Family self-drive holiday to Rwanda

DAY 1: Arrival in Kigali

DAY 2 : Explore Kigali

After breakfast, we recommend starting your holiday with a guided city tour of Kigali. You’ll visit the Genocide Memorial, the Kigali Museum, and other landmarks of the city. You’ll also have an opportunity to visit the local markets and restaurants to experience Rwanda’s vibrant culture and cuisine.

DAY 3 : Nyamirambo Walking Tour

Nyamirambo Women’s Center offers tourists a uniquely personal insight into the culture, history, and daily life of their community. All of the tour guides either grew up in Nyamirambo or live there, so the tours truly are a welcome into their home. Profits from the tours also go back into the Center and is used to pay seamstresses a fair wage and fund community engagement initiatives, which include free literacy classes; a library with afternoon programming for children; and periodical sewing courses, English classes, and workshops on women’s rights, health, and nutrition.

The walking tour begins at the Women’s Center with a traditional snack, a quick Kinyarwanda language lesson, and an introduction to the Center and its activities. It then weaves through Nyamirambo, one of Kigali’s oldest neighborhoods. Along the way guides lead participants into a women’s hairdressing salon where the adventurous type can get a free braid; into a family compound to pound cassava leaves; by two mosques and a lookout view over Kigali; and into a tailor shop to feel the fabrics you’ll otherwise see styled on the streets. The tour concludes with an (optional) traditional lunch made and served in the home of Aminatha, NWC’s best cook!

DAY 4 : Transfer to Akagera National Park

After breakfast, you’ll drive to Akagera National Park, located in the eastern part of Rwanda. The park is home to a variety of wildlife species, including elephants, lions, giraffes, and antelopes. You’ll take an afternoon game drive to explore the park’s wildlife.

DAY 5 :Nyungwe National Park

After breakfast ,you will transfer to  Nyungwe Forest National Park, home to a variety of primates, including chimpanzees and colobus monkeys. You’ll also take a guided nature walk to observe the park’s diverse birdlife and scenic landscapes.

Nyungwe Forest is a high-altitude, montane tropical rainforest in southern Rwanda established as a forest reserve in 1933. The conservation area consists of approximately 1015 km2. The forest is located in the Albertine Rift, a series of mountain ranges beginning at the Rwenzori Mountains in western Uganda and including eastern D.R. Congo, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, and northern Zambia. Contiguous with Kibira National Park in Burundi, Nyungwe is one of the largest montane rainforests remaining in Africa and East Africa’s largest protected high-altitude rainforest.

DAY 6 :Nyungwe Chimp Trekking and Canopy Walk

you will transfer to a section of Nyungwe Forest known as Cyamudongo, where most of Rwanda’s habituated chimpanzees are located. Here you’ll meet your local ranger a small visitor centre, and then as soon as the trackers locate the family of chimpanzees – that number about 40 individuals – you’ll be off, trekking along the paths but also possibly, scaling short sections of the steep rainforest slopes immersed in the forest. Listen carefully and you may hear the chimps before you see them literally swinging from the trees or possibly running around on the ground all around you!

The Canopy walk includes a 200m long canopy walkway that takes you high above the forest floor providing a unique platform for observing the forest.

DAY 7 :Lake Kivu

You’ll drive to Lake Kivu, one of Africa’s Great Lakes, and spend two days exploring the area. You’ll have an opportunity to relax on the beach, take a boat ride on the lake, and visit local communities to experience the unique culture of Rwanda.

DAY 8:Transfer to Volcanoes

You’ll drive to Volcanoes National Park, located in the northwestern part of the country, and spend two days exploring the park. You’ll go on a gorilla trekking experience, where you’ll get a chance to observe the mountain gorillas up close in their natural habitat. You’ll also take a guided nature walk and visit local communities to learn about their way of life.

DAY 9 :Ruhengeri

You’ll drive to Ruhengeri and spend the day exploring the area. You’ll visit the local markets, take a guided nature walk, and learn about the traditional farming methods of the local communities.

DAY 10:Akagera National Park

You’ll drive to Akagera National Park, located in the eastern part of Rwanda, and spend the  day exploring the park. You’ll take a game drive to observe the park’s wildlife, including elephants, lions, giraffes, and antelopes. You’ll also take a boat ride on Lake Ihema to observe the park’s diverse birdlife and scenic landscapes.

DAY 11:Karenge Bush Camp

Taking its name from the local Kinyarwanda word for ‘small footprint’, to stay at Karenge Bush Camp is to feel at one with nature, where you will connect with the amazing surroundings whilst leaving nothing more than a light ecological footprint.

Karenge operates from mid-Decmber to the end of March and from the start of May until the end of October (Exact dates vary year to year.)

Karenge contains six charming canvas tents and accommodates a maximum of 12 guests, making it an intimate wilderness experience. Every tent contains two cozy camp beds with mattresses and bedding, camp chairs, reed mat floors, and solar lights for reading before bed, the sounds of nature all around you.

There is no mains water, so the camp’s six tents enjoy own private, outdoor bathrooms with bucket showers, toilets and canvas basins. Warm water is provided daily.

DAY 12 :Departure

After breakfast, you’ll drive back to Kigali and return your rental car at the airport before your departure flight.