Pocket Treasure is a 52-page paper booklet made by an international team of experts to serve as a handy guide to an incredible region, and a special souvenir after your visit. Printed in Kampala, it was officially launched in Kigali in January 2026.
The A6-format booklet focuses on three parts of the region: Gorilla National Parks, Lake Bunyonyi and the Congo Nile Trail. It is packed with useful information and local context, lists all habituated gorilla groups and their locations, offers a phrasebook page with Kinyarwanda/Rufumbira, Rukiga and Swahili and doesn’t lack humour and surprises. It encourages the readers to jot their impressions down, and protects these memories in the long run with a decorative case.
The cover price of the Pocket Treasure is USD 10 (or UGX 35,000/RWF 15,000). All profits go towards the Ilumineers youth program by Gorilla Highlands Experts (GHE).
Where to Get Pocket Treasure
Buhoma: Mahogany Springs
Entebbe: Hotel Casabella, ViaVia Guesthouse
Kabale: The Gathering Place
Kampala: Bushpig Backpackers, Fairway Boutique Hotel (Bubu Collection), Four Points by Sheraton (Raheel Jewellers), Sheraton Hotel (Sawe Creations)
Kigali: Caplaki Craft Village, Kamahwa-Tsobe, Museum Ingabo, Park Inn by Radisson (Gift on the Go)
Kisoro: Coffee Pot Cafe & Hotel
Lake Bunyonyi: Arcadia Lodges, BirdNest Resort, Edirisa on Lake Bunyonyi
Musanze: Chocolats Caractère, Crema
Rubavu: African Art Gallery, INZU Eco Lodge
To access the digital version, please donate at least USD 10 to the Illumineers youth program.
Distributed with Youthful Energy
We are printing 5,000 booklets and aim to make them available wherever practical, throughout Uganda, Rwanda and DR Congo. Partners interested in reselling them have to agree to the cover price and a 30% commission. They receive a pack of 30 Pocket Treasures on consignment, one of them intended for display.
The Pocket Treasure concept will also offer the youth an opportunity to earn some income through selling the booklet on the street. Carefully vetted and clearly branded with a GHE t-shirt, they will be both the ambassadors and the beneficiaries of the project.
Some Pages from the Pocket Treasure
Click on the screenshots below and get a better idea of the contents of the booklet:
For more information please call or WhatsApp +250 783 118 421.
booklet cover photo: Marcus Westberg; distribution photos: Miha Logar
Stories About Pocket Treasure:
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Pocket Treasure’s Bumpy Road to 20 Resellers
This hasn’t been easy, our friends. A tiny booklet can cause huge headaches. More than half of what we received from our Kampala printers had to be discarded. The cases meant to protect the Pocket Treasure arrived in disturbing condition: the laminate was peeling away. But the booklet pages themselves were far from blameless —…
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Best Little Guide to Rwanda, Uganda and DR Congo?
Made with love.Sung into being.Carried through the journey.Pocket Treasure. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Gorilla Highlands Experts (@gorillahighlands) in the featured photo by Miha Logar: Steven Bizimana, 21-year-old barista at Crema (Musanze); his big dream is to become a cybersecurity expert one day You may also like: Emma’s Gorilla Tracking Field…
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Booklet Launched, Then Daylight Hit
We launched our Pocket Treasure at Kigali’s Kamahwa-Tsobe last night! Quizzed by Fred Murwanashyaka, ML Rwebandira guided the cheerful audience through the project philosophy, hiccups and successes. Anticipation grew until, following the serving of delectable snacks, the box from Kampala was opened in front of everyone. Among the excited first readers of the publication was…
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Your Trailblazer Takes You to Congo (And Kampala!)
