Apoka Lodge hotel and rest camp is operated by Uganda Safari Company – whose hotels now fall under the ‘Wild places Lodges’ umbrella. The same Lodge Company operates Semliki Lodge and the Emin Pasha hotel. Apoka safari lodge hotel is situated in the heart of the Narus Valley in the Kidepo Valley National Park in Uganda consists of 1438 sq kilometers of remote wilderness. Kidepo is situated in the far Northern parts of the country where Uganda meets Kenya and Sudan. When you close your eyes and think of East Africa, the landscape you imagine - the jagged hills, the golden grasses, the plains dotted with wildlife, the soft glowing light - is likely to be Kidepo.

This is Uganda’s most remote park, far away from city life. Kidepo Valley National Park has been classified as semi-desert - but this classification can be very misleading. Expansive grassy plains are dotted with big rocky outcrops and flanked by steep jagged mountains. In the distance to the north, perfect triangular conical mountains rise out of Sudanese soil, to the east is the sudden drop of the Great Rift - we are at the western edge of this rift, looking down into Kenya’s Turkana country. Dry river beds zig zag across the park, fringed with borassus and sausage trees. Tracts of forest also feature in this park; many have yet to be explored. Wildlife in Kidepo Valley National Park is abundant. Lions, leopard, cheetah, elephant, giraffe, zebra (this is Uganda’s only park where giraffe and zebra are found together), possibly Africa’s largest herds of buffalo, hartebeest, waterbuck, bushbuck, warthog the list is endless. Better still, much of it can be seen from the privacy of your veranda or your outdoor bathtub, but the best way to see the wildlife is up close, on foot.

Apoka is probably the most northerly point in Africa where you can do a safari....and quite possibly the most peaceful. At Apokaguests can walk with trained guides, tracking game along a sandy dry riverbed or swim in Uganda’s only rock pool, and watch the animals at their watering hole at the same time. Apoka Safari Lodge overlooks the Narus River Valley, whose permanent water supply draws large herds of elephants and buffalo as well as more obscure mammals such as Jackson's hartebeests and Rothschild's giraffes. Thankfully far from the park's tsetse fly hot zones,

Apoka Lodge Hotel Accommodation
The rooms at Apoka luxury lodge have been built with comfort in mind. Everything is handmade by local craftsmen, everything is large and capacious. 10 expansive hotel rooms with natural canvas walls surround a rocky kopje with endless views across the savannah. With inside sitting rooms and private verandas there are plenty of places to relax, read and write letters. Big hand-hewn beds with soft duvets are draped with mosquito nets, hand-woven woolen carpets, extra large plush towels, oversized dressing gowns…you may be as far away from the city as you’ll ever be, but you won’t miss a thing.

Each room has its own ensuite bathroom with double sink and large tropical shower. Water is heated by solar power and there is plenty of it. Step outside to a sheltered terrace and slip into your own outdoor stone bathtub, big enough to fit the whole family. All rooms have electric lights, power points.Dining is communal, but there are also private niches, including the observation tower, which provides a breezy perch from where you can survey the yellow savanna, rolling foothills, Winding River, and distant mountain backdrop. Though at first it seems an eyesore, the pre-existing Uganda Wildlife Authority ranger barracks near the lodge serve a beneficial purpose: In addition to ant poaching duties, the rangers protect guests from dry-season brush fires.

Apoka lodge hotel is in the heart of Kidepo Valley National Park, tucked into the North-Eastern corner of Uganda. By a road safari it is at least 9 hours drive from Kampala, however most safaris to Apoka lodge involve daily flying safaris, air-charters from air charter companies like Eagle air or use the lodge’s private air plane there is an airstrip very near the lodge with transfers to and from this strip.
For photos of Apoka Lodge and the national park, please our tour consultants on

Apoka Safari lodge hotel review
African safaris and adventures, an expert Uganda tour operator, recently joined a group of family tourists on a tour of Apoka Safari lodge in Kidepo Valley National Park, and this is what they had to say.
We flew with Eagle Air, who have several scheduled flights a week to Gulu and Kitgum.  From Kitgum they can add an extra ‘hop’ to get you to Kidepo.    When we landed at the airstrip at Kidepo, the manager his able team of staff met us off the plane, loaded our luggage into a safari tour vehicle and drove us to the luxury Apoka Safari lodge, about five minutes away. Hot, dusty and thirsty from the flight, we were warmly greeted on our arrival with chilled face towels and refreshing cold drinks.   Already we were being pampered!

Apoka Lodge was listed in the launch issue of Canada’s La Vie de Luxe magazine. The letter from the Editor:” True luxury is about experience – having the opportunity to explore the world’s chicest hideaways…
“From the vantage point of your private veranda, off your wood, thatch and canvas “cottage room’, - one of Apoka’s ten, perched atop large rocky outcrops - soak up the gorgeous savannah panorama of remote Kidepo Valley National Park in northeast Uganda, among the most beautiful – and underrated – destinations in East Africa. Watch the parade of giraffe, elephant, buffalo, antelope, zebra and some 200 bird species. The interiors and amenities of Apoka complement the natural landscape outside – cream and chocolate carpets, plush white towels, Egyptian cotton bed linens, outdoor bathtubs carved out of the rock face. Join the other guests as they track game with well-trained guides along sandy riverbeds. Then retreat to your luxurious, blissfully isolated room underneath the stars, as lions roar in the distance.”
Are they rooms? Are they cottages?  Are they bandas?  Whatever they are called, they are lovely. 

There are 10 Cottages at Apoka Safari lodge, built of wood, canvas and thatch.  Some have one big king size bed, some have two queen size beds.  The design and décor in the rooms is well thought out – it may appear simple, but nothing is lacking, and the simplicity lets the stunning scenery outside take centre stage.  Hardwood floors, naturally dyed carpets in hues of chocolates and cream, plush white towels, handwoven cream bedspreads, long white curtains…all relaxing in a ‘Safari zen’ sort of way. All of the beds are romantically draped in mosquito netting; all the rooms have electric lights and power points (the generator is turned off at 11pm each night).

Best of all, the rooms have en-suite bathrooms with flush toilets, double basins and a large shower with hot and cold running water. The shower at Apoka Safari Lodge is the best shower I have had since moving to Uganda - the water pressure was amazing, and the solar heating works a treat! Each room also has an outside bathtub (big enough for two or three!) that has been carved out of the rock face - each bathtub has its own private view across the savanna to the mountains.  You can lie in the bath, drink in hand, watching zebra, buffalo and waterbuck wandering by.  If that isn’t enough, every room has a private veranda and large comfortable sitting area with sofa and armchair.  You can read your book, contemplate life, work on your laptop, or gaze out your picture window at the view. .

Our final game drive on the last day yielded a total surprise, Lions and lots of them. Draped in a tree.  It is common belief that in Uganda, tree-climbing lions are only found in Ishasha… and here was proof to the contrary.  Two lionesses, with great, fat bellies, were lying in the thick branches of a sausage tree.  Beneath them, in the cool shade and tall grasses were several cubs, mewling for attention.  We sat and watched.  Here we were, in the far remote reaches of the country, all alone in the huge national park, no other tourists, no other vehicles, watching lions in a tree. What a treat.
After a great adventure, after being spoilt rotten and treated to absolute luxury by the staff of Apoka Lodge, we left on the next Eagle Air flight out of the Kidepo Valley National Park feeling completely relaxed and eager to return to this very beautiful, remote part of the country.