Tips on Booking your Car Rental In Uganda
Hospitality and cultures.
May people have their dream of coming to Africa for various reasons; one of them is meeting and interacting with their ancestral lines, especially the foreign black travelers.
A lot of families for Uganda in particular fled the country and traveled to both America and Europe, either to seek asylum due to civil wars and other political situations, or others may have traveled on merit to look for greener pastures.
However; many who have settled over there and owned citizenship. In this case, they tend to look for their roots back home to confirm to their kids where they came from; in other words, they opt to rent out cars for self-driving in Uganda, or even visiting places where they used to leave before they left.
The feeling is much of enthusiasm because there is chance of having home tastes full of fresh memories privately with a sensational interaction alongside unique communities around, these people will always shower you with good vibes accompanied with truthful tales of Africa before and now.
Uganda is a very welcoming country with a lot of people ready to share and care for you even if you are a stranger in a place! The country has diverse cultures with several regions sharing different dialects but living and working together in harmony.
So if you decide to travel to Uganda and choose to self-drive from place to place independently, trust me, you will have selected the best out of choices for virgin destinations.
Availability of Food and café Points on road sides.
One of the most enticing things that attract people to travel to Uganda is the plenty of food the country produces, in mind Uganda is one of the leading food producing countries in the Africa with variety of fresh food species, this can be witnessed on yourself, drive adventure to wherever you decide to go on different main roads once you decide to go driving and visit numerous places upcountry.
Uganda being blessed with fertile soils, especially in areas around water bodies, areas bordering forests and mountains, a lot of food produced is organic, which is a healthy precaution for travellers who come embrace the Pearl of Africa.
This has influenced a lot cheap food stopping points along various highways towards your destination; this has always made things easy for road trippers because they can always have fresh meals and enroute.
The distinctive café points prepare special bourbon coffee that helps to keep you awake on your road trip across the mighty Uganda routes. Feel free to order any kind of coffee from menu and it shall be prepared for you either for take away or taken instantly.
The same food points have it all in one, with preparations of special tropical fruit platters and all sorts of continental menus ready for self-driving visitors
NB: With all odds, Uganda has published its uniqueness with a new fast food on the market none other than a ROLEX. A Rolex is a fast food that can only be prepared in 5 minutes or less and it is ready to be eaten.
When we talk of it (Rolex) many new travellers in Uganda or those hearing it for the first time, their minds run directly to the famous luxurious watch; not until they come to witness that it’s a new first food on the market in Uganda.
It’s now going global once one masters the combination of ingredients, in brief, a Ugandan Rolex is a combination of egg omelette and a vegetable wrapped in a chapatti; this can always be eaten on breakfast and lunch.
Agriculture being the backbone of Uganda, with at least each homestead having an area of farming and other agricultural practice, that’s why things rhyme very well with food production.
Standby Mechanical Services
When you think of self-driving or going for a private road trip in Uganda, you may not forget about several risks on the road that may occur mechanically, either due to poor road networks in remote areas, especially upcountry, or even other factors related to automotive.
This is a high risk especially to first time travellers not used to African style of play when it comes to driving in vicinity, self-driving is the funniest experience because you do everything yourself with no pressure, you choose when to pullover, decide for when you want to start your drive and when to end it.
The only challenge is when you get a break down or any mechanical fault on your road trip experience, driving in Africa is typically different especially if you decide to go off road for example in the middle of national in the rainy season with muddy slippery roads, driving in cities with too much traffic jam or poor road users that don’t follow traffic rules and cause problems like road accidents.
However, this all can be history because of the reliability of our stand-by service. In case you tend to get stuck with car, we advise you trouble, shoot and find out what would be the exact problem for cases like when the car can’t start or the engine switches its self-off instantly.
Here the issue is always attributed to loose in battery terminals that may not allow power connection to the ignition chamber; always open up the bonnet to fix them as they tend loosen due to bumpy roads in remote places with broken or bumpy roads.
If the problem is had to fix please always communicate direct to us from the contact number on the signed contract for further help. We always have stand by mechanics almost on all interconnecting roads from the city centers going further, they will help you fix the car and there will be no programs missed.
For cars that experience slippery or get stuck in mud, our car rental fleet manager always provide towing ropes in case the situation get tough in wild land; in other words all our cars are 4×4 in make.
Four Wheel Drive (4wd or 4×4) is where a car will turn all its turning force to all the wheels at the same time and therefore it’s a joint force of power in case of any resistance on the road for example on the slippery or gravel roads.
By far, the company is mandated to switch the car in 10 hrs just if the later car fails to be fixed or may take more time that expected to repair.
Access to Internet.
The greatest mankind has ever invented is the Internet Protocol, this has eased communication especially with the users of hyper languages and web pages throughout the world.
Communication is very vital especially to the travel world and now that we have internet is almost everywhere in Uganda, you holiday is as good as your working table because of easy link up with the rest of the world without missing any program on schedule.
