Photo Michael Starkie / UnsplashWhat it is
A coffee tour is a morning on a working smallholding, walking the slopes with the family that farms it. On the flanks of Mount Elgon around Sipi Falls, Bugisu Arabica grows in small plots, and across the border the hills above Lake Kivu are washing-station country. You follow the whole journey — picking the ripe cherries, pulping, drying, roasting over a fire and grinding — and drink the result where it was grown.
We frame these visits around the growers, not as a backdrop: time is spent with the farming families and their cooperatives, and the value of supporting smallholder agriculture in this region is real. It is one of the most grounded mornings on any itinerary, and a genuine taste of rural life.
What to expect
The whole process
Picking, pulping, drying, roasting and grinding — then tasting the coffee where it was grown.
With the growers
Time with the farming families and cooperatives whose work and income the visit supports.
Elgon and Kivu
Bugisu Arabica around Sipi Falls and Mount Elgon, and the coffee hills above Lake Kivu in Rwanda.
Where to do it
Safaris that feature it
6 journeys include coffee tours
8-Day Rwanda Gorillas and Chimps Safari
An eight-day Rwanda journey that pairs chimpanzee tracking in Nyungwe with gorilla trekking in the Volcanoes, alongside Lake Kivu and cultural stops. It runs from Kigali across the south and northwest of the country.
14-Day Amazing Safari in Uganda
A fourteen-day Uganda tour running from Sipi Falls and Karamoja to Kidepo Valley, Murchison Falls, Kibale, Queen Elizabeth and Bwindi. It combines game drives and gorilla and chimpanzee tracking with rhino tracking and Lake Bunyonyi.
16 Day Uganda Rwanda Safari
A sixteen-day journey across Uganda and Rwanda combining gorilla and chimpanzee tracking with savanna game drives, the Nile, Lake Kivu, Nyungwe Forest and Akagera. The route ends in Kigali with a city tour and Genocide Memorial visit.
17 Days Primates & Uganda Natural History
A seventeen-day journey combining Uganda's natural history with its cultural heritage, taking in Kampala, Jinja, Mbale, Sipi Falls, Fort Portal and the primate forests of Kibale and Queen Elizabeth. Includes chimpanzee tracking and visits to historic sites.
22 Days the Best of Uganda
A 22-day tour across Uganda combining wildlife, landscapes and culture, from Kampala and Jinja to Sipi Falls, Kidepo, Murchison Falls, Kibale, Queen Elizabeth and Bwindi. Includes gorilla trekking and time with the Karamojong and Batwa communities.
28 Days Kenya, Tanzania & Uganda — The Great East Africa Safari
A 28-day private safari across Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The route covers the Maasai Mara and Serengeti, a stay on Zanzibar, and Uganda's northern savannahs and western forests, including chimpanzee tracking in Kibale and gorilla tracking in Bwindi.
Good to know
- Who benefits from a coffee tour?
- The farming families and their cooperatives. The visits are built around supporting smallholder growers directly, and the income stays in the rural communities that produce the coffee.
- Where do these run?
- Mainly on Mount Elgon around Sipi Falls and Mbale in eastern Uganda, home of Bugisu Arabica, and in the coffee-growing hills above Lake Kivu in Rwanda.
Build coffee tours into your safari
Tell us your dates and interests and we'll shape an itinerary around it.