Luxury Rwanda Safari: An Anxious Traveler’s Guide

Why You Should Visit Rwanda

Did you know Rwanda is the cleanest country in Africa? It truly is! With a ban on plastic bags in 2008 (!!), the whole country has cleaned up. Our guide told us that keeping it pristine has become part of the culture, and it’s something the people take pride in. But that’s not the primary reason you should visit Rwanda.

No, it’s the gorillas. The highly-endangered Mountain Gorillas are only found in three countries in the world, and Rwanda is one of them. I’m going to tell you all about how to see them and why your next wildlife trip should be luxury Rwanda safari. 

What You Need to Know about Rwanda 

General

Rwanda is a country filled with happy, smiling people—but that wasn’t always the case. In 1994, Rwanda was home to one of the most violent, saddening genocides in human history. Over one million Tutsi were slaughtered in one hundred days. The people are hyper-aware of it, with many memorial sites spread throughout the country. Your tour company will schedule at least one stop on your trip. It’s truly a humbling experience, but more on that below.

Rwanda requires a visa for entry (check requirements here), but you can purchase one upon arrival in Kigali’s airport. The cost is $50 per person. 

Language

Rwandans speak many languages, but the primary one is Kinyarwanda. Most guides speak English and French, with varying degrees of skill. Swahili is also an official language!

Money

The currency in Rwanda is the Rwandan Franc (RWF). And you need a lot of cash. Tips are expected everywhere. You can pay in USD, but they are picky about the bills. They’ll ask you for a different one if it’s even a little bit torn. Otherwise, exchange money at the airport (there aren’t many other places where you’ll be going) for local currency. We brought about $1000 with us, and came home with about $300. 

Safety

Rwanda actually felt safe, even in the small, rural villages. You’ll have kids running up to and alongside your car yelling “money!” but otherwise, we didn’t face any problems. Out of all the African cities we’ve been to, Kigali felt like a place we could walk along the streets without being constantly harassed. That’s not to say you should keep your phone or other valubles in plain sight. You still need to be vigilant with your belongings.

golden monkey in Volcanoes National Park

Luxury vs Non-Luxury Safaris in Rwanda

There are different levels of safaris depending on your budget. 

Your “budget” category will get you… not much. The accommodations aren’t as nice, and any itinerary you find online might not include gorilla trekking in Rwanda. The permit price (at the time of writing) is $1500 per person per day for Rwanda. Some may take you to Uganda, where the permit is $500 per person per day, if they include that in the itinerary.

“Mid range” will get you nicer accommodation in lodges or hotels, gorilla trekking, and other activities both wildlife and non-wildlife.

“Luxury” will get you everything I’ve listed in this post. All in, we paid about $12,000 for just the tour, excluding flights and tips. Definitely our most expensive trip to date, but absolutely worth every penny.

“Luxury Plus” will open the doors for stays at $8,000 per night hotel. Yeah, my jaw hit the floor when I saw that price too. There’s also an option to take a helicopter between the two One and Only lodges, shaving about 6 hours off your travel time, if you feel so inclined. Some people just live different 🤣

So is a luxury Rwanda safari worth it? I absolutely think so. The extra level of service and amenities helped my anxiety tremendously on our trip. Our tour company informed all our hotels of my food allergies (gluten and alpha-gal together for the win), and ensured the staff knew my meals needed to be cooked separately. I had no issues at all, which was a huge relief. 

Q&A for Travelers with Anxiety 

Let’s dive into all the worries I had before our luxury Rwanda Safari so I can answer the ones you likely have too! 

Is it a Rwanda safari safe?

Yes! Especially if you are staying at a mid-range or luxury lodge. They have gates and people watching the property 24/7. And the guides while you trek with the gorillas and other primates know their body language and sounds, so they’ll keep you safe too.

How hard are the Gorilla treks?

Rwanda is a country in the mountains, often referred to as the Land of a Thousand Hills, with elevation ranges from 1,500 and 2,500 meters (4,921 to 8,202 ft). I’m going to caveat my opinion with the information that we now live in the Mountain West in the US, so we’re used to elevation of around 1,300 meters or 4,200 feet. We also hike a lot at home. A few weeks before we went, we did a 6.4 mile (10km) hike with a 2,700 foot (820 meters) elevation gain in about 4 and a half hours, which includes our lunch break at the top, to prepare for the hardest gorilla treks. 

So, in my opinion, we probably got a medium-hard difficulty hike by the tracker’s rating scale, but we both thought it was easy. The hardest part was navigating the freshly-cut jungle and the thick mud, which caused some slipping. Thankfully you get walking sticks on every hike! Total lifesavers. 

