Rwanda bird watching vacation and gorilla trek

With three national parks ranked as Important Birding Areas, and a wide range of habitats, a Rwanda bird watching vacation offers superb potential for enthusiasts. This bespoke tour is complemented by the expertise of local naturalist guides, and also includes chimpanzee and gorilla trekking.
Enjoy birdwatching in a number of prime locations around Rwanda Visit Akagera National Park, home to some 500 bird species Chimpanzee trekking and canopy walk in Nyungwe Forest National Park Birding and gorilla trekking in Volcanoes National Park Explore a range of habitats in the company of expert local guides Tour contributes to habitat restoration and conservation
Price
US $6576ToUS $11371 excluding flights
Duration
12 Days
Type
Tailor made
Reviews
More info
This pricing is based on midrange lodges.
Contact us for luxury lodging. The pricing includes permits - Gorilla, chimp & Colobus This itinerary is customisable and departs anytime of the year.
Extension Tours are available.
Make enquiry

Description of Rwanda bird watching vacation and gorilla trek

Price information

US $6576ToUS $11371 excluding flights
This pricing is based on midrange lodges.
Contact us for luxury lodging. The pricing includes permits - Gorilla, chimp & Colobus This itinerary is customisable and departs anytime of the year.
Extension Tours are available.
Make enquiry

Departure information

This trip can be tailor made throughout the year to suit your requirements

Travel guides

Bird watching
Our guide reveals some of our favorite locations around the world.
Gorilla safari
This guide attempts to capture why this is considered by many to be one of the most magnificent wildlife safaris in the world.

Reviews

2 Reviews of Rwanda bird watching vacation and gorilla trek

5 out of 5 stars
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Reviewed on 13 Sep 2024 by

1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your vacation?


Highlights included seeing the gorillas and golden monkeys, watching a pride of lions ravenously eating their kill, seeing a Shoebill, cycling through villages in Rwanda, climbing Mount Sabinyo.

2. What tips would you give other travelers booking this vacation?


Miriam, who runs the host company, is fantastic - best organised vacation ever.

3. Did you feel that your vacation benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?


Although we had the fabulous Frank as our guide and driver throughout, we also used local guides, stayed in national parks and visited a number of local
initiatives supporting villages. We met Dr Scott Kellerman who, together with his wife Carol, has built up at amazing community hospital at Bwindi.

4. Finally, how would you rate your vacation overall?


One of the best we have had - extremely well organised and a great guide/driver with incredible knowledge of birding and wildlife as well as the history, etc, of
both Uganda and Rwanda. We learnt such a lot from Frank and nothing was a problem including changing the itinerary both before and during the trip.

Reviewed on 16 Jun 2023 by

1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your vacation?


Visiting the genocide museum, seeing the mountain gorillas, meeting the local people, the weather and seeing over 200 birds.

2. What tips would you give other travelers booking this vacation?


Tip well to make a positive impact in the community. Let the tour company know if you want to add something or change something, they are very flexible.

3. Did you feel that your vacation benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?


Absolutely, I got 2-3 porters for each of the walks, tracking.

4. Finally, how would you rate your vacation overall?


Excellent. The tour operator organized a memorable trip, accomodations were great, food was awesome, guide was extremely knowledgeable, and I rated this trip/Rwanda one of my top 3 out of 46 countries.

Responsible Travel

As the pioneers of responsible tourism, we've screened this (and every) vacation so that you can travel knowing we've worked to maximise the benefits of your vacation to local people and places, and minimise any negative impacts.

Planet

1. Wildlife in Rwanda is protected by the Rwanda development board in close connection with African parks that runs Akagera national park and Nyungwe national park. For clients visit to the parks, conservation fees are paid and these are used to protect and conserve the parks. In addition to this, often include a visit to the communities adjacent to the parks to ensure they benefit directly and therefore join in conservation. There is a tea plantation experience near Nyungwe forest and gorilla guardians village adjacent to Volcanoes national park.

2. Some of the birding activities will be outside of the national parks in areas that have been conserved to encourage birding especially in the Kigali area. Birding Umusambi village in Kigali contributes to restoration of this wetland and conservation of several birds.

3. Just like all our tours, we minimize trash on our safaris by encouraging travelers to reuse different materials. We provide/ encourage travelers to carry reusable water bottles. This is because we no longer buy the small disposable water cartons but rather the bigger bottles that then ensure minimum plastic and trash on our tours. Whatever rubbish generated while on safari must be retained in the car and safely disposed of by the driver guide.

People

1. Our guides are locals in the countries we work in. We also encourage them where applicable to get a site guide in the different areas they take our guests. For the tea plantation experience and Gorilla guardians experience, our naturalist guide will be in the background as the community guides take over. This helps with spreading the tourism dollar to many more people on the value chain.

2. We respect the local cultures of the communities we visit, we are not intrusive in our approach. We ask locals to let us know what is comfortable for them as far as bringing tourists into their villages, homes etc. We together make a trail for an experience they are comfortable with. We call ahead and plan everything based on the locals/hosts preferred times and activities and if for some reason they are not able to host us after prior confirmation, we inform the clients in time and choose a different activity.

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