In the morning, our company driver will appear to pick you up from the airport or yourhotel to start the safari. After the briefing/familiarization, you will start with a tour of the small but relatively neat and organized city of Kigali. During the Kigali city tour, you will also visit the Gisozi genocide war memorial site where you will learn about what happened during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. You should also visit the former presidential palace, local craft shops and the main city market before going for lunch in
the city. After lunch, you will begin the 2 to 3 hours’ journey to the Volcanoes National Park. The route to the Volcanoes National Park rewards tourists with beautiful scenery consisting of tea and other plantations. You will know why Rwanda is often referred to as “The land of a thousand hills”. Once you arrive at the Volcanoes national park, rest and prepare for gorilla tracking the next day. If you arrive earlier and are still fresh, the driver will take you for a tour of the Twin Lakes of Burera and Ruhondo. Accommodation Options: Tiloreza volcanoes Ecolodge
After early morning breakfast, you will be taken to the park offices by 7:00 am to attenda briefing. The park officials will share important information about tracking mountain gorillas. The topics covered during the briefing include the history of the park, Dian Fossey, gorilla groups, gorilla trekking rules and what to expect. After the briefing, you will be assigned to one of the 10 habituated gorilla groups. The allocation of gorilla groups is based on age and overall physical fitness of trekkers. After knowing your group, you will also be given a chance to hire a porter if you have heavy equipment. The Rangers will lead you deep into the bamboo forests and mountain slopes in search of the primates. Gorilla trekking can be challenging but once you meet the group, you will realize that it was worth all the effort and expenses. While observing the gorilla family, listen to instructions from the Rangers and avoid doing things that might alert the primates. You are only allowed one hour to observe the primates. After the one hour, you will return to the starting point where our driver would be waiting for you. Once at the lodge, you will have lunch, shower and rest as you wait to be taken to the Gorilla Guardians Village in Musanze. Formerly known as the Iby’iwacu Cultural village, the site is the best place to experience all that is great about the Kinyarwanda and Batwa culture. Expect to be entertained by cultural dancers after taking a tour of the facility. Accommodation Options: Tiloreza volcanoes Ecolodge
Wake up early and go for another early morning briefing on golden monkeys. Like gorillas, golden monkeys are listed as endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). They are very cute and playful primates with golden coats. Tracking them doesn’t take so long when compared to gorillas and you should expect to be back at the lodge at midday. You will go back to the lodge for lunch and get ready to visit Ellen DeGeneres campus near volcanoes national Park Accommodation: Tiloreza volcanoes Ecolodge
Wake up at your own time, take breakfast. Once you have completed all activities, the driver will start the journey back to Kigali. In case you missed touring the city of Kigali on day 1 (because you arrived in the country late), this will be the day to visit all the sites mentioned earlier. Our driver will take you to the airport for departure or to your hotel in Kigali. We hope that you would have a great time with the gorillas, golden monkeys and the other sights.
