Rwanda Primate & Wildlife Safari

Your Good Earth Tours guide meets you at Kigali International Airport and transfers you to your hotel. The drive into the city takes around 20 minutes. The rest of the day is yours to settle in and rest before the safari begins.

Kigali is one of the cleanest, safest, and most walkable capitals in Africa, and today is given over to exploring it. The city tour covers the major cultural sites — award-winning museums, the genocide memorial, and the hilltop neighborhoods that give Kigali its distinctive layered skyline. The city has a genuine food scene and a music culture that sets it apart from most East African capitals. This is a good day to move slowly and arrive at Rwanda properly before the drives begin tomorrow.

After an early breakfast, the five-hour drive southwest takes you through Rwanda’s rolling hills toward the country’s remote corner. En route, a stop at the Murambi Genocide Memorial, one of the most significant memorial sites in Rwanda, before continuing into the mountains toward Nyungwe. At the Uwinka RDB offices on the park boundary, a canopy walk through the forest takes 2-3 hours, moving above the treetops on a system of elevated bridges. Packed lunch is included before the walk. Arrival at the lodge in the late afternoon.

The chimpanzee trek departs at 5:00am. Nyungwe is home to 13 primate species and one of the largest chimpanzee populations in Rwanda, and the tracking experience takes you into the dense forest interior with a ranger guide until you locate the habituated group. You have one hour with them. Return to the lodge for a late breakfast around 11am and lunch. The afternoon is free or can be spent exploring the Gisakura tea factory on the edge of the park, one of Rwanda’s oldest tea estates, with guided tours of the production process.

After breakfast, the four-hour drive north follows the Lake Kivu coastline, one of the most scenic roads in Rwanda, with the lake running below the road and the hills rising steeply on the other side. Arrival in the Musanze region in the early afternoon to check in and rest before the evening activity: a visit to the Iby’Iwacu Cultural Village, known as the Gorilla Guardians Village. The center is community-owned and run by former poachers who transitioned into wildlife protection and cultural ambassadors. The evening covers Intore dance, traditional fire-making, archery, and the story of how a community changed direction. Dinner and overnight at the lodge.

Breakfast at 5:30am, then transfer to the Rwanda Development Board offices for the gorilla trekking briefing at 7:00am. The trek into the forest begins at 8:00am. Volcanoes National Park is home to several habituated mountain gorilla families, and the trek takes you through bamboo forest and up the slopes of the Virungas until you find yours. You have one hour with them. Return to the lodge for lunch. In the afternoon, a visit to the Dian Fossey Museum in Musanze, which documents the life and research of the primatologist whose work made gorilla conservation in Rwanda possible, and the ongoing conservation efforts that continue in her name.

Briefing at 7:00am for golden monkey trekking, trek from 8:00am. The golden monkey (Cercopithecus mitis kandti) is endemic to the high-altitude bamboo forests of the Virunga range and found nowhere else in the world outside this area. The troops are playful and fast-moving, leaping between bamboo stems and foraging on the forest floor. One hour with them before returning to the lodge for lunch. The five-hour drive east to Akagera National Park takes the rest of the afternoon, arriving in time for a night game drive in the park as darkness falls. Akagera’s nocturnal wildlife (genets, civets, hippos, and occasionally lion) is most active after dark.

Akagera is Rwanda’s only savannah park and one of the most scenically varied in Central Africa: papyrus swamps, forest-fringed lakes, open plains, and rolling highland. The reintroduction of black rhino and lion has completed the Big Five roster, making Akagera the only place in Rwanda where all five can be seen. A full day of game drives explores different sections of the park, with an afternoon boat safari on Lake Ihema, the largest lake in the park system, where hippo pods, Nile crocodiles, African fish eagles, and shoebill stork are all reliably seen. A night game drive follows dinner.

After breakfast, Akagera’s “Walk the Line” experience follows the park’s 7-kilometer boundary fence on foot for approximately two hours. A chance to see the park from a completely different angle and understand the physical infrastructure of conservation that keeps the wildlife inside and the community outside in productive coexistence. After the walk, the 2.5-hour drive returns to Kigali for your international departure.