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Essential Checklist When Hiring a Car in Uganda

Car hire is one the fastest growing travel option in Uganda. It is normally used by foreign people on a vacation, weekend family/group excursion, business and political conferences. Car hire services are used by very many people due to their convenience, safety and availability.
However, there are certain things that have to be put in place to have a good car hire experience both you as a client and the car hire company and the items that should be on the checklist of car hire are as below;
You should not forget to carry your money transfer electronic cards. If you are intending to rent a car in Uganda, you should carry a visa card or credit card with you. This is at times considered as the security deposit you supposed to leave with the car hire company to act as back up cover for the damages that may be caused on the car that are beyond insurance policy cover. There should be some money on these cards that can be withdrawn to cover for the damages caused. The electronic cards can also act as the provisional mechanism for the extra costs you may incur on the car hire trip that may not have been budgeted.
You should have your driving license. Any car hire company in any country will ask for a driving license to prove that you are eligible to drive a car. The driving license should have a language that is comprehended in Uganda. Normally driving licenses that have an English or French language are easily accepted in Uganda without a request for a translated one.
You should also have an identification document where hiring a car in Uganda. This must be in form of a valid passport or national identity card. These documents verify who you are and where you come from. No one on earth can trust with a multimillion property (car hire) without keeping hold of your identification. This shows that you are a genuine person and incase of theft of the car, they can easily track you down through your identification.
You should also make sure that you have the full amount of money that you agreed to hire a car from the car provider. In car hire business, there is nothing like taking a service on debt. The least the car provider can do; is by accepting a half the amount of money you agreed and the rest to be paid at the end of your car hire service.
The above are the items you as the client is supposed to present to the car hire company.
For the car hire company these are the items on the checklist that it is supposed to deliver to you
The insurance for the car should be available and valid. A good car hire company should have an insurance policy for third party damages and car damages for each and every car for hire. The insurance must be in place to protect you from any damages that are unforeseen while driving in Uganda.
You should also ask for extra facilities if need be. Facilities like GPS in case you are going to have a self drive tour in Uganda or a baby seat if you are traveling with a kid in the car. These facilities help you to have a convenient and enjoyable car hire services.
You should also check the car if it is in good condition. Scrutinize the car very well as you check if there is any physical or mechanical damage on the car and also take some pictures of the car before you set off for your journey. This makes you know which damages you are liable to incase of any accident that may occur while driving the car.
If the above items are on the checklist of car hire service, you are more like to have very peaceful and enjoyable travel experience in Uganda as they will be no misunderstanding between you and the car hire company.

Rewards of Renting a Car for Your Uganda Travels

Most recently many travelers both foreign and national have turned to car hire services as the best transportation means. The foreigners use car hire services for wildlife safari tour, city tours, excursions at the beach or resort and business and political meetings and the nationals use these services for family travel, wedding ceremonies, school tours, business meetings and also dates with their beloved ones. The people who have use the car hire services Uganda have had good remarks of them and are very will to use them when the opportunity comes.
The following are some of the rewards of car hire services in Uganda;
Car hire services bring comfort while traveling. Remember in car hire, there is only one passenger in the car and for the case of group travel the cars are very spacious and everyone has room to stretch his limbs. The cars also have very soft and modified seats which give the passenger to travel in very relaxed way without any discomfort.
Car hire services are less costly most especially when you are traveling in a group as you pay a collective fare for the car hire. There is nothing like every individual to pay differently. The price is square, you just pay as whole team and you are good to go for the car hire services which might not be the car with other transportation means like public means where everyone has to pay individual and in the end it may be a high price if summed up together.
Car hire services in Uganda are very convenient and reliable. most of the times car hire picks up the customer right for a certain point or station and takes him/her direct to his/her preferred destination without any stopovers. They also work 24/7, these services are available any time the customer needs them let it be night or day. They are there to amend the loopholes of public transport and also ground transportation means.
This traveling option gives the customer safety on the road as the car for hire is always in insured and in a good condition and in case there is a chauffeur on the wheels, he is always well trained and professional. The insurances cover all the damages that may occur to the car in case of an accident so you are less liable to the costs of the damages occurred. There is also road assistance that can help the client at the earliest time possible when he/she gets a car break down.
Using car hire services for long distance travel reduces wear and tear of your personal car in case you are residential client in Uganda. So one can rent a car to spare his/her personal car for wearing and tearing out due to long distance travel he/she might be going to engage in.
The customer gets an opportunity to ride in his/her dream car or a new model car. Car hire companies Uganda normally have exquisite vehicles that are a dream to drive for everyone.  So by using car hire services the customer gets the satisfaction of riding in very nice car or a car of his/her dream.
When the customer uses car hire services in Uganda he/she get privacy and independence while traveling as he/she is the only passenger or traveler in the car. The customer has room to do whatever he/she wants as long as it does not violent their agreement with the car rental company.
Car hire services make the customer to create a good impression and also command self esteem. This normally applies to business men meeting their business clients as the clients can consider the businessman as a legitimate person when he/she comes out of a nice car to meet the client and the for the case of lovers, the lady can perceive the man a very responsible and elegant one if he picks up in a very nice car.
Car hire services save time as these services are always on time to transfer their customer to any destination they may want to go and there also no stopovers which can lead to wastage of time. So with saving time the traveler is able to cover a wide range of destination within a short period of time.
With all the rewards that the car hire services bring to the traveler, every traveler should resort to using such services because they are the best ground traveling options in Uganda.

