11 Days Rwanda Safari

Overview 11 Days Rwanda Safari itinerary offers travelers  in a Rwanda safaris  ample time to have adventures of Rwanda, visiting all the most relevant attractions and carrying out all tourist activities which include gorilla tracking,golden monkey tracking,wildlife tours,mountain climbing,cultural visits. Check out this 11 Days Rwanda Safaris Itinerary.

Brief Itinerary – 11 Days Rwanda Safari

  • Day 1: Arrive in Kigali & Akagera National Park Game Drive
  • Day 2: Game Drive & Lake Ihema Boat cruise
  • Day 3: Volcanoes National Park & Ibylwacu Cultural Center
  • Day 4: Gorilla Tracking & Dian Fossey Karisoke Research Center
  • Day 5: Golden Monkey tracking & Musanze caves
  • Day 6: Mount Karisimbi Climbing
  • Day 7: Mount Karisimbi Climbing & Nyungwe National park
  • Day 8: Chimpanzee tracking & Canopy Walk
  • Day 9: Lake Kivu Boat cruise & sea Kayaking
  • Day 10: lake Kivu Congo Nile trail
  • Day 11: Return to Kigali

What is included in this 11 Days Rwanda Safari;

  • Transport- tour vehicle, fuel and driver
  • Full board accommodation for the night(s)
  • Entrance fees.
  • All activities.
  • Bottled drinking water

What is not included in this 11 Days Rwanda Safari:

  • Visas
  • Air ticket
  • Personal expenses.
  • Cost for anything that is not mentioned in the itinerary.

Detailed Itinerary of this 11 Days Rwanda Safari

Day 1: Arrive in Kigali & Akagera National Park Game Drive

Wildlife in Akagera National Park
Wildlife in Akagera National Park

On the first day of your 11 Days Rwanda Safari, our GORILLA COUSINS RWANDA guide will meet you at Kigali Airport and give you a short briefing of the upcoming itinerary.  You will then drive directly to Akagera National Park and check in to your accommodation, where you will have lunch.  The drive from Kigali Airport to the Park is about 2.5 hours; the roads are good and there is little traffic once you are out of Kigali.  There are opportunities to stop, and you should feel free to request your guide to stop whenever you so wish.  If there are any supplies you may need for your week in Rwanda, this is a good time to tell your guide, as the shopping in Kigali is considerably better than on the road; in the park itself, there are no shops.

When reaching your accommodation, you will check in and prepare for lunch.  After lunch and a rest, your GORILLA COUSINS RWANDA guide will take you on an afternoon Game Drive.  Akagera National Park is quite unusual, in that it does not have the huge number of tourists that the game parks in Kenya and Tanzania have; as such, you could spend hours in the park moving about and not see other vehicles with tourists.  The park has recently re-introduced lions into the park and there is a program in place to re-introduce Rhinos as well.  This will then give Akagera National Park Big 5 status; something Rwanda has not had for many years.

Before night fall, you will return to your accommodation for dinner.  There is little entertainment in Akagera National Park in the evening, with the exception of the lodge you may be staying in.  Many of the lodges arrange a local dance and drum group to come to the lodge to entertain the guests after dinner.  As you are going on an early morning Game Drive, we suggest you make it an early night, as Day 2 of your itinerary could be exhausting with all the driving and the early start.

Day 2: Game Drive & Lake Ihema Boat cruise

After an early breakfast on the second day of your 11 Days Rwanda Safari, your GORILLA COUSINS RWANDA guide will take you on a morning Game Drive. This is the best time to get an opportunity to see the predators in the park going for a ‘kill’, as later in the day, when the sun is too hot, the animals tend to find shelter from the heat.  There are a number of predators in Akagera National Park, including lions and hyenas, both of which enjoy early morning hunting.  The park also has many other large mammals, as well as a great variety of birds.  East Africa in general, is a haven for bird watchers, and this park is no exception, especially around the wetlands and marshes, there are many endemic species to be found.

You will return to your accommodation after the Game Drive for lunch.  After you have rested up a bit, your GORILLA COUSINS RWANDA guide will take you for a Boat Cruise on Lake Ihema.  This is voted by most visitors as the best way to see the wildlife in Akagera National Park; there are hippos, crocodiles, water buffalo and dozens of water birds.  The cruise takes a couple of hours.

After the cruise, your GORILLA COUSINS RWANDA guide will escort you back to your accommodation.

Day 3: Volcanoes National Park & Ibylwacu Cultural Center

Volcanoes National Park
The sun sets behind a volcano in the Volcanoes National Park of Rwanda.

After breakfast on the third day of your 11 Days Rwanda Safari, your GORILLA COUSINS RWANDA guide will take you from your accommodation in Akagera National Park to your accommodation at Volcanoes National Park to check in.  The drive is approximately 2.5 hours; the roads are well paved and the scenery is enjoyable.  This land of 1000 hills will not disappoint you with great vistas.  One of the interesting things to view in Rwanda when driving between destinations, is the farming done on the hills.  The challenges that these local farmers have with the high slopes; irrigation, soil erosion and just the mere steepness of the hills complicates the harvesting process.  Most farms in Rwanda are less than 1 Acre in size, so the hills look like a quilt of crops being grown.

