This exciting safari involves visiting Rwanda’s prime tourist destination, Volcanoes national park, the home of mountain gorillas. At this natural place, you get a glorious opportunity of encountering the endangered gorillas at close range in their natural setting. After a date with the gorillas, you go to Lake Kivu for relaxation. The lake has lots of resorts to unwind, relax and have a good time. At the death of your trip, you have a city tour around the capital of Rwanda, Kigali to enjoy its freshness, and modernity and also immerse yourself in the history that can get you emotional.
Tour Itinerary
Day 1: Arrive in Kigali
Upon your arrival at the airport, you will be welcomed by our representative who will make you feel at home since this is a very important feeling for any traveler. The representative will be at your service and you can ask as many questions on whatever subject concerning your safari and more and he will assist you kindly. After this short period of fraternization with our representative, you will then drive north towards the Parc Nationale des Volcans which is where you will track the gorillas from.
En route to the park, you will be treated to various sceneries ranging from the beautiful terraced hills for which Rwanda is well known, the Virunga mountains, and several other forms of flora and fauna. Rwanda is a very beautiful country and as such you should always have your camera ready to flash because you do not know what you might see around the corner. After this long trip, you will reach the town of Ruhengeri which is like the tourist town of the park and here you will spend the night at either Gorilla Nest Lodge/La Palme Hotel/Kinigi Guest House.
Day 2: Gorilla tracking in Rwanda
You will have an early morning breakfast at your hotel/lodge and thereafter drive to the Headquarters of Parc Nationale des Volcans. While there, you will meet your ranger guides for the day and they will brief you about the behavior of the primates and most importantly on the dos and don’ts of the activity.
The rangers are a very lovely bunch and they have been trained in handling the mountain gorilla and several other animals in the park and so if you follow whatever they tell you, then you are assured of a safe fruitful trip. After this briefing by the rangers, you will be grouped and ready for the experience of a lifetime. The gorilla tracking activity is as gripping as it is exploratory, taking you through large areas of the forest along rough paths. Therefore the trackers have to be physically fit in order to handle the sometimes muddy terrain in this mountain area.
You will be gone for the most part of the day as it may take you several hours to find a group of gorillas but you will find one anyway and after that, you spend quality time mingling with the primates in very close proximity. Get your camera ready and spread the myth because this is something you have definitely never seen. You will return to your hotel/lodge after this and spend the night there.
Day 3: Transfer to Lake Kivu
You will have an early morning breakfast and afterward drive to Kibuye passing through breathtaking mountains, deep valleys, and the typical Rwandan topography. I assure you, you have never seen such scenery anywhere in the world. You will see one mountain folding into one another and it will seem like an artistic impression but it’s not. Since this is not a short trip, you have a lunch break at the Hotel Bethanie.
After lunch, the trip continues and then you head to the lake from where you may choose to relax by the lakeshore or take a ride on a boat. The lake is an exciting attraction with numerous activities like fishing not to mention the chemistry of this lake which is rare since it has large methane deposits. You will then head to the Lake Kivu Serena Hotel where you will spend the night.
Day 4: Transfer to Kigali
You will be taken to several of the city’s hotspots from the market where you see masses of Rwandans going about their day-to-day business to the several craft shops equipped with lovely works of art which are good gifts from Africa. Other hotspots are the Belgium Memorial, the Kigali Historical Museum, and the genocide museum which is a good place to learn about the history of Rwanda.
You will be taken to your hotel after a long day of moving around town. There are a number of options when it comes to accommodation and it is therefore upon you to decide which one you prefer and that is exactly where you will be taken unless otherwise. A few of these options are Stipp Hotel, Chez Lando Hotel, and Okapi Hotel.
Day 5: Departure
You will have breakfast at your hotel and depending on the time of your departure flight you will (not) have lunch. You will then be transferred to the airport where you will wait for your flight and finally, we say ‘adios’.