Rwanda, Forest and Volcano

Six nights in two corners of Rwanda, joined by private road. Three on a working tea estate at the edge of Nyungwe National Park, for chimpanzees on foot and a private table among the tea, then three beside Volcanoes National Park for a gorilla trek, the golden monkeys and the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund's campus, where artefacts from her years of research are shown for the first time.

Length: Six nights
Pace: Two stays
Style: Rainforest, gorilla trekking, primates
Route: Nyungwe Forest to Volcanoes National Park

Nyungwe ForestThree nights
Volcanoes National ParkThree nights

Timber villas around a clearing in the forest, from above. — Photo: Nyungwe Tea Forest Resort

Days 1 to 4 · three nights

Nyungwe Forest

Met at Kigali airport and driven south-west to the forest. A morning tracking chimpanzees on foot with expert guides, the canopy walk, and a guided walk for the forest's endemic birds. An easier trek can be arranged to a troop of 350 to 400 Angolan colobus monkeys. A walk through the tea fields, a Rwandan tea ceremony or a private table out among the rows, and, if your dates fall on Umuganda, a morning with the community of Gisakura.

Where you stay

Nyungwe Tea Forest Resort

Nyungwe Tea Forest Resort stands on the Gisakura Tea Estate at the edge of Nyungwe National Park, with villas and treehouses held in the canopy and the forest at eye level. The Dining Room looks out over the tea fields, and the forest-view spa has two treatment rooms opening onto a deck.

A mountain gorilla resting among green leaves and bamboo.

Days 4 to 7 · three nights

Volcanoes National Park

A long drive north to the volcanoes. A morning trekking to a family of mountain gorillas and another with the golden monkeys, and an afternoon at the Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, which tells the story of gorilla research from Fossey's time to today. A forest hike of three to four hours each way can be arranged to the site of Fossey's Karisoke base, at about 3,000 metres between Mount Visoke and Mount Karisimbi, and the gorilla graveyard where she is buried, or a day's climb to the crater lake on Mount Bisoke. At the lodge, the Akarabo Nursery, where local basket weavers, seamstresses and stick carvers work beside the rows of young trees, then three hours by road to Kigali for the flight home.

Where you stay

Singita Kwitonda Lodge

Kwitonda lies alongside Volcanoes National Park, a short drive from the park headquarters where gorilla and golden monkey treks begin, with the volcanoes always in view. Each room has a heated plunge pool and space for treatments, and the Akarabo Nursery and a conservation lounge sit at the heart of the lodge.

Arranged on request

The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund's campus

The Ellen DeGeneres Campus near the park tells the story of mountain gorilla research from Dian Fossey's time to today, with artefacts from her work never shown before.

Cooking with Singita's graduates

On special request and subject to availability, a visit to the Singita Community Culinary School in Musanze and a cooking class with its graduates, for a donation to the school.

A table among the tea

On the Gisakura estate, a guided walk through the tea fields, a Rwandan tea ceremony, or a private table set out among the rows.

The Akarabo Nursery

Kwitonda's tree nursery, chef's garden and teahouse, where local basket weavers, seamstresses and stick carvers work.

Karisoke and the gorilla graveyard

A forest hike of three to four hours each way to the site of Dian Fossey's Karisoke base, at about 3,000 metres between Mount Visoke and Mount Karisimbi, and the gorilla graveyard where Fossey is buried.

Subject to availability.

Ways to make it yours

A second gorilla trek on another day.
Two or three nights in Akagera National Park for drives, boats and the lake.
A day in Kigali before flying home.

This is a sample. The hotels, the pace and the order are where we start, not where we finish: every journey is designed around the people taking it.

Made around you

Most travel is bought. This is designed.

Before anything is booked, we talk: who is travelling, how you like to spend a morning, and the hotel preferences below the obvious, from the kind of bath you like to the time you wake and how much daylight you need in a room. You see options where options matter and clean recommendations where they don't.

The same person remains your point of contact from the first reply to the trip after next. No handovers. No team.