Our total drive time to get to the starting point was 90 minutes, followed by a 90 minute hike up to the gorilla family, where we spent an hour, and maybe an hour back to the car. We didn’t get back to our hotel until about 4:30PM after leaving that morning around 6:45AM. The long drive to the starting point definitely increased our total time gone.

Other people we spoke with had hikes as easy as the gorilla family was just inside the stone wall of Volcanoes National Park to as hard as a three hour trek through the jungle. Prepare for the worst, and hope for the best! I’ve got more info about the hikes below, don’t worry.

Where am I going to go to the bathroom on my Gorilla trek?

The unfortunate answer is: in the jungle. There is a bathroom at the meeting point, where you are sorted into your groups, but after that, it’s a total crapshoot. Depending on where your Gorilla family is located, you could drive to a rural village without running water to start, or just down the road from the meeting point. 

What shots/medicines do I need?

If you are going to Rwanda from a country that does not have yellow fever (i.e. from the US or Europe with no stops between), you do not need a yellow fever shot. We opted to take Malaria pills because we don’t have time for that kind of sickness, and after a tick bite that left me unable to eat red meat, I’m totally paranoid about insect-borne illnesses. 

Should I bring mosquito spray?

Yes, but I was surprised with how few bugs we encountered. We each ended up with a bite or two for the whole trip. We love these Off Wipes for travel! 

What do I need to wear?

Khaki, green, gray, and blue are all good colors. Neon, bright, stand out colors will not serve you and may scare the animals. Essentially you want to be able to blend in with your surroundings as you hike through the jungle. You also want to be covered from head to toe—literally. Good, sturdy, waterproof hiking boots are a necessity. As are gaiters for your lower legs. We didn’t have these, and thankfully since we were on a luxury Rwanda safari, our lodges provided them for us. Why do you need them? Fire ants. Those suckers BITE and are aggressive. One person on our trek didn’t have them and ended up having to take her pants off in the middle of the jungle to get them out. So yeah, bring some gaiters with you, just in case. 

What if I am a picky eater/have food allergies?

This is why a luxury Rwanda safari is worth it. You know you will receive a higher level of service, including making adjustments for things like this. Our servers would check with the kitchen on what was gluten free or offer substitutes/suggestions to accommodate me. And all the chefs knew I couldn’t have my food cooked with the same utensils as anything else thanks to our tour operator. 

The Hotels/Lodges We Stayed at on Our Luxury Rwanda Safari 

If you follow this luxury Rwanda safari itinerary exactly, you’ll stay in two different places: outside of Nyungwe National Park and outside of Volcanoes National Park

Five Volcanoes Boutique Hotel 

Rooms

The rooms at Five Volcanoes Boutique Hotel are luxurious and comfortable. If you are a side sleeper, I’d recommend asking for a few more pillows because the mattress is a bit firm (for reference we sleep on a Purple mattress at home). They’re also very clean, which I appreciated. The water pressure is also on point, which is so helpful after a day of hiking, sweating, and slipping in the muddy jungle.

Amenities

Five Volcanoes Boutique Hotel offers an onsite restaurant (and the food is delicious, albeit small portion sizes), a pool, sauna, and spa. We had a massage and it was fantastic after a long day of trekking.

Another bonus is that they provided gaiters for the hikes. I totally wasn’t expecting this, but when we returned with the muddiest of boots, they helped us take them and the gaiters off, then gave us foot massages, and then cleaned the boots and gave them back to us. Our boots were cleaner after we left than when we arrived! 10 stars all around for the service ⭐️

Nyungwe Top View Hill Hotel

Rooms

The rooms at Nyungwe Top View Hill Hotel were so spacious. It was fantastic after our cozy room in Amsterdam. Each room is essentially its own mini building, and there’s even a patio on the front and back to drink in the epic views of Lake Kivu. Unfortunately, we were there on the cusp of the rainy-dry season transition, so we had a lot of cloud coverage and didn’t get a clear view of the lake. The whole property was still breathtaking, though!

Amenities

Nyungwe Top View Hill Hotel offers an onsite restaurant and bar. The food was fantastic, and they were able to make modifications for me if I couldn’t eat from the buffet. If you go without a tour operator, they also offer ticket assistance and shuttles to the national park.

Luxury Rwanda Safari Itinerary

We used Hermosa Life as our tour operator, and we loved them. The office workers were so nice and helpful, and our guide was fantastic. Highly, highly recommend booking with them for your luxury Rwanda Safari! 

