1 Day Fort Portal City Walking Tour

This one day tour will take you through the beautiful Fort Portal city located in western Uganda and one of the top tourism towns in Uganda. On this tour we explore key landmarks and attractions within the town. The 1 Day tour will offer you an immersive experience of Fort Portal town and a glimpse into the daily life of the locals.

Itinerary

The tour starts at Reinah Tourist Hotel which is our meeting point, after brief introductions from your guide we start the city tour with the “Omukama’s Palace” also known as the King’s Palace. The King’s Palace is set on Karuzika Hill overlooking Fort Portal city and offers you a 360 view of the city and the Rwenzori Mountains. On arrival at the palace we will go on a tour of the palace, you will have an opportunity to see the old palace, have an opportunity to see where the palace meetings happen, have an opportunity to see the new King’s Palace, the huts for the cultural chiefs which they use during the “Empango Celebrations” (coronation anniversary), and walk around the palace gardens. The tour involves you learning more about the culture and traditions of the “Batooro” people. As we walk through the palace we will stop by different huts that serve different purposes that you will learn about, some are for traditional dancers that entertain the king during the coronation anniversary celebrations, others are for chiefs and others for rituals. You will also have an opportunity to see the Royal cows grazing in the palace gardens. After the tour of the Tooro Kingdom Palace we then continue with our city tour.

Our next stop will be Gerald Portal Monument that is situated in the midst of town, Gerald Portal was a British diplomat who was a key figure in the establishment of the Uganda Protectorate and was appointted British Special commissioner to East Africa in 1892. The Gerald Portal monument is in memory of him and the town Fort Portal is named after him. Fort Portal was his base while in Uganda and we will spend time learning the history of his diplomatic work in Uganda. While here we also visit the monument of Rt. Rev Bishop Aberi Kakyomya Balya who was the first African Anglican Bishop in East, Central and Southern Africa. We learn about his early life, his life, his work and the contribution he made to Tooro Kingdom in the earlier days.

We then continue our tour walking around the city stopping by shops and seeing the locals as they go about their day. For the street food lovers, we will use this opportunity to stop by a local food stand and order the “Ugandan Rolex” which is a common street food delicacy in Uganda. The Ugandan rolex is made of “chapati” and eggs so its sort of like a wrap but with eggs as filling. Our next stop is the “Empaako” monument where will learn a bit about the tradition of the people of Tooro, Empaako is a naming system that is used specifically as a form of greeting. When one is born in Tooro they are given empaako in addition to their given names, this empaako is used when greeting. Different empaako like Akiiki, Abwooli, Atwooki, and Amooti among others are used. You will be able to see all of them written on the monument.

Our next stop will be at River Mpanga, Fort Portal is one of the few cities in Uganda that has a river passing through the town. You have an opportunity to take photos here before continuing with our tour.

After this we head to Mpanga market and Kabundaire market, these two are the popular local markets in the city where locals buy foodstuffs for the home. On entry into the markets you will see fresh food market stalls, fish stalls, meat stalls and fruit stalls. The markets are very colorful and we will go around the markets and have short tours here as well.

After this we end our tour by stopping by a local food restaurant where we have lunch. The local food restaurant offers you an opportunity to try some of the local foods in Tooro, if local food is not of interest to you we stop by Gardens Restaurant where you can order food off an a la carte menu.

Cost of Tour 

$20 per person.

To book this tour email us at info@56africatours.com or contact us via phone at +256 782 251326.