Highlights of Rwanda

You will arrive into Kigali International Airport, be welcomed by your guide and then transferred you to your hotel. If you arrive in the morning and would like to explore Kigali, we can arrange private walking or guided tours of the city, or perhaps take you to some places of interest, such as art galleries, workshops or museums. If you arrive in the evening, you may choose to have a have a banana wine “Urwagwa” experience. This experience involves making traditional beer from fermentation of mashed bananas. Sorghum or millet is added as a source of wild yeast to facilitate the fermentation process. Alternatively, you can choose to have to a coffee master class. This involves having a short history coffee lesson, harvesting the cherries from the trees in the coffee farm and making your own coffee blend. There is plenty to do in Kigali but similarly if you’d prefer checking in your hotel and relaxing by the pool, that is a possibility.

Today after breakfast, you will be dropped off at Kigali Airport for your flight to Akagera National Park with a private charter flight. You may choose to have a scenic tour of the park before landing. Upon arrival, you will be met at the airstrip and transferred to Magashi Lodge. Akagera park borders beautiful rising and falling plains, solid broad-leafed forests, and brighter acacia woods that define its favorable nature to animals and visitors. In the afternoon, you’ll have the opportunity to go for your first Rwandan game drive – with the possibility to spot giraffe, buffalo, elephant, crocodile, hippo and spotted hyena among others.

On day two here, you will start your day with an early morning game drive in Akagera National Park, looking out for a variety of mammals and bird life. With small numbers of vehicles in the park, you’ll appreciate the peace and tranquillity, as well as the diverse flora and fauna. Head back to the lodge for lunch and in the afternoon, you will enjoy a boat ride on the Lake Ihema. You will sail along the water edge which is covered with several trees, drift past numerous giant hippos and see several crocodiles some in the shallows of the water and other basking on the shore. This is a great way to experience the park from another angle and viewpoint.

Enjoy breakfast at the lodge before driving over to the Volcanoes National Park (or as they say locally the Parc National des Volcanoes). The flight itself will be a special way to see the park. You’ll fly over Rwanda’s dramatic landscape, gradually climbing to the base of the Virunga volcanoes. It’s a good way to understand the sheer size of the Virunga Massif – a volcano and mountain range extending over Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. You’ll arrive at your lodge in time for lunch and you can spend the afternoon at leisure or explore the town of Ruhengeri. Get an early night before your gorilla trek the next day.

The next day, enjoy an early morning breakfast and a hot cup of coffee before heading to Ruhengeri – the park headquarters. Today you will experience the highlight of your trip by visiting the mountain gorillas, who live and are habituated here in the park. After your safety briefing, you will be led by an experienced ranger / guide who will tell you the history and current challenges of the mountain gorillas – an incredible yet endangered species. Your gorilla tracking experience can be anything between 2 and 6 hours, before heading back to the lodge to relax. You can also do optional activities should you wish and have time, such as a visit to the Dianne Fossey grave.

Today, you will either drive or fly back to Kigali, the place it all started. On route, your driver/ guide will explain the history and devastating happenings of the genocide and, should you be interested, you can visit the genocide museum on your city tour. Alternatively, head back to the hotel to relax or connect onto your international fights home or to your onwards destination.