Rwanda offers everything from vast savannah plains to lush rain forests teeming with chimpanzees and mountain gorillas, and from the busy city of Kigali to the tranquil Lake Kivu. The “Land of a Thousand Hills” has been wonderfully restored after a stormy history and is available for exploration. There are undulating hills dotted with beautiful tea plantations, tropical rain forests and lovely Rwandan villages suitably and interesting to involve in your safari tours.
The northern Volcanoes National Park offers exciting volcanic excursions as well as encounters with endangered mountain gorillas and golden monkeys. On the enormous Lake Kivu, you may enjoy native boat cruising life in the morning, afternoon and magnificent sunsets.
Track chimps in the tropical Nyungwe Forest National Park and take a walk through the vibrant green tea gardens. During the vehicle safari in eastern Akagera National Park, you could sight the big five. Aside from its rich natural and animal characteristics, there will be opportunity to ponder on Rwanda’s tragic past.
Rwanda is a fascinating country to visit. It has wildlife, gorgeous nature, a green hilly capital and plenty of community-based tourism where you can learn about the country and its people.
It was in 2024 January when I and my friend traveled to Rwanda for an adventurous gorilla safari and we had all our plannings with Sharon a travel consultant from Ecotours Rwanda managed by Nature Adventure African Safaris Ltd a locally and indigenous Eco safari company offering wildlife, culture and primates tours in East and Central Africa.
Upon our arrival at Kigali International Airport, we went through custom and immigration and then met with our safari driver from Nature Adventure Africa Safaris who warmly welcomed us to the Land of a thousand hills and later he drove us to our booked hotel (Grand Legacy Hotel) for dinner and overnight stay.
On our second day we took our breakfast at the hotel, checked-out at the hotel and met our driver for a transfer to Akagera national park. It took us about 3 hours to reach Akagera National Park since we had various stopovers on the way to capture some photos. We passed through a beautiful un-winding landscape as an en route way to reach the park.
On arrival at the park, we registered at the park offices and later proceeded to our accommodation “Akagera Game Lodge” with a short game drive and checked in for lunch. After lunch, we went for a simple game drive for game viewing. Here we managed to spot a few big five animals such as Lions, Elephants, Buffaloes, Leopards, and Rhinos and then later we returned to the lodge for dinner and overnight stay.
The following day after having our early morning breakfast, we left for an early morning game drive in Akagera national park to catch up with late hunters and early risers.
On the game drive, we spotted the big mammals like elephants, giraffes, buffaloes, several Antelope species and the newly re-introduced Lions and Rhinos. The park is a varied habitat for wildlife and endowed with over 500 bird species and hence making the park a birding paradise.
Upon fishing the game drive, we returned to the lodge for lunch. After lunch, we headed for a boat trip on Lake Ihema where we saw Hippos and crocodiles in the water and others on the shores drinking water. We also saw buffaloes and elephants relaxing at the water banks. We later returned to the lodge for dinner and overnight stay.
The fourth day we left the lodge after a relaxed breakfast, headed for a brief game drive before we drove back to Kigali. Reaching Kigali, we had our lunch and then went for a visit to Kigali Genocide Memorial and we were told that over 250000 victims of Rwandan genocide of 1994 were buried in this memorial.
The Kigali Genocide Memorial is a place of remembrance and learning dedicated to the victims of the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. It offers a powerful experience for visitors, promoting reconciliation and building peace through education. We visited the grave yards where these victims were buried and later checked-in at Chez Lando Hotel for dinner and overnight stay.
Our next morning, we had breakfast, checkout of the hotel and met our driver to transfer to Nyungwe Forest National Park. We had an en-route visit to the Royal Palace Museum and Ethnographic Museum in Southern Province of Nyungwe.
The museums gave us a clear picture of how Rwandans traditionally live and the guide explained to us about the Rwanda’s past way of leadership of Kingship. We had our lunch on the way. On our arrival in Nyungwe national park, we checked-in at Nyungwe Top View Hill Hotel for leisure as we were waiting for dinner and overnight stay.
After having a cup of coffee, we transferred to Nyungwe Forest National Park’s headquarters for a briefing about the guidelines to be followed during chimpanzee trekking. Nyungwe natural forest is known for harboring about 13 species of primates.
