Rwanda: Gorillas, Golden Monkeys & Akagera

Rwanda: Gorillas, Golden Monkeys & Akagera

Kigali • Volcanoes National Park • Akagera National Park
Duration: 8 Days

Overview

A first trip to Rwanda built around two gorilla treks, with a day for golden monkeys in between and a savanna safari in Akagera at the end. Rwanda is small, so you spend more time with animals and less in the car than on most gorilla trips. Gorilla permits currently cost US$1,500 per person per trek, and only 96 are issued each day, eight for each habituated family, so we book them before anything else. Each trek gives you one hour with the gorillas, and trekkers must be at least 15. The trip runs all year, and the dry months of June to September and December to February make for easier trails.

Trip Highlights

Two mountain gorilla treks in Volcanoes National Park, with a different family each time

Golden monkey trekking in the bamboo on the lower slopes of the volcanoes

The Kigali Genocide Memorial, the best place to start understanding modern Rwanda

Game drives and a boat on Lake Rwanyakazinga in Akagera, where lions and rhinos have returned

Two nights at a small lakeside camp in a remote corner of the park

Ideal For

First-time visitors to Rwanda • Couples and honeymooners • Families with teenagers 15 and over • Travelers who want gorillas and a classic safari in one short trip

Preferred Properties

Kigali: Hemingways Retreat Kigali

Volcanoes National Park (choose one): Wilderness Bisate Lodge; Singita Kwitonda Lodge; One&Only Gorilla's Nest

Akagera National Park: Wilderness Magashi

Nyungwe alternative: Nyungwe Tea Forest Resort

Day-By-Day Itinerary

Day 1: Kigali

Arrive at Kigali International Airport and transfer about 20 minutes to the leafy Kiyovu neighborhood. Most long-haul flights land in the evening, so this is a night to eat and sleep.
Overnights: Hemingways Retreat Kigali

Days 2–5: Volcanoes National Park

On Day 2, visit the Kigali Genocide Memorial in the morning, then drive northwest to the Volcanoes area, about 105 kilometers and roughly two and a half hours, or take a charter helicopter. Settle in and get your trekking kit ready. On Day 3 you make your first gorilla trek. Every trek starts with a 7am briefing at the park headquarters in Kinigi, where you are assigned a family, and the walk to reach them can take anything from a short hike to most of the day. Day 4 is golden monkey trekking in the morning, with the afternoon free for the spa, a village visit or rest. On Day 5 you trek to a second gorilla family, which is usually when people stop reaching for the camera and just watch. Hire a porter on both treks; the trails are steep and often muddy.
Overnights: Wilderness Bisate Lodge, or Singita Kwitonda Lodge, or One&Only Gorilla's Nest

Days 6–7: Akagera National Park

Leave the volcanoes after breakfast. By road the route runs back through Kigali, about two and a half hours, then east to Akagera, another two and a half to three hours, and Magashi sits in the remote north of the park on Lake Rwanyakazinga, so the drive fills most of the day. A charter helicopter turns it into a short flight and gives you the afternoon on the lake. Day 7 is a full day of game drives and a boat trip, looking for lions, elephants, giraffes, buffalo and rhinos, with hippos and crocodiles on the water and a night drive after dinner.
Overnights: Wilderness Magashi

Day 8: Depart

Take an early game drive, then drive back to Kigali for your flight home. Allow at least three hours from camp, or fly out by helicopter. If your flight leaves late, we can arrange a day room in the city.

Prefer chimpanzees to savanna? Swap Akagera for two nights at Nyungwe Tea Forest Resort in Nyungwe National Park, for chimpanzee trekking and the canopy walkway, a 160-meter suspension bridge high above a forest ravine. The road from the volcanoes takes about five hours, or about 35 minutes by helicopter, and you return via a RwandAir flight from Kamembe to Kigali or a five-hour drive.