Uganda

Uganda is the greenest safari you will ever take. Winston Churchill called it the pearl of Africa, and the phrase has survived because nothing better has been coined since. The headline is the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, where you hike through tangled hillsides to spend a heart-thumping hour with mountain gorillas. But Uganda keeps going. Chimpanzees crash through the canopy in Kibale. Tree-climbing lions lounge in Queen Elizabeth National Park. Boats drift up the Nile to the base of Murchison Falls, where the whole river forces itself through a seven-metre gap. Lodges are warm and personal, the welcome even more so. If you want primates plus a proper safari, and a country that feels alive in every direction, Uganda quietly outdelivers almost everywhere.