rwanda & tanzania
a farm, gorillas and the serengeti
Twelve nights from Kigali to the Virunga gorillas and on to the eastern and western plains of the Serengeti.
- Private Safari
- From $16,650 pp
- 2 guests
- 12 nights
trip highlights
- A permit grants one hour with a habituated mountain gorilla family in Volcanoes National Park, reached from a lodge sharing a 1.2km border with the park.
- Game drives in the Grumeti Reserve can leave the track to follow a leopard, with guided walks and time with lion prides that runs long after dark.
- In the private Mwiba Reserve a dedicated guide and vehicle open up guided walks, night drives and a walk with the Hadza.
- Three nights at Dongwe on Zanzibar's Michamvi Peninsula, each villa with a private plunge pool and a beach that runs for miles.
Scroll for the full itinerary
Volcanoes, the Serengeti and Zanzibar
This 15-night route links Rwanda and Tanzania. You begin in Kigali, Rwanda’s ordered hill capital, then move to Volcanoes National Park for the mountain gorillas of the Virunga peaks. Tanzania follows: the Grumeti Reserve on the western Serengeti, then the private Mwiba Reserve on its southern boundary, before three nights on the Zanzibar coast.
You travel by road and light aircraft, with private guiding through the reserves. The days hold gorilla and golden monkey trekking, game drives, guided walks and night drives on private ground, and cultural visits, closing with open time by the ocean. The lodges are the base throughout, from a boutique city hotel to granite-set suites and coral-walled villas on the beach.
Daily Itinerary Breakdown
Kigali, the Rwandan Gateway
You arrive in Kigali, Rwanda's capital, a city spread across ridges and valleys and widely regarded as the cleanest in Africa. A single night settles you before the road to gorilla country, with time for the Kigali Genocide Memorial at Gisozi or the makers at Caplaki Craft Village if the flight allows. Your base is Hemingways Retreat Kigali, a twenty-room boutique hotel of stone and teak in the leafy Kiyovu district, with a solar-heated saltwater pool and farm-to-table dining.
- Accommodation at Hemingways Retreat Kigali
Volcanoes National Park and the Gorillas
From Kigali you travel to the edge of Volcanoes National Park, where more than a third of the world's remaining mountain gorillas live across five forested Virunga peaks. Trekking begins at Kinigi Park Headquarters, groups assembling by 7am before setting out through farmed foothills into bamboo and forest; a permit grants one hour with a habituated family, and golden monkey trekking makes a worthwhile second outing. Kwitonda Lodge shares a 1.2km border with the park, the closest of any lodge, and each of its eleven suites has a private heated plunge pool and volcano views.
- Accommodation at Singita Kwitonda Lodge
Grumeti Reserve on the Western Serengeti
You cross into Tanzania and the Grumeti Reserve, a 350,000-acre private concession on the western side of the Serengeti. Days run to game drives that can leave the track to follow a leopard, guided walks in the morning and time with lion prides that stretches long after dark, hours the park itself does not permit. The western corridor puts the wildebeest migration on the doorstep between roughly June and August, and the Grumeti Fund returned critically endangered Eastern black rhino to this ground in 2019. Faru Faru Lodge curves around a waterhole on the Grumeti River, where elephants, zebra and buffalo move below the decks.
- Accommodation at Singita Faru Faru Lodge
Mwiba Reserve and the Southern Serengeti
South from Grumeti lies the Mwiba Reserve, a private concession on the southern boundary of Serengeti National Park shared with only a single sister camp. Every booking comes with a private guide and vehicle, plus guided walks and night drives the park will never permit, and springs hold elephants, giraffes and antelope through the year while rocky outcrops make cover for leopards. Cultural life is central here, with the chance to walk with the Hadza, one of Tanzania's last hunter-gatherer communities. Mwiba Lodge sets ten suites into ancient granite boulders above the Arugusinyai gorge.
- Accommodation at Mwiba Lodge
Zanzibar and the Michamvi Coast
You finish on Zanzibar, at Dongwe on the Michamvi Peninsula on Unguja's southeast coast, where the beach runs for miles and the tide pulls the water out and back across the day. The days are open, given to the Indian Ocean, the reef and the palm-fringed shore, with meals appearing wherever suits rather than to a timetable. Xanadu Villas is nine coral-walled villas built from reclaimed dhow timber, each with a private plunge pool and a dedicated butler, and much of what reaches the plate grows in the retreat's organic shamba.
- Accommodation at Xanadu Villas
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.
looking for inspiration?
rwanda & tanzania
three parks and the serengeti
Fifteen nights across Rwanda's parks and the Serengeti, from Akagera and the gorillas to the calving plains and cheetah country.
- Private Safari
- From $26,105 pp
- 2 guests
- 15 nights
rwanda, tanzania & kenya
gorillas, herds and the chyulus
Rwanda's gorillas, the northern Serengeti and Mara plains, then horseback days below Kilimanjaro in the Chyulu Hills.
- Private Safari
- From $24,290 pp
- 2 guests
- 14 nights
rated five stars by our clients
our approach
remote, exclusive
& personal
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.