22 Day Rwanda Uganda Burundi Guided Motorcycle Tour

Day 01: Arrival - Kigali

You arrive at Kigali airport in the evening. You will be picked up and taken to the hotel in the city. There you will meet your Tour leader and the rest of the group.

Day 02: Kigali - Kirunda

A beautiful day straight away. We ride south out of the city and partly follow asphalt and then gravel again. We cross the border with Burundi. This takes some time. If we go quickly, we will ride a beautiful route along the lakes in Burundi. Kirunda is a small town with limited accommodation options.

Day 03: Kirunda - Gitega

In the morning we follow the main road, which has now been paved. We have lunch in the town of Ngozi. Then we alternate between unpaved paths and main roads towards Gitega, off course all through beautiful mountain areas.

Day 04: Gitega - Nyanza

We ride a beautiful off-road route through the mountains, past small villages that have not seen many foreigners yet, especially not on motorcycles. We plan for Lunch at Butare, and explore the border with Tanzania, before we head to Lake Tanganyika. We stay in a simple hotel at the Lake

Lake Tanganyika is the world’s longest freshwater lake, the second-deepest and the second-largest in volume. It is also the second-largest of the African Great Lakes (after Lake Victoria).

Day 05: Nyanza - Bujumbura

We follow a coastal route up north, enjoy the lake views, before we circle around Monge Forest reserve. Via a narrow path we arrive on the main road close to the capital. Bujumbura is a quiet, small, well-organized city, beautifully situated on the shores of Lake Tanganyika. We stay in a nice place to recover from our first week of impressions

Day 06: Bujumbura - Stay

We have time to relax at the lake, wash our clothes, explore the city and its markets, or take the bike for an optional afternoon ride.

Day 07: Bujumbura - Cyangugu

We start the engines and head back to Rwanda. From Bujumbura to the border with Rwanda we ride through the only lowland in the country. The road is straight and flat and we can cover quite a distance before the border. You will still find Congolese refugee camps here and there. The border crossing will be faster than the first because we take the motorcycles into the country of origin. After the border, we head towards Cyangugu; this is a quiet border town with Congo. We stay at the Lake Kivu shores

Day 08: Cyangugu - Karongi

We start the morning detouring through the Nyongwe National Park. Here you will find many monkey species along the road and the park is full of special birds. Then we return back to Lake Kivu, and enjoy the curved coastal road along Lake Kivu, with its beautiful views. Lake Kivu is believed to be one to five million years old and has a depth of 485 meters. Straddling the border between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kivu is one of a string of lakes lining the East African Rift Valley where the African continent is being slowly pulled apart by tectonic forces. The resulting stresses thin the Earth’s crust and trigger volcanic activity, creating hot springs below Kivu that feed hot water, carbon dioxide and methane into the lake’s bottom layers.

Day 09: Karongi – Ruhangeri

We follow the coastline of Lake Kivu all day long. This is a mountainous area and therefore often offers beautiful views. We will largely take the famous Congo-Nile route, while our support car will follow a different route. Ruhengeri is the place we are going. Sometimes the road is very bad. At the top of the lake we turn off and ride past the many volcanoes of the Volcanoes National Park of the same name. This produces spectacular images.

Day 10: Ruhengeri –Ruhija

We ride on a winding road between two lakes and then arrive at the border with Uganda. In Uganda we ride to the town of Kisoro. Depending on the time it takes to cross the border, we will make a detour around lake Muhule and follow a path of lava rock into the mountains. Then we continue on a beautiful tarmac road that curves, bends, descends and climbs along small villages, banana fields and lush green vegetation. Our last kilometres will be on a gravel road riding on the edge of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, home of an immense diversity of species but most famous for its Mountain Gorillas. There are about 459 Gorillas’ living in the forest, which makes up almost half of all the mountain gorillas in the world.

Day 11: Ruhija - stay Gorilla tracking

We will spend the entire day visiting the Gorillas. We wille arrange the necessary permits in advance. Only eight people per day are allowed to visit the three gorilla families. We can stay with the family for a maximum of one hour. A family sleeps in a different place every night. In the early morning so-called 'trackers' are sent to locate the family. The group of eight visitors, led by a guide and a few rangers, will then be guided through the dense forest to the family via GPS coordinates. How long we have to walk to get to the gorillas is therefore entirely dependent on where the family is. But this unique hour with the gorillas is worth every walk. Alternatively, you can stay relaxing at our nice hotel, walk around the forest village where we stay, or do a guided nature tour.

