5 Days Best of Rwanda Gorilla Tracking and Wildlife Safari – Akagera

Welcome to the start of your Rwanda trip in the beautiful city of Kigali! Your guide will either pick you up directly from Kigali International Airport or from your hotel if you are already staying in Kigali. If you need any supplies for your upcoming week in Rwanda, please tell your guide at pickup, and he will be happy to make sure your needs are accommodated. Most travel essentials and non-essentials are available in Kigali, but availability is limited outside of the city.

Lunch and Drive to Akagera National Park (2.5 hours)

Your safari to Rwanda begins with a 2.5 hour drive to Akagera National Park. Ascend winding roads and watch the mountain scenery open up into flatlands on the way to your accommodation. Along the way, you will stop at a Rwandese restaurant for lunch with your guide. Enjoy local samosas, pockets of fried dough stuffed with beef, chicken, or vegetables, or an ice-cold Skol or Mutzig beer, both brewed in Rwanda.

After you arrive and check in, enjoy your evening as you take in the savannah, lakes, and wide blue skies of the park.  Dinner will be served at your hotel.

After an early breakfast, enjoy a morning Game Drive led by your Katland Safaris guide. As it is not yet warm in the park, you may have the chance to see predators such as lions and hyenas on the hunt. From your vehicle, look carefully over the wetlands and marshes for the many bird species endemic to the area.

Akagera National Park is much less frequented by tourists than more well-known parks in Kenya and Tanzania; thus, you may feel as though you and your group have the whole park to yourselves. Look carefully for lions, recently re-introduced into the park, as well as rhinos, a new addition. This drive is an unforgettable part of your tour in Rwanda.

Lunch and Drive to Volcanoes National Park (2.5 hours)

Your journey to see gorillas begins with a 2.5 hour drive to Volcanoes National Park. Ascend winding roads and enjoy the mountain scenery on the way to your accommodation as your guide gives you an informative briefing on your upcoming Gorilla Tracking Safari.   Rwanda is covered with small farms, each about 1 acre in size, so that the rolling hills almost look like quilts of bananas, tea, and other crops.

Village Walk and Dinner

After checking in, your Katland Safaris guide will accompany you on a village walk. Take a two-hour journey into the colorful, rustic local villages in the park, and take a moment to greet the warm, hospitable people who live there. You will see for yourself the simplicity and richness of the local lifestyle. The hearty, humble people of the villages here keep family close and make use of everything well past when a wealthier person would simply throw things away.

After your walk, you will return to your lodge for dinner and watch the sun sink behind the mountains of the park.

Breakfast and Cultural Performance at Park Headquarters

Enjoy an early breakfast at your lodging and head to the Park Headquarters for a morning of coffee, tea, music, and performance by local dancers.

Gorilla Trekking (1-8 hours)

Next, you will be assigned to one of ten families of Mountain Gorillas. After a short briefing about park etiquette from a park Ranger Guide, you will be ready to begin lowland gorilla tracking.

You will be driven to the tracking start point, from which your Ranger Guide will begin to track your assigned gorilla family. The mountain gorillas are constantly on the move, so it could take anytime between one and eight hours to meet the gorillas.

In the early morning, before you arrive, rangers will have already entered the forest to begin following the trail left by your gorilla family. These rangers are in constant contact with your Ranger Guide. When they find the gorillas, they will immediately alert your Ranger Guide to their location, and you will proceed directly to where the gorillas are. A packed lunch will be provided for you to eat either before or after seeing the gorillas in the case that the trek takes most of the day. Visitors are not allowed to eat in the presence of the gorillas.

After your group finds the gorillas, you will have one hour to observe and photograph them. This will be plenty of time for you to see how the gorillas communicate with each other, move, and play. Your Ranger Guide will be happy to answer any of your questions about Mountain Gorillas.

Ibyiwacu Cultural Center Visit

At the end of your gorilla trek in Rwanda, return to your accommodation for lunch and a well-deserved rest. When you are ready, your guide will take you to the Ibyiwacu Cultural Center in Kiningi. At the Center, you can enjoy a performance of native dance and music by drummers and dancers, as well as a traditional wedding ceremony recreated by local performers. This traditional drama will put a smile on your face and fill out your tour in Rwanda. Before nightfall, you will return to have dinner at your accommodation.

Breakfast and Cultural Performance at Park Headquarters

Enjoy an early breakfast at your lodging and return to the Park Headquarters for another morning of coffee, tea, music, and performance by local dancers. Following the performance and briefing by a Park Ranger, you will join a Golden Monkey Tracking Group and head to the tracking start point in the forest.

Golden Monkey Tracking

Unlike your mountain gorilla safari, the Golden Monkeys are easy to find; they are usually feeding in the beautiful Bamboo Forest near the base of the mountain. As with the gorillas, you will take an hour to observe, photograph, and ask questions about the energetic Golden Monkeys. Afterwards, your Park Ranger will lead you back to your vehicle, where you’ll join your guide and return to your lodge for lunch.

Lunch and Musanze Caves

Following a filling lunch, your guide will escort you to the Musanze Caves, a lesser-known but breathtaking part of a complete Rwanda trip. The longest cave extends more than 2 kilometers. Don a helmet as you descend down the wide stone steps from the jungle into the cave’s gaping mouth. Follow the trails into the caves, and discover the long-lost homes of local people. Before nightfall, you will return again to your lodging for dinner.

Return to Kigali

Breakfast and drive to Kigali (2-3 hours)

After breakfast, you will have a chance to pack up for your return to Kigali with your guide. Enjoy a scenic descent past banana farms, tea plantations, and small towns in western Rwanda along winding mountain roads.

Return to Kigali International Airport or Accommodation; (Optional) Tour of Kigali City

If there is time, your guide will be happy to guide you to one of Kigali’s renowned bakeries, coffee shops, or a local handicrafts market to purchase some of the beautiful artwork created in the city. Visit the world-renowned Genocide Memorial Center and have a chance to learn about the fascinating recent history of the country. Enjoy a cup of Rwandan coffee at the Memorial café and explore the outdoor rose gardens. When the time is right, your guide will return you to your accommodation or will accompany you to Kigali International Airport.

We hope you will have enjoyed your trip to Rwanda with Katland Safaris!

End of Safari