After morning breakfast, check out of your hotel and embark on a drive northwestwards to Volcanoes National Park, the home to the endangered mountain gorillas. The drive time is roughly 3 hours via Kigali city tour and traversing the beautiful rolling hills and communities in Rwanda. Check in to your lodge, refresh and then go for a cultural tour to the Gorilla Guardian Village, the former Iby’iwacu cultural village for a cultural experience. Meet and interact with local people who will share their traditions, norms, customs, and beliefs. Some cultural practices done there include dressing as the traditional Queen and King, preparing local foods, brewing local beers, and babysitting among others. Also, traditional dances and songs are performed by local people to entertain and welcome you to their community. Dinner and overnight at your lodge.

Today you wake up very early, enjoy a heavy breakfast at your lodge, and with a packed lunch drive to Kinigi park headquarters where registration and pre-gorilla trekking briefing take place. You are grouped into eight and allocated one gorilla family to trek. At 8:00 am, the hike into the jungle begins! Trek through the forest up and downhill searching for the endangered mountain gorillas. The actual time is not certain but ranges between 2-6 hours depending on the location of the gorillas and your hiking speed.  You may also encounter other wild animals such as golden monkeys, Forest Elephants, and colobus monkeys during your search for the gorillas.  The trek is undeniably tiresome but worth it. After meeting the gorillas you are allowed to spend an hour with them. You are reminded to keep calm and at a distance to ensure a peaceful gorilla encounter. Enjoy seeing how the silverback Gorillas keeps an eye on all his family members to ensure each one is safe. Adult female gorillas are seen nurturing babies while blackbacks and juveniles keep the entire family active and lively.  You will later drive back to Kigali for your departure flight.

End of the tour