only approach parties whom we know personally and ones that do not already benefit from large amounts of funding. This way we are directly involved and can ensure the money is spent effectively. Current potential recipients are an Entebbe street-dog neutering project, development of a small recycled glass business, or an extension to the animal housing facilities at the USPCA.
Your Experience
We genuinely want you to enjoy your time in Uganda and book your trip with peace-of-mind. We only use established, accountable service providers with a trusted reputation. Included in all of our trips is AMREF “Flying Doctors” medical evacuation cover. This being said, we insist that all of our clients have a valid personal travel insurance policy for their trip. This will be an unforgettable experience, one you’ll enjoy with-out having to worry about the details.