This 6 Days Rwanda Primates Safari is carefully tailored to give you a chance to participate in the incredible primate safaris Rwanda has to offer, you will participate in gorilla trekking and golden monkey trekking in Volcanoes National Park, chimpanzee trekking and colobus monkey tracking in Nyungwe Forest National Park.
6 Days Rwanda Primates Safari Highlights
- Kigali City Tour
- Chimpanzee trekking
- Canopy Walk
- Colobus monkey tracking
- Gorilla tracking
- Golden monkey tracking
- Gorilla Guardians village
- Optional – Dian Fossey grave Or Visit to the Caves
Detailed Itinerary of 6 Days Rwanda Primate Safari
Day 1: Arrival for Rwanda Primates Safari
On arrival at Kigali International Airport, you will be warmly welcomed by our guide and head to your hotel in Kigali.
Depending on your flight time that is if you arrive early in the morning, you will visit some incredible sites in Kigali City including Kigali Genocide Memorial, Kandt Museum and the Craft Market. If you arrive in the late afternoon, then you will be directly transferred to your hotel.
Drive time – 20 minutes
Day 2: Transfer to Nyungwe forest national park
After breakfast, you will meet your guide and embark on a journey from to Nyungwe Forest National Park as you enjoy the various scenery. The park is located in Southern Rwanda en-route to Burundi and some parts of the Congo, along the way you will have your first stopover in Nyanza before proceeding to Huye to tour the ethnographic Museum. While in Nyanza District there is an opportunity to visit the King’s Palace Museum which is an alternative to the ethnographic Museum, they both share Rwanda’s Cultural History but the Ethnographic Museum has more items and wide coverage.
Arrive in the park in the evening, check in at your lodge for dinner and overnight.
Drive time – 5 hours Or Helicopter (Robinson/ Augusta) – 45 minutes/ 35 minutes
Meal Plan: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Day 3: Rwanda Chimpanzee trekking & Canopy walk
Have an intimate experience tracking chimpanzees in Nyungwe Forest. Your guide will transfer you from your lodge to the briefing area in the forest where you are expected to be as early as 5:00 am. You will either be at the Uwinka Trail head or the Cyamudongo Trail Head. Your ranger guide will share chimpanzee trekking tips for you while in the forest, Nyungwe Forest rich with biodiversity including the 13 primate species including the popular chimpanzees, Ruwenzori colobus, L’Hoest’s monkeys, Red-tailed monkeys, silver monkey, grey cheeked mangabey etc.,about 300 bird species with a number of Albertine rift endemics and several butterfly species.
When you locate the chimpanzee family, you are to spend only 1 hour in their presence observing the dynamics in the forest and take as many photos as possible. Head back to your lodge for lunch, in the afternoon you will go for a canopy walk trail from Uwinka Trail Head, enjoy the views of the forests from the walk.
Meal Plan: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Day 4: Colobus Monkey Trekking and Transfer to Volcanoes National Park
Have early breakfast, return to Nyungwe Forest for Colobus Monkey tracking. Have briefing at the park headquarters from a guide and later visit the forest, you are allowed one hour of watching the colobus monkeys as they feed, play and groom each other.
After this experience, leave for Volcanoes National Park in Virunga Region. Enjoy the winding roads and scenery of a thousand hills. Driving along Lake Kivu, arrive at your hotel later that evening.
Drive time – 6 hours Or Helicopter (Robinson) – 35 minutes
Meal Plan: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Day 5: Gorilla trekking in Volcanoes National Park
Have early breakfast, meet your guide and head to the park headquarters in Kinigi for briefing about gorilla trekking. In groups of 8 People, you will be assigned a gorilla family to trek. Meet your guide and trek into the misty forests looking for mountain gorillas. The trek takes approximately 30 minutes to 6 hours depending on the movement of the gorillas and where they spent their previous night, when you locate the gorillas family you will spend one hour while taking pictures, watch them groom each other and take pictures.
Return to the lodge for lunch and in the afternoon, go for a cultural experience in the Gorilla Guardians Village (Iby’Iwacu Village) where you learn more about the Rwandan Culture and engage in some of the activities.
Meal Plan: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Day 6: Golden Monkey Tracking and Departure
Wake up with a head filled with memories of the previous days, return to the park for golden monkey trekking. Return to the park headquarters for briefing about golden monkey, enter into the forest looking for golden monkeys.
You are allowed to spend one hour in their presence watching them go on with their life, they are more active than gorillas but still you have an amazing experience. After the experience, you will be transferred back to Kigali City to catch your flight back home bring your safari to an end.
Drive time – 2 hours 30 minutes Or Helicopter (Robinson) – 35 minutes
Meal Plan: Breakfast and Lunch.
End of 6 Days Rwanda Primates Safari
