Upon arriving at Kigali International Airport on the first day of your 7-day Rwanda safari, a tour guide will be waiting to greet you. The guide will be holding a placard displaying your names, making them easy to identify. After meeting your local guide, they will transfer you to your pre-booked accommodations in Kigali. You can then check in, relax, have dinner, and spend the night.
On the first day of your Rwanda safari, a guide will pick you up from your Kigali hotel or the airport and drive you about 2.5 hours to Akagera National Park. Arriving in time for lunch, you’ll have a meal and then relax before a boat cruise on Lake Ihema, where you can spot hippos, crocodiles, elephants, and buffaloes along the shores. After the boat trip, you’ll transfer to your booked accommodation for check-in, dinner, and an overnight stay.
In the early morning, you’ll be served breakfast before embarking on a 4-hour game drive through the scenic savannah plains. During the drive, you may spot the “Big Five” – buffaloes, rhinos, elephants, lions, and leopards – as well as other wildlife such as giraffes, zebras, hyenas, cape bushbucks, topis, oribis, roan antelopes, duikers, impalas, and cape elands. After the morning game drive, you’ll have lunch before transferring to Volcanoes National Park, with the drive through Kigali city and other picturesque villages. You’ll arrive at your booked lodge in Volcanoes National Park in the evening.
After breakfast, your driver-guide picks you up from the lodge and drives you to the park headquarters in Kinigi. There, the park warden briefs you on the dos and don’ts of gorilla trekking in Rwanda. By 8:30 AM, a park ranger guide transfers you to the trekking starting point.
A group of 8 tourists, each with a $1,500 trekking permit, is allocated to one gorilla family. The trek through the bamboo forest, accompanied by armed ranger guides, typically takes 2-6 hours. However, you only spend 1 hour in the presence of the mountain gorillas.
The trek duration varies depending on the gorilla group’s movements, but the Rwanda population is known to move shorter distances, making the trek relatively easier. After your 1-hour gorilla encounter, you walk back to the park headquarters and meet your tour guide for the transfer back to your hotel.
In the morning, you’ll embark on a golden monkey trekking adventure in Volcanoes National Park, where these unique primates coexist with the iconic mountain gorillas. Golden monkeys are easily identifiable by their vibrant coloration and distinct features. To ensure a seamless experience, you must arrive at the park headquarters by 7:00 am for a pre-trek briefing.
Rwanda is home to two troops of golden monkeys, with the largest found in Mount Sabinyo, numbering around 80-100 individuals. This troop is the most frequently visited in the park. After your trekking excursion, you’ll be driven back to your hotel for lunch before continuing to Nyungwe Forest National Park. You’ll spend the night at a preferred accommodation near the park.
Early in the morning, you’ll have breakfast before being driven to the park headquarters to begin your chimpanzee trekking experience. You’ll walk for some time until you locate where the chimps spent the previous night. Once you find them, you can observe the chimpanzees leaping from tree to tree at high speeds, making loud vocalizations. The pace and energy of their movements will determine how many photos you capture and how long you spend watching them.
After the trek, you’ll return to the starting point and meet your driver-guide, who will transfer you to the hotel for lunch and relaxation. In the evening, you’ll embark on a 2-hour canopy walk through the Nyungwe Forest. Afterward, you’ll return to the hotel for more rest and dinner. You’ll spend the night at the same accommodation as the previous evening.
On your final day, enjoy a leisurely breakfast before your driver guide escorts you to Kigali International Airport for your departure flight. If desired, request a stop at Kigali’s craft shops to allow time for any last-minute purchases.