8 Days Rwanda Gorilla Tour

After this 8‑day Rwan­da goril­la safari, you’ll be able to recount anec­dotes about moun­tain goril­las. The tour ends with a deep under­stand­ing of the lifestyle, envi­ron­ment, and traits of moun­tain gorillas—the biggest ape species on earth. You may see and hear goril­las, watch moth­ers care for their young, lis­ten to sil­ver­back lead the troop, and see what a moun­tain goril­la’s habi­tat looks like. This pack­age also includes a boat excur­sion and game dri­ve in Akagera Nation­al Park, a tour to Musanze Cave, and a walk­ing tour of Kigali. With­in eight days, dis­cov­er the best of local cui­sine, cul­tur­al enter­tain­ment, a goril­la encounter, and hos­pi­tal­i­ty in Rwan­da. Pick­up and deliv­ery take place in Kigali, Rwanda.

Day1: Arrive and tour Kigali City

To wel­come and intro­duce you into the most stun­ning Kigali city, our dri­ver guide will greet you at the air­port today. One of the most pic­turesque towns on the African con­ti­nent, Kigali boasts a range of his­tor­i­cal and cul­tur­al land­marks. The Geno­cide Memo­r­i­al site, where the vic­tims of the 1994 Rwan­dan eth­nic vio­lence were buried and mourned, local craft shops where trav­el­ers can pur­chase cer­tain trip-relat­ed neces­si­ties, and more are among the attrac­tions to see. After eat­ing lunch some­where in town, you’ll dri­ve to your lodge to wind down from the day’s events. Din­ner­time and bed­time are at sunset.

Day2: Kigali to Vol­ca­noes Nation­al park-Musanze Cave exploration

Enjoy a great break­fast at the lodge to start the day, and then go to Vol­ca­noes Nation­al Park to see the crit­i­cal­ly endan­gered moun­tain goril­las. The park is sit­u­at­ed in the north­ern region of the nation, at the base of the mas­sive Virun­ga moun­tain range, which stretch­es over the nations of Ugan­da, the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Repub­lic of the Con­go, and Rwan­da. The trip lasts for rough­ly two to three hours and offers views of gor­geous land­scapes and cityscapes. Dri­ving and check­ing in at the lodge are your next steps. You next get an hour to explore Musanze Cave, where you will wan­der through it and take in the mag­ic of the night. Din­ner and a sound sleep bring the work­day to a close.

Day3: Goril­la Trekking

You will begin your day at dawn with an ear­ly break­fast meal at the lodge and then embark on a ful­fill­ing one to six-hour trek with the goril­las. The activ­i­ty is pre­ced­ed by a pre-trek brief­ing by an expe­ri­enced ranger guide, who will go through the dos and don’ts of trekking, the goril­las’ way of life, and assign a goril­la group that you will trail for one to eight hours. Goril­la hik­ing is enjoy­able yet dif­fi­cult. You can see mon­keys, birds, unusu­al plant species, moun­tain slopes, and more in the for­est in addi­tion to goril­las. You will spend an hour view­ing, tak­ing pic­tures, and learn­ing about moun­tain goril­las after you find them.

Lunch will be at the For­est. After Goril­la trekking, you will return to the lodge for refresh­ment, din­ner and overnight.

Day4: Goril­la Habit­u­a­tion Tour

After break­fast, you’ll go to the park head­quar­ters for a pre-tour brief­ing before spend­ing 4 hours with the goril­las, where you may snap pic­tures, observe, and learn more about moun­tain goril­las’ dai­ly lives. Mak­ing goril­las accus­tomed to human pres­ence is called “goril­la habit­u­a­tion.” Fol­low­ing the brief­ing, you will spend four hours with them, feed­ing them while tak­ing pic­tures and mak­ing notes about their lives and sto­ries. You are free to approach them clos­er, observe, and learn about their behav­iors. You will be led by knowl­edge­able park ranger guides who will walk you through these apes’ dai­ly lives. You will return to the lodge for refresh­ments, din­ner, and overnight after your time with the gorillas.

Day5: Depert for Akagera Nation­al park

After a deli­cious break­fast at the lodge, set out for Akagera Nation­al Park. The dri­ve there takes around four hours and offers beau­ti­ful views of the sur­round­ing coun­try­side and spec­tac­u­lar land­scape. A dri­ve to Remem­ber is under­way! After arriv­ing at the lodge in or near the park, you’ll have a deli­cious lunch, then you may relax or take part in any oth­er option­al activ­i­ties like a cul­tur­al tour or nature walk in the evening. Din­ner and overnight stay.

Day6: Full day game drive

After a delec­table break­fast at the lodge, head out into the wilder­ness for the first game dri­ve of the day, which will be fol­lowed by lunch. Spend the remain­der of the evening hunt­ing after that, expect­ing to see hunters emerge from their hid­ing places to go on a hunt. Mul­ti­ple ante­lope species, warthogs, leop­ards, giraffes, sev­er­al ante­lope species, buf­faloes, ele­phants, and more are among the numer­ous ani­mals to keep an eye out for. At dusk, the day con­cludes as you head back to the Lodge for din­ner and bed.

Day7: Bird­watch­ing and boat cruise

After break­fast, you will vis­it the pop­u­lar bird-spot­ting loca­tions in the park to learn how to rec­og­nize the many birds by their names, char­ac­ter­is­tics, and sounds. Over 480 dis­tinc­tive bird species, both endem­ic and non-endem­ic, may be found in Akagera Nation­al Park. The vast list of birds on the check­list, along with oth­ers like the red-faced bar­bet, marabou stork, cor­morants, African fish eagle, herons, ganolex, open stork bill, swamp fly­catch­er, Fal­co nau­man­ni, and more, com­prise the birds you might see dur­ing the one to three-hour trip. Fol­low­ing your bird­ing excur­sion, you will return to the resort for lunch before tak­ing a boat trip at Twin Lake in the evening. While on the cruise, you may enjoy fish while also spot­ting hip­pos, croc­o­diles, and oth­er ani­mals. After din­ner and overnight, call it a day.

Day8: Deper­ture

You will depart for the Kigali inter­na­tion­al air­port or Kigali city after eat­ing break­fast, the first meal of the day. When you get in Kigali, you can choose to go on a safari or vis­it the King’s Palace to learn more about the coun­try’s past.

End of safari