Katona Tours and Travel

Visited: May. 2024 Reviewed: Sep. 02, 2024 Submitted in:

My husband and I had unforgettable double gorilla trekking in Bwindi forest Uganda and volcanoes national park Rwanda. It was a life of times experience that we arranged through Katona Tours and Jackie helped us put this trip together. We had a lovely stay and are very happy how Katona arranged our trip. Chris our guide was very friendly and told us numerous facts and stories about Uganda and Rwanda. We felt very safe in the company of Chris, even more so because he basically speaks every local language there is in both countries and knows a lot of rangers and colleagues in the Tourism sector. Would definitely recommend a trip with Katona Tours!

Countries visited:

0People gave this
a kudu

We haven't the time to post all the wonderful details of our past vacations with Katona Tours and Travel for the past four years we have visited Uganda and Rwanda. Each year our whole experience has been thoughtfully & professionally arranged by the same Company Katona tours.
Jackie at Kampala office is professional from the time we book the Tours all the way through. It is never a problem when we change Itineraries or ask questions. We cannot recommend this company enough. We will be going back next year in late June as usual and this time we will concentrate on Uganda sleeping in high end lodges including Chobe safari lodge, Kyaninga lodge, Mweya safari lodge, Mount clouds lodge and Mihingo safari lodge.

Joe & Anne

Countries visited:

13People gave this
a kudu

How can I praise Jackie and her company Katona Tours?
I am so lucky to have used the services of this company.
My guide Caesar driving over some of the roughest roads with spectacular views was fantastic and we quickly formed a comfortable bond. Jackie was absolutely amazing with her fast informative responses. Thank you Katona, thank you Jackie, thank you Caesar.

Countries visited:

10People gave this
a kudu

We took a 7 day Gorilla Trek/Chimpanzee Trek/Safari provided by Katona Tours in May 2014. We were extremely satisfied with the great job done by Katona in planning and conducting our trip. Our trip included Bwindi, Queen Elisabeth NP, Kibale NP, and Murchison Falls NP.
Katona (Jackie in particular) was extremely helpful and responsive to all of our questions. We were nervous about trying to coordinate a trip from the other side of the world, so we had many questions in the months leading up to it. One of the reasons we selected Katona was their quick and thorough answers to our emails and calls. In our planning, we made inquiries with several tour agencies, but Katona was clearly the best in this regard.
We had the same guide (Richard) for the entire week. He was cheerfully waiting at the airport for our late arrival (near midnight), drove us to all of the parks, conducted our game drives, and got us back to the airport in time for our flight. Richard was enthusiastic, friendly, and very focused on making sure we had the best experience/adventure possible. In addition, he provided good advice and interesting information about Uganda. And finally, he did a great job of driving on a lot of rough roads.
The lodges selected for us by Katona had some of the best food and definitely the best service we have had anywhere. By the time our day activities were completed, we were able to relax comfortably and safely. There are detailed lodge reviews for the places we stayed on TripAdvisor.com, which I believe are accurate. Our lodges were Trekkers Tavern (Bwindi), Twin Lakes (Queen Elisabeth), Kibale Forest Camp (Kibale), and Fort Murchison Lodge (Fort Murchison).
Katona was also a great help in compensating for several failures by our airline (Delta/KLM). Delta delivered us to Entebbe 24 hours late and lost one of our bags. Despite our late arrival, Katona was able to make sure we were able to see all of the things we had planned. They were also able to get our bag to us as soon as the airline finally shipped it. This was a very difficult task because we were about a 6 hour drive away from Kampala/Entebbe when the bag arrived. We can’t thank Katona enough for the help.
In summary, we would highly recommend Katona. The primary reasons were the quick and thorough responses when planning the trip, our satisfaction with getting to see everything we wanted, their ability to assist when we had severe airline problems, and our great guide/driver. Uganda is a much different world than where we live, and Katona made sure we had a great adventure.

Countries visited:

12People gave this
a kudu

We would book with Katona Tours again in a heartbeat. Obtaining permits for gorilla trekking in August is difficult in a normal year. However, on June 1st 2012 the price of permits was increased by $250 per person, so there was tremendous demand. While we were told by several reputable companies in the U.S. that permits were sold out, Jackie, the office manager, at Katona was able to obtain two days of permits at the lower price. In addition, she booked us in our preferred lodges, which were supposedly unavailable. We are convinced Jackie does not sleep. Emails were answered promptly whether it was 2 P.M. Uganda time or 2 A.M. Mr. Katoto, the owner, and Jackie called us several times to communicate the status of permits and lodging.

Our six days in Rwanda were flawless and well-planned. Moses, our guide, was personable, reliable, punctual, and made sure we were with excellent gorilla guides. He even introduced us to his friend, the only one in his family to survive the genocide. We spent one day trekking the golden monkeys and two amazing days gorilla trekking. We also visited a Rwandan market and the Genocide Museum.

The cost of the identical trek was considerably less than the large U.S. companies. Jackie is active in the Uganda Tourism Association. Katona is a reputable and well run company. Don't hesitate to book with them.

Countries visited:

14People gave this
a kudu

This is an amazing safari company that has offered a lot to us. We booked a five-day tour to see gorillas in Bwindi forest, a wild life safari in Queen Elizabeth park and chimpanzees in Kyambura Lodge.

Being students and solo travelers, we spent five nights at Africa treasure home after the tour, a bed and breakfast facility located in Bukoto and operated by Jackie. We are having much fun since Jackie stays next door to our apartment, we just pop into hers any time without limitations. The apartments are fully furnished and reasonably priced.

At Africa treasure home Jackie offers self drive services around town. We have used one of her RV4 to get around Kampala, Jinja and Entebbe towns at 20USD plus gas per day which we think is very reasonable. The staff, especially Jackie and Richard the guide, have been so friendly and helpful throughout the booking process and our stay in Uganda. We will be leaving tomorrow and will miss you all. We can not recommend Katona Tours and Africa Treasure Home enough.
Suzie and Kirkland

Countries visited:

13People gave this
a kudu

Katona tours, Jackie in particular, has helped me to secure 17 gorilla passes for Volcano park in Rwanda. He has also sent scanned copies of these permits to me. My group members enjoy the trek exercise. This company is excellent and highly recommended.

Countries visited:

11People gave this
a kudu

I selected Katona mainly for their responsiveness and flexibility to my interest and budget
Jackie Najjuka the Managing director offered me lots of options of tour packages from which I picked a day gorilla tour.
As a single and solo traveler, I joined another group of trekkers that were booked into ones of the toughest gorilla groups. It took us 5 hours to find the gorillas, but it was an absolutely amazing experience. During the trek we encountered forest elephants, buffalo and golden monkeys. We also spotted a few species of birds.
Volcanoes National Park is fascinating.

Countries visited:

12People gave this
a kudu

I will recommend Katona without hesitation. The three of us were afraid that the seven-day gorilla safari would not live up to our expectation hence the hesitancy in wiring the 30% deposit fee for gorilla permits, but in the end we are glad we chose to travel with Katona tours.

We enjoyed the entire tour tremendously, both Jacquelyn and Alex the guide were outstanding and really made our trip very special.
This company is fully registered with Uganda Tourism and AUTO, they have been in business for quite some time and are well organized. Their tour rates are reasonable compared to other companies I contacted for similar packages.

Countries visited:

13People gave this
a kudu