When you choose to visit Uganda on your own don’t be worried at all! Everything is in control because you will still be in touch with your close pals especially your family and they will still reach you in case of any emergencies. Just check for your renal priority car from our fleet and we shall reserve it for you for yourself drive adventure in Uganda prior.
Most of our upcountry eco lodges in the wild have standard WiFi with good band width, it is always convenient for you to make downloads and uploads of videos and photos to photographers in particular especially if you want to share your road trip experience with future travelers.
The strong waves also allow you to make video conferences no matter what kinds of communication applications you are using. Thanks to the great thinkers of the 19th century Vinton Cerf and Bob Kahn who invented the internet for us. Gratitude!
GPS and Google Maps
One of the best travel tools today, the GPS helps a lot in allocating for the best access routes to your destination. The biggest percentage of self-drive travelers use the tool because they are new in places and using the Global Position System makes the trip easy.
Like precious stones are not found on the ground, most tourism destinations in Africa are also found in very remote or inaccessible places; however if you follow the routing very well you can reach the destination less challenges. Challenges may come in if at all you packed an outdated device with no updated software showing directions that may have been changed due to developments of new infrastructures or immediate closure of roads due to catastrophes or other emergencies.
If you are a culprit to the above please resort to plan B which is use of the Google maps from your mobile phone that access Internet and subscribed to the local telephone networks either MTN / AIRTEL or you have a basic configuration from your home phone network, this will help you access all the new routes from the updated maps present.
Drive Uganda with confidence and leave no stone unturned for a greater self-driving visit in Pearl today, better route allocation for safe drives saves times and brings the heart of travelers at peace .
Access to camping grounds almost everywhere.
The trend of travelling in Africa is drastically changing depending on different aspects; in particular travelers prefer getting disconnected from the vast technologies and reconnect to sweet feeling of Mother Nature in the wilderness.
People love being unique and making it possible to blend vacations with special treats that keep travel memories fresh. Individuals have resorted to rare styles of making trips from the tradition lodging way following their different cultures and original abilities in nature.
Camping is a move by many self-drive visitors in Uganda who feel dedicated to putting both feet on the road, by going to navigate the undiscovered world; they hire cars of different customization like 4WD safari jeeps with camping gears or Land cruiser Prado with rooftop tents for road tripping around, on their own, they drives place to place privately depending on their time of stay.
It’s a healthy priority if you decide to take a family or a partner on a vacation and sleep in a tent; don’t you think it’s a great experience? For the case of wildlife you spend the day doing a self-guided game drive and at night to you do a camp fire as you hear voices of Mother Nature echoing the whole night.
Don’t be scared sharing the camping ground with nocturnal animals because it’s their territory; however for the fact that a camp fire is always set animals feed from a distance for they fear fire but with their loud feeding movements it may feel like they are so close to you, this is fun!
It’s a moment of treasure and love knowing that animals move freely with no keepers like it is in zoos.
Enjoy the starry sky from your root top tent at some point in Africa where by there is power lights only the dim solar small lights in the darkness.
Your body keeps alert with good moods if you go camping in Uganda, its total happiness my dear don’t hesitate to try the activity for its part of life and you only live once.
Other places apart from savanna national parks do also provide camping places where by it cheaper to than booking for a room if you have your comfortable safari tent, lodges will provide you shower rooms and there is a possibility of paying for meals if at all you don’t feel the zeal of preparing for your own food.
Exceptional children calling the muzungu name.
Have you ever thought of the playing and relating with an African kid? It’s calmly amazing that you are making the best choice today, book your car for a self-drive safari around Uganda and you will be filled with amazing emotions, these lovely kids are almost in every destination you try out.
A lot of them are on the streets, if you drive upcountry, they will always welcome you with folk songs chanting slangs and addressing you as ‘Muzungu’ referring to a foreigner with joy.
They are jolly however much most of them are needy and they live in poor families by a mere look at them, they will tend to beg for little thing things like sweets and pens; with this were recommend not to give them in person because it may turn to a big habit of begging, the best alternative would be volunteering or donating to community schools if at all you have some packages with you for a noble cause.
Otherwise, it’s fun sharing and listening to their funny stories from a village setting that may extremely feel different from your home.
Please if you plan to visit Uganda inform your friends if they have any donations they would feel like making to Africa to give it to you to transfer it to the needy Kids through community schools.
Self-driving to visit community schools is a big support to educating future conservationist as a tool to extend awareness of wildlife and also as a mechanism to cab poaching problems especially to community villages living near or with national parks in Uganda.
Unlimited Mileage
Enjoy Uganda at peace with freedom of movement, drive place to place with no limit to distance coverage versing your car rental period. There are no extra costs you will incur if you drive beyond you planned road map in distance.
