TOUR OVERVIEW

This 6 days Rwanda Gorilla safari is an amazing 5nights/6days tour with gorilla trekking, golden monkey tracking, the tour of the twin lakes of Ruhondo and Bulera, the Musanze caves & community walk, wild game viewing, and beautiful scenery. It also features a boat cruise on Lake Ihema to see unique aquatic life like the Nile crocodiles, hippos, water birds like such as the rare shoebill stork, papyrus gunlocks, and kingfisher.

The safari takes you to two main Rwanda safari destinations. Volcanoes National Park for gorilla trekking, golden monkey tracking, and Musanze caves plus the amazing community walk, and Akagera National Park for endless amazing game viewing drives plus beautiful scenery viewing.

Summary of 6 days Rwanda Gorilla & Wildlife Safari

Day one: Arrival and transfer to Volcanoes National Park

Day two: Gorilla trekking in Volcanoes National Park

Day three: golden monkey tracking and Musanze caves walk

Day Four: transfer to Akagera national park

Day Five: game drive in the morning & afternoon boat cruise on Lake Ihema

Day six: Transfer to Kigali

Detailed Itinerary

DAY 1: Transfer to Volcanoes National Park

Upon your arrival at Kigali International Airport, you will be welcomed by a professional tour guide who will take you for a city excursion in and around Kigali. This is to enable you orient yourself with this great country of ‘a thousand hills’. After this excursion, you will embark on the transfer to Ruhengeri via undulating and beautiful terraced hills which shows a clear picture of the general landscape and altitude of Rwanda.

Volcanoes National Park is located 116km about 2-3 hours’ drive so you will arriving in the evening for relaxation, dinner and overnight.

DAY 2: GORILLA TREKKING IN VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK

Having had an early morning tasty breakfast at the lodge, you will start your exciting morning drive to the Volcanoes National Park Headquarters for briefing by park officials and then begin your trek into the indigenous forest in search for the shy mountain endangered gorillas. This trek gives you the opportunity to immerse yourself into the strange but intimate part of the rain-forest where you will hear live calls of colourful birds, chattering of the rare golden monkey, as well as the forest filled with fresh spoor of the mountain elusive populations of buffalo and elephant.

Gorilla trekking tends to last from 2 to 8 hours depending on the day’s gorilla movement. The one hour of direct encounter with the gorillas brings you closer to these ancient apes and their gigantic structure. You will see them forage, play and also have a chance for photography Retreat to the starting point, have lunch at the lodge and later in the evening, you embark on the twin lakes walk exploring the impressive views of Lake Ruhondo and Lake Bulera and the local fishing activity before retiring for dinner and overnight.

DAY 3: GOLDEN MONKEY TRACKING AND MUSANZE CAVES WALK

After breakfast, you will embark on the Golden monkey tracking. You will start by going to the park headquarters at Kinigi for briefing. Thereafter, you will go to the trail head and embark on the search for the golden monkeys that tend to dwell in the Bamboo Zone. The golden monkey tracking experience tends to last 4 hours and is an exciting experience as you watch these golden backed monkeys jumping from stem to stem of the Bamboo and playing hide and seek games.

Retreat from the activity and embark on the Musanze Caves walk to explore the historic caves of Musanze that were formed 65million years ago by the basalt lava flow from the Volcanic Mountains of Sabyinyo and Bisoke. The caves feature 31 entrances and stretch to 2km inside. The caves provided refuge to people in times of war in the pre-colonial Rwanda and even in the 1994 Rwanda genocide.

The cave exploration lasts 2 hours after which you will retire for relaxation, dinner and overnight

DAY 4: TRANSFER TO AKAGERA NATIONAL PARK.

After breakfast, you will drive to Akagera National Park. This journey takes you through the impressive countryside landscapes of Rwanda before making a stop in Kigali for lunch. After lunch, you proceed to Akagera National Park which is a 2½ hour drive passing through the scenic countryside of  Rwamagana where you have chances of encountering the inyambo cows. You will arrive in Akagera National Park in the evening for relaxation, dinner and overnight.

DAY 5: GAME DRIVE IN THE MORNING & AFTERNOON BOAT CRUISE ON LAKE IHEMA

After an early breakfast, embark on the thrilling game drive encounter in the savannah landscapes of Akagera National Park. Game drives in Akagera national park are done in safari vehicles starting early morning in search of the leopards, hyenas, and the re-introduced lions. This is because the predators prefer to hunt at night or early morning and then usually go into hiding as the heat from the sun increases. Along the carnivores, enjoy the scenery of this beautiful park and several other animals like elephants, buffaloes, antelopes, zebra and giraffes and birds. The landscape and beautiful wild flowers will make for good pictures for the interested photographer. You will then retreat from the game drive and get to the lodge for relaxation and lunch after which you connect to Lake Ihema for an afternoon boat cruise. Lake Ihema is the second largest lake in Rwanda inhabited by Hippos and Nile crocodile and counts of birds. Birding on Lake Ihema will accord one the pleasure of water species which are otherwise not seen while on the game drive in the Savannah grassland. Thus the boat cruise on this lake presents a memorable encounter on the Rwanda safari.

Retire for relaxation, dinner and overnight.

DAY 6: TRANSFER BACK TO KIGALI

After a relaxed breakfast, you will drive back to Kigali City. There you will take a tour of the genocide memorial. The tour to Kigali genocide memorial allows you to pay tribute to the counts of Rwandese that lost their lives in the bloody genocide that befell Rwanda in 1994. Retreat from the memorial centre to mark the end of the safari.

END OF TOUR