Nyungwe National Park - Rwanda

You will depart from Kigali to Nyungwe Forest early morning after breakfast so that we have enough time for a stopover at the Ethnographic Museum in Huye. The Ethnographic Museum (which is also the national museum of Rwanda) showcases the historic and cultural aspects of Rwanda through the ages. It has materials and guides to take you through the rich Rwandan culture and history. We will have lunch after the museum experience before continuing on our journey to Nyungwe Forest. The roads to Nyungwe after Huye are mostly winding which will give you amazing views of the famous "thousand hills". You will be arriving at your lodge not too far from the Nyungwe Forest later in the evening for dinner and overnight. Get ready to take on the chimpanzee trekking the next day.

Nyungwe National Park - Rwanda

The chimpanzee trekking in Nyungwe Forest National Park starts very early in the morning. It requires that you leave your lodge as early as 5:00 am to make it to the briefing area at the Uwinka overlook. Nyungwe Forest has 2 main trailheads for chimpanzee trekking i.e. the Uwinka trail and the Cyamudongo section. The forest is rich in botanical diversity. It hosts over 200 species of trees and flowering plants, and 13 species of primates including colobus monkeys, vervet monkeys, and red-tailed monkeys. There are also 300 bird species with several Albertine Rift endemics and several species of butterflies. After the briefing, you will be advised on which trail you will take. If it is Cyamudongo, it requires you to drive out for a certain distance and your driver guide will transfer you to the starting point. After the chimp trekking, there is a canopy walk, or you can return to the lodge for relaxation and take the canopy walk later in the afternoon. Return for dinner and overnight.

Visit Lake Kivu Boat tour & Adventure

Have breakfast and then transfer to Lake Kivu in Gisenyi where you will have a morning boat ride on the lake. You will have a chance to see many bird species. Lake Kivu is not only a lake where you can relax and chill out, but you can also swim in the lake. There are no hippos or crocodiles, and no bilharzia are found in Lake Kivu, making it the perfect natural swimhole. You will visit the hot spring at Lake Kivu and Punishment Island where they used to take girls that would get pregnant before getting married. Lake Kivu has many islands, with one of the largest being Nyamirundi Island, which is home to a large coffee plantation. Here, you can learn all about the coffee-making process; from harvesting, drying, roasting and of course culminating in the opportunity to sample some exceptionally fresh, organic and award-winning Rwandan coffee. Later, return for dinner and overnight.

Volcanoes National Park

After breakfast at 7:30 am, transfer to Musanze at 8:00 am and proceed to visiting the Twin Lakes of Burera and Ruhondo. Enjoy a nature walk and visit the Karisoke Research Center and Exhibits. Have lunch at Migano Café, and later head to Hotel Muhabura for dinner and overnight.

Lake Burera and Lake Ruhondo

Visit the Twin Lakes

Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

Wake up for an early breakfast and transfer to the park's head offices in Kinigi by 7:00 am. Join up with the other golden monkey trekkers, and meet the ranger guide for a few minutes' talk about the activity and the park. At 8:00 am, you transfer to the trailhead just outside the park. Enjoy great views of the mountain scenery as you start your trek into the park to find the golden monkeys. The golden monkeys live near the edge of the park in the bamboo forests where the ground is relatively flat and easy to trek. Find the monkeys and follow them as they feed. You will notice how they skillfully pick the young bamboo leaves from the tip of the bamboo tree. They may also move out of the park into the potato fields, and how they love the potatoes! After an amazing 1 hour with the golden monkeys, you will return to the trailhead and drive back to the lodge for lunch. Thereafter, head to the border, and then proceed to Bwindi.

Kigali

After an early morning breakfast, walk to the park headquarters for briefing on the do's and don’ts during gorilla tracking and thereafter you will proceed to the gorilla trail. Gorilla tracking normally lasts between 2 to 8 hours or even a day to encounter the gorillas. However, you will be allowed to stay in the presence of these awesome apes for at least an hour. It is advisable that you carry packed lunch, which will be provided, as one cannot determine how long it may take to encounter the mountain gorillas. Later transfer back to Kigali