On This Trip
- Explore Rwanda's bustling capital city Kigali
- Discover the primates of Nyungwe Forest
- Relax on the shores of Lake Kivu
Journey through Rwanda's thousand hills exploring the hidden corners of this beautiful country, meeting its people, soaking up its dramatic scenery and encountering its very unique wildlife. You fly into the capital of Kigali where you can explore, visit the Gisozi Genocide Memorial museum which offers a haunting reminder of the past, and see for yourself how much the country and its people have moved on since the horrors of 1994.
From here you will head south, stopping in the second city, Butare, to visit the King's Palace and the National Museum before continuing on to Nyungwe Forest National Park. Home to Rwanda's only population of habituated chimpanzees, you can spend a full day here tracking them with a guide. Sightings aren't guaranteed but you will certainly encounter a good variety of other monkeys including black and white colobus monkeys leaping from tree to tree. Birdlife here is also superb, with more than 280 recorded species!
Next you will be driven west to the shore of Lake Kivu, where you will stay for two nights relaxing at Gisenyi. Saving the real highlight until the end, your next stop is the Volcanoes National Park where you will track mountain gorillas and visiting Dian Fossey's former research centre, Karisoke, where she wrote Gorillas in the Mist.
Your day of tracking the gorillas is not one you'll soon forget – starting with a fairly strenuous walk through dense vegetation, the visits are timed to try to find the gorillas during a rest period so you can watch them rest, play, eat and groom each other for the hour that you're permitted to spend with them! Your journey will end with another night in Kigali, with time to post your postcards and find some souvenirs before you return home.
You can visit Rwanda any time throughout the year, although there is more rain in April and May than other times of year. However, you should be aware that because of the mountainous ecosystems surrounding the Volcanoes National Park, it can rain on any day of the year.
If you are interested, we can arrange to time your visit around the annual Gorilla Naming Ceremony which takes place in June - all of the infants born since the previous year's ceremony are named by officials from Rwanda and you can enjoy traditional music and dances during the event. Donations and the chances to adopt a gorilla are encouraged and this acts as a significant fund-raiser for the year - all funds go towards preserving the mountain gorillas' habitat, anti-poaching patrols and the provision of trained park rangers to ensure the safety of the gorillas and tourists who come to visit them.
Places Visited
- Kigali
- Nyungwe Forest
- Lake Kivu