Short answerThe cheapest gorilla permit advertised anywhere is the DR Congo's at roughly ~$400 — and you cannot buy it. Virunga National Park has been closed to tourism since March 2020 on security grounds. Of the options you can actually book, the cheapest is Uganda in low season at $600, against $800at peak and Rwanda's flat $1,500.
Search for the cheapest way to see mountain gorillas and the answer appears immediately: the Congo, at around ~$400, roughly half Uganda's price and a quarter of Rwanda's. Pages quoting it are still being published. The number is real. The booking is not.
The cheapest permit you cannot buy
| Country | Permit | Bookable? |
|---|---|---|
| DR Congo — Virunga NP | ~$400 | No. Closed to tourism since March 2020 on security grounds. |
| Uganda — low season | $600 | Yes, in the months UWA designates as low season |
| Uganda — peak season | $800 | Yes, year-round |
| Rwanda — Volcanoes NP | $1,500 | Yes, flat rate with no seasonal variation |
| Uganda — Habituation Experience | $1,800 | Yes, Rushaga sector only, 4 issued per day |
So the honest answer to “which is cheapest” is Uganda, and specifically Uganda in the months the Wildlife Authority prices down. Everything else on that table is either more expensive or unavailable.
What happened to the $400 permit
Virunga National Park in eastern DR Congo is the oldest national park in Africa and holds a share of the same mountain gorilla population as Uganda and Rwanda. Its permit was priced well below its neighbours, and for years it was the budget route.
It closed to tourism in March 2020. The immediate cause was the pandemic, but it did not reopen with everywhere else, because the underlying problem is armed conflict in North Kivu rather than a health emergency. The park has lost rangers in the line of duty in significant numbers. It remains closed.
The actual cheapest option
With the Congo off the table, the comparison is Uganda against Rwanda, and it is not close on price.
| Uganda | Rwanda | |
|---|---|---|
| Permit, peak | $800 | $1,500 |
| Permit, low season | $600 | $1,500 — no seasonal reduction |
| Lodging, comparable tier | Lower | Higher across the board |
| Ground transfers | Longer, but cheaper | Short, sealed roads, higher day rates |
| Minimum viable trip | About 4 days | About 3 days |
| Permits issued per day | Many more — peak dates obtainable | Fewer, sells out earlier |
Rwanda is not overpriced so much as differently priced: it is selling a three-day trip to people whose time costs more than the permit difference. If your constraint is money rather than days, Uganda wins clearly. The full comparison is in Uganda vs Rwanda for gorilla trekking, and the permit mechanics in gorilla permit prices explained.
Uganda's low season, properly explained
The $600 permit is a real saving of $200 per person, and it is the single largest lever available to anyone trying to do this trip cheaply. Two things to understand about it.
The months are set by UWA and change. They fall in the wetter parts of the year, but the exact list is a tariff decision rather than a fixed feature of the calendar, and it has moved between cycles. Never assume a month qualifies — confirm it for your dates.
You are buying rain, not a worse trek. The gorillas are there year-round and treks run in all weather. What changes is the walking: steeper, muddier, more slipping, and a genuine argument for hiring a porter and gaiters. In exchange the forest is emptier, lodges discount alongside the permit, and photographs come out with better light than the harsh dry-season midday.
Where the rest of the money goes
Fixating on the permit is the classic budgeting error, because it is rarely more than half the trip.
| Line | What drives it |
|---|---|
| Gorilla permit | Fixed government fee. Identical from every operator — nobody discounts it. |
| Lodging | The biggest variable. Bwindi has genuine budget, mid-range and luxury options and the spread is wide. |
| Getting to Bwindi | A light aircraft saves most of a day each way and costs accordingly. Driving is much cheaper and takes 8–10 hours. |
| Vehicle and guide | Charged per day, so trip length matters more than distance. |
| Park entry and activities | Separate from the permit — a Batwa walk or a second park each add. |
| Porter and tips | Small sums, and the part that reaches the community around the park most directly. |
More on the whole picture in how much an African safari costs, and on the fly-versus-drive decision in road safari vs fly-in safari.