Rhino Tracking In Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary

Rhino trekking is a recent though an interesting wildlife adventure in Uganda, only done in Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary.
A few decades ago, Uganda was a home to over 700 white Rhinoceros; until massive rhino poaching took the center stage and hundreds of black and white rhinos in Uganda’s wild could not survive the tragedy. Rhinos are one of Africa’s big 5 mammals and a name rhino originates from the Greek words Rhino meaning nose and “ceros” meaning horn.
The white Rhinos aren’t exactly white and neither is black actually. The word white was just merely mispronounced by the ancient Dutch settlers in South Africa from the Dutch word “wyd” meaning wide. But in actual sense the Rhinos both the black and the white are grey in color.
During civil wars and political insurgencies in Uganda in the 1970’s the number of Rhinos reduced dramatically. Currently they are only a few left in Uganda. Only two found at the Entebbe Zoo and the remaining others are under the watchful eye by the Ugandan wildlife Authority in the Ziwa Rhino sanctuary in Nakasongola along Kampala- Gulu highway just 180 km from Kampala the capital of Uganda.
By the support from Rhino fund Uganda and Uganda wildlife Authority, Ziwa sanctuary is a home to over 15 Rhinos making the place a progressive sight that is also visited by different people across the world.
The Rhino is among the big five mammals, including Elephants, Rhinos, Hippos, the buffaloes, Elephants and the lion. The Rhino is also the second largest land mammal in the whole world.
Some of the interesting facts of the white rhino are, it is a social, similarly to the Elephants and they also have small families called the “crash”. The dominant male plays the role of the father and also the protector.
One unique thing is that the Rhino mourns the death of a family member; they have a thick inches skin up to three inches. The ziwa sanctuary is the only place in Uganda that one can have an amazing experience of Rhino tracking.
Enter the territory of Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary’s rhinos on foot. Rhino Fund Uganda has well skilled and informed guides that will guide you through the bush to where the rhinos are on the day of your visit. The guides are there to keep you safe from harm so listening to the safety briefing prior to trekking is very paramount. Rhino trekking is preferred mostly as an enroute activity to the Murchison Falls national park, or cutting the long journey short to the North Eastern based Kidepo valley national park.
While at the sanctuary you will also encounter a wide range of other wildlife species including Uganda Kobs, reed bucks, Oribis, rich bucks, hippos and crocodiles.
Other activities include; Bird watching, and the famous Shoe bill canoe ride, the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary is also home to over 250 bird species and is a great sport for serious birders interested in finding those rare African species. Experienced bird guides will enable you enjoy this experience.
The Rhino tracking excursion lasts for about 1-2 hours; Visit this Rhino sanctuary in Uganda and witness these critically endangered species in their natural habitat at a close range, while contributing to their conservation.

International Birders Praise Uganda

Uganda receive the three prominent international birders recently, one is the organizer of the world’s largest bird fair in the UK called Tim Appleton, the other is Bill Thompson, the editor and co-publisher of Bird Watcher’s Digest, one of the most read North America’s birding magazines, and Dominic Mitchell, who is the founder and managing editor of Bird Watch, Europe’s leading monthly magazine. These three prominent international birders roomed the country, a first ever since the Big Birding Week started 11 years ago and paid glowing tribute to Uganda’s nature and proved that Uganda is really a pearl of Africa.

As he was speaking on the event, Appleton said that Uganda has the possibility to attract ten of thousand traveler’s whole over the world because Uganda is proved as a bird’s paradise with all most all types of birds. These entire where said during the launch of the big birding week at forest resort in Kasenge, Mukono district. He also noted that, ‘’Uganda has the highest population of birds not only in the east Africa but also in Africa, and not only seeing birds but birders also have the chance of seeing other mammals and primates like the gorillas on a gorilla safari and chimpanzees among others,’’. Appleton, however, noted that Uganda needs to improve its infrastructure if it is to attract more birdwatchers. He also added that Uganda needs more nice wide trails for better viewing of birds because there is no point in having small trails where if some in front of you sees a bird, the one behind misses it,” he said’’. He also asked the Uganda tourism board (UTB) to get involved in the UK Bird Fair, which, he said, attracted more than 22,000 people from 68 different countries annually.

