14 Days Best Of Rwanda Uganda Safari

Upon arrival at Kigali International Airport as per your international flight meet up with a representative from Nkuringo Safaris and transfer to your hotel.

Accommodation: Heaven Boutique Hotel

Meal Plan: Bed & Breakfast basis; Lunch & Dinner on own’s account

Wake up the African sounds of Kigali city and have your breakfast, your private driver will be waiting to take you through Rwanda’s most beautiful countryside dotted with calming nature scenery and colour.

This part of your tailor-made Classic Rwanda Safari is a 6hour lazy drive that will see you take stops at local markets, the traditional palace in Nyanza and continue to Butare, visit the Botanical Gardens and the cultural museum. Pass through stunning green fields of tea scattered across the hillsides and the small unique wooden houses surrounding Nyungwe Forest just before you arrive at the lodge and check in. For the rest of the day, make yourself comfortable with nature’s own ambiance around the lodge, chill out in the lounge and meet new people.

Accommodation: Nyungwe Top View Hill Hotel (Cottage)

Meal Plan: Full board

Have an early breakfast and transfer to the park headquarters for the chimpanzee tracking activity briefing. Escorted by a park ranger and a guide, jump onto the the jungle trails to another rainforest experience. In a short while, you’ll find your designated chimpanzee troop which you’ll follow and stick with for the next one hour. The chimpanzee bands keep moving, making noise, grooming, stopping for snack or nap and your challenge is to keep up with them with the guidance of the park guide. After your unforgettable experience with the chimpanzees in their nature setup, you’ll take the aerial view on Nyungwe forest and beyond on the 160 meters (525 ft) high canopy walkway. The canopy walkway has been named the world’s best forest canopy walkway, according to a latest report by Lonely Planet.

Suspend your emotions and let loose, shout at the top of your voice and free yourself, spread your arms and your eyes as far as you can see and re-invent your emotional self: this is the place you want to be at.

Return to the lodge for the rest of the evening.

 Accommodation: Nyungwe Top View Hill Hotel (Cottage)

Meal Plan: Full board

Depart Nyungwe National Part to Volcanoes National Park in Ruhengeri passing through Gisenyi. The drive takes approximately 4-5 hours.

In the afternoon after checking into the lodge – time permitting, we proceed for a village visit at Iby’lwacu cultural village which is a great place to get a cultural insight into Rwandan life.

Accommodation: Five Volcanoes Boutique Hotel (Deluxe Room)

Meal Plan: Full board

With an early breakfast, drive to the park headquarters for gorilla briefing (45 minutes).  When venturing into this gigantic forest, a packed lunch, comfortable clothes, shoes and a walking stick is a must before. The time spent gorilla tracking is unpredictable, It varies from 2-8 hours before an encounter with the family of these gentle creatures. The location of each gorilla family depends on temperature, their feeding range and movement of the previous day with the trackers ahead of your tracking group. Strict guidelines will be issued at the trailhead briefing point, make sure you remember the most important ones.

Enjoy the one hour allotted, (only time allowed in the company of each gorilla family a day) watch and capture this memorable experience as they go about their day-to-day activities; the young ones playing around the old ones, feeding each other and eating foliage. The sight of these outstanding creatures is the climax of this entire safari. Later retire for an overnight at the lodge.

Accommodation: Five Volcanoes Boutique Hotel (Deluxe Room)

Meal Plan: Full board

Transfer to Uganda via the Cyanika Land border and upon arrival in Kisoro meet with the walking safari guide and drive to Lake Mutanda. You then “settle” in a dugout canoe for 2-3 hours of gentle relaxed canoeing across the lake, enjoying the beautiful panorama.

Accommodation: Nkuringo Bwindi Gorilla Lodge (Deluxe Cottage)

Meal plan: All-inclusive

After breakfast, at around 7:45 am, with packed lunch and drinking water you will be transferred to the National Park Head Quarters for the briefing on the dos and the don’ts while with the gorillas. You then continue to the forest for the start of the actual gorilla tracking.

The beauty of this rain forest is spectacular. The area offers a dramatic, steeply forested landscape and is incredibly dense, but crisscrossed by numerous animal trails allowing access to tourists. The time taken and the terrain vary as per the movements of these great primates. The thrill of spending time observing these gentle and endangered giants is an awesome, exciting experience to be long savored. Many find it to be a rare and moving opportunity. The tracking can take place at Nkuringo or at Rushaga (1 hr. drive from Nkuringo), as per the gorilla permits obtained.

Upon return, relax at the lodge and, for those who like, at 5.00 pm either stroll through the community center or drive up to the “Top of the World” - the name given to the football field, high up in the village which offers amazing views over the peaks and forests around Nkuringo. A great way to stretch your legs after the gorilla tracking and to enjoy a sundowner.

Accommodation: Nkuringo Bwindi Gorilla Lodge (Standard Cottage)

Meal Plan: All-inclusive

After a very early breakfast, drive along the Nteko Ridge till the junction of the Ivy River Trail with the forest (7 km) and then start the unforgettable hike across the forest (13km - 4-5 hours). Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park is a vast unique natural reserve - monkeys, duikers, bush pigs and some of Bwindi's world-renowned bird species plus many butterflies can be sighted. If you are very lucky you may even encounter gorillas! Once part of a much larger forest that included the Virunga Volcanoes in neighboring Rwanda, the park is nowadays an ecological island within a sea of villages and farmland, its conservation importance is immense.  The emphasis of this activity is for your walking guide to share his knowledge of the forest with you, it is not simply an A to B hike. The trail is also an important footpath for local people, particularly on market days, travelling from Nkuringo and Nteko to Buhoma, on the northern boundary of the park. There is no road through Bwindi so vehicles driving between the two locations have an incredible 170 km bone jarring journey taking 6 to 8 hours.

