Country: Rwanda
Destinations: Kigali, Akagera National Park, Nyungwe National Park, Lake Kivu & Volcanoes National Park.
Itinerary at Glance
Day 1: Airport Transfer to Hotel
Day 2: Drive to Akagera National Park for boat
Day 3: Game drive and boat trip in Akagera National Park
Day 4: Transfer to Kigali
Day 5: Transfer to Nyungwe National Park.
Day 6: Chimpanzee Trek and Canopy walk at Nyungwe National Park.
Day 7: Transfer to Volcanoes National Park.
Day 8: Gorilla trekking at Volcanoes National Park.
Day 9: Golden Monkey Trek at Volcanoes National Park
Day 10: Airport Transfer (Morning flight)
Overview
Join us on this 10 days, 9 – night’s cultural tour of Rwanda! This country has incredibly welcoming people ready to show you their wonderful home. This experience will allow you to interact and learn more about daily life in rural Rwanda. You’ll visit handicraft projects, and tea & coffee plantations and will be able to learn traditional techniques and fish with local people. You’ll also have the opportunity to journey through Rwandan history on a Kigali city tour and visit the King’s Palace Museum in Butare.
Akagera National Park, will reward you with an outstanding wildlife experience, with the park now being known as a great destination for spotting the Big Five.
In Volcanoes National Park, you’ll visit the Ibyiwacu Cultural Village. Former poachers operate this project, and along with learning more about traditional Rwandan culture, you’ll see how tourism can positively impact local communities and discourage them from poaching the mountain gorillas in the nearby park. You will as well as be able to trek both the gorillas and the golden monkeys.
Rwanda has some of the most stunning natural landscapes in Africa, and a trip here would not be complete without experiencing nature. You’ll have the chance to take a canopy walk in Nyungwe National Park and participate in both Chimpanzee and Canopy walk. Your drives through the country will be incredibly scenic, and you’ll leave with a clear picture of why they call Rwanda the Land of 1,000 hills!
Founded in 1907 as a German settlement, Kigali did not become the capital until Rwanda’s independence in 1962 when it replaced the colonial seat of power in Butare. Since then, the city has seen major economic development resulting in what it is today; a vibrant African city of more than one million residents with wide boulevards, world-class hotels and restaurants, crafts & curio shops as well as a lively, cosmopolitan atmosphere
This itinerary is an excellent introduction to the culture of Rwanda. It is perfect for couples, families, or small groups and is completely customizable to meet your travel style, needs, and interests. Let’s explore the wonderful country of Rwanda together!
You will as well, get a great chance, to come face to face with the gentle gorilla!!!!
Trip Highlight.
- Gorilla trekking
- Chimpanzee trekking
- Golden monkey trekking
- Canopy walk
- Game drives
- Night game drive
- Kigali genocide memorial
- Cultural experiences
- Boat ride on Lake Kivu
- Boat ride on Lake Ihema
- Museum visits
- Tea tour
- Kigali city tour
Day 1: Airport Transfer to Hotel.
Day Itinerary
Upon arrival at Kigali International Airport, our company’s safari driver will be waiting to welcome you and provide a short briefing before transferring you to your accommodation in Kigali (approximately 20-30 minutes depending on traffic conditions). You will have the opportunity to rest and prepare for your safari adventure the following day. Our driver will ensure that you are comfortable and ready for an exciting and unforgettable experience exploring the beautiful landscapes and wildlife of Rwanda.
Overnight stay at: Hotel des Mille Collines
Meal Plan: Bed and breakfast
Day 2: Transfer to Akagera Akagera National Park. Travel time +3 hours
Day Itinerary
Today, after your relaxed morning breakfast at your hotel, you will be picked by your safari guide and leave for Akagera national park, the journey to Akagera national park takes about 2.3 hours depending on the stopovers along the way, with the beautiful unwinding landscape en route to the park, feel free to ask the guide for stopovers to capture some photos. On arrival at the park, we shall register at the park offices and later proceed to our accommodation with a short game drive and check in for lunch. We order lunch and after lunch, you opt to relax at your lodge, or opt to head for brief game drive for game viewing. You will later return in the evening for relaxation. In the evening, you will go for a night game drive, to explore the park and try to sight some nocturnal, search for some wildlife for roughly 2 – 3 hours. Later return to the lodge for dinner and evening stay.
