The Best of Gorilla Trekking Tours in Rwanda

Day 1: Visiting the Nyungwe Forest and Witnessing Large Troops of Colombus Monkeys

Nyungwe Forest is a home to Columbus monkeys and it will not take long for you to see them swaying from trees to trees. To explore the forest to its fullest, you can take a walking safari with many potential routes dependent on what you would like to see and how far you would like to walk. See the monkeys swinging past, dozens of them, hundreds of them right in front of your eyes. The views are mesmerizing and feel would be all real. So, on the day one of your trip, you will be witnessing hundreds of monkeys displaying their impish behavior.

Day 2: Trekking with the Chimpanzees

Chimpanzees are too unpredictable. The moment you feel them enjoying with their troops, the next moment their behavior turns into a wild one. You can not predict what mood they will be carrying when in front of you. So, do not try to be too close to the Chimpanzees. The chimpanzees clutch their own handcrafted tools, skillfully open nuts with their nails and begin to look and feel more and more familiar the longer you spend with them. You can reach them via a vehicle safari or get them face to face with an incredible walking safari. See them as close as 25 feet and explore how familiar they appear to us.

Day 3: Ross Carr’s Orphanage and Relaxing at the Lake Kivu

Smile enormously while walking into the Ross Carr’s Orphanage. On the entrance gate, children will greet you with an infectious ebullience and lead you by the hand around the orphanage. The way they will communicate with you will definitely impress you. They are fluent in speaking English and this will make you fall more and more to them. After your morning visit, you will make a couple of stops along Lake Kivu at villages on route to Ruhengeri and Rwanda’s gorilla trekking destination. Relax at the shores, have your meals, and simply enjoy being surrounded by all natural things. Just close your eyes and feel the freshness of the air. Incredible!

Day 4: Gorilla Trekking in Volcanoes National Park

This is the day when you will get face to face with the gorillas. Even if you have witnessed gorillas before, this would be the best of gorilla trekking tours, for sure. The first greeting that you will have with these incredible primates would add into your most moving memories.  For most of the hour, the gorillas will go about their day as they eat, forage, cuddle, hug and cradle their babies and continue on with their day mostly oblivious to your presence. You may feel as if they are unaware of your presence and suddenly one of the troop members would stare at you making you recall one of your scariest moments. Black eyes will look your way intently and you may well be frozen, overawed by the closeness. Sometimes it will be just a single gorilla providing a welcome, other time you get the stare from the whole troop. Enjoy all this in the ultimate gorilla trekking of your Rwanda safari.

Day 5: Ruhengeri to Kigali – Liberation Museum and Departure

It would be a two-hour drive back to Kigali. On your way, you will be crossing the Land of 1,000 Hills and a couple of landscapes of nearly unbelievable green. Stop at the Liberation Museum, an interesting although rather one-sided look at Rwanda’s political development post-genocide. Let your guide help and provide you with an interpretation that cuts through some of the propaganda, and your own experiences over the last ten days will help balance out the fiction. Reach Kigali and have a farewell lunch with your guide, and finally transfer to the airport for your departing flight.