Savanna Game Drives, Chimps and Gorillas in One Week
This 7-day private tour covers Rwanda’s three best-known parks in a single week. You’ll begin with two days in Akagera National Park, searching the savanna for elephants, giraffes, zebras and buffalo, with a chance of lions and rhinos, and taking a boat out on Lake Ihema among hippos and crocodiles. Then you’ll head southwest to Nyungwe National Park to trek chimpanzees and colobus monkeys in the rainforest.
The week ends in Volcanoes National Park with an hour beside a mountain gorilla family. Compared with our 6-day version, this tour adds a full extra day of game drives in Akagera, a visit to the Ethnographic Museum in Huye, and a boat trip to Napoleon Island on Lake Kivu.
Why You’ll Love This Safari
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Trip Details
Trip Details
Price
1 Solo: $7,155
2 Pax Sharing: $5,306
3 Pax Sharing: $5,063
4 Pax Sharing: $4,690
5 Pax Sharing: $4,619
6 Pax Sharing: $4,378
Meeting point
Kigali
Availability
Year-round, 7 days a week
Duration
7 days
Group size
Min. 1 person
Included
- Park fees (for non-residents)
- All activities (unless labeled as optional)
- All accommodations (unless listed as upgrade)
- A professional driver/guide
- Private safari vehicle: a 4×4 Land Cruiser, Toyota Prado or safari van, depending on group size
- All transportation (unless labeled as optional)
- All taxes/VAT
- Roundtrip airport transfer
- Meals (as specified in the day-by-day section)
- Drinking water (on all days)
- Gorilla permits (one per person, non-resident)
- Chimpanzee trekking permits (one per person, non-resident)
- Colobus monkey trek in Nyungwe National Park
- Boat trips on Lake Ihema and Lake Kivu
Not included
- International flights (from/to home)
- Additional accommodations before and at the end of the tour
- Tips
- Personal items (souvenirs, travel insurance, visa fees, etc.)
- Government imposed increase of taxes and/or park fees
- Porter fees
What to bring
- Waterproof jacket
- Warm jacket (early mornings can be cold)
- Neutral-colored clothing (avoid bright colors)
- Long-sleeved shirt
- Long pants
- Good hiking shoes
- Gaiters (for mud and nettles)
- Hat
- Gloves
- Light backpack
- Sunscreen
- Snacks
- Light face mask
- Binoculars
- Insect repellent
Participation requirements
Min. age of 15 years old required to participate in this tour. A reasonable level of fitness is recommended for the chimpanzee and gorilla treks.
About your guide
Your safari will be led by an experienced local guide who will share facts about the wildlife, landscapes, and culture. Your guide is dedicated to ensuring your safari is safe, informative, and tailored to your interests.
What You’ll See & Do
Day 1: Arrival in Kigali
Your week in Rwanda begins at Kigali International Airport, where your driver/guide will meet you and take you to your hotel in the city. Depending on when your flight lands, you can rest, or take a short walk around the neighborhood to get your bearings.
In the evening, you’ll sit down to your first Rwandan dinner and get a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow starts early, with the drive east to Akagera National Park and your first game drive of the trip.
Meals Included: Dinner
Overnight: Hotel des Mille Collines
Day 2: Akagera Game Drive and Lake Ihema Boat Trip
After an early breakfast, you’ll leave Kigali and drive east to Akagera National Park, watching the sun come up over the hills on the way. Your first game drive starts soon after you arrive. Look for elephants, giraffes, zebras, buffalo and several kinds of antelope as you cross the park’s grassland and acacia woodland.
In the afternoon, you’ll board a boat on Lake Ihema, where hippos surface close by, crocodiles bask on the banks and water birds hunt along the shore. You’ll then check in at your camp for dinner.
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Overnight: Akagera Safari Camp
Day 3: Full Day of Game Drives in Akagera
This is the day the 7-day tour adds. After an early breakfast, you’ll spend the whole day in Akagera on game drives, covering more of the park’s lakeshores, grassland and wooded hills than a single afternoon allows. The extra hours give you a better chance of finding the animals that are harder to spot, such as lions and rhinos, and more time to sit and watch the elephants, giraffes, buffalo and zebras.
Lunch is included during the day, and you’ll return to the camp in the evening for dinner and a second night in the park.