Overnight stay at: Mantis Akagera Game Lodge
Meal Plan: Breakfast, lunch and dinner
Day 3: Morning game drive and afternoon boat cruise at Akagera National Park
Day Itinerary
After an early morning breakfast at 6:00 am and leave for an early morning game drive in Akagera national park to catch up with late hunters and early risers. We will be searching for the big mammals like Elephants, Giraffes, Buffaloes, several Antelope species, and recently the re-introduced Lions and Rhinos. The park is a varied habitat for wildlife and a number of bird species with over 500 bird species in the park making it a birding paradise. You will later return to the lodge for lunch. After lunch, we head for a brief game drive in the park and later proceed for a sunset boat trip on Lake Ihema watch Hippos and crocodiles in the water or by the shores and meet the buffaloes and elephants wallowing by the water banks. Later return to the lodge for dinner and evening stay.
Overnight stay at: Mantis Akagera Game Lodge
Meal Plan: Breakfast, lunch and dinner
Day 4: Full day game drive and transfer back to Kigali
Day Itinerary
After an early morning breakfast at 6:00 am and leave for an early morning game drive in Akagera national park to catch up with late hunters and early risers. We will be searching for the big mammals like Elephants, Giraffes, Buffaloes, several Antelope species, and recently the re-introduced Lions and Rhinos. The park is a varied habitat for wildlife and a number of bird species with over 500 bird species in the park making it a birding paradise. You will have a picnic lunch. After lunch, proceed with your game drive for more search of abundant wildlife within this great park in the northern part of the park. Later drive back to Kigali, to your booked hotel for dinner and evening stay at the lodge.
Overnight stay at: Hotel des Mille Collines
Meal Plan: Breakfast, lunch and dinner
Day 5: Transfer to Nyungwe National Park. Travel time +5 hours
Day Itinerary
Early morning enjoy your buffer breakfast and checkout of the hotel and drive heading to the western province, on your way visit the Royal Palace Museum and Ethnographic Museum in Southern Province, this will give you a great history of traditional ways of living among Rwandans and their past way of leadership of Kingship with an en route lunch. You will reach in the afternoon at Nyungwe national park and spend the afternoon at your leisure.
Overnight stay at: Emeraude Kivu Resort
Meal Plan: Breakfast, lunch and dinner
Day 6: Chimpanzee tracking and canopy walk at Nyungwe Forest
Day Itinerary
Today’s agenda includes chimpanzee trekking deep in the forest and canopy walk
After your early morning breakfast, you will drive to the park reception for the early morning briefing before heading to the forest in search of the chimpanzee. During the briefing, grouping of the trekker’s is done, and you will be put into a group of 8 members per group, depending on the number of trekkers, you may be less. Make your way to Cyamudongo in the dark with a local park ranger who knows the forest’s deepest secrets. Follow him to the home of the chimps. Watch the animals wake, stretch, and start their day in the forest. Snap your photos while you can. Once they’re on the move, catching up to them among the tall trees and thick brush is a feat of athletic prowess. This once in a lifetime experience deserves your full attention: Remember the feeling of the mud beneath your hiking boots, the pitch of the primate calls echoing through the trees and the moment you locked eyes with a chimp in one of the few places in the world where you still can.
