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Pentagon Rwanda Safari
Prepare yourself for a journey of a lifetime! This gorilla Rwanda safari starts with a complimentary tour of the city, the first colonial resident governor of Rwanda, Kigali City, is surrounded by lush hills of green and is referred to as the land of a thousand hills. This safari will be a lifetime experience of tracking mountain gorillas, so what are you waiting for? Take the chance and witness the vast wilderness that Rwanda has to offer!
Highlights
Styles
Transportation
4×4 safari Land Cruiser / minivan (up to eight passengers) with pop-up tops and seven window seats for game viewing. Groups of twelve or more people who would like to travel in one vehicle are offered 25 to 28 seat coasters that have about 16 window seats. The safari vehicles are well maintained to provide maximum level of comfort and safety.
Drivers and guides
Kubwa Five Safaris recognizes this for a fact! The success of your safari will largely depend on your driver / guide. It is because of this that Kubwa Five Safaris has a great team of carefully selected and well trained drivers / guides.
Note
Kubwa Five Safaris is a specialist in personalized, tailor-made travel and your holiday will be custom-designed to suit your requirements. They are all individuals, so why be tied to a set group tour or a set itinerary? Kubwa Five Safaris’ experienced staff can help you design your own individualized holiday. Explore at your own pace, choose your own style of accommodation, and include your own choice of sightseeing and activities.
You will stay at various accommodations of your choice. It is valid and will greatly depend on your budget. Kubwa Five Safaris can and will help you choose from the list when planning your trip. At whatever level, they will provide the very best for the guests. Kubwa Five Safaris reserves the right to substitute equivalent or superior hotels. If a hotel of an equivalent standard is not available, Kubwa Five Safaris may substitute the next best quality hotel or suggest a superior at an extra charge. There is free Wi-Fi in hotels.
Kubwa Five Safaris does not have triple rooms in most of the hotels in Rwanda. Most of the hotels have double rooms (a room with one big bed for two people or a room with two single beds occupied by two people) this means the third person will be left without a room to stay and the alternative would be to occupy the single room (a room with one bed ). Single room supplement applies for non-even (3, 5, 7) travelers. Therefore the fee is to be paid by the person occupying a room alone.
Great Seasons Hotel
Great Seasons Hotel has a modern facility. It is comfortable and conveniently located in the quiet and high-end suburb of Gacuriro / Kagugu hills, just 15 minutes drive from Kigali International Airport (KGL), 10 minutes to the city center and only five minutes drive away from the famous Rwanda Genocide Memorial Center. The hotel has standard rooms, twin rooms, junior suites, and executive suites. The executives suites have two bedrooms, a large sitting room and a fully equipped kitchenette.
Lemigo Hotel
Situated in Kigali, 300 meters from International Gorilla Conservation Program, Lemigo Hotel features rooms with air conditioning and free Wi-Fi. Units at the hotel offer mountain views and guests can enjoy access to a hot tub and a sauna. The accommodation provides free shuttle service and a 24-hour front desk for guests. The guest rooms are fitted with a flat-screen TV with satellite channels, a coffee machine, a bath or shower, free toiletries, and a desk. All rooms come with a private bathroom, and some units at the hotel have a terrace. All units at Lemigo Hotel are equipped with a seating area.
Guests at the accommodation can enjoy a buffet breakfast. There is an in-house restaurant, which specializes in Indian and Asian cuisine. Lemigo Restaurant ranks among Kigali’s best fine dining establishments and features a delightful menu prepared by executive. The accommodation features a fitness center.
Kigali Serena Hotel
The elegant Kigali Serena Hotel is perfectly situated within one of the city’s most vibrant boulevards. Here, guests are welcomed into a gleaming granite atrium, adorned with fantastic Rwandan artworks, where they are then ushered to contemporary rooms that feature air conditioning, Wi-Fi connectivity, a satellite television, and a lovely ensuite bathroom. The hotel offers a wonderful selection of dining options; from the Milima Restaurant that overlooks the sparkling swimming pool to the Sokoni Restaurant that has become a popular meeting place for both locals and travelers alike. In the evenings retreat to the hotel’s convivial lounge where two bar areas await.
Garden Place Hotel
The Garden Place Hotel is a uniquely spacious hotel offering comfortable stylish accommodation to both business and holiday travelers. It is strategically located near the Rwanda Volcanoes. The hotel offers a distinctive blend of comfort, warmth, and personalized hospitality. The luxury rooms boast a view of volcanic mountains. The Garden Place Hotel is a perfect option location for those wishing to do gorilla tracking or simply to come relax in the serenity and beauty that the Virunga Mountains of Northern Rwanda has to offer.
Mountain Gorilla View Lodge
Mountain Gorilla View Lodge is located in Kinigi in northern Rwanda and on the edge of the Volcanoes National Park, home to the endangered Mountain Gorillas. The lodge is located on the foothills of the Mount Karisimbi, one of the volcanic mountains that make up the Virunga Massif. The lodge is about 10 minutes’ drive to the main entrance of the Volcanoes National Park where gorilla trekking starts.
Mountain Gorilla View Lodge is an eco-lodge with 30 spacious chalets. To ensure the least disruption of the surrounding environment, the eco-lodge was constructed with a locally available material. Every chalet comes with a sitting area with a fireplace and has a tea / coffee making machine. The eco-lodge supports the surrounding rural community by purchasing farm-fresh produce that is served in the lodge’s restaurant.
