Luxury Gorilla Trekking Experience

Welcome to Rwanda! On arrival at Kigali airport, you are met and accompanied through to collect your luggage and pass customs.

Meet with your private English speaking driver-guide and depart for a guided orientation city tour of Kigali, including a visit to the Genocide Memorial with a light lunch. Then make your way (about 2.5 hours of road transfer) towards Volcanoes National Park and the luxurious Kwitonda Lodge.

Kwitonda Lodge, which was named after a legendary silverback gorilla, is located on 178 acres and shares a 1.2km border with Volcanoes National Park. Each of the eight luxurious suites features a private heated plunge pool, wellness treatment area, in- and outdoor fireplaces and large timber-framed windows that welcome breathtaking scenery and volcano views inside. You will have some time at leisure to take in the beautiful vistas and walk about on the property. There is a Conservation Room and a nursery and vegetable garden – which provides fresh produce for Kwitonda’s farm-to-table food journey. Dinner is included at the lodge, and retire for an early night in preparation of your early morning wake-up call.

Early morning you will walk with the park's guides to meet with the gorilla family appointed to the group (8 people maximum).

There are twelve gorilla families living in the Volcanoes National Park, which are fully habituated, with a few others habituated solely for scientific research. The groups, or troops, consist of at least one silverback along with several females and youngsters. The families are known as Susa, Igisha, Karisimbi, Sabyinyo, Amahoro, Agashya, Kwitonda, Umubano, Hirwa, Bwenge, Ugyenda and Muhoza.

You will hike up to the estimated location, the hike can last anything from 30 minutes to four or more hours, reaching an altitude of between 2,500m and 4,000m. Once you reach the gorillas, you will have 1 hour to spend with them, watching them going about their daily life of grooming, feeding, playing and relaxing in the forest. You then hike back down to the hotel, freshen up and enjoy a late lunch.

The afternoon is at leisure to choose one of the activities offered such as a nursery walk, cycling through the resort, nearby villages and farm roads, bird watching, or spend time with the chef and learn to make some delicious local dishes. Dinner and night.

Another early morning call, this time to track the Golden Monkeys. These primates are highly endangered and are mainly found in this part of the world, living in the Virunga mountain ranges. Encountering golden monkeys in the Volcanoes National Park is a highly immersive experience as trekkers are surrounded by up to one hundred monkeys foraging in the forest and jumping from tree to tree. The monkeys live in bamboo vegetation close to the base of the volcanoes so the hike to find them is on fairly flat terrain and the distance is not far, making this an activity that is not as physically demanding as the gorilla trekking of the previous day. You have 1 hour to spend with the monkeys and return to the lodge for a late lunch.

In the afternoon visit of The Ellen Degeneres Campus of The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund. The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund was established in 1967 and works to protect and study gorillas and their habitats, and to empower people who live near their forest home. With a team of almost 300 working in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Fossey Fund is the world’s longest running and largest organization dedicated entirely to gorilla conservation. The campus – which is located a few minutes’ drive from Singita Volcanoes National Park – features original artefacts that have never been displayed before, including items from Fossey’s almost two decades of living among the gorillas. Dinner and night at the lodge.

After a leisurely breakfast, you are transferred to a nearby airstrip for the return to Kigali by helicopter (Agusta 109 twin engines).

Arrive at Kigali airport, assistance for the check in of your own flight out. Depending on your flight time, we can add a vehicle and guide for you on this day.