13 Day Rwanda-Uganda Big 5 Adventure

Day 1. am Kigali pick up and Kigali City tour. Our driver guide will pick you from Kigali international airport arrival in the morning proceed to the city tour, via Ubumwe Grande Hotel in the City Centre, the starting point of your Kigali walking tour. The walking trip of Kigali, prepared by the Skyway Tours team, will introduce you to the heart of the city. Everything in our standard program should be doable but all depends on your interest and speed. After your lunch in the city you will go to the genocide memorial and you will call it a day. Dinner and overnight at Classic Hotel.

Day 2. am transfer to Nyungwe NP via Nyanza Kingdom Palace. After breakfast our guide shall take you to Nyungwe Forest National Park via Nyanza Kingdom Palace and after you will prepare for the next days guided Nature Trail Hiking, Canopy Walk, attracts many visitors from all over the world especially for the Tropical Waterfall and Primates. This is one of the biggest park in Rwanda. Dinner and overnight at Nyungwe Nziza Eco Lodge.

Day 3. am Transfer to Ruzizi via Nyungwe Np head quarters. After breakfast you will do the guided nature trail hiking canopy walk in Nyungwe Forest National Park and after you will proceed to Ruzizi. This park is a home of 75 known mammals such as the cereal cat, mongoose, Congo clawless otter and leopard to name but a few. Many tend to be shy so sigh are 25% of Africa's population, plenty of rainfall, Nyungwe is also the major catchment area in Rwanda, and supplies water to 70% of the country. Dinner and overnight at Peace guest house.

Day 4. am boat cruise -Lake Kivu. After breakfast you will enjoy the boat cruise along Lake Kivu. Lake Kivu is one of the African Great Lakes. It is situated on the border between the ( DRC) Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, and is in the Albertine Rift, the western branch of the East African Rift Valley. Lake Kivu empties into the Rusizi River, which flows southwards into Lake Tanganyika. Dinner and overnight at Peace guest house.

Day 5.am transfer to Musanze via Pfunda tea Factory. After breakfast you will drive to Musanze not more than 5 hours drive including a stopover via Pfunda tea Factory on the way. Once at the plantations, all visitors are given the same aprons, gloves and picking baskets as everyone else. Your guide will teach you about growth and lifecycle of the tea bush in Rwanda. After this, everyone gets a crash course in tea picking before setting out into the plantation to pick tea. Tea picking is not as easy and straightforward as it might seem. Tea picking in Rwanda is totally manual and does not rely on any machinery. All tea is picked by hand. Only the young top three leaves on the bush are picked together with the bud – an unexpanded leaf at the top of the shoot. This new growth on the top of the tea plant is called the flush and is what the whole tea production is based on. As Rwanda is situated on the Equator, new flush is generated and can be picked all year round. Lunch will be served at your choice of accommodation: Isunga Paradise Resort.

Day 6. Musanze province. After your morning breakfast you will do the tour to the Musanze Market and Ishut as optional although you will first visit the Diann Fossey Memorial; Diann Fossey Dian Fossey was an American primatologist and conservationist known for undertaking an extensive study of mountain gorilla groups from 1966 until her murder in 1985. She studied them daily in the mountain forests of Rwanda was invited to Africa by the great paleoanthropologist Dr. Richard Leakey to study the life of mountain gorillas in the wild. Poachers might have been considered excessive but she always had the interests of the mountain gorillas at heart. Dinner and overnight at Isange Paradise Resort.

Day7. am Musanze Caves. After breakfast you will do a tour to the Musanze Cave, which takes around two hours, followed by lunch at Migano Hotel and a visit to the Diann Fossey Memorial if it wasn't done a day before. Dian Fossey is one of the greatest and most prominent primatologists of the 20th century. She was considered an authority in all issues related to the endangered mountain gorillas from 1967 till her death in 1985. Born in 1932, Dian Fossey spent most of her life studying mountain gorillas extensively in their natural habitat and at her Karisoke Research Camp/Center located between Mount Bisoke and Karisimbi in Rwanda. She made the world know more about mountain gorillas.. Dinner and overnight at Muhabura Hotel.

Day 8. am transfer to Mgahinga. After breakfast you will pass via the Ellen DeGeneres Campus right under the Volcanoes you will get an opportunity for an Immersion into the recreation of Fossey's research center from her years fighting for the survival of mountain gorillas as their protector. You will get lunch at Migano Hotel before you cross the Uganda border while proceed to Uganda's Mount Mgahinga Volcanoes National Park for the following day's activity: you will cross the Border between Rwanda and Uganda at a place called Cyanika. Dinner and overnight at Mgahinga Gorilla Triangle.

Day 9. am gorilla trekking. .After morning breakfast you will go for the gorilla trekking at Mgahinga. it's a paved nature trail, even a pair of city sneakers can handle it. If you expect to hike in cold, wet conditions, you might prefer the warmth and protection of a sturdy boot with a waterproof membrane, but you can find waterproof trail-running shoes as well. It takes between 2-6 hours depending on where the mountain gorillas are located. Dinner and overnight at Travelers Rest.

Day 10. am Coffee Tour in Kisoro and transfer to Lake Bunyonyi. After breakfast you will do the Coffee Tour near the DRC Border between Uganda and Congo around Lake Mutanda, This activity will include the local lunch although it will depend on your favorite dish and it takes 3 hours, after that proceed to Lake Bunyonyi in Kabale District. Dinner and overnight at Kyahugye Island.

Day 11. Full day Lake Bunyonyi. After breakfast we shall have two transport options: canoe dug-out or engine boat to move around the 29 islands of Lake Bunyonyi, depending on the guest's interest. Lake Bunyonyi is a young lake believed to be formed 10,000 years ago; its process of formation was described as a result of lava flow that emerged from one of the Virunga volcanic mountains and managed to occupy Ndego river and blocked it. Also it is mentioned that girls who got pregnant before marriage, were taken to the Punishment Island “Akampene” on Lake Bunyonyi and left there to starve to death. Dinner and another night at Kyahugye Island.

Day 12. am transfer to Queen Elizabeth NP. After breakfast drive to Queen Elizabeth National Park via Kisiizi Falls where un married pregnant girls would be thrown from the top of Kisiizi Falls to their death. Kisiizi Hospital, located at the foot of Kisiizi Falls was built in 1958. The first doctor was Dr John Sharp, son of Leonard Sharp, a man who had grown up in the region and knew much of its culture. Dinner and overnight at Tembo Safari Lodge.

Day 13. am transfer to Kigali Airport. After breakfast transfer to Kigali International Airport in Rwanda for the evening flight back home. Normally this takes 6 hours drive with a stop over at the border between Rwanda and Uganda and this time we shall cross at Katuna in Kabale.

END THE TRIP.