Virunga Lodge
Virunga Lodge is the premier luxury gorilla lodge of Rwanda and one of Africa’s finest and most renowned lodges. The lodge is perched high on a ridge with stunning views of the Virunga Volcanoes and the Musanze valley to the west and Lake Bulera and Ruhondo to the east. It offers the finest views in Africa, uniquely decorated rooms in the Rwandese style, fantastic food and exceptional and personalized service by their carefully trained staff. It is the first accommodation choice for the luxury traveller tracking the endangered mountain gorilla. In 2017 Virunga Lodge has been ranked on Condé Nast Traveler’s list of the best Africa Resorts in their 30th annual Readers’ Choice Awards.
If you find brewing local beer on day two interesting enough, you can join the women in squeezing the juice out of the bananas and drink a glass of juice.
The following meals are included:
The following dietary requirement(s) are served and/or catered for:
Airport transfer included: Kigali International Airport
How to get there
Arrival by airplane
Please book your flight to arrive at Kigali International Airport (KGL). Transfer from and to this airport is included. Kubwa Five Safaris will pick you up from the airport.
Kigali International Airport (KGL) has the following flights: RwandAir, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Kenya Airways, Turkish Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines, Qatar Airways, and Coastal Aviation. You can fly internally in Rwanda by charter flights to most of the safari destinations or helicopter with Akagera Aviation.
Cancellation Policy
On your arrival, Kubwa Five Safaris’ representative with your name printed on an A4 paper will welcome you to Rwanda at Kigali International Airport (KGL) and then transfer you to a hotel of your choice, which is Great Seasons Hotel (budget), Lemigo Hotel (mid-range), or Kigali Serena Hotel (luxury) for an overnight on bed and breakfast in Kigali.
Driving distance: 15 Minutes
Activity: 0
Overnight: Great Seasons Hotel, Lemigo Hotel, or Kigali Serena Hotel
Meal plan: Bed and breakfast
After breakfast, your day starts with a complimentary tour of the city. Named in 1907 by Dr. Richard Kandt, the first colonial resident governor of Rwanda, Kigali City is surrounded by lush hills of green and is referred to as the land of a thousand hills. Get to visit interesting spots which may include the craft market, Gisozi genocide memorial site, and Kigali museum.
Depart for a two hours’ drive to Ruhengeri area the second largest town in Rwanda, with its stunning backdrop of five volcanic mountains, The Virungas. Arrive at Red Rocks Intercultural Exchange Centre for lunch then join the local brew makers to understand the chemistry about the process of brewing a local beer from bananas fruits. If you find the activity interesting enough, you can join the women in squeezing the juice out of the bananas and drink a glass of juice (optional). Understand how long juice takes to turn into alcohol after adding in sorghum floor. Enjoy the big glass of the local brew.
Among other activities, Kubwa Five Safaris also does basket weaving and with a visit to a local community that will be proud of this activity and their families supported financially. Later, drive to your hotel of your choice, which is Garden Place Hotel (budget), Mountain Gorilla View Lodge (mid-range), or Virunga Lodge (luxury) for dinner and an overnight.
Driving distance: two hours
Activities: City tour and intercultural exchange
Overnight: Garden Place Hotel, Mountain Gorilla View Lodge, or Virunga Lodge
Meal plan: Full board – lunch, dinner, bed and breakfast
This day is set out for a golden monkey tracking in the Volcanoes National Park. Entering dense stands of bamboo interspersed with open glades, you will make your way deep into golden monkey territory. Guides will lead visitors to the habitat of groups of ‘habituated’ golden monkeys, monkeys that have become accustomed to human presence. Though viewing is kept to a maximum of one hour, travelers can get an up-close look at the golden monkey in its natural habitat. Adult monkeys frolic in plain view, feeding on bamboo leaves and leaping from perch to perch. Females carry their young, completely comfortable among onlookers. Later, visit Iby’iwacu Cultural Village, a non-profit umbrella organization that aims at improving the lives of reformed poachers and communities around Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park through provision of conservation incentives, supporting community enterprise development and livelihood based projects. Return to your hotel to freshen up and have lunch then later dinner and overnight.
Driving distance: 45 minutes
Activities: One golden monkey trek
Overnight: Garden Place Hotel, Mountain Gorilla View Lodge, or Virunga Lodge
Meal Plan: Full board – lunch, dinner, bed and breakfast
After an early breakfast, you will proceed to the national park headquarters, Kinigi, to meet your guides for the day. After completing your park formalities, you will embark on a once in a lifetime experience of tracking mountain gorillas. Once you spot them, you are allowed to spend an hour watching your closest long lost cousin. This is perhaps one of the most breath-taking wildlife experiences on earth! You get so close to these awesome giant primates. You will stare at each other blankly not knowing who to break the long silence first. Tracking the gorillas through the light mountain forest on the slopes of the Virunga is a magical experience. These massive primates are extremely rare, with less than 700 living today. You will get within meters of the family, and be privileged to spend an hour amongst them. The trekking may be fairly strenuous; up to six hours or longer at a relatively high altitude.
Kubwa Five Safaris encourages, for your own enjoyment, to make sure that you are perfectly fit and healthy. They’ve had people as old as 70 years old do gorilla tracking so this should not be a problem; all you need is to ask your driver guide to request a shorter group for you if you cannot trek far. It is important to bring good hiking boots, long trousers, gloves for protection against stinging nettles, some snacks and sweets (for you, not the gorillas) as well as sufficient water as the rainforest gets hot and humid during the day. You will spend one hour with the gorillas, but it is an hour you will never forget. Return to your hotel for lunch and later dinner and overnight.
Driving distance: 45 minutes
Activities: One gorilla trek
Overnight: Garden Place Hotel, Mountain Gorilla View Lodge, or Virunga Lodge
Meal Plan: Full board – lunch, dinner, bed and breakfast
After breakfast, you will depart for a two hours’ drive to Kigali. Engage in last-minute shopping in one of the friendliest African capitals, before returning to the airport for your onward international flight back home.
