11 DAYS Exclusive RWANDA

After breakfast, you will go for a city tour of Kigali including the Kigali Memorial Centre and The Campaign Against Genocide Museum. After the visit you will go on a 3-hour drive to Akagera National Park, with lunch enroute. You will arrive in time for dinner and overnight Kigali has been the political and economic capital of Rwanda’s since independence in 1951. A fast growing cosmopolitan town of 1m inhabitants with wide and landscaped boulevards, world class hotels and restaurants as well as an international airport, it is reputedly the best organized and cleanest city in Africa. Tour lower Kigali around Nyabugogo open air market which is a little crowded and considered the heart of Kigali’s informal economy and continue to the Kigali genocide Memorial Center; learn about the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsis, how it was triggered and carried out, and what lessons we can learn from that past. In one section, learn too about other past genocides in world. We continue past the ‘skyscraper’ city center with her pave, maintained and clean boulevards and international hotels to the parliament building which was scene of some fighting in 1994. We culminate in the adjacent new developments around Kimihurura, Kimironko area and the Nyarutarama suburb popularly referred to as the Beverly Hills of Kigali and see firsthand Rwanda’s transition; the recovery has been incredible – a true testament to mankind’s resilience in the face of unfathomable odds

The Kigali Genocide Memorial commemorates the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsis. The remains of over 250,000 people are interred there. There is a visitor center for students and those wishing to understand the events leading up to the genocide of 1994. The Centre is a permanent memorial to those who fell victim to the genocide and serves as a place in which the bereaved could bury their family and friends. The Centre is managed and run by the Aegis Trust on behalf of the National Commission for the Fight against Genocide. Akagera National Park is located in the east of Rwanda along the border with Tanzania. It is named after the Akagera River that flows along its eastern boundary and feeds into a labyrinth of lakes. The rolling hills of acacia woodland coupled with scattered grassland and swamp-fringed lakes along the watercourse combine to create a park of breathtaking beauty.

Dinner and Overnight: Akagera Game Lodge - Full Board
Upgrade: Ruzizi Tented Lodge

Full day spent in Akagera with morning and afternoon game viewing, you will enjoy viewing many animals such as elephant, buffalo, giraffe, zebra and antelopes that frequent the open plains within the park with chances to view the big cats of the park. Picnic snacks and a bush packed lunch will be served in the park. During the sunset you will go for Boat ride in Lake Ihema. You will be back at the lodge in evening time for a reserved shower and dinner.

Dinner and Overnight: Akagera Game Lodge - Full Board
Upgrade: Ruzizi Tented Lodge

After breakfast, you will check out and go for a short game drive while exiting the park. You will drive back to Kigali Approx. 3 hours’ drive and be transferred to your hotel.

Dinner and Overnight: Heaven Boutique Hotel – Bed and Breakfast
Upgrade: Kigali Serena Hotel

After your morning breakfast, you will check out and drive South. Along the way, you will visit the King’s Palace Museum, and also go for an “Inyambo” traditional cow parade. You will proceed to Nyungwe National Park, with lunch enroute. You will arrive at your lodge in time for evening, dinner and overnight.

King’s Palace Museum

Situated on a hill 2km southwest of Nyanza town, this fascinating museum is less about ancient history and more about royal residences. The displays center on a replica king’s ‘palace’ . You will go on a guided tour that helps explain some of the architectural idiosyncrasies inside the royal compound, including why the royal beer brewer’s hut had an entrance without a lip, and other curiosities such as why the woman who looked after the king’s milk was never able to marry. Nyungwe rain-forest National Park in southern RWANDA is one of the most beautiful and the largest remaining stretch of montane forests in East Africa. It is home to a wide variety of mammals and 13 species of primates including Chimpanzees and large troops of Angola Colobus Monkeys that inhabit her fairytale world of ancient trees, bushes and shrubs species some dating back to the ice ages; all grown over steep and fertile green valleys and ridges surrounded by beautiful tea plantations. Amidst her well-maintained hiking trails, guests enjoy regular guided Forest Hikes down to stunning valleys with beautiful waterfalls; Track the semi-habituated family of Chimpanzees at dawn as they de-nest, or track large troops of Black & White Angola Colobus Monkeys in Gisakura or down in the valleys below. Nyungwe is also a bird lovers’ paradise with numerous species including many endemics recorded. A guided Bird Walk from Uwinka will return many species ticked. The adrenaline pumping Nyungwe Canopy Walk, a foot-wide suspension bridge hang over huge pylons across two ridges at 80m above a deep valley’s ground is the only one of its kind in East and Central Africa.

Dinner and Overnight: Emeraude Kivu Resort – Full Board
Upgrade: Nyungwe Top View Lodge

Arise at 04:30 with packed breakfast, you will head into the forest to track chimpanzees. Chimps are highly sociable creatures, and one of the few primates to form complex communities ranging upwards of 100 individuals. During the day these communities break down into smaller units that forage for food, a behavior that has been dubbed ‘fission-fusion’ by anthropologists. You will drive back to the hotel for a deserved shower and have lunch.

Afternoon you will arrive at the park for canopy walkway after you will proceed to your hotel in time for dinner and overnight.