Quarterly newsletter for Gorilla Highlands lovers I only like Kampala on Sundays. This awesomely crazy city is much more relaxed, quieter and enjoyable on weekends. So being stuck alone in Uganda’s capital during the holiday season does come with a benefit: it feels like some kind of Sunday again and again and again! But why?…
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The People Who Will Put It in Your Pocket
The Pocket Treasure booklet means very little without distribution partners, without the people who will help it actually get into visitors’ pockets. That’s why we’re reaching out to hotels, craft shops, duty-free stores, bookstores, organisations, … — you name it. We’ve been there, or we’ll be there soon (suggestions most welcome!). The good news is…
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First 100 Pocket Treasures
Merry Christmas 🎁!The first 100 copies of the Pocket Treasure were ready in Uganda’s Kampala last night, neatly packed in box. Meanwhile in Rwanda’s Kigali, we have been checking on potential venues for the launch.As you wait for the place information, save the date and time: Thursday, 8 January 2026, 5pm. Join us for a…
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Our Gift to the Region: Pocket Treasure
What do you want for Christmas? Our region wants a beautiful little booklet! The team at MPK Graphics in Kampala has just started turning our “Pocket Treasure 2025” file into 5,000 paper copies. Pocket Treasure is the successor to the Gorilla Highlands Pocket Guide, last published in 2019. It will cost USD 10 (RWF 15,000…
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Behind the Scenes of the Groundbreaking Pocket Guide
We feel that we have something world-class, a mini-magazine that has to stop being a shooting star and become the sun.
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We Are Still Alive. Very Alive. In 3 Countries!
Rainy greetings from Nyungwe where the Gorilla Highlands team has embarked on the last week of photography and video work.
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Close-Up: Who’s Behind the Pocket Guide?
They followed him around, wanting to be photographed…
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Pocket Guides will Conquer the World, with Mirika’s Help
“Why didn’t I find the Pocket Guide before coming here?!” often lament travellers.
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Jump into the Future: Our Pocket Guide Roadmap
In 2013, the first 10,000 copies of the GH Pocket Guide hit the counters across Uganda.
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Fascinating Results of the First Ever GH Survey
UPDATE, 5 June 2018: Virunga National Park won’t open before 2019, therefore we are slowing down our integration of Congo into the Gorilla Highlands region. More here. CLIQUEZ ICI POUR LA VERSION EN FRANÇAIS DU RAPPORT It was a bold and delicate move, so we asked for advice, and then took some quality time to…
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Les voisins discutent la sécurité du tourisme au Congo
CLICK HERE FOR THE ENGLISH VERSION OF THE REPORT C’était un geste osé et délicat, ainsi nous avons demandé des conseils et avons mis du bon temps à y penser … Et nous voilà avec les résultats ! Contrairement aux années précédentes, Il y avait des compétiteurs et représentants Congolais au Gorilla Highlands Silverchef 2018,…
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Pocket Guide Nightmare is Over
Even only one out of thousands of readers deciding to spend a night would mean that the investment has paid off.
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Let’s Be Fair: Kampala versus Kigali
It’s an undisputable fact that Kigali and Kampala are hard to compare.
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Get Your Copy of the New Gorilla Highlands Pocket Guide
Will this be enough to meet the demand? Let’s hope so!
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30,000 Chinese
It all happened very quickly—and was rather personal.
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China, the Superpower We Need on Our Side
“So you would want to translate it into Chinese?” he wanted to understand our plans.
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Pocket Guides Covering Our Transboundary Region
It was not a little job to add Rwanda, almost double the number of pages and make it all happen during the high tourism season.
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Pocket Guide with Rwanda on the Way
If you are from Musanze, you can truly help us a lot with your feedback!
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Our Most Popular Product Will Include Rwanda
You cannot claim that you cannot afford a trip to our region while considering the budget you would invest in a city weekend…
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Mapping, Exploring, Adding Musanze
This time we are beginning from scratch.
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Gorilla Highlands Embraces Rwanda
Many Rwandans are jealous of Ugandans, many Ugandans are jealous of Rwandans.
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On the Way to the Total Guide
Sunny greetings from Lake Bunyonyi, from The Heart of Edirisa, where we have entered September 2015 with a new Gorilla Highlands website. It will be under construction throughout the month as we, slowly by slowly, update and post online a lot of great content from our award-winning Interactive eBook. This is not for international guests…