After breakfast we embark on a tour of Kigali which is ranked as the cleanest city in Africa. During this tour we will visit the Genocide memorial to have a better understanding the tragedy that happened in 1994. The tour through the old and new Kigali takes us to cultural and artistic places like the Inema Arts Centre. After lunch, we drive to Akagera National Park arriving in time for an evening sunset cruise on Lake Ihema. Overnight will be at the Akagera Game Lodge.

Accommodation: Akagera Game Lodge
Meal Plan: B L D

After an early breakfast with packed lunch we go for a game drive within Akagera National park. The Area is dominated by a labyrinth of swamps and lakes which form the most remote source of the Nile. This typical African savannah landscape is habitat to big game. Beside the big five, Akagera NP offers beautiful landscapes and plenty other animals like zebras, bushbuck, antelopes and primates like olive baboons, velvets and secretive blue monkey which are seen during the day. Akagera NP is also home to over 500 birds’ species. After a long and interesting game drive, we depart through the North Gate to Mantis Epic Hotel for dinner and overnight stay.

Accommodation: Mantis Epic Hotel
Meal Plan: B L D

After breakfast we enjoy a scenic drive to Ruhengeri via Byumba arriving at our hotel just in time for lunch.
After lunch we visit the Ellen de Generes Gorilla Campus. Nestled in a beautiful, reforested landscape near the Volcanoes National Park, the Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund was built in the memory of a renowned Conservationist Dian Fossey who dedicated her life to the protection of gorillas. Here we explore the state-of-the-art public exhibit and experience the Conservation Gallery, including a 360 theater and replica of Dian Fossey’s original cabin, learning about the region’s biodiversity through a network of outdoor trails. For dinner and overnight, we return to Gorilla View Lodge.

Accommodation: Gorilla View Lodge
Meal Plan: B L D

After an early breakfast we proceed to Volcanoes Park Gate for a briefing on how to do the hike.
Dian Fossey is one of the greatest and most prominent primatologists of the 20th century. Having been invited to Africa by the great paleoanthropologist Dr. Richard Leakey to study the life of mountain gorillas in the wild, Dian spent most of her life studying mountain gorillas extensively in their natural habitat and at her Karisoke Research Camp/center located between Mount Bisoke and Karisimbi in Rwanda.
Through our guides we will gain a good understanding for what it must have been like for Dian all those years ago, when setting up camp to study and protect the endangered mountain gorillas. We will also visit Dian's grave, and that of her favorite gorilla Digit. Besides learning about Dian Fossey’s work and research centre, the activity will give us an opportunity to witness the beauty of Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park.
After the trek we will head back to the starting point where our driver will take us back to the lodge for lunch. In the afternoon we’ll visit the nearby Iby'Iwacu Village for a cultural experience before heading back to the lodge for dinner and overnight stay.

Accommodation: Gorilla View Lodge
Meal Plan: B L D

Today we have another day in the Volcanoes National Park for gorilla tracking. The Gorilla tracking starts at 07:00am from the Park Headquarters in Musanze. We wake up early and after breakfast we proceed to the park offices in Kinigi for gorilla trekking briefing. Here are 10 habituated gorilla families that are available for tracking. We will be assigned one group. To get to a Gorilla family it might take up to 3 hours then we have 1 hour of watching and taking photos. The Rangers will share information about the gorilla groups and character of each of the individuals.
After the one hour with the primates, we will walk back to the starting point where we will find our driver waiting to take us back to the lodge for lunch. After lunch, we check out of the lodge and drive to Gisenyi which is on the shores of Lake Kivu.

Accommodation: Paradise de Malahide
Meal Plan: B L D

After breakfast we are transferred to Kibuye on a boat cruise. Lake Kivu is the largest of the many freshwater lakes that shimmer in the valleys of Rwanda and is surrounded by three towns of Kibuye, Gisenyi, and Cyangugu. A boat trip on this magnificent lake gives us opportunity to spot some beautiful birds and have great scenery views of the lake and its surroundings. We arrive in time for lunch at Cormoran Lodge which overlooks the lake. After our lunch we drive south to Cyangugu for dinner and overnight stay at Emeraude Hotel.

Accommodation: Emeraude Hotel
Meal Plan: B L D

After an early breakfast, we have a long drive from Rwanda to Burundi via the Rukana border ending up at Bujumbura which lies at the northeastern end of Lake Tanganyika. We have our lunch at Lac Tanganika Hotel and we enjoy a relaxed afternoon on the sandy beaches of Lake Tanganyika, one of Africa’s oldest, largest and deepest lakes. Dinner and overnight at Lac Tanganyika Hotel.

Accommodation: Lac Tanganyika Hotel
Meal Plan: B L D

Today we have an easy morning where we can enjoy a leisure breakfast and lunch before we’re transferred to the Melchior Ndadaye International Airport for an afternoon flight to Kigoma. We are picked by our driver and transferred to Kigoma Hilltop Hotel for dinner and overnight stay.

Accommodation: Kigoma Hilltop Hotel
Meal Plan: B L D

After breakfast, we are transferred by boat to Mbali Mbali Gombe Lodge located in Gombe Stream National Park, a thin strip of ancient forest bordering the second deepest lake in the world, Lake Tanganyika. We enjoy sailing through the clear crystal water of the Lake Tanganyika. We’ll have lunch at the lodge then we can enjoy afternoon activities like kayaking, boat safaris, swimming, and fishing excursions. Dinner and overnight stay at Gombe Lodge.

Accommodation: Mbali Mbali Gombe Lodge
Meal Plan: B L D

Today we have an exciting day ahead. After an early breakfast, we head out to Gombe National Park for Chimpanzee tracking. Gombe is the smallest of Tanzania's national parks, roughly just about 60 sq kms. It is home to chimpanzees, habituated to human visitors, who were made famous by the pioneering work of Jane Goodall, who founded a behavioral research program that now stands as the longest-running study of its kind in the world. We get to track the chimps’ families and observe them for 1 hour as we marvel at their interactions with each other and how similar to mankind they are. In the evening we return to the lodge for dinner and overnight stay after having a very inspiring day.

Accommodation: Mbali Mbali Gombe Lodge
Meal Plan: B L D

We’ll have a leisure breakfast in the lodge and lunch and then depart by boat back to Kigoma for an afternoon flight to Dar es Salaam. We check in at White Sands Hotel for dinner and overnight stay.

Accommodation: White Sands Hotel
Meal Plan: B L D

Today marks the end of our primate tracking safari. After breakfast, we are transferred to the airport for international departure, or we can choose to extend to Zanzibar Island for a beach vacation or Selous National Park for a safari extension.

Meal Plan: B

For the Selous extension, view the itinerary here