Your affordable 9 days Rwanda tour is 8 nights / 9 days Rwanda safari, offering you a highlight of all Rwanda safari attractions and activities without doing the pricey gorilla trekking tour. This 9 days Rwanda tour begins in Kigali with a historical tour of the Kigali Genocide Memorial, a place of education and remembrance of the horrific 1994 Rwanda genocide.
You then go for a safari in Akagera National Park, where you have a chance to see the “big five” – Rhino, Lions, Leopards, Elephants, and Buffalo in the wild while learning about the incredible conservation efforts that brought this onetime battleground back from disaster.
Next, you go for chimpanzee tracking, colobus monkey tracking, and canopy walk adventures in the ancient Nyungwe Forest. Also, visit a tea plantation to learn about the world-class tea made here, before taking a beach break at beautiful Lake Kivu. End your 9 days Rwanda tour with golden monkey tracking and an exciting day hike on Mount Bisoke hike in Volcanoes National Park.
You can book or customize this affordable 9 days Rwanda tour to match your special Rwanda safari interests and desires – at a great price!
Day 1 & 2: Kigali Genocide Memorial & Akagera National Park
Day 3, 4 & 5: Nyungwe National Park, Ethnographic Museum & King’s Palace
Day 6: Lake Kivu – Gisenyi beach
Day 7 & 8: Volcanoes National Park
Day 9: Mount Bisoke – Kigali
Day 1: Tour Kigali Genocide Memorial & transfer to Akagera National Park
Day 2: Enjoy a morning game drive & afternoon Lake Ihema boat cruise in Akagera
Day 3: Drive to Nyungwe Forest. Tour the Ethnographic Museum & King’s Palace.
Day 4: Morning Chimpanzee trekking & afternoon canopy walk in Nyungwe Forest
Day 5: Do morning colobus monkey tracking & afternoon tea plantation experience
Day 6: Drive to Lake Kivu – Gisenyi beach for relaxation.
Day 7: Enjoy a boat cruise on Lake Kivu & drive to Volcanoes National Park
Day 8: Morning Golden monkey tracking & Musanze caves walk in the afternoon
Day 9: Hike Mount Bisoke Volcano & drive back to Kigali
Your exciting 9 days Rwanda tour starts at 8 am. Your tour driver will pick you up from your hotel in Kigali. You then visit the Kigali Genocide Memorial Museum.
Today, Kigali is one of the greenest, cleanest, safest, and friendliest capital cities in Africa, but, just a few decades ago it was home to one of the most brutal genocides in the history of mankind. The memorial was built to remember the victims and to educate people on the atrocities to ensure that this never happens again. It is an insightful but upsetting experience, so be prepared.
After the memorial tour, settle for lunch at one of the best restaurants in the city, before embarking on a scenic 2½ drive east to Akagera National Park. Akagera offers a remarkable conservation story and is home to the Big Five, zebras, giraffes, elephants, hippos, crocodiles, antelopes, and almost 500 bird species.
You arrive at your lodge in the evening for relaxation, dinner, and overnight.
Highlight of the Day: – Learning about Rwanda’s heartbreaking history at Kigali Genocide Memorial.
Accommodation:-
Luxury: – Ruzizi Tented Lodge/Magashi Camp
Midrange: – Akagera Game Lodge
Budget: – Dereva Hotel
Meal Plan: – Lunch & Dinner
Drive Distance & Time: – Approx. 135km/2 ½ hrs.
Activities & Services:-
Optional Activity: – Night game drive
On the second day of your 9 days Rwanda safari wake up before sunrise and enjoy a quick breakfast. At around 6.30 am, go for a 3 to 4-hour game drive in the Akagera Savannah. It is the ideal time of day to spot predators, and the sun rising over the plains is an incredible sight.
Look out for rhinos, lions, leopards, elephants, buffalo, hyenas, and others who graze freely in the park. Giraffes are a popular site as well as others in the growing park such as; zebras, warthogs, waterbucks, roan antelopes, elands, topis, and impalas.
