Paraa, meaning home of the hippo in the local Luo language, is the park’s tourism hub. All the park’s access roads converge here as the northern and southern banks are linked by a passenger ferry, and several Uganda safari accommodations are located nearby. Additionally, a museum and gift shop can be found on the north bank, and most game drives, launch trips and nature walks commence here.

Paraa is situated in Nwoya District, within Acholi sub-region, in the Northern part of Uganda. It is positioned within the well liked Murchison Falls National Park, which is among the largest of Uganda’s wildlife reserve, measuring about 5,000 sq km or 1,900 sq miles. This area is found about 25 km or 16 miles, by road, just southeast of the district of  Pakwach, right on the banks of the stunning Albert Nile, and just about 86 km or 53 miles, by road, just northwest of the town of Masindi.

Built in the early 1950s,

‘Paraa’ a word from the local Luo language means ‘the place of hippos’ , and is among the most prominent attractions within the park as it supports the largest concentration of wildlife in the entire park.  Furthermore the remarkable Murchison Falls have the great diversity of not only wild animals but birds as well.

Among the animals found within the Paraa area are4 of the Big 5 including lions, buffaloes, leopards and elephants, in addition to giraffes, Uganda Kobs, Hartebeest, antelopes, crocodiles, oribis plus many others.

Fortunately the Paraa area offers a number of accommodation facilities in and around it among which is the Paraa Safari Lodge. This is a luxurious top notch facility that offers its guests sixty rooms plus suites, situated on a hill along the northern bank of the great river Nile. The love offers splendid views that overlook the Nile and best off all is that it is located close to the stunning Murchison Falls. Among the available facilities there is a large swimming pool, a bar, restaurant, a balcony on each of the rooms plus en-suite bathrooms. This facility, which was destroyed during the supremacy of Idi Amin back in the 1970’s, today has been refurbished and is at present taken care of by the Madhvani Group, who also take care of the Mweya Safari Lodge found in Queen Elizabeth National Park., Paraa Safari Lodge hosted in the 1950s the Queen Mother and by the end of the 1960s it had acquired large popularity.

in 1907, Winston Churchill strolled 86 kilometers or 53 miles from Masindi just to see the Paraa area. In 1864, Sir Samuel Baker an explorer wrote about “a magnificent sight” which suddenly burst upon his team. Other well-known guests to this  park include Ernest Hemingway an American novelist (but sadly they went rather very low such that they caught a telephone-wire and eventually crashed;  He together with his wife luckily survived that crash), Emin Pasha as well as Theodore Roosevelt.