Overview
This 3 Day Rwanda Gorilla Tour Volcanoes National Park Gorillas & Golden Monkey trekking takes you through Kigali. Ibyiwacu cultural village, where you will learn more about Rwanda culture. visiting Dian Fosseys tomb there they will explain to you how much love Dian Fossey had for Gorillas and know the life she lived and many more.
Detailed Itinerary
1: Arrival Kigali → Transfer to Volcanoes and Ibyiwacu Cultural Experience
Upon your arrival at Kigali International Airport, you will be welcomed by Fuga tours team together with your guide/driver and you will proceede to Volcanoes National Park through Kigali city. Kigali is clean, green, and sits on hills. The drive north to Musanze/Volcanoes National Park takes 2.-3 hours on smooth tarmac. You pass banana plantations, brick villages, and the air gets cooler as you climb toward the Virunga volcanoes.
Check into your lodge on the edge of Volcanoes National Park. From your veranda you’ll see the volcanoes if clouds lift. The altitude here is about 1,800m, so the air is fresh and thin.
Late afternoon we visit Ibyiwacu Cultural Village. The community lives next to Volcanoes park and works with gorilla conservation. You’ll be welcomed with traditional drumming and dance. Then you try it yourself Fuga guests always end up laughing while learning the moves.
The village elders show you how locals lived before the park: building grass huts, making fire without matches, hunting with bows. You taste banana beer and hear stories about when gorillas walked through their farms. It’s not a performance. It’s the people who protected this forest long before tourism arrived.
Dinner back at lodge, early sleep. Gorilla trekking starts at 7am briefing, so Fuga books lodges 10-15 minutes from the Kinigi park office. No driving in the dark.
Day 2: Gorilla Trekking Volcanoes and Dian Fossey Tomb Visit
Wake Up at 6am. and take early breakfast, then drive to Kinigi park office. Rangers do the briefing at 7am sharp: how to behave around gorillas, 7 meters distance, no flash, 1 hour with them once found. Then you’re split into groups of 8 and assigned a gorilla family.
Volcanoes National Park forest is thick, mossy, and steep. Rangers cut trail with machetes as you climb. You’ll hear the forest before you see gorillas — branches breaking, soft grunts, movement overhead. Then through the leaves: a massive silverback sitting and chewing bamboo. Babies tumble on the forest floor. A female looks at you with eyes that feel human, then goes back to feeding.
After a successful gorilla trekking you take your packed lunch rest for some minutes and hike to Dian Fossey’s tomb. Dian Fossey spent 18 years studying gorillas in these mountains. Her book “Gorillas in the Mist” made the world care. The hike to her research camp takes like 1 hour through forest and bamboo. You pass her old cabin, then reach her grave beside the graves of gorillas she knew by name.
Standing there, surrounded by the volcanoes she fought to protect, you understand why people call her the mother of gorilla conservation. Fuga guides carry rain jackets and walking sticks because the trail gets muddy.
Back at lodge for dinner and sleep. You’ve seen gorillas and stood at the grave of the woman who saved them. Heavy day, good day.
Day 3: Golden Monkey Trekking → Transfer Back to Kigali
Morning is lighter than gorilla day. After breakfast we drive 30 minutes to the golden monkey trailhead. Briefing at 7am, then walk into bamboo forest.
Golden monkeys only live in the Virunga volcanoes. They’re rare, fast, and bright orange. Rangers know their feeding trees. Within 20 minutes you’ll hear them leaping through bamboo above you. Then they drop lower and you see them troops of 20-30 monkeys swinging, eating bamboo shoots, playing.
You get 1 hour with them. They move faster than gorillas, so your camera works hard. But when a mother stops to groom her baby 10 meters away, the whole forest goes quiet.
After a very short time , You will drive back to the lodge for checkout and hot lunch. After lunch you will be driven back to Kigali. Stop at local craft markets in Kigali if you want souvenirs .you arrive at Kigali Airport before your flight. If your flight is next day, we drop you at a Kigali hotel instead.
End of Tour
Inclusions
- Park fees
- Gorilla Permit
- All activities
- All accommodation
- A professional driver/guide
- All transportation
- Meals
- Golden Monkey permit
Excludes
- International flights
- Additional accommodation
- Souvenirs
- Travel Insurance
- Visa Fees
- Government imposed increase of taxes and/or park fees