rwanda & kenya
gorillas and a private beach house
Seventeen nights from Rwanda's gorilla forests through Kenya's conservancies to a private house on Kilifi Creek.
- Private Safari
- From $50,570 pp
- 2 guests
- 17 nights
This eight-night route links Rwanda’s centre, south-west and north. It opens in Kigali, the capital spread across ridges and valleys, then heads to Nyungwe Forest, the country’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site and its largest montane rainforest. From there it drops to Lake Kivu, a deep rift lake on the border with the Congo, before climbing to Volcanoes National Park at the foot of the Virunga peaks and returning to Kigali.
You travel with a private driver-guide and, where it suits, by air. Days move from forest tracking on foot to time on the water and the gorilla trailheads at Kinigi. The accommodation runs from a boutique city hotel and a rainforest lodge on a tea estate to stilted lake cabins, a working organic farm and an established five-star base for the final night.
Two nights in Kigali settle you after the flight and open the trip. The city sits at the centre of Rwanda, spread across ridges and valleys, and rewards the time you give it: the textile stalls of Kimironko Market, the makers at Caplaki Craft Village, the Inema Arts Center and the Kigali Genocide Memorial at Gisozi. Hemingways Retreat Kigali, a boutique hotel of stone and teak in the leafy Kiyovu district, is a calm base a short drive from the airport.
Two nights on the edge of Nyungwe, one of the oldest and largest mountain rainforests in Africa and Rwanda's first UNESCO World Heritage Site. Mornings begin early for chimpanzee tracking, following semi-habituated groups through dense undergrowth, with black-and-white colobus moving through the upper canopy. Days fill out with guided forest walks to the Kamiranzovu marsh and the waterfalls, and the canopy walkway high above the valley floor. Nyungwe House sits on a working tea estate within walking reach of the forest.
One night on Lake Kivu, a deep rift lake on the border with the Congo, and a change of pace between two forests. This is a stop between parks rather than a base for exploring one, built around the water rather than game drives. Kayaks and canoes go out from the boathouse, boats run out to the islands, and at dusk the singing of fishermen carries across the water. Cormoran Lodge holds a wooded hillside above the lake, its timber cabins on stilts above a private beach.
Two nights at Kinigi, at the foot of the Virunga volcanoes and a short drive from the park headquarters where the gorilla treks begin. Farmhouse Rwanda is a working organic farm first, with rooms attached, and guests join the work: cow milking, egg collecting, cheese-making and beekeeping fill the days of anyone not on the day's tracking permit. Mornings open with mist lifting off the peaks, and around 95 percent of what is served is grown or harvested on site.
A final night back in Kigali on Boulevard de la Révolution, one of the city's more agreeable central streets. The Kigali Serena Hotel is an established five-star address roughly twenty minutes from the airport, built around a polished granite atrium that displays Rwandese art and craft. It does the quiet work of departure well, with attentive service and a settled, well-tended feel.
Less likely than with the gorillas, and two nights give you one proper attempt, so it pays to be clear-eyed.
Nyungwe has no official success rate and we will not invent one. The three communities tracked here, Cyamudongo, Mayebe and Gisovu, are semi-habituated, and the tracking is difficult, on forested slopes between 1,600 and 2,950 metres.
Each community takes at most eight visitors a day, you set out at about 5.30am, and your hour with the chimpanzees starts only once they are found. Of the three, Cyamudongo, a separate patch of forest, has the better reputation for sightings.
If the chimpanzees are your main reason for coming, ask us for a third night, which turns one attempt into two.
The colobus are a surer thing: one troop followed by the park is over 400 strong, and a smaller group of about 50 is tracked from Gisakura, close to Nyungwe House.
For one trek, yes.
You reach Kinigi from Lake Kivu on day six, the natural morning to trek is day seven, and you leave for Kigali on day eight.