These cousins to humans can be found and tracked in Nyungwe National Park. A beautiful guided hike through the forest will lead you to these fascinating creatures where you can watch them play and interact up close. Chimpanzee tracking can be done year-round in Nyungwe, rain or shine, and while it is never guaranteed that you will see them, sightings are very common and guides are skillful in tracking them. The experience differs from gorilla tracking as the chimps move through the canopy, so the sightings are a bit more sporadic and exciting, but worthwhile nonetheless. Observe them playing, wild and free, hooting and dashing through the trees. You will later return back to your lodge for lunch. In the afternoon, you should be in the green trees of Nyungwe National Park – home to one of the oldest rainforests on the continent. With 374.5 square miles to explore you won’t be able to do it all today, but the easy stroll out to the Canopy Walkway from the Uwinka reception center offers a chance to marvel at the views from 230 feet above the rainforest floor. Listen for the sounds of 13 species of primates and more than 300 types of birds. Sleep tonight knowing you’ll meet some of the noisemakers in the days ahead. Experience the rainforest from a dazzling new perspective on the famous Canopy Walkway.
Overnight stay at: Emeraude Kivu Resort
Meal Plan: Breakfast, lunch and dinner
Day 7: Transfer to Musanze. Travel time +5hrs
Day Itinerary
The adventure continues by an overland drive from Nyungwe National Park to Volcanoes National Park, by way of the beautiful shores of Lake Kivu. This beautiful Kivu belt road, rewards you, with unwinding countryside experience, of the rolling hills, and great view of the beautiful Lake Kivu. You can opt for a 2 hour’s boat ride on Lake Kivu, to explore this great Lake patched with a number of beautiful islands, and later have lunch en route. Take a lunch break to a table restaurant on the water’s edge where you can stroll through the guava and avocado trees on route to the restaurant high above. Soon, you’ll swap this paradise for another. On route to Musanze, wave to the school kids making their way with books in hand, and the ladies balancing woven baskets on their heads.
Overnight at: Mount Gorilla View Lodge
Meal Plan: Breakfast, lunch and dinner
Day 8: Gorilla Trekking Experience and Cultural experience at Volcanoes National Park
Day Itinerary
Enjoy your buffer breakfast at the lodge by 0630 hours, and later jump on to your jeep and drive to the park headquarters’ in Kinigi for briefing by 0700 hrs: Registration is a simple process where the park staff determines which group of gorillas you will visit. The park staff discusses your fitness level and advises you of the gorilla trekking times and conditions to the various groups based upon their location in the park the previous evening. There are a total of 96 gorilla permits available each day with a maximum of eight trekkers visiting any one group. Your guide would have asked you, about your trekking fitness, and interest, so as to choose a gorilla group that matches your interest to join for the day.
Once the trekkers are put into groups, each group’s Lead Guide briefs the trekkers of the trekking procedures as well as the “do’s and don’ts” while in the presence of gorillas. After the briefing, trekkers return to their respective vehicles for the drive up the mountain to the starting point.
Trekking can take from two to six or more hours if the gorillas move before the park rangers locate them the next morning. The guides stop frequently to allow trekkers a chance to rest and take photos along the way.
Our exhilarating trek in the footsteps of the rare and critically endangered Mountain Gorillas, the largest living primate on earth, starts in the cultivated foothills of the Volcanoes National Park with stirring views in all directions.
Upon entering the park, with paths carved by the mountains’ elusive buffalo and elephant, trekkers will be immersed in the mysterious intimacy of the rainforest, alive with colourful bird calls, butterflies and more. Through gaps in the canopy, the magnificent Virunga peaks, among the highest in Africa yet easily accessible, are glimpsed, beckoning an ascent.
Weaving through overhanging vines, moss-covered hagenia and giant lobelias that thrive in the tropical climate, our experienced trackers, who spend their entire lives in or close to this forest, bring you up close with the gorilla family.
