Kampala

Kampala spreads across seven hills at the heart of Uganda, forty-five minutes north of Entebbe Airport. Most safari travellers drive straight through it on the way to the parks, which is understandable and entirely wrong. A city of more than three million people, Kampala has a restaurant scene that punches well above any comparable African city, a cultural depth built on the Buganda Kingdom's centuries of continuous history, and a nightlife that develops slowly through the evening and continues in a way that surprises everyone who expected something more provincial.

The Buganda Kingdom, one of the oldest and most sophisticated kingdoms in the Great Lakes region, has its heartland here. The Kasubi Tombs, the royal burial ground of four Buganda kabakas, are a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the most architecturally significant traditional structures in Africa. The Ndere Cultural Centre, a few kilometres away, presents the music, dance, and poetry traditions of Uganda's 56 tribes in evening performances that are genuinely excellent and not remotely touristy.

Kampala rewards an overnight. Two nights gives you time to eat well, move through the city at a pace that allows observation, and discover what the city actually is rather than what the airport approach suggests. The traffic is chaotic. The hills are steep. The markets are extraordinary. The food, particularly the rolex and the nyama choma scene along Gaba Road, is some of the best street eating in East Africa.