Duration
8 Days
ITINERARY
Day 1: Arrival in Kigali Rwanda
On arrival at Kigali Airport, you will be met by Instyle Africa Safaris representative and transferred to your hotel where you will have some relaxing time before enjoying your dinner and overnight.
Day 2: Kigali City tour, drive to Volcanoes National Park
After breakfast at the hotel this morning, you will be picked up by Instyle Africa Safari representative for a Kigali city tour. This tour will take you to Kigali Memorial Genocide Centre: which well exhibits Rwanda’s history of the genocide on video shows, see photographs, read some written accounts, see a number of articrafts and read personal testimonies as well.
After the tour you will enjoy your lunch before you drive to Volcanoes National Park. Upon arrival at your lodge, you will have an evening at leisure.
Day 3: Gorilla Trekking
Volcanoes National Park is the best location to trek these mountain gorilla. This park is found on Rwanda’s border with DR Congo, and Uganda. This chain of mountains has 7 volcanoes and the Karisimbi is the highest standing over 4500 meters.
The slopes covered with bamboo and rainforest vegetation are home to some of the last surviving mountain gorillas that were first studied comprehensively by George Schaller and not so many years ago by Dian Fossey.
There are 4 habituated gorilla families within Volcanoes National Park, counting the Susa Group having 35 individuals. The other gorilla families are: the Sabinyo having 13 individuals, the Amahura having 16 individuals as well as Group 13 having only 6.
It is not very challenging to find them and each gorilla family can be visited by a maximum of 8 people each day, hence availing 32 permits each day. After gorilla tracking, return to your hotel or lodge and the rest of the evening will be at leisure.
Day 4: Golden Monkey trekking
After breakfast, you will leave the lodge and drive to Gisenyi to trek golden monkeys. After lunch enjoy a community walk to interact with the resident who may entertain you with cultural dances. You may choose to observe the locals brewing local beer from yellow bananas. Return to your lodge or hotel, evening at leisure.
Day 5: Transfer to Lake Kivu for another Adventure
After breakfast, you will driveto Lake Kivu for a boat ride around the Virgin Islands like the Napoleon’s Hat Island and there you can ascend to the peak of the hat to view the thousands of Angola bats in the blue skies. Following lunch continue to Butare the intellectual centre of Rwanda to visit the national university plus the Institute of Scientific Research as well as the national museum. Return to your lodge or hotel, the rest of the evening will be at leisure.
Day 6: Nyungwe Forest- Night at Gisakura Lodge
Nyungwe Forest is among the greatly safeguarded montane rainforests in the whole of Africa. It extends over an expanse of 970 sq km and offers breathtaking scenery looking over the forest plus Lake Kivu.
The primary attraction here are the guided tours when tracking the large troops of black & white Angolan Colobus monkeys ( which may have as many as 400 members in every troop) or even chimpanzees. Roughly there are 270 species of trees, more than 70 species of mammals, 275 species of birds plus a profusion of orchids as well as butterflies. After this tour you will return to your lodge or hotel for a leisure afternoon.
Day 7: Chimpanzee Trekking Safari in Rwanda
After breakfast this morning, you will proceed with chimpanzee trekking within the Nyungwe forest. This forest is home to huge chimpanzees troops only comparable to those in Uganda’s Kibale Forest national park. The L’Hoest’s monkeys plus the white Angolan Colobus monkeys do make primate tourism within this forest equivalent to no other in Africa.
The tour will be followed by lunch, then after lunch, you will drive to Nyanza the historical site to learn about the history of kings of Rwanda. Listen to the traditional story-telling done by village elders. Actually, The Intore dancers, who attained reputation in the international cultural expo held in Brussels back in 1958, are currently part of the great Rwanda legends.
This warrior’s dance is a gem of the choreographic heritage of this country, adorned with a lion mane completed with sisal fiber plus rings of bells worn in their ankles together with an angelic choir and an exciting rhythm, this is the type of cultural dance which will be organized if you request. After this exciting long day, you will return to your lodge or hotel where you will have an evening at leisure.
Day 8 Drive to Kigali, departure
After breakfast, you will drive to Kigali and later be transferred to the airport for your departure flight.