Chimpanzee trekking in Nyungwe is usually done with a maximum of 8 people per tour, this popular adventure requires early advanced booking and all visitors going for a chimpanzee trekking requires to have secured a chimpanzee permit which costs $150 per person and it has to be secured in advance through your tour operator. We paid $150 per person to get the entry pass to engage in this activity.
After briefing, we entered the forest to start searching for chimpanzees and upon locating them, only one hour was entitled to us to stay together in the natural habitat with these creatures. After we trekked back to the headquarters and then drove to the hotel for our hot lunch.
During chimpanzee trekking, we also came across other primates such as golden monkey, L’Hoest’s monkey, grey-cheeked mangabey, red-tailed monkey, owl-faced monkey, crowned monkey, Dent’s mona monkey, velvet monkey, olive baboon, and Angolan Colobus monkeys. Returned back to the hotel for freshening up and then went for a canopy walk.
The canopy walk started from Uwinka visitor center and it took us about 2 hours. We were told that the minimum age for the canopy walk is 6 years and children must be accompanied by an adult. During the canopy walk which we carried out on a metallic bridge, we were able to spot a lot of wildlife. Each of us paid 60 USD for this activity. After the canopy, we returned back to the hotel for dinner and overnight stay.
On this day after having our breakfast, we were transferred to Lake Kivu. Reaching lake Kivu, we had our lunch and then went for an afternoon boat trip. At the boat cruise we were able to see a number of bird species such as speckled pigeons, chin-spot Batis, African Darter, Blue cheeked bee-eater, crowned lap wing, common wax bill among others and later we checked in at Paradise Kivu Resort for relaxation overlooking the shores of the lake as we were waiting for dinner.
After a delightful breakfast in the morning, we went for swimming with all our luggage in the car. After swimming we transferred to Musanze- Kinigi. Kinigi is a tourism area near Volcanoes National Park, where most of the lodges are located since there are no lodges inside of the park. We spent our evening at leisure at Le Bamboo Gorilla Lodge and that’s where we also had our dinner and overnight stay.
We woke up on a cup of coffee, then we headed for a gorilla trekking safari briefing from the park headquarters with our packed lunch. After briefing and when the grouping is done, we entered the jungle to start searching for the shy mountain gorillas and we enjoyed their life style in their real home.
After meeting the gorillas, we spent like an hour while watching them carrying out their day-to-day life style activities and then trekked back to the headquarters to receive our certificates. We were told that this experience sometimes takes about a half or a whole day and this depends on the movements of these giants but for us we were lucky since we located the gorillas easily.
After receiving our gorilla trekking certificates, we returned to the lodge for refreshment. In the afternoon, we went for a village foot safari. On this foot safari, we explored the indigenous local life with a taste of the traditional performance at IbyI’wacu cultural center. We had dinner and overnight stay at Le Bamboo Gorilla Lodge.
On our tenth day, we decided to go for a hike at mount Bisoke. The mount’s vegetation is a habitat to a number of wild animals and this gave us a chance to spot the unique and greatly endangered mountain gorillas again, forest elephants, buffaloes and golden monkeys.
Mount Bisoke is also a hub to over 30 bird species and hence making it a birding paradise to avian lovers. During the hike, we were also able to observe the stunning view of the crater on top of the volcano. After hiking, we returned to the lodge for lunch and spent the remaining hours of the day at leisure.
Early in the morning, we headed to the park’s headquarters with all our properties in the car plus a picnic lunch for a briefing about golden monkey. At the headquarters we were divided in groups of 16 members.
Golden monkeys of the Volcanoes National Park are habituated and used to human presence and this helped us to locate them easily. A golden monkey trekking permit in Rwanda is sold at USD100 per person per trek and it is advisable to book the valid permit in advance to avoid disappointment.
During the Rwanda gorilla trek, we saw various wildlife species that are found in the Volcanoes National Park such as bird species both endemic and international, red-tailed monkeys, vervet monkeys, black and white colobus monkeys, Mountain gorillas, baboons and tree and plant species among others.
After locating them we were given an hour to take photographs and also to watch them in their natural habitat. After the trek, we were transferred back to Kigali town where we had our dinner and overnight stay at Chez Lando.
The next morning (our last day), we took a heavy breakfast at the hotel and headed to Kigali International Airport to catch up with our flight back home and this marked the end of our Rwanda tour experience.
