5 Days Nyungwe & Volcanoes Safari Itinerary

Detailed Itinerary:

Day 1: Arrival in Kigali – Drive to Nyungwe Forest

Kigali’s tidy streets blur past your window as the road slides west. Soon the city gives way to tea-blanketed hills; pickers in bright kangas bend and wave as you pass. By late afternoon a wall of rainforest rises ahead—Nyungwe. The lodge sits right on its edge: cool air, dripping ferns, distant monkey chatter. Dinner is all local comfort—spiced goat, plantains, wild-honey tea—served to the hush of a forest settling for the night.

Accommodation Options:
Camping: Gisakura Guesthouse
Budget: Nyungwe Top View Hill Hotel
Standard: Nyungwe Forest Lodge
Luxury: One & Only Nyungwe House.

Day 2: Chimpanzee Trekking – Canopy Walkway

A 5 a.m. wake-up, strong coffee, ranger briefing. Moments later you’re under emerald gloom, boots sinking into leaf mulch. A whoop cracks the silence; branches quake. Suddenly a young chimp swings into view, hangs one-handed, sizes you up and vanishes. For an hour the troupe roars, wrestles, grooms—all around you.

Late breakfast, then the canopy walk: a swaying metal bridge 70 m above the forest floor. Below, nothing but treetops and the pulse of life you just visited. Fog rolls in with nightfall, and Nyungwe hums you to sleep.

Accommodation Options:
Camping: Gisakura Guesthouse
Budget: Nyungwe Top View Hill Hotel
Standard: Nyungwe Forest Lodge
Luxury: One & Only Nyungwe House.

Day 3: Nyungwe to Volcanoes – Community Visit

The forest recedes in the rear-view mirror; terraced slopes lead you north. By noon the Virunga volcanoes appear—perfect cones wearing shawls of cloud. After lunch you drop into Gorilla Guardians Village. Drums thunder, dancers leap, and ex-poachers turn storytellers: how hunting ended, how tourism saved both gorillas and livelihoods. Firelight, mountain air, early bed.

Accommodation Options:

Camping: Kinigi Guesthouse
Budget: La Palme Hotel
Standard: Mountain Gorilla View Lodge
Luxury: Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge

Day 4: Gorilla Trekking in Volcanoes National Park

Predawn cold, hot porridge, permits checked. The bamboo closes behind you; mist beads on backpacks. Ten minutes? Two hours? You lose track—then a low rumble freezes the group. A silverback materialises, massive and unmoving, eyes steady and unreadable. Around him youngsters cartwheel, mothers fuss, juveniles chew on vines like teenagers on snacks.

Sixty regulated minutes feel like sixty heartbeats. Back at the lodge lunch tastes unreal—did that just happen? The afternoon is yours for quiet reflection or a stroll through village fields glowing in late sun.

Accommodation Options:

Camping: Kinigi Guesthouse
Budget: La Palme Hotel
Standard: Mountain Gorilla View Lodge
Luxury: Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge

Day 5: Return to Kigali – Kigali City Tour – Departure

Morning light slides off the volcano slopes as you drive south. Kigali greets you with café aromas and city buzz. The Genocide Memorial offers a solemn pause; the nearby Inema Arts Center answers with colour and hope. One last plate of brochettes and Rwanda-strong coffee, and it’s time for the airport.

The plane lifts, peaks fade, but a few things refuse to stay behind: the chimp chorus at dawn, a silverback’s calm stare, the rhythmic thump of village drums. Those come home with you.

Accommodation Options: Not included as the tour ends in Kigali.

End of Safari:

Five days of forest trails and mountain paths, of eyes meeting through bamboo leaves and voices rising in song. From the depths of Nyungwe to the misty peaks of Volcanoes, Rwanda reveals itself in the quiet spaces — in a gaze held, a hand extended, a story shared.