Uganda has emerged as one of the world’s cheapest places to travel in 2019. Therefore, if you want to save money in 2019 and still travel the world, you’re in luck.
Every year, Forbes taps into experts and influencers to find out their picks for cheap travel in the upcoming year. For 2019, the magazine convinced a group of travel wizards to open their little black books and recommend their favorite places to travel on a budget.
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They also shared the smartest ways to see these places (affordable hotels, bargain restaurants), and they zeroed in on some money-saving ways to visit otherwise expensive locations. While experts like the Global Business Travel Association are predicting that travel prices will rise sharply in 2019, you don’t need to worry. With this list of inexpensive places in hand, you’ll be able to travel for less.
Where: Uganda
The East African country was chosen by Melissa Klurman, a travel expert, writer and editor and contributor at Reader’s Digest, Frommer’s Travel Guides and Parents, among other publications.
Why: There are just 1,000 mountain gorillas in the world, and to see them, intrepid travelers need to journey to the Virunga Mountains that run along the border between Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo or to the aptly named Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in Uganda.
Rwanda is currently the site of high-end luxury lodge development — we’re talking $1,500 per person per night kind of swanky rooms — and gorilla trekking permits that doubled in price recently from $750 to $1,500. Fabulously low key and friendly Uganda, however, hasn’t seen this influx of luxury tourism yet. Instead, peak season permit are $600, and rainy season permits go for just $450 a day. You’ll still have the same amazing gorilla experience, including well-trained guides who lead you through the dense forest to find the secluded primates. And you don’t need to give up a posh lodge experience to stay in Uganda.
At Volcanoes Safaris Bwindi Lodge, you’ll have a private chalet, butler service, a post-trek massage and all meals for $340 per person per night in the off season.
Click here to see the full list of the cheapest places to travel in 2019, and compare it to the best budget travel destinations in 2018 and 2017.
