Provided that you have mandatory Uganda entry requirements like a valid passport (6 months validity), a Yellow Fever Vaccination Card, and a return ticket, you should whizz through Entebbe’s entrance formalities with no hassle. The yellow fever and covid-19 vaccine cards will be required at all entry points. Make sure you have these health requirements to protect you and others when you travel to Uganda.
Return/onward ticket restrictions
The only reason a traveler is likely to fly to Uganda without a return ticket is because they intend to travel more widely in Africa.
If you will be arriving with a one-way ticket for this or any other reason, there is a small but real possibility that you will be given a rough time by immigration officials concerned that you won’t have enough funds to buy a flight out of the country.
Obviously, the more money you have, the less likely they are to query your finances. And a credit card will almost certainly convince them to let you in.
Assuming that you intend to travel to neighboring countries, you can underline this intention by arranging an East African Visa that will show that you intend to travel to Rwanda or Kenya on your trip.
Finally, an onward ticket technically is an entry requirement for travel to Uganda, so there is little point in arguing the toss or becoming needlessly aggressive with immigration officials who are only doing the job they are paid to do — patient diplomacy is a far better approach.
The worst that will happen if you arrive without a return ticket is that you will have to repurchase a ticket to your home country before being allowed entry.
Assuming you intend to leave Uganda overland, you must check with the relevant airline that this ticket will be refundable once you have left Uganda and select a departure date that will give you time to get to a country where you can organize the refund.
Traveling out of Entebbe Airport
Once through customs and immigration at Entebbe, the first thing you will want to do is get some local currency. There are 24-hour foreign-exchange facilities at the airport, though the rates are lower than at the private forex bureau in town, so I wouldn’t exchange any more money than I have to.
As you exit the airport doors, you’ll see a group of men dressed in blue shirt uniforms waving their hands for attention. Those are airport taxi drivers—and of course, if your trip is planned, your tour manager will be waiting with a name placard. They are always there for all arrivals at any time.
A private airport taxi from the airport to Entebbe costs around US$5, and one to Kampala should cost no more than US$35. The alternative is to take a shared taxi between the airport and Entebbe, where you can pick up a minibus from the old taxi park in Kampala for roughly US$2 per person.
Overland— through border entry points
Uganda borders five countries: Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, DRC, and Sudan. A high proportion of visitors to Uganda enters and leaves the country overland at the borders with Kenya or Tanzania.
Uganda’s immigration operates 40 entry/exit points, 13 passport centers, and 9 regional offices around the country’s borders ready to serve your travel needs.
Many leisure travelers enter or leave Uganda from Rwanda, mostly to see mountain gorillas on either side of the border.
