14 DAYS RWANDA WILDLIFE EXPERIENCE
Proposed itinerary
DAY 01 ARRIVAL IN KIGALI RWANDA
On arrival at Kigali International Airport, you will be welcomed to a VIP lounge while we clear your luggage through immigration. You will thereafter meet a Palast Tours representative for a short briefing and trip introduction and then transfer on a 15 min drive to the Kigali Serena Hotel for check in. dinner will be on your own arrangement, though we are happy to recommend depending on your arrival time.
Overnight: Kigali Serena Hotel (BB)
The Kigali Serena Hotel welcomes you to Rwanda’s capital city with 5-star sophistication and impeccable service. The hotel provides a luxurious home away from home for business and leisure travelers. Settle in to your beautifully appointed room or suite, which features floor-to-ceiling windows, pillow top bedding, flat-screen TVs and more. Take advantage of free internet.
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.
DAY 02 KIGALI/NYUNGWE NATIONAL PARK
After breakfast, check out and drive west via Kigali then south to Nyungwe National Park (8hrs).
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. With your specialist guide, enjoy stunning views over the forest canopy extending as far as the Virunga volcanoes; and learn about unique canopy species of plants, mammals, birds and butterflies as the bridge sways in the breeze and your heart threatens to pop-out, still amazing anyway. At the adjacent tea plantations, we offer cultural encounters meeting and mingling with local peasant farmers as they harvest tea, an activity they eagerly welcome our guests to participate in as they share their stories. In the evening, you may partake of the tea tasting ceremony offered at Nyungwe Forest Lodge. There is so much to do and love in Nyungwe forest National Park, one of Rwanda’s best kept secrets.
Dinner and overnight: Nyungwe Top View Hotel (FB)
DAY 03 NYUNGWE FOREST NATIONAL PARK / CHIMPANZEES TRACKING AND CANOPY WALK
After an early breakfast at the lodge, 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 get back to the lodge in time for lunch.
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.
In the afternoon, you will go for the canopy walk. Now’s your chance to relive your Indiana Jones fantasies. 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.
Dinner and overnight: Nyungwe Top View Hotel(FB)
DAY 4 NYUNGWE NATIONAL PARK / VISIT WATERFALL
After breakfast you will take a walk deep into the rainforest, visiting a waterfall in there for an unforgettable experience. You will get back to the lodge in time for lunch, spending the rest of the afternoon at leisure.
Dinner and overnight: Nyungwe Top View Hotel(FB)
DAY 05 NYUNGWE FOREST NATIONAL PARK –KIBUYE
After breakfast at the lodge, you will check out of the hotel and go on a 5-hour drive to Gisenyi. Gisenyi is located along the shores of Lake Kivu. On arrival, you will check into the Hakuna Matata Resort in time for lunch. At 5:30 pm, you will go on a fishing trip boat ride on the Lake Kivu.
The fishing boat ride is done in canoes and as you watch the sun setting over the horizon, you will join the local fishermen rowing and singing traditional tunes said to bring unity and attract the fish. They attach three canoes using poles and then cast the fishing nets into the water. As it gets dark, they use lamps to attract the fish. The fishing trip lasts until 8:30 pm or longer after which you will get back to your hotel for dinner and overnight.
Dinner and overnight: Hakuna Matata Resort (FB)
DAY 06 HIKING CONGO NILE TRAIL
After breakfast, you will go on a hike along the Congo Nile Trail, armed with packed lunches. You will get back to the lodge in the afternoon and you can relax at the lodge.
Dinner and overnight: Hakuna Matata Resort(FB)
DAY 07 DRIVING TO VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK
After breakfast, you can spend your day at leisure at the hotel. After lunch at the hotel, you will check out and go on a 1-hour drive to Musanze, home to the Volcanoes National Park. This is also home to the endangered Silver backed Mountain Gorilla, the Golden Monkeys, and Mountain Elephants among others.
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. You will arrive at the Mountain Gorilla View Lodge in time for check-in.
Dinner and overnight: Mountain Gorilla View Lodge (FB)
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.
DAY 08 GORILLA TRACKING IN VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK
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. After lunch, you will visit the Ibyi’Iwacu Ex-Poachers CulturalVillage 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.
You will return to your lodge for dinner and overnight.
Dinner and overnight: Mountain Gorilla View Lodge(FB)
DAY 9 GOLDEN MONKEYS TRACKING- IN VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK/KIGALI
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.
DAY 10 VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK/ HIKE BISOKE
After breakfast, you will go on a Mt. Bisoke hike, going to the top to see the breathtaking crater lake. You will get back to the lodge in time for lunch, and in then in the afternoon, you will go canoeing on the Mukunagwa River. You will arrive back at your lodge in time for dinner.
Dinner & Overnight: Mountain Gorilla View Lodge (FB)
DAY 11 VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK/KIGALI /AKAGERA NATIONAL PARK
After breakfast, you will check out of the lodge and go on a 3-hour drive to Kigali. You will have lunch in Kigali before embarking on a 2-hour drive to Akagera National Park, arriving the Ruzizi Tented Camp in time for check in and dinner. 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.
The Ruzizi Tented Camp, which opened in November 2012, is tucked away in the riverine forest on the edge of Akagera’s largest lake, Lake Ihema. Sheltered by large trees and swaying palms, the camp is a cool, calm and quiet retreat in a spectacular setting. The camp offers seven en-suite tents dotted along the forested lake edge featuring a comfortable queen or large twin bed and a walk-through closet leading to a private bathroom. They are spaced on either side of a thatched reception area with a lounge, bar and dining room. Each tent is accessible by a wooden boardwalk from the reception. The camp is powered entirely by solar power, with a solar-powered hot water system.
Dinner and overnight at Ruzizi Tented Camp (dinner included).
DAY 12&13 AKAGERA NATIONAL PARK
Full day spent in Akagera with morning and afternoon game viewing and bird watching drives in search of lions, rhinos, elephants, buffalo, hippos, crocodiles, many species of antelopes, hyenas, giraffe, zebra and even leopard although it is quite elusive.
Optional activities at extra charge:
- Guided nature/bush walks and
- Boat ride on Lake Ihema.
Dinner and overnight at Ruzizi Tented Camp (FB).
DAY 14 DEPART
After breakfast, you will be transferred back to Kigali and then continue to the airport for your international departure flight.
END of Palast Tours & Travel service – BL –
Urugendo Ruhire