Volcanoes national park is home to ten habituated gorilla families and eight permits are allocated to each group for trekking per day, the gorilla families in Rwanda include; Susa A group, Titus group, Bwenge group, Karasimbi gorilla group, Ugenda gorilla group, Kwitonda gorilla gropu, Hirwa gorilla group, Umubano group, Agashya group, Sabinyo group and Amahoro gorilla family. Each group offers its own unique gorilla trekking experience. Gorilla trekking can be done all year round in Rwanda but some months are better than the rest. The best time to visit Rwanda is the short dry season of December to early February and the long dry months of June to September.
The 4 Days Rwanda Gorilla Trekking & Dian Fossey Hiking tour takes you to Volcanoes national park. You will trek gorillas and hike up to Dian Fossey grave Yard at Karisoke. You will be open to meet gentle giants and golden monkeys as well as listening to stories about mountain gorilla conservation work a primatologist in volcanoes national park in Rwanda. This 3 Days Gorilla Trek Rwanda is the best gorilla trekking itinerary that takes you face to face with the endangered mountain gorilla. It also involves touring Kigali city and a cultural village.
DEPARTURE/RETURN LOCATION
Kigali City (Google Map)
DEPARTURE TIME
Set Off time is usually very early in the morning.
INCLUDED
On this day after your morning breakfast, the guide driver will pick you from your place of stay take you for Kigali city tour where you will visit the Kigali Genocide memorial in Gisozi, visit local craft market Nyamata church among many places lunch then after you will transfer to volcanoes national park for dinner and overnight stay at reserved accommodation
After your early morning breakfast, assemble for a morning briefing on the code of conduct when trekking for mountain gorillas. Your guide will drive you to the park offices where briefing and activity registration is done from, you will carry snacks for lunch and enough drinking water and dressed in gorilla tracking attire, after the briefing with the park guide, you will start your tracking of these rare gentle giants in their natural habitat which will take you between 4 and 7 hours. Once you find them you will be allowed maximum of one hour with them as you taking pictures thereafter you will return back to your lodge, rest a bit and later you will take a visit to the community (Gorilla guardians village – Iby’iwacu) for cultural entertainments, that will mark the day. You will then return to the lodge for dinner and overnight stay
In the morning after breakfast, report to the park offices with your Snack and drinking water to attend the briefing by the park ranger guide. You will then enter the trail and begin your hike to the grave yard of Dian Fossey whose effort was conservation of mountain gorillas in Volcanoes national park. The guide will give you information about Dian’s love for gorillas and how she ended up loosing her life while saving mountain gorillas. This hike will probably take you between 4 to 6 hours in total depending on your speed. You will then descend back to base and then continue to head back to refresh at your lodge
Early morning after your breakfast, you will report again to the park offices for your golden monkey tracking. These are endangered type of monkey, which is only found in this volcanic mountain range at high elevation within the Albertine rift region. They can easily be seen in large troop but on close view because of being habituated to human presence. The tracking takes 3 to 4 hours in total. when you return, you will have you lunch at your lodge thereafter the guide will transfer you back to Kigali. continue to your hotel or Airport if it is your scheduled flight time.
END OF THE 4 DAY RWANDA RWANDA GORILLA TREKKING SAFARI
NB : Visiting Rwanda for gorilla trekking in the peak season means you will need to acquire your gorilla permits in advance of 3 months before the actual trekking date because during this time gorilla permits are on high demand. Rwanda offers the most luxurious gorilla trekking compared to Uganda and Democratic republic of Congo.
Gorilla permits in Rwanda cost $1500 per person whereas in Uganda they go for $600 per person as of the year 2023. Children under the age of 15 years will not be allowed to trek mountain gorillas as well as tourists not feeling well will not be allowed to trek mountain gorillas. For Inquiries, reach out to us at [email protected]
