Entebbe is 40 km from Kampala and no one may come inside the terminal to meet you. The airport publishes its taxi price; the road to Kampala is the one road the FCDO does not warn you off after dark.
Nobody can meet you inside
- Only passengers with tickets are allowed into the terminal building at Entebbe. Anyone collecting you waits outside. Agree the meeting point before you land rather than after, because the arrivals hall is not it.
- Everyone entering the terminal, passengers and staff alike, goes through a security check.
The distance, and the road
- Entebbe International Airport is 40 km south-west of Kampala, on a 42 km all-weather road, part of it dual carriageway, at an 80 km/h limit. The airport puts the drive at about 40 minutes, and warns that morning and evening traffic is heavy. The Entebbe Express Highway is the faster of the two routes.
- This is the one road the FCDO exempts from its own after-dark rule. It advises avoiding travel outside the main towns after dark except on the roads between Kampala and Entebbe International Airport. A night landing is normal here; a night drive into the country is not.
What the ride costs
- The airport's published taxi price to Kampala is 40 US dollars or 100,000 shillings. Note that those two numbers no longer convert into one another at any recent rate, so treat the page as a guide to the order of magnitude and agree the fare before you get in.
- Airport taxis carry a yellow band and the words AIRPORT TAXI in black, each with an identification number, and they park at the arrivals (ground) level. Note the number before you set off. Anything to another destination is negotiated.
- Uber and Bolt both operate in Kampala, including airport pick-ups, and Uber lets you reserve a car up to 30 days ahead. Global Affairs Canada confirms ride-sharing is available. That is the version of "agree the fare first" that does it for you.
- Commuter minibuses run to Entebbe town (Kitoro), 4 km, for about 2,000 shillings, and on from Entebbe to Kampala for about 5,000 shillings per passenger including hand luggage, taking about an hour. Pay in shillings. Note that both the FCDO and Global Affairs Canada advise against matatus altogether on safety grounds, so this is the cheap option rather than the recommended one.
Do not take a boda-boda from the airport
- The FCDO advises against boda-bodas, the motorbike taxis, outright, and records that foreign nationals using them have been mugged, some violently. Global Affairs Canada says the same of boda-bodas and tuk-tuks. With luggage, on an unfamiliar 40 km road, it is not the arrival to improvise.
Landside, around the clock
- Forex bureaux and bank ATMs in arrivals are open 24 hours, which matters for a flight that lands at three in the morning.
- The Airport Medical Centre is open 24 hours at the northern end of arrivals, landside, and there is a health desk inside the arrivals hall.
- Entebbe General Referral Hospital is a five minute drive from the airport.
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