6 Days Rwanda Wildlife & Golden Monkey Safari

6 Days Rwanda Wildlife & Golden Monkey Safari

No gorillas this time. Just everything else that steals your breath.

This journey is for the traveler who wants to feel Africa’s wildness without doing the classic gorilla trek. It’s a softer route—but only in name. You’ll glide through golden savannahs, cruise past hippos, sip coffee beside a lake so still it feels made for postcards, and chase cheeky golden monkeys through mountain bamboo. You’ll return home with stories. With silence. With a sudden craving for pineapples and forest air.

Upon your arrival in Kigali, you shall be picked by your Friendly Gorillas safari guide who already knows you’re not here for a checklist—you’re here to feel something. He’s calm, funny, and deeply Rwandan. By the time you’re halfway to the hotel, you’re already thinking about cancelling your return flight.

Itinerary Summary

Day 1 – Kigali City Tour & Into the Hills
Day 2 – Akagera National Park Safari
Day 3 Akagera to Lake Kivu
Day 4 – Full day Lake Kivu Safari
Day 5 – Lake Kivu to Volcanoes
Day 6 – Golden Monkey Tracking and return to Kigali & Departure

Detailed Itinerary

Day 1 – Kigali City Tour & Into the Hills

Day one kicks off in Kigali, Rwanda’s polished gem of a capital. You’ll visit the Genocide Memorial—not as a tourist stop, but as a quiet moment to understand the spirit of a country that chose healing over hatred. From there, your guide shows you Kigali’s lighter side: art galleries tucked into leafy neighborhoods, cafes where the coffee tastes like it was sung into being, and markets where everything is a riot of color. You drive east toward Akagera, and as the land flattens, the horizon stretches and the wild begins.

Day 2 – Akagera National Park Safari

By the second day, you’re in the heart of Akagera National Park. You start early. It’s golden light, lion tracks, and the slow roll of a game drive that doesn’t need narration. You pass giraffes so tall they make the trees look embarrassed. Elephants block the road and stare like bouncers. Buffalo raise their eyebrows like you owe them something. And in between, there’s quiet—real quiet. Just the sound of your breath and the hum of the land. In the afternoon, you cruise Lake Ihema. The boat glides. The hippos grunt. Birds swoop low. You realize you’re smiling for no reason. That’s what this place does.

Day 3 Akagera to Lake Kivu

On the third day, you leave the savannah and head west toward Lake Kivu. The drive is its own kind of safari—banana plantations, kids laughing on hillsides, motorbikes zipping past like a scene from a slow-motion film. You arrive at the lake, where the mood changes. Slower. Softer. The water stretches like glass, and your lodge spills down the slope like a secret. You can swim. Paddle. Nap. Or just watch the sunset throw gold across the surface while your drink sweats in your hand.

Day 4 – Full day Lake Kivu Safari

Day four is all Lake Kivu. No alarms. No pressure. Wake when your body tells you to. Explore a coffee plantation if you like—learn how beans go from cherry to cup with just the right balance of sunshine, soil, and human hands. Or take a boat ride to one of the islands, where fishermen sing to each other across the water like they’ve done for generations. Lunch is fish fresh enough to make you blink twice. The evening is yours—blanketed in peace.

Day 5 – Lake Kivu to Volcanoes

On the fifth day, the land starts climbing again. You drive north toward Volcanoes National Park. The Virunga mountains appear like something out of a children’s storybook—misty peaks hiding secrets. You check into a lodge that feels like it grew out of the hillside itself. Here, the air is cooler, the birds louder, the sky closer. You prep for golden monkey tracking in the morning, your boots ready, your heart quiet.

Day 6 – Golden Monkey Tracking and return to Kigali & Departure

Today, you will meet the Golden monkeys of volcanoes. Golden monkeys are stubborn animals, they bounce. They chatter. They flash between trees like popcorn kernels in a hot pan. You follow them through the forest, laughing at how they seem to be in on a joke you haven’t heard yet. Their eyes are sharp.

Their tails? Ridiculous. It’s a lighter trek, yes—but full of joy. After the trek, you begin your return to Kigali. You drive through Rwanda’s patchwork hills, quieter now, thoughtful. You’re dropped off at the airport or your hotel. Bags in hand. Smile still on your face.

This safari didn’t shout. It didn’t try too hard. It just showed you a different kind of magic—the kind that doesn’t need gorillas to change you. Just time, trees, and the feeling of being in the right place, at the right pace, far from everything you thought you needed.