Anyone been to Uganda?

[Communion]

I'd like to go on a holiday here with my DS's, who will be 7 and 10yrs.

Spend a few days in kampala visiting a project we suppor,t and then travelling to one of the national parks for some safari experince. maybe Queen Elizabeth or Murchison Falls?

I'm at a very early stage of planning.

Should I go through a tour operator or plan it myself?

how safe is uganda. Could we hire a vechicle and travel around ourselves?

Southern Uganda safe. Northern (up where the mountain gorillas are) NOT safe at all.

Beautiful place though, loovely people. (Not been myself, my sister went a couple of years ago for 12 weeks on a charitable placement)

We went to Uganda in 1998 as part of a Exodus trip in a truck.
We would camp out each night but usually tried to find a hotel compound for safety, especially when we were in the north of the country.
I would recommend you go as part of a group or at least have a trusted guide, some areas did not seem very safe but then this was 10years ago.
We went through Tanzania and they were lovely and we felt very safe there but as soon as we came into Uganda we were getting shouted at but the local saying for white people was "white devils!"
Just be streetwise and inconspicious as possible.

Really? I'd been told that Uganda is one of the frindliest countries to visit.

I know the north is not safe and we would not be visiting there. We are not interested in gorilla and chimp tracking (well I am interested but do not intend doing it).

I really want to go to Uganda as we could then visit this group in kampala, but am having trouble finding a company that will tailor a trip for us, to suit us and the kids.

As i said communion, it was 10 years ago. but i do remember one incident when we were on the truck and one of our party for some stupid reason tried to take a photo of the soldiers that were in the truck next to us and they all raised their guns at him, he quickly put his camera away and we were a bit scared i can tell you!
Also when in Africa don't wear any clothes that look like battle fatigues, you know army type trousers (camouflage) as they really don't like it.