8 Days Rwanda culture and gorilla trekking Tour

Upon arrival at Kigali international airport you will be greeted and picked up by a representative of our company who will extend a warm welcome to the land of a thousand hills. Later you will depart on a Kigali city tour, taking in the city’s many attractions, including the memorials to the Kigali genocide, before continuing on to Akagera national park for the night.

You’ll eat breakfast this morning before going on a morning game drive in Akagera National Park. You may get closer to the animals as they roam this savanna area by taking game drives in Akagera National area. On this morning game drive, you will enjoy seeing creatures including lions, rhinos, zebras, impalas, giraffes, Topis, elephants, and many more. Akagera National Park is known as a home to many different species of animals and is the only savannah park in Rwanda. You will also see a variety of bird species, including papyrus gonoleks, huge kingfishers, grey-crowned cranes, open-billed stock, and Senegal lapwings.

After game drive, you will head back to the lodge for lunch after which you will spend your afternoon on a boat cruise along Lake Ihema. This boat cruise rewards you with stunning and scenic views of different aquatic wildlife including Hippos, Crocodiles, water birds and many more that thrill along Lake Ihema. Later in the evening, return to your lodge for dinner and overnight sleep

After breakfast, we’ll take you on an incredible cultural tour of Rwanda’s Eastern region, where you’ll get to know and engage with pastoralists. This journey will take you to a homestead of cattle keepers where you will participate in several cultural customs like milking cows, grazing, and learning about the traditional processes for turning milk into cheese and ghee. You will either spend the night in a nearby guest house or a local farmhouse after this full-day trip or in a local homestead later in the evening.

After breakfast, you’ll check out and drive for around 4-5 hours to the Volcanoes National Park, stopping at Kigali along the way. Following clearance at the park headquarters, you will continue to the lodge for dinner and overnight accommodation where you will pick up the gorilla trekking permit.

After receiving breakfast, go to the park headquarters with the other trekkers for a briefing at 7:00am before embarking on your gorilla trekking expedition in the solitude of Volcanoes National Park. After receiving training, enter the jungle to look for habituated mountain gorillas that are open to hiking. Spend an hour watching, photographing, and learning about the gorillas’ behaviors, including eating, nursing, and copulation. Then, be driven back to your lodge to clean up before your evening cultural tour to the Ibyiwacu cultural hamlet. After watching the local Rwandese performers all evening, head back to the resort for dinner and overnight accommodations as described above.

After breakfast, you’ll be taken to the Gorilla Guardian Village, also known as the Ibyiwacu Cultural Center, where you may discover more about the way of life of the villagers who made the conscious decision to dedicate themselves to the good cause of conserving and protecting gorillas. These villagers used to poach, but they now oppose poaching. The villagers will next treat you to exciting traditional shows, teach you how to create the local beer from bananas, and lastly take you to a homestead where you can help prepare and enjoy native cuisine.

After a leisurely breakfast at your lodge, we will leave the volcanoes national park and go to Gisenyi, where Lake Kivu is located. Beautiful Lake Kivu borders Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Since you have a whole day on Lake Kivu, you will take a boat journey to explore Beautiful Napoleon Island, go to the hot springs, and relax on the beach. Take a village excursion in the late evening to visit a fishing community where you can join fishermen in learning about traditional fishing and preservation techniques. Return to your lodge for dinner and a good night’s sleep.

Your 8-day safari to Rwanda’s culture and gorillas comes to an end today. In accordance with the specifics of your flight, you will have a leisurely breakfast at your lodge before checking out and departing for Kigali, where you will be dropped off at either the hotel in Kigali or the airport.