Entebbe

Overview

Entebbe sits on a peninsula in Lake Victoria 40 kilometres south of Kampala, and it is where almost every visitor to Uganda arrives and departs. It is far quieter than the capital, and staying here rather than in Kampala at the start and end of a trip saves two hours of traffic each way. The Entebbe Botanical Gardens, laid out in 1898, run down to the lakeshore and are excellent for birds and colobus monkeys; the Uganda Wildlife Education Centre next door is a rescue centre rather than a zoo and is genuinely worth an hour. Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary, 45 minutes by boat, houses around fifty orphaned chimpanzees on a forested island and offers feeding platform visits and, for a few people at a time, overnight stays. The old airport terminal is where the 1976 Israeli raid took place, and the site is still visible. The lakeside is where Kampala comes to eat fish at the weekend.