Kenya
46
Uganda
21
Tanzania
28
Rwanda
20
Ethiopia
25
Photo: Rogerirakoze / CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons
Gorilla & Primate Trekking · 6 days / 5 nights
Pair a Virunga gorilla trek with Akagera's revived Big Five savannah.
Rwanda earns its reputation as the "Land of a Thousand Hills" the moment you land in Kigali — a city of clean boulevards, terraced hillsides and a quietly confident energy that sets the tone for everything to follow. This six-day loop combines two of Africa's most distinct wildlife experiences: an intimate gorilla trek in the mist-draped Virunga volcanoes and a classic Big Five game safari across the reed-fringed lakes and acacia savannah of Akagera National Park.
Volcanoes National Park is home to roughly half the world's remaining mountain gorillas, living in habituated family groups on the slopes of the Virunga chain — a necklace of dormant and active volcanoes that straddles Rwanda, Uganda and the DRC. Your trek begins before dawn at the park headquarters in Kinigi, where rangers brief each group and assign you to a specific gorilla family. The walk through bamboo forest, hagenia woodland and thick undergrowth can take anything from one to four hours each way, but the hour you spend in the presence of a silverback — the ground trembling as he beats his chest, infants tumbling through the vegetation — is unlike any other encounter in the natural world.
After the Virungas, the circuit pivots east to Akagera, a park transformed by a landmark partnership between the Rwandan government and African Parks. Since lions were reintroduced in 2015 and black rhinos were flown in from Europe and South Africa in 2017, Akagera has reclaimed its status as a genuine Big Five destination. Morning and afternoon game drives scan the open savannah for elephant herds, buffalo, topi, zebra, and the increasingly reliable lion and leopard sightings near the escarpment. A sunset boat cruise on Lake Ihema — Rwanda's largest lake — glides past nesting African fish eagles, papyrus beds alive with shoebills, and enormous hippo pods.
The itinerary opens and closes in Kigali, giving you time to visit the Kigali Genocide Memorial — a sobering and essential counterpoint to the country's remarkable forward momentum. Rwanda's story of resilience and renewal is woven into every part of this journey, from the verdant hillside terraces to the thriving wildlife corridors that locals now help to protect.
Route: Kigali → Volcanoes → Akagera → Kigali
Your guide meets you at Kigali International Airport and transfers you to your hotel in the leafy Nyarutarama or Kimihurura district. After settling in, the afternoon begins with a guided city tour that takes in the Kimironko Market, the vibrant CBD, and the hilltop Kigali Genocide Memorial — a place of profound reflection that charts Rwanda's darkest chapter and its extraordinary path to reconciliation. The evening is free to explore Kigali's lively restaurant scene, which has become one of East Africa's best.
After breakfast, you drive northwest on the well-paved road through Rwanda's famously terraced hill country, passing tea estates and small trading towns before the Virunga volcanoes rise dramatically on the horizon — roughly two and a half hours from the capital. On arrival in the Musanze/Kinigi area you check in to your lodge and, if your gorilla trek is scheduled for day three, your afternoon is filled with an optional golden monkey trek inside Volcanoes National Park. These endemic, exuberant primates — found only in the Virunga Massif — race through the bamboo canopy in troops of up to 80, offering a lively warm-up to tomorrow's headline act.
A 5:00 am breakfast precedes the short drive to Volcanoes National Park headquarters at Kinigi, where trackers brief each group and assign you to one of the habituated gorilla families — groups like the Susa, Amahoro, or Kwitonda families, each with their own territories and social dynamics. You trek through bamboo groves and dense hagenia-hypericum forest, guided by expert trackers who have often been out since first light following the gorillas' trail. The moment you part the foliage and find a silverback resting a few metres away, time slows; the full permitted hour is spent in breathless, intimate observation before you return to the trailhead, lunches in hand, for an afternoon of quiet celebration back at the lodge.
After a leisurely breakfast you leave the cool highland air of the Virungas behind and drive east across Rwanda's central plateau — a journey of roughly four hours that takes you through Kigali without stopping and down toward the Akagera River valley on the Tanzanian border. You arrive at Akagera National Park in the early afternoon, check in to your tented camp or lodge overlooking Lake Shakani or the surrounding savannah, and set out immediately for an afternoon game drive. The golden light picks out zebra, topi, impala, and — with luck — one of Akagera's resident elephant herds moving toward the water.
A full day in Akagera begins before sunrise with a game drive across the park's northern grasslands, where lion sightings have become increasingly reliable and the black rhino population — reintroduced from Europe and South Africa — now numbers over 30 individuals. Buffalo herds of several hundred animals are common near the southern wetlands, and the tree line regularly yields leopard, hyena, and a wealth of raptors. In the late afternoon you board a flat-bottomed boat on Lake Ihema, Rwanda's largest lake, drifting through corridors of papyrus past enormous hippo pods, Nile crocodiles, and roosting colonies of open-billed storks and yellow-billed egrets — a magical finale to the day's wildlife watching.
An optional final sunrise drive through the southern section of Akagera — home to large herds of elephant and the best chances of seeing secretive sitatunga antelope in the papyrus swamps — completes the safari before you head back to Kigali, roughly two hours west of the park gate. Your guide drops you at Kigali International Airport in good time for your international departure, or at your city hotel if you have an evening flight or are extending your stay.
This price is for the tour/adventure only. International & domestic flights and hotels are not included — we'll gladly suggest trusted options that you book directly.
Photo: Brihaspati / CC BY 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons
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