Day 1: Meet in Kigali (at your hotel or Kigali Airport), Transfer to Volcanoes National Park
Begin your 3 days Rwanda Gorilla Trek, Golden Monkeys Tour with a meeting with our driver (who is also your tour gorilla tour guide) in Kigali at your hotel or at Kigali Airport. We then continue with your transfer with a private vehicle to Volcanoes National Park, the home of gorilla trekking activity in Rwanda.
Your 3-day Rwanda gorilla tour with golden monkeys also includes a tour of Kigali City. You can choose to do this at the beginning of the gorilla tour or at the end. Either way, your tour guide will be available to take you through some interesting spots in Kigali City. The new prosperity features a number of thriving markets and features the mountain terrain famous in Rwanda. A sober contrast to its recent history. For survivors and others whose families were murdered in Rwanda´s genocide in 1994, the memorial sites and centers are places of dignified remembrance for loved ones lost. It is also a place of reflection and learning for the wider community, both in Rwanda and internationally.
Ranging in altitude from 2,400m to 4,507 the Volcanoes National Park (French: Parc National des Volcans) is dominated by the setting of volcanoes after which it is named. Best known to the outside world as the place where, for almost 20 years, the American primatologist Dian Fossey undertook her pioneering studies of mountain gorilla behavior.
Day hikes to see the gorilla families can be strenuous on tracks climbing through the forest, and time is very limited once contact is made with the gorilla families. It is a rare and memorable experience to visit with these giant cousins of man.
Our accommodation is ideally positioned for those who want to watch animals in their habitat, specifically the endangered Rwanda mountain gorillas that still roam these areas.
Share in the cuisine of Rwanda, which is served with the hospitality for which we all return to African countries. Take walks, learn more about the gorillas, and absorb the gorgeous surrounding landscape.
Accommodation options available
Top Luxury: Virunga Lodge | The Bishop's House | Silverback Sabinyo Lodge
Up-market: Mountain Gorilla View Lodge
Moderate: Gorilla Solution Lodge
Low Budget: Hotel Muhabura
Day 2: Gorilla Trekking in Volcanoes National Park
Have breakfast and go to the Volcanoes National Park offices for a briefing, after setting off in the forest for gorilla trekking. Obviously, this is surely the highlight of your 3-day Rwanda gorilla trek tour, and we are committed to leaving some lasting memories with you. We ensure that your gorilla permit is well booked in advance, you have all you need for your gorilla tour, and you are allocated the befitting gorilla group to trek in Volcanoes National Park.
A thrilling trek through the refined foothills of the Virungas provides inspiring views in all directions. Then, suddenly, the trail enters the national park, engrossing trekkers in the strange closeness of the rainforest, alive with the calls of colorful birds and chattering of the rare golden monkey and besieged with fresh spoor of the mountains' elusive populations of buffalo and elephant.
Through gaps in the forest canopy, the marvelous peaks are sighted, easily easy to get to, and among the uppermost in Africa, indicating an ascent.
Gorilla trekking is quite strenuous but a worthwhile encounter of these gentle giants. The enthusiasm of your coming across these apes will wipe away your intricacy of the strenuous trek.
Spend time watching gorillas, watch the adults feeding their young ones, brushing and resting as the youngsters play from vines in a pleasurably playful display.
Accommodation options available
Top Luxury: Virunga Lodge | The Bishop's House | Silverback Sabinyo Lodge
Up-market: Mountain Gorilla View Lodge
Moderate: Gorilla Solution Lodge
Low Budget: Hotel Muhabura
Day 3: Golden Monkey Tracking, Transfer to Kigali & Genocide Memorial Visit
It is our day for another endangered primate encounter, this time tracking the golden monkeys in Volcanoes National Park. After breakfast, transfer to the Volcanoes National Park headquarters for a briefing and later begin the hike over the volcanic terrain in search of golden monkeys in the bamboo forests.
The Golden Monkey may not be the most well-known primate, but it is certainly an enjoyable little creature that is worth visiting. It is a small, curious monkey, golden in color, and loves to scamper around the trees. Golden monkeys are named after their golden-orange fur, and like mountain gorillas, are also considered an endangered species. Conservation efforts have been put in place by Volcanoes National Park to ensure that the monkeys are protected, especially from poachers.
There is a habituated family of monkeys in Volcanoes National Park, where tourists can track and stay with them for a period of 1 hour, depending on where they nested the previous night and how far it is from the starting point. The monkeys live in groups or troops of 30 led by a principal adult male. Golden monkeys are primarily found in the bamboo forest that skirts the lower slopes of the volcanoes. They are more active in the bamboo canopy. Golden monkeys are opportunistic feeders. What they feed on could be the availability of fruits, leaves of bamboo trees, shoots of bamboo, shrubs, flowers, and invertebrates, and these make it restricted to the highland forest, mostly the bamboo forest.
Golden monkey tracking starts at Volcanoes National Park headquarters at 7:00 a.m. for a pre-tracking briefing (on the dos and don’ts of tracking the golden monkeys). The actual trek begins at 7:30 a.m. Hiking through the forests to see the golden monkeys is not as strenuous as gorilla trekking because golden monkeys live in lower areas, so tourists do not trek for more than 3 hours. When tourists encounter the golden monkey family, they are given one hour to spend with them (to take photographs and observe their behavior). With this activity, there is no minimum number of tourists who track each group, and the age limit is 12 years.
After the golden monkey trek, we shall drive to Kigali city and visit the Gisozi Genocide Memorial. Your driver shall then drop you off at your preferred hotel in Kigali.
This will be the end of your 3-day Rwanda gorilla trek and golden monkey tour.