Return to the lodge for lunch and some free time to relax. In the afternoon, glide along Lake Ihema by boat, watching for hippos and crocodiles. Spot elephants and buffalo, as they gather at the lakeshore to drink water. Keep an eye out for a variety of birds; herons, shoebill storks, fish eagles, kingfishers, ibis, jacanas, and plovers.
Retire for relaxation, dinner, and overnight.
Highlight of the Day: – Akagera NP Morning Safari Drive
Accommodation:-
Luxury: – Ruzizi Tented Lodge/Magashi Camp
Midrange: – Akagera Game Lodge
Budget: – Dereva Hotel
Meal Plan: – Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Activities & Services:-
Optional Activities:-
Day three of your 9 days Rwanda tour starts with breakfast at 8 am. Then take a 5-6 hour drive southwest. Pass through the rolling hills and beautiful scenery as your driver takes you to the Cultural Corridor. It was from here that kings once ruled.
Tour the traditional king’s palace in Nyanza to learn about the royal style, the smartness, and the authority of pre-colonial Rwanda Kings. Meet the royal cows on the site and the herder who sings to them. Then, wander the halls of the simple, modern home of the country’s last king.
Continue your drive south to the detailed Ethnographic Museum in Huye for a look at the socio-cultural history of the country. Thereafter, complete your scenic drive to Nyungwe. This is a really incredible national park, teeming with over 500 wild chimpanzees and other countless rare primates.
Highlight of the Day: – Exploring Rwanda’s rich cultural heritage
Accommodation:-
Luxury: – Nyungwe Forest Lodge/One & Only Nyungwe House
Midrange: – Nyungwe Hill Top View Hotel
Budget: – Gisakura Guesthouse
Meal Plan: – Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Drive Distance & Time: – Approx. 320km /5-6 hrs.
Activities & Services:-
Have an early breakfast and transfer to the park visitor center to meet the excellent local park rangers/guides. After a briefing at 5.30 am, follow them on a 2-5 hour trekking adventure through the beautiful forest to see a chimpanzee community.
On the trek, see more than just chimps in their natural environment. Learn about the ecosystem and keep an eye out for other primates, birds, and animals. Upon reaching Chimps, see our distant cousins as they play and interact in their natural habitat – an incredible sight. You have a full hour to enjoy these precious creatures and you are free to take as many photos as you wish!
Return to the lodge for lunch and relaxation. In the afternoon, take a 2-hour canopy walk in Nyungwe. Test your balance resilience as you walk on the 200m extended and shaking bridge suspended 70m over the forest floor. Enjoy incredible endless views of the green forest, as well as monkeys and birds that live in canopies.
Highlight of the Day: – Track wild Chimpanzees on foot
Accommodation:-
Luxury: – Nyungwe Forest Lodge/One & Only Nyungwe House
Midrange: – Nyungwe Hill Top View Hotel
Budget: – Gisakura Guesthouse
Meal Plan: – Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Activities & Services:-
Day five of your 9 days Rwanda tour starts with a good breakfast at 7 am.
Then transfer to the Park’s Visitor Center for yet another amazing adventure: tracking the colobus monkeys. These beautiful old-world monkeys tend to form “super-groups” comprising over 400 members, a phenomenon that has been observed to happen only among the colobus monkeys in Nyungwe.
Colobus monkey tracking is not tiresome. You hike through lush tea plantations and beautiful rolling hills to an isolated forest patch where you can see these attractive primates jumping through the trees. You spend one hour with them before returning to the lodge for relaxation and lunch.
In the afternoon, go for a tea plantation tour experience and interact with the local people who work there. Learn about the process of growing tea plants from the harvesting stage to what goes into making the best cup of tea.
Highlight of The Day: – Tracking for the beautiful colobus monkeys on foot
Accommodation:-
Luxury: – Nyungwe Forest Lodge/One & Only Nyungwe House
Midrange: – Nyungwe Hill Top View Hotel
Budget: – Gisakura Guesthouse
Meal Plan: – Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Activities & Services:-
Optional Activities: – Waterfall Hike
After a relaxed breakfast on day six of your 9 days Rwanda tour, take a 7-hour drive north. You’re slowly making your way to the beautiful Lake Kivu (one of Africa’s Great Lakes), but you have some serious sightseeing en route.