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Overnight: Akagera Safari Camp
Day 4: King’s Palace, Ethnographic Museum and Drive to Nyungwe
After breakfast, you’ll leave Akagera and cross the country toward Nyungwe Forest in the southwest. Your first stop is Nyanza, the old royal capital, where the King’s Palace tells the story of Rwanda’s monarchy and you can see the long-horned Inyambo, the royal breed of cattle.
Next, you’ll continue to Huye (formerly Butare) to visit the Ethnographic Museum, whose collections cover Rwandan crafts, customs and traditions. From there, the road winds through green hills toward Nyungwe and Lake Kivu, and you’ll reach your hotel on the lakeshore at Rusizi in time for dinner.
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Overnight: Mantis Kivu Marina Bay Hotel
Day 5: Chimpanzee Trekking and Colobus Monkeys in Nyungwe
You’ll set out at 5:00 AM for the heart of Nyungwe Forest. Expert trackers lead you through the rainforest to a chimpanzee community, and when you find them, you’ll watch them feed, call to each other and move through the trees. Trails can be steep and muddy, so take your time.
Back at the lodge, you’ll have lunch and time to rest. In the afternoon, you’ll go back into the forest to find Angolan black-and-white colobus monkeys, which live in Nyungwe in some of the largest troops in Africa. Their black coats and long white fur stand out clearly against the green canopy.
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Overnight: Mantis Kivu Marina Bay Hotel
Day 6: Lake Kivu Boat Trip and Drive to Volcanoes National Park
After an early breakfast, you’ll leave Rusizi and head north along the shore of Lake Kivu. Partway up the lake, you’ll stop for lunch and a boat trip out to Napoleon Island and the smaller islands nearby. Napoleon Island is known for its large colony of fruit bats, and if you’re lucky you may also spot vervet monkeys on the islands.
After the boat trip, you’ll continue north through the hills to Volcanoes National Park and check in at your hotel near the park, ready for the gorilla trek in the morning.
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch
Overnight: Grotta Resort
Day 7: Gorilla Trekking and Return to Kigali
After an early breakfast, you’ll go to the park headquarters at Kinigi for the 7:00 AM briefing, where rangers assign your group a gorilla family and explain the rules for the visit. The trek takes two to five hours, depending on where the gorillas are, and once you reach them you’ll have one hour to watch them up close.
Return to your hotel for lunch, then visit the Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund before the drive back to Kigali. If time allows, you’ll stop at the Kigali Genocide Memorial before your guide drops you at your hotel or Kigali International Airport.
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch
Frequently Asked Questions
It gives Akagera a full day of game drives on top of the first day’s drive and boat trip, so you have more time to look for lions and rhinos. Along the way you visit the Ethnographic Museum in Huye, trek colobus monkeys and take a boat to Napoleon Island on Lake Kivu on the way to the gorillas. If you have less time, our 5-day Rwanda primates safari combines chimps and gorillas.
Both treks follow forest trails that can be steep, muddy and slippery. The gorilla trek usually takes two to five hours in total, and the length of the chimpanzee trek depends on how far the chimps have moved since the night before. A reasonable level of fitness is recommended. Porters can carry your bag on the gorilla trek, but porter fees are not included.
Chimpanzees roam freely and can cover a lot of ground in a day, so sightings can’t be guaranteed. Expert trackers set out early to find them, which is why the trek starts at 5:00 AM, and they give you a good chance. Mountain gorilla sightings are far more reliable, because each habituated family is followed by trackers every day.
Your price includes one gorilla permit and one chimpanzee trekking permit per person, along with the colobus monkey trek, both boat trips and park fees for non-residents. The Rwanda gorilla permit alone costs $1,500. International flights, tips, porter fees and personal costs such as visas and travel insurance are not included. For how gorilla permits are priced and booked, see our gorilla trekking permit cost guide and our guide to the full cost of a gorilla trek.
Book as early as you can, because gorilla permits are limited each day. For July and August, the busiest months, we recommend about six months ahead, and a 50% deposit confirms your booking. As this is a private tour, we can also add days, such as a golden monkey trek in Volcanoes National Park or extra nights on Lake Kivu. Our guide to the best time for gorilla trekking compares the dry and rainy months.
