Admire Rwanda’s nature through gorilla habituation, golden monkey trekking, Mount Bisoke hiking and visiting the beaches of Lake Kivu where you will take a traditional canoe ride. The safari also will give you a chance to tour the Iby’Iwachu village that is full of Rwanda culture, the national museum of Rwanda, genocide memorial centre and local markets.
Detailed itinerary
Day 1: Transfer from the airport to the hotel
Your assigned tour guide will pick you up from the airport and quickly gives you briefing about the tour and movements, the history and weather of Rwanda and after transport you to the hotel in Kigali. In case you arrive early, you may take a short city tour to the local markets, national genocide museum, etc.
Day 2: Transfer to Volcanoes NP
After a leisure breakfast, head to Volcanoes NP that covers an area of 160sqkm and well known for its amazing numbers of mountain gorillas and golden monkeys. It’s located within the Virunga conservation area and a home of 5 of 8 Virunga Mountains and they include Mount Bisoke, Mount Sabinyo, Mount Karisimbi, Mount Gahinga, and mount Muhabura. All these present iconic hiking adventures.
Mammals and primates that reside here include buffaloes, black fronted duikers, bushbucks, bush pigs, spotted hyenas, black and white colobus, white colobus, baboons, and red-tailed monkeys. The park is a paradise for birds like Ruwenzori turacos, strange weaver, ground robin chat among others. You will reach at the lodge and relax as you prepare for next day’s adventure.
Day 3: Gorilla trekking experience
Gorilla trekking is an experience that takes you the presence of gorillas as they fee, groom, and breast feed their babies, search for food or even playing. This starts with a short briefing that takes 20-30 minutes, as the park ranger allocates you to the gorilla family that is trekked by 8 people per day, given instructions to enable smooth trekking, and assigned a park guide to direct you to where to find these gorillas.
After the trekking experience that takes 2-7 hours including 1 hour to be in gorillas’ presence, you will be rewarded with a certificate of trekking.
Day 4: Golden monkey trekking and Ibyiwachu community tour
Start a day by waking up and take breakfast in the restaurant and head to the park office to get involved in the briefing activity that takes 20-30 minutes. Proceed to trek the rare golden monkeys in their natural environment and this activity can take between 2-4 hours.
You can spot other primates like black and white colobus, white colobus, baboons, and red-tailed monkeys among others and birds like Ruwenzori turacos, strange weaver, ground robin, francolins, red faced woodland warbler, Ruwenzori double collared sunbird among others.
In the afternoon after your buffet lunch, head to Ibyiwachu community to experience the Kinyarwanda culture through the art and gallery, traditional dances, traditional meals and among others.
Take a walk in the community where you will be able to meet local brewers, traditional healers, and story tellers among others and the day will end with dinner and accommodation at the lodge.
Day 5: Bisoke hiking adventure
The hike will start immediately after briefing at the park headquarters at exactly 8:00 am with a help of the park ranger. You will have your packed lunch in your backpack with enough water to help quench your thirst during the whole day hike.
It’s advisable to hire for yourself a porter to carry your luggage and a hiking stick. The Bisoke hike takes you to the top of the volcano to view the magnificent Crater Lake and surrounding landscape of the greater Virunga ranges including the volcanoes national park and this can take 4-6 hours to reach the summit.
You will have your lunch picnic at the summit as you plan to descend back to the starting point. After you will return to lodge in the evening for your dinner and overnight
Day 6: Transfer to Lake Kivu
Transfer to Lake Kivu after breakfast, a place that offers beautiful view of the beaches. Take a canoe ride experience where you will encounter the beauty of this lake, take part in fishing and cool yourself off at the white sand beaches. You will check in at the accommodation overlooking the lake and be served with lunch and dinner.
Day 7: Transfer back to Kigali, city tour and drop off at the airport
Drive back to Kigali – the capital city of Rwanda and depending on your scheduled time, you will take a short city tour where you will enjoy culture and history of Rwanda. This country is the cleanest in Africa covered with green trees and filled with cultural and historical attractions. At the end, you will be dropped at the airport to fly back home which will mark the end of your 7 days Rwanda gorillas and golden monkey tour.