Pass rolling hills, small farming villages, lush tea fields, and banana plantations before arriving at Gisenyi, the town north of Lake Kivu. Your driver will take you straight to your beachfront accommodation for relaxation, dinner, and overnight.
Highlight of the Day: – Relaxation at beautiful Lake Kivu
Accommodation:-
Luxury: – Lake Kivu Serena Hotel
Midrange: – Paradise Kivu Resort/Hotel Gorillas Lake Kivu
Budget: – Hotel Paradis Malahide
Meal Plan: – Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Drive distance & time: – 294km/7- 8 hours
Activities & Services:-
On this day 7 of your 9 days Rwanda tour, enjoy a leisurely breakfast, before embarking on a thrilling three-hour boat cruise on Lake Kivu. Explore the picturesque shores and enjoy the breathtaking sights. Explore the islands of a lake and learn about their intriguing history and traditional folklore. Also, enjoy some excellent birding; the lake hosts many water birds.
Return to your lodge for relaxation and lunch. In the evening, take a 2-3 hour trip north to Volcanoes National Park. Encompassing 5 of the 8 ancient volcanic Virunga Mountains, this Rwanda wildlife park is utterly spellbinding and few would argue that this is not one of the most exciting national parks in Africa.
Aside from being one of the most scenic sights in Africa, Volcanoes NP is home to the iconic Mountain Gorillas and Golden monkeys.
Highlight of the Day: – Lake Kivu boat ride
Accommodation:-
Luxury: – Mountain Gorilla View Lodge/Bisate Lodge/Virunga Lodge
Midrange: – Da Vinci Gorilla Lodge
Budget: – Muhabura Hotel
Meal Plan: – Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Drive distance & time: – 110km/2 hours
Activities & Services:-
Optional Activities at Lake Kivu: – Kayaking,
On day eight of 9 days Rwanda safari, trek in Volcanoes NP to see the playful, endemic, and endangered Golden Monkeys. Look and listen for these lively and curious creatures in the lower parts of the bamboo forests.
The trek to see them is relatively easy and once you locate them, you spend up to one hour observing their charming antics, as they leap from branch to branch. Return to the lodge for some relaxation and lunch.
In the afternoon, embark on a 2-hour walk underground the 2km long Musanze cave whose formation dates back 65 million years as a result of lava flows from the Bisoke and Sabyinyo volcanoes. The cave has 31 entrances, most being roof collapses. The main cave has an entrance the size of a cathedral. The collapses create an incredible array of colored shafts of light shining into the cave
Retire for relaxation, dinner, and overnight
Highlight of the Day: – Tracking the golden monkeys
Accommodation:-
Luxury: – Mountain Gorilla View Lodge/Bisate Lodge/Virunga Lodge
Midrange: – Da Vinci Gorilla Lodge
Budget: – Muhabura Hotel
Meal Plan: – Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Activities & Services:-
Optional Activities: – Gorilla trekking, Iby’Iwacu Village visit
Enjoy an early breakfast at 6 am and then transfer to the park office in Kinigi at 7 am. You’ll carry a lunch box. Meet the park guides for a briefing and after which you will embark on the Mount Bisoke hike (3711m). During the ascent, trek through different vegetation zones.
On the lower slopes, pass through the bamboo forest, the preferred food of golden monkeys and mountain gorillas. As you climb up to the higher slopes you come to a band of Hagenia forest, which then opens out to Lobelia bush as you approach the summit, after about 4 hours. A wide variety of birds are found on the slopes of Mt Bisoke, so keep your binoculars handy.
The summit is dominated by a large crater lake and on a clear day, the views are far-reaching. This is a great place to relax and enjoy your lunch, before starting your 2 hours descent. After descending Mt Bisoke you’ll re-join your vehicle and guide drive back to Kigali to mark the end of this fantastic 9 days Rwanda tour.
Highlight of the Day: – Hiking the stunning Bisoke Volcano
Meal Plan: – Breakfast & Lunch
Drive distance & time: – 116km/2-3 hours
Activities & Services:-
Optional Activities: – Dian Fossey tomb hike, Gorilla trekking
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