This itinerary is modified from the standard one, which we did for a few reasons: more downtime/rest time and skipping things that weren’t interesting to us. For anxious travelers, I highly recommend making these modifications. Even though this switch up ended up being slightly more expensive, not being in a different hotel every few nights was helpful (a lesson we learned from Tanzania). I’m not sure if tour companies try to pack as much as they can in to make it seem like you’re getting more bang for your buck, but honestly I don’t mind paying more to be able to have time for a massage or a nap if I’m super tired.

Day 1: Arrival

Your driver will pick you up from Kigali International Airport and take you to your hotel. If you’re coming from the US, you’re going to appreciate going straight there after so much traveling. Even though we spent a few days in Amsterdam (more on that here) before we arrived, we were still exhausted from the 9 hour flight and jetlagged from the time difference. I highly, highly recommend spending a few days in Europe to give yourself time to adjust. It was our first time doing a safari this way and was totally a game changer to our overall enjoyment of our trip!

We stayed at the Radisson Blu, which was perfect for one night.

Day 2: Drive to Nyungwe National Park (approx 5 hours drive)

Set out in the morning after a full breakfast for your first stop of the trip—-Nyungwe National Park. It’s one of the longest drives of the whole trip. Because Rwanda is a country of mountains, expect winding roads all day every day. So if you get carsick, bring your wrist bands, eye goggles, or medicine to cope with it for sure.

King’s Palace Museum

Inyambo cow, scared to Rwandans at the King’s Palace Musuem

First stop on the drive is the King’s Palace Museum. Yes, Rwanda had a king up until 1961! If you’ve been to Europe and seen the royal residences there, you’ll be shocked by how humbly he lived. His house wasn’t much bigger than the one we live in, with a small recieving room for guests, a bedroom and bathroom for himself and his mother, and a kitchen for his meals. His wine cellar was massive though, so you know, priorities 🤣

While there, you’ll also learn about how kings and queens lived during tribal times. They have built replicas of huts which you can enter and explore. The whole experience was so interesting, and provided insight into what Rwanda was like prior to colonialism. 

Murambi Genocide Memorial

We also stopped at Murambi Genocide Memorial along the way to break up our drive. While this wasn’t scheduled, I’m so glad our guide suggested it. I’m actually tearing up as I’m writing this, just thinking about what we saw there. 

A guide from the memorial will show you around what was supposed to be a techincal school but ended up becoming the gravesite of nearly 50,000 people. Many Tutsi retreated to the campus, seeking refuge from the violence, only to be surrounded by the Hutu and systematically killed. In various buildings, you’ll see the horrors of what went on. One room is filled with bullet holes from where soldiers stuck their guns in and fired. Other bear the marks of grenades. Still more hold the clothes that weren’t looted (it’s not a lot, which is awful considering how many people died).

On one side of the memorial, the former mass grave—now covered to preserve it—shows you the carelessness with which the bodies were hidden. Once the government exhumed the grave, they built another, more repsectful one, on the opposite side, as a place for families of the victims to visit. But while they were excavating, they made a bold decision to preserve some of the more decomposed corpses. After dipping the skeletons in lime, they laid out the bodies on tables in buildings at the rear of the campus. 

I definitely wasn’t expecting to see that. Our tour guide told us we had to be strong for what was next. I started sobbing the moment we entered the first room. It is HARD to look at, but that’s why they did it—as a stark, powerful reminder of what happens when we slide into extremism. 

Seriously, don’t skip this, even if—like me—you can only tolerate entering a single room. 

Day 3: Nyungwe National Park Chimpanzee Trek and Canopy Walk 

On day three of your luxury Rwanda safari, you’ll get your first glimpse of wildlife. Nyungwe National Park is home to 13 different monkey species, including chimpanzees and various colobus monkeys.

Chimpanzee Trek

Depart your hotel around 6:30AM to reach the national park and meet up with your trekking group. There are also porters for hire, which you definitely want to do. They’ll carry your backpack or bags, help you through the rough terrain in the jungle, and most importantly, help you pick off those pesky fire ants. And there are a ton of them! You end up skip-racing through a path of them and hoping none decided to hitch a ride on your shoes. 

We had one porter and tipped him $20 once we finished the hike. They work off tips alone, but since he was helping both of us we paid him double. 

Once you’ve passed all the fire ants, you’ll meet up with the trackers, who know where the chimpanzees are. They can be pretty skittish, so if you spot them on the trail ahead of you, act fast to get a good picture. They’ll race away once you get too close. On our trek, it was quite cloudy, which made the lighting really dim, and I struggled to get my camera to capture them. Honestly, the pictures my husband took on his phone are better!

