Rwanda and Uganda Full Experience

‍Day1:

Welcome to the East African Region , your guide will be waiting with his bus in Rwanda’s capital Kigali**, ready to be at your service in the wee hours of the following day

Day2:

Following your 0:50 am arrival at the airport, Sula will await you with a note “RAVBAR” in his hands and take you to the hotel just some minutes away.

Centric Hotel will be your budget accommodation solution for the night, and your breakfast place. Click for more information about the hotel.

At 8:30am the bus will collect you and take you to enjoy sweeping view of Kigali from the rooftop of Ubumwe Grande Hotel in the city centre (estimated total time including the views: 45 min). Our local guide Enock (+250789664395) will travel with you to Ubumwe and stay with you until Day 5.

You will briefly walk through the Kigali city centre, go past “Hotel Rwanda” to the City Hall exhibition about the future of Kigali and through the Car Free Zone to the vegetable and fruit market. From here, the bus will take you to amputee footballers for a 10:30am session (expected time: 45 minutes), and finally to the genocide memorial where lunch (not included in our package) will be served at 12:30pm.

By 1pm you will be in the bus again, on the way to the outskirts of Nyungwe Forest National Park (4h drive). There will be one activity on the way

At Nyanza, a replica traditional royal palace and the actual colonial-era home of the king will throw you deep into Rwanda’s history and cultural heritage. Click for the images and a podcast.

Nyungwe Nziza Ecolodge is the best place on the eastern side of the national park, with sweeping views of the rainforest. Bed & breakfast is already paid for, while your dinner solution should be chosen on the way, based on the menu options provided (not included in our package). Click for more information about the lodge (Booking.com).

Day3:

You will depart Nziza by 8am and it will take you up to an hour on a beautiful tarmac road through the national park to get to the Nyungwe’s canopy walk.

The walkway is 160 metres long, and high above the forest you will be grateful if no wind shakes you up — the vistas are incredible though! After you are done (in about 2 hours) we recommend lunch at the visitors’ centre as later options will be limited (not included in our package).

It will take up to 5 hours to reach Kinunu, a well-known overnight on the Congo Nile Trail (CNT). The last part of the road is rough. Click for more information about CNT.

Kinunu Guesthouse will be your B&B accommodation for the night. There is a coffee washing station nearby, and coffee processing machinery. It’s important you order your dinner in advance (not included in our package); Enock will help. Click for more information about the guesthouse.

Day4:

The only job for the bus today is to help get your bikes to the starting point

You will cycle from Kinunu to Cyimbiri straight on the shores of Lake Kivu. This is a couple of hours of a modest effort, brilliant vistas and tasty local lunch with the famous Mama Nelly. From Cyimbiri to Rubavu/Gisenyi you will be taken by motorboat, adding to the adventure. Start time: 9:30am. Lunch (included in the tour price): 12:00pm. Beach hour: 1:30-2:30pm. Boat to Paradise Malahide on Gisenyi’s Rubona peninsula: 2:30-4:30pm.

Paradise Malahide on the Rubona peninsula close to the city of Gisenyi will delight you with its lake location and excellent cuisine. Dinner (not included in our package) will be served here at 5pm, based on order placed earlier in the day through Leverien. We are expecting singing fishermen to pass by at about 5:30pm.

At 7pm the bus will take everyone to the overnight location.

You will be accommodated at Hakuna Matata, some 10 minutes away from Paradise Malahide.

Day5:

On the way to Uganda there will be some interesting locations awaiting you:

At 7:30am you will first drive to Gisenyi to have a stroll on the public beach and see where DR Congo starts. (The border cities of Gisenyi and Goma are connected into a transboundary urban zone.) We are planning to leave Gisenyi by 8:30am.

Less than an hour later you shall encounter Imbabazi, a Center For Hope, on a rural road between Gisenyi and Musanze/ Ruhengeri. This former orphanage is a fantastic location rich in history presented at a local museum.

While Imbabazi already had a strong connection to the legendary Dian Fossey, the real immersion into the life of this protector of mountain gorillas will happen at the Ellen DeGeneres Campus some 2 hours later. It includes a recreation of Fossey’s research centre and artefacts from her years in the heart of Africa, and a cafeteria.