Six ways to cut cost that actually work
- Trek in a low-season month. $200 off the permit and lower lodge rates at the same time. The largest single saving available.
- Drive rather than fly to Bwindi. It costs you most of a day each way and saves a great deal. Break it with an overnight rather than pushing through.
- Trek from Uganda, not Rwanda— or fly into Kigali and cross the border to trek on Uganda's permit, which is the routing in combining Uganda and Rwanda.
- Drop a tier on lodging, not on nights.Bwindi's mid-range and budget properties are decent and the saving is real. Cutting the buffer night to afford a better lodge is the wrong trade.
- Travel as a pair or a small group. Vehicle, guide and transfers are charged per trip, so the per-person cost falls sharply from one traveller to two.
- Add parks rather than repeat trips. The expensive part of coming to Uganda is coming to Uganda. Adding Queen Elizabeth to a gorilla trip costs far less per day than a separate holiday later.
Four false economies
And the ones that cost more than they save.
- One night at Bwindi. Saves a night, risks the permit. A missed briefing is a total loss with no rebooking.
- Skipping the porter. It is a small sum, it materially improves your day on a steep wet trail, and it is the most direct transfer of your money into the village at the trailhead.
- A quote that beats everyone on the permit line. The permit is a fixed government fee. Nobody has a cheaper one. A quote that undercuts it is either excluding it or is not real.
- Booking the lodge before the permit.The permit names a sector and Bwindi's sectors are hours apart on rough roads — compared here. Getting this backwards has cost people a day of driving on trek morning.
We quote the permit at cost, tell you plainly which months carry the low-season rate, and will say when driving is the better call rather than selling you the flight. Look at how our gorilla trips are built, or tell us your budget and we will tell you honestly what it does and does not reach.
Cheapest gorilla trekking: common questions
What is the cheapest country for gorilla trekking? Of the countries you can actually book, Uganda — $600 for a permit in the low-season months, $800 the rest of the year. The DR Congo's $400 permit is the cheapest on paper, but Virunga National Park has been closed to tourism since March 2020 on security grounds, so it cannot be booked.
Can you still trek gorillas in the DRC for $400? Not in Virunga National Park, which holds the DRC's mountain gorillas and has been closed to tourism since March 2020. Kahuzi-Biéga in eastern DRC does still receive visitors for eastern lowland gorillas, a different subspecies, but the security situation in the region means most operators and insurers will not plan around it.
How much does gorilla trekking cost in total? The permit is the largest single line but rarely half the total. A realistic all-in figure for a short Uganda gorilla trip, including permit, transfers, lodging and guiding, generally runs into the low thousands of dollars per person. Where you land inside that depends mostly on lodge tier and whether you fly or drive to the park.
When is the Uganda gorilla permit cheapest? In the low-season months designated by the Uganda Wildlife Authority, when the foreign non-resident permit drops from $800 to $600. Those months fall in the wetter parts of the year and are set by UWA rather than fixed permanently — they change between tariff cycles, so confirm the current list before booking around them.
Is Rwanda or Uganda cheaper for gorilla trekking? Uganda, substantially. Uganda's permit is $800 at peak and $600 in low season against Rwanda's flat $1,500, and Uganda's lodging and ground costs are lower too. Rwanda's advantage is time rather than money — Volcanoes National Park is around two hours from Kigali airport.
Are there discounted or last-minute gorilla permits? Uganda's low-season rate is the only official discount, and it applies to designated months rather than to individual bookings. Last-minute permits do sometimes exist through cancellations, but they are unpredictable and a poor thing to build a trip around. Anyone offering a permit below the government rate is not selling you a permit.
Sources
- Uganda Wildlife Authority — Gorilla trekking permits and tariffsAccessed 29 Jul 2026
- Rwanda Development Board — Volcanoes National Park — permits and tariffsAccessed 29 Jul 2026
- Virunga National Park — Park status and visitor informationAccessed 29 Jul 2026