Canopy walkway

Now’s your chance to relive your Indiana Jones fantasies as you swing on the adrenaline filled canopy walk. The construction of a 160m-long and at times 70m-high canopy walkway is a big draw for visitors after an unusual experience. You won’t encounter much wildlife while on the metallic suspension bridge, but you’ll certainly appreciate the jungle anew from this unique monkey’s-eye perspective. Access to the canopy walkway, which is on the Igishigishigi trail, involves a preliminary 20- to 30-minute hike from Uwinka. This is also the perfect place for birdwatchers. Nyungwe has something of a legendary status among birdwatchers in East Africa, and is by far the country’s top spot for birdwatching with some 300-plus species, which include no fewer than 27 Albertine Rift Valley endemics.

Dinner and Overnight: Emeraude Kivu Resort – Full Board
Upgrade: Nyungwe Top View Lodge

After a late breakfast at the lodge, you will check out of the hotel and go on an approximately 5-hour drive to Gisenyi. You will have a stopover at Karongi for lunch. Gisenyi is located along the shores of Lake Kivu. On arrival, you will check into your hotel in evening time.
Dinner and Overnight: Kivu Serena Hotel - Full Board

After your morning breakfast, you will check out and proceed approximately 1-hour drive to Musanze, home to the Volcanoes National Park. You will arrive in time for lunch. Volcanoes National Park, which runs along the border with the DRC and Uganda, is home to the Rwandan section of the Virunga’s. Comprising five volcanoes, the Virunga’s are utterly spellbinding and many would argue that this is one of the most exciting national parks in Africa. Rwanda encompasses the Rwanda section of the Virunga Volcanoes, a series of eight volcanic mountains which sit astride the border triangle between Uganda, Rwanda and DR Congo and include the still active Nyiragongo and Nyakagezi located in DR Congo. Situated 115kms/2½hrs drive north-west of Kigali and encompassing five of the volcanoes, the park’s 160km² of bamboo montane forest are habitat for the rare and critically endangered Mountain Gorillas of which only approx. 800 members remain in the world! Immortalized in the movie “Gorillas-In-The-Mist” depicting the life and times of American zoologist Dian Fossey who spent almost 20 years from the 60s to the 80s studying the gorillas, they inspire great human curiosity owing to their being massive wild animals that genetically, socially and physically so closely resemble humans. Other mammals include the beautiful Golden Monkeys, a variety of antelopes, hyenas, bushbucks, and some buffaloes and forest elephants, as well as over 170 species of birds. Of the many gorilla families, 10 have been habituated and opened for controlled Gorilla Tracking, one of the most popular tourist activities. Other activities in and around the park include golden monkey tracking, guided hikes up several of the Volcanoes as well as scenic tours and cultural tours in the outlying areas.
After lunch, you will visit the Ibyi’Iwacu Ex Poachers Cultural Village for a Rwandan cultural experience.

Situated in Kinigi at the foothills of the Sabyinyo Volcano, ‘ex-Poachers’ as it is popularly referred to, is an award-winning conservation initiative where former poachers were persuaded to desist from poaching and instead come together to form this replica of a Rwandan traditional village with a king’s palace and four traditional huts where they showcase aspects of Rwandan culture, traditions and customs and earn a living as conservationists. On arrival at the village, guests are welcomed with cultural drums, song and dance then led by a village guide through the various exhibitions including traditional rural life, cookery and foods, weaving, grinding, fire-making, a traditional healer with a herbal and spiritual medicine’s ‘laboratory’ , archery, javelin, a blacksmith and architecture, Rwandan kingship, palace life and coronations as well as the villagers’ previous life as poachers and their new found passion in conservation and how they have benefited. At the end of the tour, you will have an opportunity to learn a few steps and moves in the very captivating Rwanda cultural dance as well as buy some local curios and crafts including the popular agaseke (traditional baskets), calabashes, hammocks, traditional wooden crockery, dancing bows, arrows and beautiful drums of all sizes.

Dinner and Overnight: Tiloreza Volcanoes Ecolodge – Full Board
Upgrade: The Bishop’s House

Early breakfast at the lodge. At 6:40 in the morning, you will set off on your golden monkey trekking experience, stopping by the park headquarters for briefing and assigning of guides. After the trekking experience, you will return to the lodge for lunch. Afternoon you will visit Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund. The Ellen Campus represents a huge expansion of our teaching and laboratory spaces, enabling us to not just increase but transform our programs to study gorillas and their critical forest habitat and bring educational opportunities to early career African scientists and members of the local community.”

Dinner and Overnight: Tiloreza Volcanoes Ecolodge – Full Board
Upgrade: The Bishop’s House

You will have an early morning breakfast, departing for the park headquarters for briefing and being assigned into Gorilla groups complete with rangers. You will then trek through the Volcanoes National Park depending on where the gorillas are, on your gorilla trek. You will arrive back at your lodge in time for lunch. You will spend the afternoon at leisure. Volcanoes National Park protects the steep slopes of this magnificent mountain range - home of the rare mountain gorilla - and the rich mosaic of montane ecosystems, which embrace evergreen and bamboo forest, open grassland, swamp and heath. The high point of the trek will be spending an hour with the remarkably peaceful gorillas despite their size and appearance, as they go about their daily life: feeding, playing, resting, grooming and raising their young.

Dinner and Overnight: Tiloreza Volcanoes Ecolodge – Full Board
Upgrade: The Bishop’s House

Your last day in Land of Thousand Hills!!

You will drive back to Kigali (Approx. 3 hour’s drive). Depending on your flight schedule, you will be transferred to the Kigali International Airport for your onward flight.

END of Safari Urugendo rwiza!!