You will meet Miha, the man to blame for all the tour hiccups, at his home in Musanze some 30 minutes after the Ellen Campus. Miha’s team will prepare lunch for you and entertain you will all kinds of stories.

You will cross into Uganda at the extremely relaxed low-traffic border post called Cyanika, 40 minutes away from Musanze.

About 3 hours later — and after a number of kilometres of bad roads — you will reach Rushaga Gorilla Lodge, your B&B solution before gorilla tracking

Day6:

The bus will give you a push to the Rushaga gate of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.

The tour’s top highlight: gorilla tracking! You will begin the experience at 7:30am, spend an hour with one of the habituated gorilla families, and some hours (well, can be a lot of hours) hiking to and fro. Lunch and dinner not included in our package.

Your second night at Rushaga Gorilla Lodge.

Day7:

Today Sula will drive you to Lake Bunyonyi about two hours away, with one special stopover

Batwa Today is probably the most respectful way to pay a visit to the Batwa “Pygmies”, the ancient peoples of our region. With the help of Owen (+256779659537) our partners will show you the boundary of their ancestral home Echuya and their current settlement with spectacular vistas of Bunyonyi.

There is nothing better at Bunyonyi than BirdNest — among other things, this is the number one kitchen of the area … Bed and breakfast, but it’s recommended you order your dinner here too (not included in our package). Click for more information about the resort.

Day 8,9:

Two days of rest for the driver and the vehicle.

Dugout canoes, spectacular views, the hospitality of Mama Bena and plentiful cultural experiences — this should be fun! You will spend one night camping and have all your meals during the two days included in the itinerary. You will be guided by Owen again. Click for the Mama Bena’s Bonus canoe trek details.

Your second BirdNest night.

Day 10:

Time to make it to Queen Elizabeth National Park (4-5h) … (Lunch not included in our package.)

Soon after reaching Enjojo Lodge, you will proceed to the southern sector of the park, Ishasha, attempting to find the rare tree-climbing lions and marvelling at the landscapes in the evening light.

Enjojo Lodge has many accommodation options, and you will experience a mixture of them … Dinner, bed and breakfast. Click for more information about the lodge.

Day 11:

You will be driven to the much more widely known northern side of the national park, a 4-hour ride. (Lunch not included in our package.)

The biggest attraction of the park’s north is the so-called launch cruise, a boat safari. It allows you to come very close to a variety of animals drinking the water of Kazinga channel that connects Lakes Edward and George.

At Lake Katwe you will get an opportunity to witness the traditional way of producing salt. Women are not allowed to enter the lake to harvest while men have to wear condoms to protect their private parts! (If it proves to work better for Sula and Klavdij approves, a closer salt lake can be chosen.)

Kazinga Wilderness Safari Camp is your second Queen Elizabeth NP lodge — the package again includes dinner and breakfast. Click for more information about the lodge.

Day 12:

Our special treat at the end of your savannah time is a game drive in two open jeeps. You shall look for lions one more time and see some other attractions of the park. (Lunch and dinner not included in our package.)

A couple of hours later you will proceed — time permitting through the explosion crater area — past the equator sign towards the edge of Kibale National Park (up to 5 hours from the equator).

One of the most successful female bird guides of Uganda runs a guesthouse called Kibale Forest Lodge. To be honest, it isn’t exactly in the forest, but it is green, cozy and handy (B&B). Click for more information about the lodge.

Day 13:

Welcome to the second primate highlight — chimp tracking in Kibale! (KAFRED activities are suggested for those who don’t care about chimpanzees.)

It’s time to make it to the airport at Entebbe … (Lunch and dinner not included in our package.)

At the cosy ViaVia in Entebbe you unfortunately won’t see a lot more than your bed …Click for more information about this “travellers cafe”.

Day 14:

Sula will deliver you to the airport by 3am (the flight is at 5am) and hug you goodbye 

(Note: Activities may vary depending on wildlife sightings and weather conditions.)