1 Day Kampala City Tour - Uganda

1 Day Kampala City Tour Uganda

1 Day Kampala City Tour Uganda takes you sight seeing in Uganda’s capital city including a visit to the Uganda Museum, National Theater, Craft Center, Owino market, Kasubi Tombs, Shaka’s lake, Kabaka’ s palace, Kibuli Mosque, the Bahai Temple, Namirembe Cathedral, Makerere University and other areas of cultural interest.  1 Day Kampala City Tour Uganda safari starts in the morning with a visit to Rubaga, Lubiri, Namirembe and Old Kampala Mosque. Kampala is Uganda’s Capital City seated on seven hills of Kibuli, Rubaga, Makerere, Kololo, Namirembe, Mengo, and Nakasero. These hills are shared among educational, administrative and religious institutions.

You will then proceed to Kasubi tombs where 4 of the Buganda kabakas (Kings) were buried. You will leave Kasubi tombs for Makerere University which was founded as Makerere College and the 1st/ oldest University in Uganda.

You will drive to Kamwokya for a visit to the Uganda National Museum where you can catch a summarized collection of Uganda’s Culture and History without trying very hard.

 You will then head to the only Bahai Temple in East African where you will get information about the Bahai Faith and how it came to Uganda. The temple has very eye catching gardens that you will enjoy viewing. Drive back to Kampala where the Tour ends.

 Kampala City Tour Day Trip Prices Includes:
Lunch
Entrance fees
Transportation by safari vehicle
Visit to the cultural and religious sites
Accommodation and meals as per itinerary
Bottled water

Kampala City Tour Day Trip Prices Excludes:
Expenses of personal nature
Air fare
Personal insurance,
personal shopping bills and drink
Visa
laundry
tips to local guides
telephone and porter fee while walking

Kampala City Tour Day Trip Itinerary

After breakfast leave hotel, explore the seven hills of Kampala (popularly known as Rome of Uganda). We visit the several places among which include:

The Uganda Museum:

A display of Uganda’s cultural heritage where one can see ethnological and natural-historical exhibitions. It is a vivid reminder of the country’s colorful past. The Uganda Museum (founded in 1908) in Kampala has exhibits of traditional culture, archeology, history, science, and natural history. It regularly presents performances of traditional music.

One of its most interesting features is the collection of traditional musical instruments, which one is free to play. The National Museum of Uganda is located in Kampala, the capital. The museum contains rich materials from Uganda and is a must see.

The Uganda Society’s library is housed in one room of the Uganda National Museum. Started in the 1930’s by a group of scholars, the collection is comprised of approximately 3,000 volumes, maps, periodicals and photographs, all pertaining to African history, culture, sociology, travel and science.

In addition to its collection, the library houses the books of the East African Wildlife Society and a number of books from the museum which were given to the society’s care some years ago.

Although the library was a circulating library for many years, due to the limited availability of the books and their value, the collection is currently available for reference use only.

Kasubi Tombs
Kasubi tombs where fallen kings of Buganda Kingdom are buried. The Tombs of Buganda Kings at Kasubi constitute a site embracing almost 30 ha of hillside within Kampala district.

At its core on the hilltop is the former palace of the Kabakas of Buganda, built in 1882 and converted into the royal burial ground in 1884. Four royal tombs now lie within the Muzibu Azaala Mpanga, the main building, which is circular and surmounted by a dome.

 It is a major example of an architectural achievement in organic materials, principally wood, thatch, reed, wattle and daub. The site’s main significance lies, however, in its intangible values of belief, spirituality, continuity and identity.

 Nakasero Market

At the noon of Saturday, January, 1895, the right Reverend McKay advised the then Kabaka of Buganda to establish the first market in the Lubiri(Palace). In 1905 the market moved to Kabugube and this was a temporary structure.

Here you can find a variety of huge variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, mostly indigenous to Uganda. Across the street is a lower market, full of spices, legumes, grains, and hand -made house hold items.

This market is surrounded by a number of shops or dukas, where you find everything for the home. Hard ware, sanitary -ware and electrical shops surround the area. Owino market is one of the largest in this region of Africa.

The endless booths that line the chaotic alleys of Owino offer a mind-boggling array everything from homemade irons, to American hand-me-down-clothes with the Goodwill price tags still on then, to an amazing array of African foods, to any and everything else under the sun. Everything at Owino starts cheap and gets cheaper with bargaining.

If you’re in the market for souvenirs, check out the craft market on Buganda Road or the slightly larger crafts market behind the national theater near the Garden City complex. Also on Buganda Road across the street from the craft market you find a number of tailors if you are looking to have clothes sewn. And if you’re tired from shopping the (upscale) cafe 1000 Cups of Coffee is a relaxing Mzungu hangout.

Rubaga Hill

Rubaga hill taken-up by the Roman Catholics (and the first roman catholic church here); Rubaga hill was the location of the main palace of Kabaka Muteesa I who ruled Buganda between 1856 and 1884. The palace was struck by lightning and was rebuilt on neighboring Mengo Hill.

The first Roman Catholic missionaries to arrive in Buganda were Frenchmen, Father Pierre Lourdel Monpel and Brother Amans, who settled near the hill in 1879.

As the Catholic Church took root in the country, the missionaries were allocated land on Lubaga Hill. The construction of St. Mary’s Cathedral on Lubaga Hill took place between 1914 and 1925, with the assistance of monetary contributions from Roman Catholic congregations abroad. Later, the missionaries also built a hospital and a nursing school on the hill.

Today, Lubaga remains the seat of the headquarters of the Catholic Church in Uganda. It is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kampala.

The remains of the first African Catholic bishop in Uganda, Bishop Joseph Nakabaale Kiwanuka and those of the first African Catholic Cardinal, Cardinal Emmanuel Kiwanuka Nsubuga are kept in the Catholic Mission on the hill.

 Namirembe Cathedral

Namirembe Cathedral the Anglican Christians’ oldest church here; Mengo hill which has the headquarters of the traditional (the largest of Uganda’s traditional monarchies) the hill rises 4,134 feet (1,260 m) above sea level.

It stands adjacent to Mengo Hill, the seat of the Buganda Government. The history of the two hills is intertwined, geographically, politically and religiously. Namirembe is the location of St.

Paul’s Cathedral, the main place of worship of the Anglican Church in Uganda, from the time of its construction (1915 to 1919), until the 1960’s when the Cathedral became the seat of the Diocese of Namirembe.

At that time, the headquarters of the Church of Uganda moved to All Saints Church in Nakasero. The Anglican Faith is the religion most closely associated with the Buganda Monarchy since the end of the religious wars of the 1890s.

Visit the Kabaka’s lake (Kayanja Ka Kabaka), the largest man-made lake here, dug up on orders of the tyrant Sekkabaka Mwanga (also a former King), who needed it as an escape route besides being a place for water sport just adjacent to his kingdom headquarters– Mengo.

After drive to Kampala central visiting Nakasero market and a curio shop for some craft shops. This tour can be done any time of the year. It can also be done at the start or at the end of any of our other safari packages.