Uganda is a God gifted country with very many species of birds and Uganda is considered the best safari destination for birders and it boosts of more than 1,057 species accounting for 11%of the globe’s total and 50%of Africa’s. The African bird club ranking Uganda as home to two of the top 10 birding sites on the continent. Bwindi impenetrable national park is ranked number one birding destination and Murchison falls national park in the ninth position. Nature Uganda in 2003 started the concept of the birding week which is developed into the big birding day, this came after seeing the potential that lies in birds. This year the Uganda Tourism Board (UTB), Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) and Uganda Bird Guides’ Club, among others, partnered with Nature Uganda to organize the event which was so colorful.

Maria Mutagamba the minister of tourism, wildlife and antiquities was represented by Rosemary Komutagi, the acting commissioner for tourism development in the ministry of Tourism. As she was speaking on the event, she said that very may bird species visiting Uganda had increased and this has resulted to the increase in the number of tourists who droop in to watch them in their natural habitat last year alone over 3,000 birders where registered in the country, according to Komutagi, spent $5,000 on average, bringing in $15 million. She urged tour operators to prioritize birds because they bring in more money than all the other tourism products. According to records she said, ‘’on approximation, each birder spends about 3 weeks on safari as compared to one week of a safari tourist’’

The executive director of nature Uganda Mr. Achilles Byaruhanga in his speech on the event said that despite the growing interest in birds and tourism in general, the number of birds is reducing, in the last 30 days over 90% that’s from 10,000 to 100,000 of the grey crown crane (crested crane), which is the country’s national symbol. “Although the interest is growing, we are losing the numbers. The challenge is matching the enthusiasm in bird watching to conservation,” he said. However he credited the decline to the fact that most of the birds are living outside the protected areas that’s on people’s private land, where they are easily killed. He said that there are over 34 birding areas according to the research carried out by Nature Uganda including Mabamba, Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Murchison fall national park, queen Elizabeth National Park among others. He said also that some thing must be done to preserve birds because they can easily migrate since they don’t need visa to fly.

Why Use A GPS When Traveling Around Uganda

Uganda is sometimes referred to as the pearl of Africa; it’s named due to its incredible variety of tourist attractions that inhabit the country, many people whole over the world jet in to have a glance on God’s creature. It’s a home to a variety of wildlife, beautiful landscape and rich cultural history. Some of the tourists prefer travelling under the guidance of a safari guide because it’s a much safer option  used more frequently by many travelers in the recent years. However many  travelers have started embracing the self-drive option which many believe that its much cheaper also offering privacy and freedom. Uganda offers a variety of interesting destination to visit all offering unique attractions however they requires adequate knowledge about routes, shops and accommodation and this where the Global Positioning System (GPS) comes in to help. Some experienced travelers know how to use a travel map but the GPS is a way better option as it offers real time positioning.

Cheaper option

This option is much cheaper when you compare it with hiring a full driver/guide. if you book with us at Uganda self drive,  we will give it to you at a fee of usd$ 10 per day cheaper than hiring a driver we charge usd$20 for a driver/guide per day.  So it’s cheap and you get the much freedom you need and avoid going by a guide’s itinerary.

Good Navigation

The Global positioning system offers the best navigation service than any other system, if you rent a car with it you are assured of not getting lost on the way, as this garget offers you a chance to type in destination you want to visit and it will draw the path showing distance and time taken to get there. Not only that but it gives you an opportunity to mark some so the interesting route, shop, restaurant, bank or tourist attraction to remind you along the way when you need to make a stopover. It can even remind you the right path in case you get lost. Indeed it’s the best garget to use while on your self-drive safari most especially in the destination you are not well conversant with.

Fuel Sparing

The moment you hire a car with a GPS garget, you have the chances of economizing on fuel, this comes as a result that the GPS will choose for you alternative and shortest routes to use hence help you make fuel estimates since you already know the distance for each route.

Portable and Easy to use

The GPS is very portable as a phone with easy to follow instruction on the main surface. You can easily place it at the window and connect to the car since some come with a rubber stamp. So if you are planning to hire a car form a rental car company, you should also consider getting GPS to guide you around especially if you are going to a destination you do no well. For more information you can write to us at info@ugandaselfdrive.com or you can call us directly on +256-751552950