Enjoy a pickup from your hotel or apartment in Kigali and travel in a 4x4 vehicle to Volcanoes National Park, departing around 4:30 am. Settle in for the roughly 2.5-hour drive north to Musanze, home to Rwanda’s endangered mountain gorillas. Your English or French-speaking driver/guide will share a little about the park and the conservation story behind these gentle giants.
Upon arrival, enjoy breakfast before heading to the park headquarters at Kinigi for a briefing by the park warden. Gorilla families are allocated to guests at the headquarters, and your guide, who has a strong relationship with the park wardens, will express your interests in a particular group. At 8:00 am, you’ll be transferred to the starting point of the trek.
Set off into the forest in search of your gorilla family. The trek can take anywhere from 1 to 8 hours, depending on where the gorillas decided to rest after the previous day. Along the way, keep an eye out for some of the park’s many birds, as Rwanda is home to over 700 bird species, including 27 Albertine Rift endemics. Once you reach the gorillas, watch them feed, play, and move through the undergrowth, with babies running around and full-grown gorillas going about their day.
After the trek, say farewell to the park and relax on the scenic drive back to Kigali. Your driver/guide will drop you at your hotel or the airport, as long as your flight is on the same day the tour ends.