Lunch will be served at your accommodation.

In the afternoon your GORILLA COUSINS RWANDA guide will take you to the Ibyiwacu Cultural Center in Kiningi.  Here at the Center you can watch local drummers and dancers perform their native music and dance moves.  In addition, the local people put on costumes and recreate a traditional wedding ceremony for their guests, a most interesting drama to watch.  There are handicrafts for sale at the center; all locally made in the immediate community.

Before night fall, your GORILLA COUSINS RWANDA guide will take you back to your accommodation for dinner.

Day 4: Gorilla Tracking & Dian Fossey Karisoke Research Center

After a very early breakfast on the fourth day of your 11 Days Rwanda Safari, your GORILLA SAFARIS RWANDA guide will take you to the Park headquarters where you will be receiving your orientation for the Gorilla Tracking.  Upon arrival at the Park Headquarters, you will be served coffee and tea while you have the opportunity to watch a group of local entertainers, dancing and drumming.  Immediately afterwards, you will be assigned to one of the groups, headed by one of the Park Rangers.  The Ranger will then give you a briefing of the Gorilla Tracking and the Park etiquette.  You will then proceed to the track where you will begin your search for the Mountain Gorillas.

The Tracking of the Mountain Gorillas can take quite a few hours, as the Gorillas move about the park and, as a result, it may take some time to locate the specific group you are tracking; this can take anywhere from 2 to 8 hours.  When you do meet up with the Gorilla Family, you are permitted to spend up to one hour watching and photographing them.  Because of the uncertainty as to how long it takes, your accommodation will prepare a packed lunch for you to eat in the forest; you are not permitted to eat when with the Gorillas, so you should take your lunch either before or after you meet the Gorillas.  We have a section on our website dedicated to the Gorillas, their habitat, what you can expect when tracking them, and data on the different families that are living in the Park.  We suggest you consult this section prior to going on your adventure.

When you are finished the Gorilla Tracking adventure, you will return to your vehicle and re-unite with your GORILLA COUSINS RWANDA guide, who will then take you back to the Park Headquarters where you will begin your walk on the trail to the Karisoke Research Center, located between Mount Visoke (a.k.a. Mount Bisoke) and Mount Karisimbi.   This is the place that Dian Fossey, the famous American Zoologist, conducted her research on the Mountain Gorillas.  Fossey was murdered and buried at the Center.  Visitors are welcome to come to the center to learn about the Gorillas and the history of the center itself.  The roundtrip from the Park Headquarters to the Karisoke Research Center takes 3 hours. Besides viewing the grave of Dian Fossey, the Center is a haven for information on Gorillas and other Primates living in the Rwandan forests.  There are tours to be taken at the center and many very informative people to enhance your Primate knowledge.

Before night fall, your GORILLA COUSINS RWANDA guide will take you to your accommodation, where you will have dinner.  The lodges in the park usually arrange some form of local entertainment for their guests; usually in the form of dancing and drumming.

Day 5: Golden Monkey tracking & Musanze caves

Golden Monkey Tracking
Golden Monkey Tracking

After an early morning breakfast on the fifth day of your 11 Days Rwanda Safari, you will be taken to the Park Headquarters, as for the Gorilla Tracking.  Again, you will be served coffee and tea while you get an opportunity to be entertained by the local drummers and dancers.  Afterwards, you will be assigned to your Golden Monkey Tracking group with a Park Ranger; you will then be highlighted on the tracking procedure and protocol for the Park.  After this orientation, you will be taken to the location of the start of the tracking into the forest.

Unlike the Mountain Gorilla Tracking, the Golden Monkey tracking does not take as long, in terms of meeting up with the primates, as they are usually feeding in the Bamboo Forest at the base of the mountain.  You will get to spend an hour with the Golden Monkeys, after which you will then return to your vehicle and re-unite with the GORILLA COUSINS RWANDA guide, who will escort you back to your accommodation for lunch.

After lunch, you will be taken to the Musanze Caves, a short distance from your accommodation.  These caves have been used by local people to live in; now they are an attraction for visitors.  The largest of the caves is 2 kilometers in length.

You will be taken back to your accommodation before night fall.  Dinner will be at your accommodation.

Day 6: Mount Karisimbi Climbing

After an early breakfast on the sixth day of your 11 Days Rwanda Safaris, your GORILLA COUSINS RWANDA guide will take you to the track where you can begin your 2-day climb of Mount Karisimbi; which is the 5th highest snow-capped peak in Africa, the highest of the peaks in the Virunga Range.  Mount Karisimbi sits on the border between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The first day you spend 6 hours hiking and climbing to the 3,700 meter level.  Here, you will overnight; camping gear is required for this journey.  Everything you will need for the 2 days will have to be brought with you, including food; porters are available to carry your gear.