It is such a favoring policy with us to the renter because there are no restrictions to miles or Kilometers cover per day or the period of car hire, it makes the travellers experience exceptional whereby there is no panic and fixing destinations to visit. |
With plenty of vehicles in our fleet you can feel to choose from smalls to big ones for both short term and long term rentals depending on your schedule, selfdrivinguganda.com offers suitable free mileage cars like, Toyota Rav4, Toyota Tx, Toyota V8, Vx, GX and Toyota 78 series.
There are other makes reliable for such as Nissan Patrol, Nissan X-rail , Range rovers and Land rovers to mention but a few.
One would ask which is the best time to enjoy unlimited mileage in Uganda? As mention earlier before in this article, the best travel time to drive Uganda is during the dry season or when it’s not raining; here all remote roads are passable and easy to drive with no mud.
Security in Uganda
There is a lot to think about before one would think to self-drive in Uganda safe.
Everyone wants to only travel to safe destinations, if there is not safety never bather to test the impenitence of violence.
Is Uganda safe for travelers? Or which places are safe for self-drive travelers in Uganda? Well, all places are safe for all travelers and this is related to improved security across the country.
Some incidences like the Karamoja armed cattle rustlers, had compromised the safety of the region scaring out travelers, but Uganda’s UPDF army in its capacity does the best to ensure that safety of the region is uncompromised. Today the Karamoja region and all borders to neighboring countries particularly DR Congo and South Sudan safety is guaranteed.
Political safety, destination safety, food safety, the summery of such combination ensures your safe drive into the Pearl of Africa.
Political security, though there might be some kinds of political violence especially in Kampala, but travelers remain free to drive to any places they wish without any disturbance.
Destination safety, are the all tourist destinations including national parks, places of natural importance, cultural areas across the region are safe for self-drive.
For security purpose, adhere to advices rendered by your operators, travelers on self-drive are always advised not drive beyond recommended time especially beyond.
Photography sites especially national parks and landscapes
Are opting for photography self-drive trip in Uganda? Then this must not be a solo drive, advisably must be a dual or more.
Uganda has best photographing spots for the 360 angle to the 180 ground photographs. National Parks have always suggested incredible instagram and pinterest photos.
With that 4k mac or sonny, the best option would be 4×4 vehicles with a pop-up rooftop is such an amazing undertaking with your self-drive vehicle.
Greater animals like the giant apes (mountain gorilla and chimpanzees), unique animals like the endemic golden monkeys, the Big Five, crowds of antelope species, native and guest bird species, pools of hippos and crocodiles.
Landscapes like waterfalls, who doesn’t want a portrait or a landscape at the top of Murchison falls with a magnificent view of the most powerful falls in the world, with a thunderous sound, the falls create a changing rainbow every time the sun changes so don’t miss the wonder shoots.
Series of green dormant volcanoes, snowcapped mountain peak, larger calderas, series of craters and many other considerations, Uganda indeed calls for the best photographing trips.
Meet Ugandans, are very hospitable people and when ask to take a photo with them, my God it’s like they always waiting for the moment.
The other interesting part is the traditional housing of Uganda especially for the case of upcountry, thatched houses and communal home stays like Manyatta for Karamajongs northeastern Uganda is incredible memory to store on your disk.
Through the 10 national parks and 12 national reserves and other tourist destination, the whole enchilada offer perfect spots. There is no extra charge for the charges for vehicles going for photographing self-drive, as well have to only pay your entrance to any destination and arrange your gadgets to superb encounter.
Out of the traffic zone
Out of the Kampala traffic hurdles, then have a freedom to resume your timing when seated behind the wheels. Considering driving within the Kampala metropolitan where traffic is always characterized with jam especially with rush hours.
Experience the leisure moments when driving against sparsely filled with vehicle, time management and traffic breaks and engagements are no longer the order to follow, but only acceleration matters.
Beyond Kampala metropolitan and some other bigger cities, traffic jam is not a game of Uganda roads. Only have to adhere to traffic rules and just expect traffic police stops which is not your worry provided your permit is at hand when seated behind the wheels.
Driving in the upcountry is at ease, and brings you a piece of mind to enjoy the en-route rewards of the journey at your own pace.
Lifted Covid 19 Restrictions
The much hard cov-19 restrictions have been lifted in Uganda, and there is an eased clearance for travelers in the country. Indeed, Uganda has uplifted most of the restrictions which has called for many travelers to flock into the country for their admired trips.
For travelers with full vaccination certificate no longer need to take the PCR test with for inbound travelers. And for travelers with no vaccination certificate, need to have PCR test done within 72hours before their travel date.
There is no PCR test done for inbound travelers passing at Entebbe airport. This elongated practice of meeting the Covid-19 criteria had even taken the freedom of travelers. Currently, it’s much freedom when opting for a self-drive trip in Uganda.
With no quarantine worries, with the post-covid time, drive across borders; enjoy all your destinations of interest while in Uganda. Associate with people and drive anywhere, it’s all safe concerning covid-19 pandemic.
Get to know about Uganda’s special self-driving destinations