The chimpanzees spend the morning eating in the trees, and you can spend about an hour watching them pick fruit and swing from branch to branch. Again with it being cloudy, photography was a bit difficult, but I tried my best. The videos I took with my camera actually turned out much better! 

Once your hour is up, you’ll trek back to the starting point, where the villagers will perform a traditional dance for you. It’s also polite to tip them for this, so make sure you bring about $100 cash for this excursion. 

Canopy Walk

After lunch at your hotel or lodge, you’ll venture back out for a canopy walk in the national park. Actually, they also opened up a zip line a few weeks before our trip, so if you want to fly through the jungle’s treetops, ask your tour operator to add that in too! 

The canopy walk consists of a short hike down to three suspension bridges. The longest is about 70 meters above ground and 160 meters from end to end. If you’ve been to Costa Rica and done the hanging bridges there, this is a piece of cake in comparison. The views are incredible if you can stop your legs shaking enough to stop and see them 🤣

Other tours in the park include one to find the colobus monkeys, if you want to add an extra day into your trip as it also departs early in the morning.

Day 4: Drive to Volcanoes National Park, Musanze (approximately 6 hours drive)

After a long day of hiking, your feet will thank you for the rest on your drive. The scenery between the two national parks is also STUNNING. You’ll drive alongside Lake Kivu most of the way. There are a few places to stop and snap some gorgeous pictures of the water and surrounding lush mountains. 

You can either stop for lunch along the way or wait until you arrive at your accomodation. We decided to have a light snack and eat at the hotel. If you need to go to the bathroom, there are places to stop. You just have to let your guide know. I will say, some of them can be a bit sketchy. One place didn’t have toilet paper and there were mosquitos everywhere inside the bathroom. The other was in a new national park’s building, which was clean and indoors. 

To entertain yourself on this drive, grab an audiobook, load up some podcasts, or if you don’t get carsick, immerse yourself in a book to make the time fly by. When you reach your hotel, eat some lunch, and take a much-deserved nap because you’ll need your energy for the next day.

Day 5: Volcanoes National Park Gorilla Trek 

The most epic day of your luxury Rwanda safari has arrived! Seriously, I think the order we did everything in was the best. We’d adjusted to the timezone by day 5, so we had more energy for the hike. If we’d done the gorillas before the chimpanzees, we would have been much more tired. Especially if you are coming from somewhere lower elevation, the extra days to acclimate will aid your lungs.

About The Hikes

Volcanoes National Park elevation ranges from 2,400 meters (7,874 feet) to 4,507 meters (14,787 feet). There are 18 of gorilla families in Rwanda, with some reserved purely for research purposes. You’ll depart from your hotel around 6:40AM to meet the guides and be sorted into your groups. The families get a maximum of 8 people per group, for maximum of one hour per day so as not to stress them out. We got to visit the Isimbi family, which has the largest silverback gorilla in the park. Muturengere was HUGE!

There are three levels of hikes—easy, medium, and hard. Your driver can request one or the other for you, but remember that these Gorillas are wild and they move as they please. So while they may start out in one location, they can very easily move to another. The trackers track them the old fashioned way, with their footprints and poop, rather than GPS, again, so as not to stress them out. 

Once you’ve been assigned a family and a guide, you’ll hop back in your car to the park entry point. They are all over the area, actually. Some are a few minutes’ drive down the road, while others, like ours, can be over an hour away. When you reach the entry point, your driver will wait for you as you go with a guide. 

These stops all have porters available too, and trust me when I say you definitely want one. Again, since we only had one bag, we had a single porter, but if you are a bit nervous about hiking, you can do one per person. Ours helped so much through the steep, slick parts of the jungle. And picked a ton of fire ants off of us so we weren’t bitten. We ended up tipping her about $40 because she was so great and our hike ended up being longer. 

What Happens When You Reach Your Gorilla Family

Once you reach your gorilla family, you must mask up. The guide will have surgical masks for you, or you can bring your own. Ever since the pandemic, they instituted the mask-wearing to protect the gorillas. Our respiratory illnesses can pass onto them, and with how endangered they are, the first objective is always to protect them. So if you wear glasses, consider contacts for the day to ensure a clear view of the family. 

I honestly wasn’t expecting to be as close to them as we were but WOW. It was incredible. You can just see the intelligence in their eyes. It was my first time with Great Apes, and it was humbling, seeing how much like us they are. 

During the briefing, the guide will tell you how to behave around them and a bit about their vocalizations. The trackers and guides know all the sounds they make and what they mean. You’ll hear the guides “talking” to the Gorillas as they move around. And they “talk” back! 