Day 12: Ruhija – Dave the Cave 

Today we ride into the real highlands. The unpaved roads take us across the mountain range to the hilly landscape along Lake Edward. Here begins the Queen Elisabeth National Park. A long, unpaved road runs through this park. We follow this route and almost certainly see wildlife on the way. Uganda is still the only country in Africa where you can ride through some nature parks with a motorbike. We stay at one of the many crater lakes at a local family-run Ecolodge and campsite. The owner can share stories about the community and several initiatives they work on to empower the people.

Day 13 – Dave the Cave – Lake Nkuruba

In the morning there is an option to go Chimpanzee trekking. We are close to a population of Chimpanzees not often visited by tourists. From a greater distance you can already hear the huge population of chimpanzees who are foraging high in the trees. When we get closer, they will first show us that they are the rulers of the forest by making a lot of noise and shouting. Alternatively, you can take a crater walk. We are close to the Kazinga channel, which divides Lake Edward with Lake George. We can organize a 2-hour boat ride along the shores of Queen Elizabeth Park to see fishermen, many types of birds, crocodiles, hypos, and land animals – such as buffalos, waterbucks, often Elephants, and sometimes even a lion. We will continue our way to pass the equator. On the west side of the road is the Ruwenzori mountain range, with the 4.843 meters high mount Baker. On the east side is the Kibale Forest National Park. We spend the night here in a jungle lodge. Watch out for all the monkeys surrounding our dinner table!

Day 14 - Lake Nkuruba – Mubende

Today we have an exciting riding day through the rural countryside of central Uganda. We start the morning riding along Kibale National Park, passing several crater lakes. With good weather we can see the Ruwenzori Mountains. The roads are surrounded by tea plantations and banana field. Groups of women in colourful clothes walk through the fields with big loads on their heads, whilst men are pushing their bikes with harvest loads up the mountains.

We stay overnight in Mubende, a busy trading town on the intersection of the Kampaka-Rwanda main road.

Day 15 - Mubende – Lake Mburo

Today we continue our countryside exploration. We mix gravel roads with tarmac, we pass through villages and farmland; crops vary from tea and bananas, to coffee, beans, cassava, sugarcane, and many more. fields as we curve our way to Lake Mburu Lake Mburo is a small national park surrounding the lake of the same name. This is the only park where we can officially enter with our motorbikes as there are no wild cats and elephants. Here we will spot small groups of zebras, buffalos and giraffes.

Day 16 - Lake Mburo - Lake Bunyonyi

We start the day with a nice off-road route towards Mbarara. After a short tarmac road, we will continue on a long gravel stretch towards the Tanzania border. After lunch, we take the highway towards Kabale. We will climb to above 2,000 meters! Next, it is a short off-road ride to our accommodation where we can enjoy a cold drink overlooking the lake.

Day 17  Lake Bunyonyi -Stay

We start the morning with an opportunity to either sleep in, take a canoe ride, or enjoy a village walk. We can visit one of the islands or visit the Batwa community, a Pig me tribe. There is also an option for a half-day motor tour.

Day 18 - Lake Bunyonyi - Nyagatare

Today we are going back to Rwanda. After the border, we quickly leave the highway and ride into the tea plantations region. This is an adventurous route that brings us to Nyagatare, a small provincial town.

Day 19 - Nyagatare - Akagera National Park

We head our way to the south where we ride through warm and low-lying plains. We can enjoy empty stretches of new highways with digital speed cameras checking our speed. We will still definitely enjoy some gravel roads along the Akagera National Park, a long stretch of protected area from north to south that borders Tanzania. The park includes savannah, woodland, and swamp habitats and a dozen of lakes. After practically eliminating poaching in just five years, lions and black rhinos were reintroduced between 2015 and 2018, and white rhinos were introduced in 2021 in a conservation move to help protect the species.

Day 20 - Akagera National Park

Today there is the option to do a game ride to explore the richness of the National Park, both in nature and in wildlife. There is also an option to do a half-day trip in the area on the motorbike. You can also opt to just relax with a book.

Day 21 - Akagera - Kigali

Today we head back to Kigali. We will return to the hotel where we started. We will enjoy a well-deserved cold drink at the hotel swimming pool.

Day 22 - Kigali -Departure

Today you can explore the city. For example, you could visit the genocide museum or the famous Rwanda hotel. Departure to the airport is often in the late afternoon or evening.