Lunch and Dinner will be prepared by the guide that is leading the way up the mountain.  The hike is not an ordinary one, in that there are many wondrous things to see; several bird species as well as primates are a usual sight when climbing.  There are 4 belts of vegetation from the dense forest at the base of the mountain to the barren volcanic core at the summit.  During the rainy season one should expect muddy trails; although even in the dry periods, there is rain at these high altitudes.  There are many photo opportunities along the way and as climbs go in Africa, this is one of the most interesting in terms of the different terrain and the fauna that exists in every stage of the climb.

Day 7: Mount Karisimbi Climbing & Nyungwe National Park

After an early morning breakfast, you will continue your ascent up to the summit, which is 4,507 meters above sea level.  The vistas at the top are quite extraordinary.   The descent takes approximately 6 hours.   When you get to the starting point, at the base, you will rejoin your GORILLA COUSINS RWANDA guide who will then take you to a Rwandese restaurant for lunch, this will be en-route to the Nyungwe National Park, a distance of 115 kilometers.

After lunch, you will be driven to your accommodation at Nyungwe National Park; you will check in and have a rest before dinner at your accommodation.  The drive is 2 hours from the base camp of Mount Karisimbi to Nyungwe National Park, not including a stop for lunch.

Day 8: Chimpanzee tracking & Canopy Walk 

After an early morning breakfast on the eighth day of your 11 Days Rwanda Safari, your GORILLA COUSINS RWANDA guide will take you to the Park Headquarters where you will receive an orientation for the Chimpanzee Tracking.   You will be assigned to a group and a Park Ranger; when everything is organized, you will begin your tracking of the Chimpanzee.  Unlike the Mountain Gorillas, the Chimpanzee are always moving about the forest, swinging on the branches of the trees, chattering the whole time.  It is not unusual for the Chimpanzees to engage with you; at times coming right up to the visitors and holding their hands as they walk along the path.  The Chimpanzees are the closest to humans of the Great Apes; their similarities are numerous.

You will return to your accommodation for lunch.  After lunch, your GORILLA COUSINS RWANDA guide will escort you to the starting point of the walking trail that takes you through the rain forest to the Canopy Walk, a 50 meter suspension bridge that hangs over the top of the trees.  From this vantage point you get a birds’ eye view of the forest and its inhabitants.  This is the only such Canopy Walk in East and Central Africa, and it does provide a unique opportunity to view the forest from above.

When you have completed your hike and return to your vehicle, your GORILLA COUSINS RWANDA guide will drive you to your accommodation at Lake Kivu, a drive of just over an hour.

Dinner will be served at your accommodation.

Day 9: Lake Kivu Boat cruise & sea Kayaking

Boat cruise on Lake Kivu
Boat cruise on Lake Kivu

After breakfast on the ninth day of your 11 Days Rwanda Safaris, you will be taken to the landing site where the boat cruises depart from.  You will board the boat and travel to a number of the islands on the Lake; you will meet many of the local people, getting the opportunity to visit their village, see how their lifestyle is, their tools and how they earn their living from the lake.  Please refer to the write up on the side giving detailed information of the activities that are possible on Lake Kivu.

Lunch will be served at your accommodation.

After you have rested a bit after your lunch, your GORILLA COUSINS RWANDA guide will take you to Kibuye where you will go for a sea-Kayaking afternoon around the Bay; paddling on the silent waters of Lake Kivu around the islands.  This is a unique opportunity to visit some of the local fishing villages along the shoreline, enjoying the beautiful vistas of the lake.  You will return to your accommodation before nightfall.

Dinner will be served at the lodge.

Day 10: Lake Kivu Congo Nile trail 

After breakfast, your GORILLA COUSINS RWANDA guide will take you to the starting point of the Congo Nile Trail, where you will pick up your bicycles for the day-long expedition along the shoreline of Lake Kivu.  The Congo-Nile Trail can be a 3-day bicycle or 5-day hiking trip, but there are sections that are most appropriate for a one-day journey.  You will pass through local villages and towns en route, visiting with local people and sampling some of the traditional foods that are being prepared along the road.  There is little traffic on this road, but caution must be taken, as in any bicycle trip such as this, as there are the occasional trucks and buses that will pass you along the way.

Your lodge will prepare a packed lunch for you to take with, so you do not have to look for a place to have lunch on the road.  There are many places to stop for drinks and snacks should you be so inclined.

It is a most spectacular way to spend the day, roaming from one village to another to witness the lifestyle of the people and to witness (and participate in) the traditional fishing techniques and nets that the locals use; the most common money earner for the people on the shores of Lake Kivu.  Before dusk, your GORILLA COUSINS RWANDA guide will meet you at a predetermined location, and return you to your lodge.  Your guide will return the bicycles to the rental shop after dropping you off, so that you do not have to do the return trip.

Dinner will be served at the lodge.

Day 11: Return to Kigali

After breakfast on the last day of your 11 Days Rwanda Safaris, you will pack up your things and start the journey to Kigali to catch your departure flight from the International Airport.  If time permits, your GORILLA COUSINS RWANDA guide will give you a guided tour of Kigali City, including the Genocide Memorial Site, commemorating the 1994 unrest in Rwanda.

Your GORILLA COUSINS RWANDA guide will take you for lunch to a local Rwandese Restaurant in Kigali for you to try some traditional foods.  When it’s time, your guide will escort you to the airport.

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