Honestly, I was so sad to leave them. Is it bad we’re already planning when we can go again?

Since our trek took so long, we didn’t make it to the cultural village as we had planned that day. So we tacked it onto the last day of our trip since our flight back to Amsterdam left at like 8PM. 

Instead, we inhaled food, showered (you’ll be gross af after), and passed out. 

Day 6: Golden Monkey Trek and River Canoe Trip

Golden Monkey Trek

Again, you have an early start, heading back to the same place you started your gorilla trek. The golden monkeys, however, hang out in the bamboo forests at the base of the volcanos, so no need to worry about another grueling hike. These groups are a bit bigger, maybe 20 people, and after your briefing, you’ll load up and convoy out to the starting location. 

Again, there are porters, but we opted not to use one this time since it was going to be an easy hike. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting to be SO close to them. But OMG it was amazing and they are ADORABLE.

Just look at their faces if you don’t believe me!

You’ll have to mask up again, and the guide will have some for you if you didn’t bring your own (I accidentally forgot mine in the room, whoops). After an hour, you have to say goodbye and return to your hotel for lunch. 

River Canoe Trip

After lunch and a short break, head out once again for a canoe trip down the Mukungwa River to look for birds. We saw so many gorgeous ones—malachite kingfishers, herons, grey crested cranes, weavers, and more. The canoe isn’t exactly conducive to camera photography (barely managed to snap a few pictures with my phone actually), so it’s a great opportunity to sit back and enjoy the moment. 

Day 7: Return to Kigali (approx 3 hours drive) 

The most depressing part of any trip is the day you have to pack up and leave, am I right? Sadly, your luxury Rwanda safari must come to an end.

Gorilla Guardians Cultural Village

If your gorilla trek took too long to visit the Gorilla Guardians cultural village, you’ll stop there first after leaving your hotel. A guide will tell you all about the village and how they had been poachers before Edwin Sabuhoro stepped in and helped them find other means of employment, namely showing traditional Rwandan life to tourists. 

There, you’ll learn how they made butter, cheese, and banana beer (which my husband loved), used plants for medicinal purposes, created beehives to harvest honey, and more. If you’re a couple on the trip, they’ll also marry you, Rwandan style. I was totally not expecting it, but it was so fun. The whole “ceremony” took longer than our actual wedding, according to the length of both videos I have 🤣. Support the village by purchasing souvenirs made by local artisans!

Diane Fossey

front entry of the Diane Fossey Gorilla Fund Musuem

Afterward, ask your driver to visit the Diane Fossey Gorilla Fund. We heard about it from some wonderful ladies we ran into several times on our trip, and we’re so glad we went! If you’ve seen or read Gorillas In The Mist, you know who Diane is. If you haven’t, she’s basically the badass who decided she was going to save the Gorillas. The musuem details her life, her work, and her death at the hands of poachers. But she didn’t die in vain. Thanks to Ellen Degeneres and countless other donors, the Diane Fossey Gorilla Fund works tirelessly to save the endangered mountain gorillas. Actually, they are the only species of Great Ape whose numbers are increasing, and it’s all thanks to the work they do. 

After your tour there, hop in the car and head toward Kigali. You’ll stop for lunch along the way with your guide. 

Kigali Genocide Memorial

Before heading to the airport, stop at the Kigali Genocide Memorial. This is where you’ll learn more of the history and details that led up to the events of the genocide in 1994. An audio guide lets you wander at your own pace while you view stories, pictures, and artefacts from before, during, and after the Rwandan genocide. There’s also a small section dedicated to other genocide victims worldwide. 

Outside, there are more mass graves where you can pay your respects, and gardens made in honor of the victims. It’s a sobering reminder of how depraved humans can be and the horrific effects of propoganda on collective psyche. 

While not the happiest note to end the trip on, it’s extremely important, especially as the effects of climate change and overpopulation become more pronounced. 

A note on Kigali International Airport—it can be super hot inside, and there’s not a lot of seating or dining options. If you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve card or Priority Pass, there’s a lounge with AC and food! If not, I think the sign said it was $40+ to enter per person, if you get desperate. 

Keep an eye on the time of your flight, though, because there’s not an announcement board or anything in there. 

Bottom Line: Is a Luxury Rwanda Gorilla Trekking Safari worth it?

YES. Start saving now because those permits for the Gorillas are #expensive. But it was one of the most incredible experiences of my life (right up there with an elephant walking up to our room on Christmas Day in South Africa). I’m going to be screaming about this luxury Rwanda safari for the foreseeable future and telling everyone they need to go. 

PS - if you have any questions that I didn’t answer above, drop them in the comments!