6 Day Rwanda Akagera and Uganda Gorilla Safari

Your safari begins in Kigali, where you meet your private driver-guide and spend part of the morning exploring Rwanda’s capital.

Visit the Kigali Genocide Memorial, an important place for understanding Rwanda’s recent history and the country’s journey since the 1994 genocide. Depending on your arrival time and interests, there is also an opportunity to visit a local craft market or selected artisan shops, giving you time to see some of Kigali’s contemporary creative side.

After lunch, leave Kigali and travel east toward Akagera National Park. The city gradually gives way to rural Rwanda, with cultivated hills, small settlements and farmland along the route.

Continue into Akagera and settle into your lodge before heading out for an evening game drive. This first safari drive gives you the opportunity to begin exploring the park as the afternoon light changes and wildlife becomes active.

Akagera is characterised by savannah plains, woodland, wetlands and a network of lakes. Wildlife commonly encountered includes elephant, buffalo, giraffe, zebra, antelope and several primate species, while lion, leopard and rhinoceros are also present in the park.

Return to your lodge after the game drive for dinner and an overnight stay within or near the park.

Rise early for a full day of wildlife viewing in Akagera National Park.

The morning game drive takes you deeper into the park while temperatures are still cooler and wildlife is often active. Your guide will follow the conditions of the day, spending time where there are signs of recent animal activity and allowing opportunities to watch animals rather than simply driving from one sighting to another.

The open plains and woodland areas provide habitat for Masai giraffes, black rhinos, zebras, buffaloes, elephants, antelopes and other plains wildlife. Predators such as lions, leopards and spotted hyenas may also be encountered, although sightings are never guaranteed.

After the morning safari, continue with your planned activities and later head toward Lake Ihema.

A boat safari on Lake Ihema provides a completely different way of exploring Akagera. From the water, you can look for hippos gathered along the shoreline, Nile crocodiles resting near the water and numerous waterbirds around the lake and its islands. Akagera is also an important birding destination, with hundreds of recorded bird species.

Depending on the day's timing, there is an opportunity for additional wildlife viewing before returning to the lodge for dinner and your second night in Akagera.

Begin the day with an early breakfast before leaving Akagera and continuing toward southwestern Uganda.

The journey takes you away from Rwanda’s eastern savannah country and toward the highlands around the Uganda border. As the landscape changes, cultivated hills and rural communities gradually give way to the greener, higher terrain of southwestern Uganda.

Cross into Uganda and continue toward Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, home to some of the world’s remaining mountain gorillas.

This is an important transfer day, so the focus is on reaching the Bwindi area comfortably and allowing enough time to settle into your accommodation ahead of the following morning’s gorilla trek.

Arrive at your lodge, check in and take the remainder of the afternoon to rest. Your guide can also brief you on the gorilla trekking arrangements, what to carry into the forest and what to expect during the trek.

After an early breakfast, head to the gorilla trekking meeting point for registration and a briefing from Uganda Wildlife Authority staff and your trekking guides.

The trek begins on foot through the forested slopes of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. The duration and difficulty vary considerably depending on the location of the gorilla family assigned to your group. Some treks may take a few hours, while others require a longer walk through steep forest terrain.

As you move through the forest, your guides and trackers look for signs that help locate the gorilla family. The experience is not simply about reaching the animals; the walk itself reveals the dense vegetation and other life that make Bwindi one of Uganda’s most important forest ecosystems.

Once the gorilla family is located, you spend the permitted viewing time observing their behaviour from within the established trekking guidelines. You may see adults feeding or resting, younger gorillas playing nearby and different members of the group interacting with one another.

After the trek, return to the lodge for lunch and time to rest. The afternoon can be kept free, particularly after a longer trek, or used for a quiet walk around the lodge area.

Gorilla trekking in Bwindi is one of Uganda’s defining wildlife experiences and is managed as part of the conservation system protecting the forest and its gorilla population.

After breakfast, travel toward Mgahinga Gorilla National Park for another forest experience, this time searching for the endangered golden monkey.

Golden monkeys are endemic to the Virunga region and are found in Uganda within Mgahinga Gorilla National Park. The tracking experience takes you into bamboo and montane forest habitat as your guides search for the habituated troop.

Once the troop is located, you can observe the monkeys as they move through the vegetation, feed and interact within their group. Their quick movements and preference for the upper sections of the forest make the experience quite different from gorilla trekking.

After the tracking activity, leave the Mgahinga area and continue toward Lake Bunyonyi.

Arrive at the lake in the afternoon and settle into your accommodation. The remainder of the day is free to relax, enjoy the lakeside setting or simply recover after two days of forest trekking.