We put success at better than 95 per cent, so one morning is normally all it takes. The odds are high because trackers are out before first light finding where each family spent the night.
What two nights do not give you is slack. If you would like a second gorilla trek, or a morning with the golden monkeys, there are two ways to make room: trek again on the morning you leave, which works because Kigali is only two and a half to three hours away, or add a third night at the farm.
Either needs deciding at the booking stage, since each family takes just eight visitors a day and a permit is tied to its date.
Harder than a country walk and easier than its reputation.
You will be walking somewhere between 2,500 and 4,000 metres, high enough for the thinner air to be felt on the climb, and the walk in can be over in 30 minutes or last beyond four hours, on muddy paths through nettles and bamboo.
We still judge this the easiest place to track mountain gorillas, and the 7am briefing at Kinigi helps: families are matched to fitness there, and it is the moment to ask for a nearer group.
Farmhouse Rwanda is a short drive from the park headquarters, so your morning starts later than it would from lodges further out. Porters wait at the trailhead and will take your daypack and help you up the steeper pitches.
The altitude may cause difficulties for some visitors. If that might be you, a conversation with your doctor should come before the booking.
Enough for what the stop is for, which is a rest and a break in the road.
Karongi lies roughly half way along the lake, so it divides the journey from Nyungwe to the volcanoes into two drives of perhaps three to four hours each, in place of one very long day on mountain roads.
One night gives you an afternoon on the water, the fishing canoes setting out at dusk, and an unhurried breakfast before you move on.
A second night makes room for more:
It is also the simplest change to make to this route. Nothing on the lake is tied to a dated permit, so a night can be added here without disturbing the chimpanzee and gorilla dates on either side.
For both primates together, June, July and August, recommended months on our pages for every stop.
It is the long dry stretch: forest paths are as firm as they get at both ends of the trip, the lake lies still, and in Nyungwe the fruiting fig trees keep the chimpanzees busy feeding.
February is the pick of the shorter dry spell, and January and September are good months for the gorillas. The catch is demand, since dry-month gorilla permits go first and need booking furthest ahead.
The green months are a real option for the right traveller. In May, October and December you trade showers and muddier paths for easier permits, quieter trails and a forest at its most vivid, and the rains bring Nyungwe's strongest birding.
The months we advise against are April and November, the wettest at every stop, plus March for the gorilla leg, which we rate challenging on the volcanoes.
Yes. The fixed points are the two tracking permits, for the chimpanzees and for the gorillas.
Both are issued for a set date and both are limited to eight visitors per group per day, so those two dates are settled before anything else and the other nights arranged to suit.
The easy changes are at the edges:
If long drives worry you, the leg to fly is the first. Kigali to Nyungwe is five to six hours by road, whereas flying to Kamembe on the scheduled service leaves only an hour or so by road, and a chartered helicopter, typically an Agusta, takes around half an hour.
If you want big game too, Akagera is a drive of two to three hours from the capital and slots in at the start.
Ed Charles, BBC Producer
Fitzroy are true specialists in accessing the wilderness. They know where to go and importantly, when to go there. Highly recommended.
rwanda & kenya
Seventeen nights from Rwanda's gorilla forests through Kenya's conservancies to a private house on Kilifi Creek.
rwanda & tanzania
Fifteen nights across Rwanda's parks and the Serengeti, from Akagera and the gorillas to the calving plains and cheetah country.
rwanda
Seven nights across Rwanda, linking Nyungwe rainforest, Lake Kivu and the gorillas of Volcanoes National Park.
rated five stars by our clients
our approach
Every journey starts with a conversation. We take the time to understand your vision before we start planning.
Whether by phone or in person, we work with you directly to shape something that is considered, personal, and expertly delivered.
Every journey starts with a conversation. We favour a direct, personal approach: understanding your vision before anything else.
Whether by phone or in person, we work with you directly to shape a journey that is both thoughtfully considered and expertly delivered.
Get in touch to start planning yours.