Upon arrival at the park headquarters in Buhoma, meet with the vehicle and departure to Queen Elizabeth National Park. The southern area of Ishasha is notably recognized for its resident ‘tree climbing’ lions that are an exceptional attraction and one of the highlights of all safaris taken within the park. The lions can be spotted hanging on branches of huge fig trees whereas the Uganda Kobs (which is the major food to these lions) graze on the plains below.

Accommodation: Katara Lodge (Cottage)

Meal Plan: Full Board

Day dedicated to game drives in Queen Elizabeth National Park and to the boat trip on the Kazinga Channel - the 36 km waterway which connects Lake George and Lake Edward and which allows special viewing of game and birds on the river banks, as the boat passes through pods of hippos. Crocodiles have only recently been seen in the Channel, they disappeared for 8,000 years after they were eliminated from Lake Edward by toxic ash from local volcanoes.

QENP is one of Uganda’s oldest parks being formed officially in 1952. The park was initially known as ‘Kazinga National Park’ before it was renamed in 1954 to commemorate a visit by Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain. The park hosts 95 species of mammals, more than any other park in Uganda, and 619 bird species, the second highest of any park in Africa –  the sixth highest of any park worldwide.

Accommodation: Katara Lodge (Cottage)

Meal Plan: Full board

Game drive through the northern sector of QENP and continuation to our lodge in Kibale via the town of Fort Portal.

Time permitting late afternoon hike to the ‘Top of the World’ to enjoy fantastic views of the Rwenzori Mountains, crater lakes, tea plantations and local villages.

The drive takes about 3 hours (180 km).

Accommodation: Turaco Treetops (Luxury cottage)

Meal Plan: Full Board

In the morning chimpanzee tracking in Kibale National Park. The density and diversity of primates in this park is the highest in the whole of Africa. The most well-known of its 13 species are the chimpanzees, our closest relative. Kibale’s 1450 chimpanzee population of this threatened primate is Uganda’s biggest. Additionally, Kibale is home to the uncommon L’Hoest’s monkey as well as East Africa’s biggest population of the endangered red colobus monkey. The black & white colobus, red tailed monkey, blue monkey, olive baboon, grey cheeked mangabey, bush baby and potto are among the other primates which ca be seen here.

Optional Extra: Afternoon excursion to the Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary ($25), a great example of a community-based approach to natural resources management which can be of good economic benefit to the local residents living within the area and to the tourism industry. This sanctuary is a paradise for bird watchers - skilled birders can spot up to 50 new species on a  bird list. At today 138 species of birds have been recognized within the sanctuary, among which the Great Blue Turaco. Bigodi    is also regularly visited by a diverse number of primate species from the nearby national park.

Hike of 10-12 km on a flat terrain.

Accommodation: Turaco Treetops (Luxury cottage)

Meal Plan: Full Board

After an early breakfast, departure to Murchison Falls National Park. Located at the northern end of the Albertine Rift Valley, where the sweeping Bunyoro escarpment tumbles into the vast palm-dotted savannah, the park is bisected by the Victoria Nile. The “mythical” river plunges here 45m from the rift valley wall thus creating the dramatic Murchison Falls, centre piece of the park and final “event” in an 80km stretch of rapids. The mighty cascade drains the last energies from the river and transforms it into a broad placid stream flowing quietly across the rift valley floor into Lake Albert. This stretch of river provides one of Uganda's most remarkable wildlife spectacles.

The drive takes about 7-8 hours (400 km)

 Accommodation: Murchison River Lodge (ensuite Thatched Cottage)

Meal Plan: Full Board

After breakfast, enjoy the game drive with a view of giraffes, elephants, lions, hartebeest and different species of birds, on the way to the morning delta boat ride to the bottom of the waterfall.  Look out for the Nile crocodile, hippos, water bucks and a variety of bird species. Upon reaching the bottom of the waterfalls you will disembark and hike your way up to the Top of the Falls where you will be rewarded with amazing views of the Nile. Also be on the lookout for different bird species. Look out for mammals like the graceful Roth child Giraffe, Jackson’s Hartebeest, Uganda Kob, Defassa Waterbuck, Buffaloes, Elephants, Warthog, Hippos, Oribi and when lucky a leopard and Lion among others. Hike up to the top of the falls and enjoy the magnificent view before retiring back to the lodge. 

Accommodation: Murchison River Lodge (ensuite Thatched Cottage)

Meal Plan: Full Board

After an early breakfast, departure to Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary for rhino tracking – located in Nakasongola it is the only place in Uganda where southern white rhinos can be tracked. In 1983 both black rhinos and northern white rhinos were declared extinct throughout Uganda, so the purpose of the NGO Rhino Fund Uganda is to return rhinos back into the country, through a program of breeding and release. The first 6 rhinos were translocated in 2005-06 (4 from Kenya and 2 from the USA) and it was 5 years before the first healthy calf was born, making him (“Obama” is the name) the first rhino born in Uganda in almost 30 years!

After lunch continuation to Entebbe where arrival is expected around 17.00. Transfer to the airport in time for the evening flight out. End of services.

The drive takes about 6 hours (390 km).

Meal Plan: Breakfast and Lunch; Dinner on own’s

Depending on your departure flight possibility to book a day-use or an overnight at a hotel or Guest House.

Kindly note that to be on the safe side we recommend booking only night flights or overnight in Entebbe.