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Community members in south-western Uganda
About Us

A Uganda-based team, built around Uganda.

Our story

Biikuya Trails Uganda was built on one simple idea: the best journeys come from people who actually know the land. Not a call centre in another time zone, not a brochure written at a desk — guides who have spent their working lives in these forests, on these roads and at these viewpoints, and who go home to them afterwards.

Between our two founders sit twenty-four years of professional guiding across Uganda. Years of tracking gorillas in Bwindi before the mist lifts off the ridge, of reading which way a herd will move at Paraa, of knowing which lodge kitchen will still feed you at ten at night after a long transfer from Kidepo. That knowledge isn't something a company can buy in; it accumulates one trip at a time, one wrong turn at a time.

We also grew up with these places as neighbours rather than attractions. The forest edge at Bwindi is farmland and school runs as well as gorilla habitat. Ishasha is a fishing village before it is a lion sighting. Part of our job is to make sure you meet the country that way too — invited into it, not simply driven through it — and that the money you spend reaches the households whose cooperation keeps these parks standing.

We built this site the way we would want a trip planned: real information before a sales pitch. A wildlife guide you can search, a seasonal calendar that tells you honestly which month suits you, a budget calculator that gives you a number before you have to ask for one. Every photograph here was taken by us, on our own trips. By the time you speak to us, you already know roughly what you want — our work is to make it run beautifully.

Biikuya Trails Uganda is a registered trading name of Biikuya Afric Company Limited. All payments, bookings, and financial transactions are securely processed by Biikuya Afric Company Limited.

Meet the founders

Xavier Asaaba & Herbert Muzoora — your guides to the Pearl of Africa.

Two Ugandan-born guides with a combined twenty-four years in the field. One of them will read your enquiry, and one of them will almost certainly be standing at Entebbe arrivals when you land.

Xavier Asaaba, co-founder of Biikuya Trails Uganda, at the snowy summit of Margherita Peak in the Rwenzori Mountains

Xavier Asaaba

Co-founder & Lead Guide

Xavier has spent over a decade leading treks through Uganda's forests and savannahs, and has stood on the summit of Margherita Peak more times than he can comfortably count. He reads terrain and weather the way other people read a timetable — where a gorilla family is likely to have nested, when the light over Ishasha will be worth the early start, how to keep a group calm and curious when the trail turns to mud. Guests remember him for the quiet moments as much as the big ones.

Herbert Muzoora, co-founder of Biikuya Trails Uganda, in Biikuya Trails Uganda branded cap and shirt in the forest

Herbert Muzoora

Co-founder & Head of Journeys

Herbert brings twelve years of hands-on experience and an unusually sharp instinct for logistics across Uganda's more remote corners — Kidepo, Karamoja, the Semliki valley. Long before Biikuya Trails Uganda existed he had a reputation for turning transfer days into the part of the trip people talk about afterwards: a story at the right moment, a detour to a roadside market, a stop at a viewpoint that is not on any map. He plans every itinerary personally.

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Destinations covered in detail, from Bwindi to Kidepo

6

Signature journeys, from a 3-day escape to a 21-day circuit

100%

Itineraries built on private vehicles, not shared group transport

What guides us

Four things we don't compromise on.

These are not marketing lines. They are the four decisions that most often change how a Uganda trip actually feels on the ground.

Local first

We are based in Uganda, not routing you through a foreign call centre. The guides, drivers and planners who answer your questions know these parks and these roads because they work them every week — which is why the advice you get is specific rather than general.

Inspire first, sell last

We would rather you spend ten minutes in our Wildlife Encyclopedia or the Seasonal Safari Calendar than sit through a pitch. If Uganda is the right country for your next trip, that becomes obvious on its own — and if a different month or a shorter route suits you better, we will say so.

Money that stays here

Revenue-sharing with park-adjacent communities, local employment, and cultural visits and homestays booked directly with the families who host them. That is the practical detail behind the word 'responsible' — the Responsible Tourism Centre sets out exactly where it goes.

Honest, not polished

Where something is uncertain — a receding Rwenzori glacier, a park still rebuilding its wildlife numbers, a gorilla group that moved high up the ridge — we tell you before you book. A good trip is built on accurate expectations, not brochure language.

Our guides

Drawn from the communities bordering the parks.

Most of the rangers, trackers and guides we work with grew up in villages on a park boundary. They read the terrain and the animals' habits from a lifetime spent alongside them, not from a training manual — which is why a tracker can tell you a gorilla family fed here two hours ago from a bent stem you would have walked straight past. It is also, practically, how tourism money reaches the households whose cooperation keeps these parks protected: wages, permit revenue-sharing, school fees, and craft and produce bought locally. Our Responsible Tourism Centre sets out the specifics.

Responsible Tourism Centre
Gorilla trekking guide in BwindiSafari lodge
Let's talk

Tell us what you're hoping for.

Ask us anything — the right month, whether the trek is within your fitness, how much it really costs. A founder replies, usually within a day, and there is no obligation attached to the conversation.