Small, compact and mountainous, Rwanda is primate paradise, including Mountain Gorillas. We offer a choice of either just doing a Rwanda Gorilla tour, or a longer Rwanda safari to Akagera and Nyungwe Forest as well as seeing the gorillas in Volcanoes National Park.
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Rwanda is small, compact and mountainous — but don’t let its size fool you. This is primate paradise. The country’s star attraction is, of course, gorilla trekking in the Volcanoes National Park – only 3 hours drive from its capital Kigal. Here you can encounter these charismatic Great Apes in their misty mountain home. With 12 habituated families, Rwanda is one of the very best places on earth to see mountain gorillas.
But gorillas are only the beginning. Rwanda offers a rich mix of adventures: tracking chimpanzees and colobus monkeys in the ancient forests of Nyungwe, game drives among lion, elephant and leopard in Akagera, and relaxation by the tranquil shores of Lake Kivu.
Plus have we mentioned how scenic the country is? With good tarred road winding through rolling terraced hillsides of coffee and tea. So you’ll soon see why Rwanda is called the Land of a Thousand Hills. (And yes, no one has actually counted them all.)
Yet Rwanda also shines as a stand-alone destination: scenic, cultural, and full of unexpected treats.
But it also makes for a great ‘stand-alone’ safari destination, especially to see a variety of primates, and general wildlife. And it's very scenic: good tar roads wind through fertile hillsides terraced with coffee-plantations. (Not for nothing is Rwanda called ‘The Land of a Thousand Hills’!)
The rare promise of seeing some of the last wild population of mountain gorillas is the lure for most Rwanda safari visitors. The charismatic Great Apes live in the high-altitude rainforest of the Volcanoes massif. Volcanoes National Park is home to over half of the estimated population of around 1000 mountain gorillas. You can easily just spend 3 or 4 nights in country to do the Gorilla trek, see the Gold Monkeys and perhaps the Dian Fossey centre.
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Unusual Fact: Rwanda’s conservation success: gorilla trekking permits directly fund park protection and community projects, making Rwanda one of Africa’s best conservation stories.
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One or two days of gorilla trekking is likely to be the highlight of your Rwanda safari. But other ‘must sees’ include the ancient high-altitude forest of Nyungwe National Park, home to chimpanzees and colobus monkeys and nearby scenic Lake Kivu. Whilst Akagera National Park has a wide variety of plains game, elephants and predators, mainly lions and leopard, plus the rare black rhino.
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Rwanda also makes logistics easy. With its compact size and direct flights from Nairobi (Kenya), the Serengeti (Tanzania), Johannesburg, and Europe, combining gorilla trekking with a Big Five safari in Tanzania, Kenya or South Africa is surprisingly seamless.
Most people combine it with Kenya or Tanzania because of the shorter flight connections. But South Africa is also a possibility with direct connecting flight.
Can I combine a Rwanda safari with Tanzania or Kenya?
Definitely and this gives you the best of both worlds in terms of gorilla/primate tracking and top notch game-viewing. You can fly directly from Serengeti National Park in Tanzania to Kigali, capital of Rwanda. There are also daily flights from Nairobi to Kigali.
You can also combine Uganda with Rwanda and do two different gorilla trekking experiences in one trip. Chat to us!
How long do I spend with the gorillas?
Gorilla trekking is a real adventure and the treks can be anything from a gentle 2-hour round trip to a strenuous 6-hour hike. The park guides try to match groups to troops according to fitness. But these are wild animals so they don’t always stay in one spot. Once you reach them, you have a magical 60 minutes in their presence. This is strictly enforced. But – from personal experience – I can say its an incredible close-up encounter where you may see babies tumble and play. Or catch the main silverbacks’s gaze as he surveys his family. When the hour is up, you return back to your starting point. For more, see our dedicated page on gorilla tracking below. Or check out our Volcanoes National Park page.
How fit do you need to be for Rwanda gorilla trekking?
You don’t need to be super-fit as they can match your fitness levels to the location of each gorilla troop so that you may not need to hike as far.  BUT the reality is that the fitter you are, the more you will enjoy the experience. As you are hiking uphill at altitude. Plus gorilla troops can move so there are no guarantees.
Best time to visit Rwanda for gorillas and chimpanzees
Simple answer is in the drier months of December to mid-March and June to September. See our detailed seasonal info on the best time for gorilla trekking & primate tracking.
Ready to meet Rwanda’s mountain gorillas face to face? Let us design your unforgettable Rwand safari.
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