Upon sighting the gorillas, you will stay with them for a magical hour as they go about their daily life, feeding, playing, resting; raising their young. Coming face to face with a giant silverback is one of the greatest wildlife experiences on earth. You will later return back to your lodge, catch up with lunch, and in the afternoon, and get ready for a village foot safari, to explore the indigenous local life with a taste of the traditional performance at Iby Iwacu cultural center. Dinner and overnight at the hotel.
Overnight stay at: Mount Gorilla View Lodge
Meal Plan: Breakfast, lunch and dinner
Day 9: Golden Monkey trekking and transfer to Kigali
Day Itinerary
This morning, head for a Golden monkeys trekking experience that takes place in Volcanoes national park at 7:00 am. The golden monkey trekking, takes the same procedure as the gorilla trekking, however less, strenuous compared to gorilla trekking. These rare species are also listed as endangered – and Volcanoes national park currently has two habituated golden monkeys’ troops that are available for visiting by tourists in the park, both of which make about 50 members.
Golden monkeys in Rwanda live in the bamboo vegetation towards the base of the volcanoes and habituation has helped them to overcome their initial shyness to accept their daily visit by researchers and tourists.
Trekking golden monkeys and gorillas is a similar experience – in a small group of no more than eight people, and you can spend one hour with the monkeys once you find them. The endangered species are very active creatures, and jump from tree to tree which is really interesting and a little difficult to photograph!
Afterwards, we will enjoy lunch at a local restaurant before driving to Kigali.
Take a Kigali City Tour which includes visits to old Kigali and craft markets, the Kigali Genocide Memorial at Gisozi to learn about Rwanda’s history, the Genocide against the Tutsi as well as other mass atrocities around the world. Exploring further, it is inspiring to see how far the country has come in 29 years. The recovery has been referred to as a true testament to humankind’s resilience. We stop at a craft center where you can haggle for unique Rwandan crafts and curios, and if time permits, we visit the Kandt House Natural History Museum, which covers both natural ecosystems in Rwanda and the intertwined Rwandan and German colonial history. We may also have time to tour Old Kigali where the colonial buildings now form the heart of Rwanda’s small businesses.
This evening, enjoy dinner at Hotel des Mille Collines – one of Kigali’s award-winning restaurants that offer modern African cuisine.
Overnight stay at: Hotel des Mille Collines
Meal Plan: Breakfast, lunch and dinner
Day 10: Departure
Day Itinerary
Today, our tour comes to an end, and depending on your flight time, we may have more to see before we fly out.
After getting done with your relaxed morning breakfast, depending on your flight time, if morning flight, drop off to the airport, and if flight is in the evening, you may decide to drive to the south, to visit Nyamata and Ntarama, genocide memorial ground or you can decide to head to the local markets, and art and craft markets for shopping and later have lunch before, you will be transferred to the airport to catch up with your onward flight. End of service!
Meal Plan: Breakfast & lunch.
This safari package includes.
- Transportation in a 4×4 safari vehicle with a pop up roof
- Accommodation and meals as per itinerary
- 1 Gorilla permit ($ 1500), per person
- 1 Golden Monkey permit, per person
- 1 chimpanzee permit, per person
- Canopy walk
- Museums visit
- En-route lunches
- Game drives
- Night game drive
- Boat ride at Lake Ihema
- Cultural experience
- Boat ride on Lake Kivu
- Park fees
- Kigali city tour
- Services of English speaking driver/guide
- Bottles of mineral water during safari
- Fun and other excursions as mentioned in the itinerary.
The package excludes expenses of personal nature like:
- Visa Fees & flights
- Optional activities
- Tips & gratuities
- Laundry
- Alcoholic drinks
- International vaccinations
- Health test requirements
- Porter fees while trekking
- Personal travel Insurance
- Personal shopping bills
- Phone call bills
- Extras while at the hotel
- Items of personal nature
Please contact us for a free detailed quote on the option of your choice. We can tailor a request that suits your interests, and budget, as well as we can change or upgrade the lodge options, as well as arranging gorilla trekking in Uganda. Write to us with more details about your safari.