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Arrive
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Day 1 Kigali
On arrival at Kigali International Airport, you will be welcomed by your English-speaking driver/guide, who will transfer you to the Marriott Kigali and assist you with check-in. After time to freshen up, you’ll meet your guide in the lobby and depart on your Kigali city tour. The main focus of the tour is undoubtedly the impressive Genocide Memorial, which tells the story of the horrific events that took place over three months in 1994 in heart-rending detail. Graphic displays and video interviews bring individual stories to life, as well as that of the Tutsis. Your tour is followed by lunch at the now historic Hotel des Mille Collines, the real-life Hotel Rwanda. Dinner will be under your own arrangements.
Overnight: Marriott Kigali
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Day 2 - 3 Akagera National Park
After breakfast at your hotel, you will be driven to Akagera National Park. You are bound to come across a lot of bird activity along the way, possibly sighting marabou storks and black kites soaring overhead. You’ll see plenty of local life en-route with vegetable and fruit markets lining the road, to be replaced by banana plantations as you leave the city behind. Akagera National Park is set at a relatively low altitude on the border with Tanzania and is characterised by a labyrinth of swamps and lakes that follow the meandering course of the Akagera River. The drive takes approximately two hours (or longer if you stop to observe the birdlife. Arrive at Magashi Camp in time for lunch, overlooking scenic Lake Rwanyakazinga. Over these two days, you’ll enjoy twice daily game drives taking you across open plains through woodlands and past picturesque mountains. Akagera is home to one of Africa’s highest densities of hippo and some huge crocodiles as well as rarer species such as the shoebill and sitatunga. Night drives may also yield leopard and spotted hyena while lion and rhino sightings are now not at all uncommon in the park, with their populations growing annually. Enjoy dinner and time around the camp fire before retiring to your spacious tented room (there are just six in total) for a restful night in the wilderness.
Overnight: Magashi Camp
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Day 4 Kigali
Depart for an early morning game drive followed by breakfast back at the lodge before departing for Kigali. Lunch and dinner are at leisure.
Overnight: Marriott Kigali
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Day 5 Nyungwe Forest National Park
Check out and head for Butare, the cultural heart of Rwanda and home to the former Mwami (King’s) Palace, as well as several universities. Also visit the Butare National Museum, with its fascinating ethnographic displays of traditional clothing, maps, photographs and historical artefacts. After lunch at a local restaurant in Butare, continue to Nyungwe Forest National Park. At an altitude of 1600-2950m above sea level, this mountainous rainforest reserve is rich in flora and fauna, with over 260 species of trees and shrubs, and over 100 types of orchid and giant lobelia alone. As well as incredible biodiversity, the park also has breath-taking views.
Overnight: One&Only Nyungwe House
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Day 6 Nyungwe National Park
Today, you will enjoy an early breakfast before embarking on a thrilling hike in search of chimpanzee communities. The Rwandan chimpanzee population is thought to consist of approximately 400-500 individuals, confined to the Nyungwe National Park, including a small community in the Cyamudongo Forest. Prepare to hear these excitable primates before you see them, as their pant-hoots travel through the deep forest. During your hike, you may also spot migratory birdlife including Ross's turaco, grey-cheeked hornbill, red-breasted sparrow hawk and regal sunbird.
Overnight: One&Only Nyungwe House
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Day 7 Nyungwe Forest National Park
Depart early in search of monkeys. Nyungwe National Park has the highest diversity of primates in a single location in East Africa, including large troops of colobus monkeys that often travel in groups of 300 or more individuals. Grey-cheeked mangabeys prefer the low altitude of the forest and the canopy trees. L’Hoest’s monkeys are commonly seen along the road in troops of 8 to 20 and the owl-faced monkey is a rarely-seen, secretive animal living in the park’s southern bamboo forests. After lunch at the lodge, enjoy a canopy walk, making use of a series of suspension bridges to enjoy this truly bird’s-eye view of your surroundings. Afternoon at leisure.
Overnight: One&Only Nyungwe House
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Day 8 Volcanoes National Park
Today you have a full day drive to Volcanoes National Park so you’ll depart Nyungwe Forest with a packed lunch. Enjoy passing villages and tea plantations as well as many of the country’s lush green hills, for which it is famed (Rwanda is nicknamed Land of a Thousand Hills). Arrive at Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge in the late afternoon.
Overnight: Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge
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Day 9 Gorilla trekking
Undoubtedly the highlight of your journey, today you have the rare opportunity to observe a family of Rwandan mountain gorillas. Tracking the gorillas through the forested slopes of the Virunga Mountains is a magical experience and, if you are lucky, you can get to the gorillas, spend an hour with them, and be back at the base in time for a late lunch. Some gorilla families, however, are more elusive and tracking can take a full day, especially when it is wet and muddy. Return to the lodge for lunch followed by an afternoon at leisure.
Overnight: Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge
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Day 10 Departure
Today you may choose to go on a second gorilla trek. As each viewing is limited to a maximum of one hour, visitors often find they are keen to go back for a second chance to see these beautiful beasts in the wild (second permit at additional cost, currently USD1,500 per permit). Alternatively, trek to see the endangered Golden Monkey, resident in Virunga National Park.
Enjoy lunch at Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge before you depart from the foothills of the Virunga Volcanoes and drive south past coffee, tea and banana plantations on a breath-taking scenic drive back to Kigali. On arrival in Kigali you will be transferred directly to the airport to check in for your international overnight flight.
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Depart
