Gorilla & Chimpanzee Rwanda

Arrival in Kigali

On arriving at Kigali International Airport, our local representative will arrange your transfer to the Volcanoes National Park accommodation situated on the edge of the park. The drive will take roughly two hours. Upon arrival, you will check-in and spend the rest of your afternoon at leisure or take short walks in the afternoon.

Your day will end with an overnight stay at the lodge.

Adventures at Volcanoes National Park

We start the tour off with an early breakfast at your lodge, after which you will drive a short distance to the Volcanoes National Park headquarters for your first day of mountain Rwanda gorilla safaris. It may take you hours to track and reach the gorillas depending on the location of your assigned family group, but the ascending trek through often dense vegetation will be entirely worthwhile when you discover the great apes and spend an hour in their presence. The experience of coming face-to-face with our ancestral species is a rather surreal one. After leaving the gorillas to their daily activities of foraging and grooming each other, you will visit the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project in Musanze, also known as Gorilla Doctors. This center cares for orphaned and injured gorillas residing at the Senkwekwe Centre in the DRC’s Virunga National Park or those found in the wild.

As the day of Rwanda gorilla safaris comes to a close, you will return to your lodge and spend the night.

Off to Nyungwe Forest National Park

After a leisurely morning spent at your lodge, you will be transferred to the Nyungwe Forest National Park, situated on Rwanda’s southwestern border. Be on the lookout for Lake Kivu, one of Africa’s Great Lakes, stretching out to the west. You can opt for accommodation for the next two nights in a lodge located on the edge of the national park within a working tea plantation, and stay there overnight.

Chimpanzee trekking Rwanda safari in Cyamudongo Forest

On the second last day of the tour, you will pack some breakfast and head out early in the morning for a one-hour drive to Cyamudongo Forest, where you will have your third primate tracking excursion of the safari, this time tracking chimpanzees. For Chimpanzee trekking, Rwanda is a favorite among tourists and wildlife enthusiasts alike. Chimpanzees are loud and boisterous, so your experience with them will be very different from that of the more docile gorillas. In the afternoon, you can take to the trees and enjoy an exhilarating trip across the canopy walkway, which is 250 feet high while gazing out at the ocean of green underneath.

Again, your overnight stay will be at your lodge.

Back home

After your breakfast, you will be taken to the Rwandan capital of Kigali, in time for your international flight back to your homeland or to your next destination.

Your sojourn has come to an end, and we hope you will be taking home beautiful memories of coming face to face with some magnificent primates.