approximate price per person sharing (31 December 2010)
Nyungwe extends almost 1 000km² across the majestic hills of east Rwanda. It has the largest area of montane forest remaining in East or Central Africa, serving as an ancient centre of unparalleled biodiversity and natural wonders.
There are a variety of 13 primate species, representing 20 percent of African primate species. Black and white Colobus monkeys are found in groups of up to 400, almost 10 times the maximum group size recorded anywhere else. In addition, there are more than 240 tree species and more than 140 orchid species in Nyungwe. To top it off, you will find 275 bird species, 24 of them endemic to the Central African Highlands.
Travelling time from Kigali is four to five hours. Helicopter flights can be arranged. Access to Nyungwe National Park is subject to the purchase of permits which can be arranged prior to arrival or upon arrival at the lodge.
Situated in north-western Rwanda, Volcanoes National Park is one of the country’s most popular tourist destinations. Since reopening in 1999, it hosts a growing number of visitors each day, thanks in large part to its renown as the world’s most popular mountain gorilla sanctuary.
With fewer than 700 gorillas left, tourists can catch a rare glimpse of them here. Beyond gorillas, the park also offers spectacular scenery and diverse vegetation. It is part of the Virunga Conservation Area and covers more than 125km², including five extinct volcanoes: Muhabura, Sabyinyo, Gahinga, Karisimbi and Bisoke. The latter two can be climbed during one- or two-day treks.
Butare is a quiet university town on the way to Nyungwe National Park. It houses an important historical site, the National Museum. Rwanda is a country with deeply embedded cultures and traditions, and a rich history. A trip to the National Museum will bring you closer to understanding the people of Rwanda.
7 nights
Day 1: Arrival in Kigali
Fly to Kigali, the lively capital of Rwanda. At the airport our English-speaking agents will meet and assist you with formalities. Transfer to a hotel of your choice (B&B).
Day 2: Nyamirambo and Kinigi
Off to Nyamirambo, the bustling multi-cultural commercial suburb of Kigali. Visit the Nyamirambo Women's Centre (NWC). The women will guide you through their home area. Among others, you will experience the Muslim quarter with its Arab influences, the market, the West African tailors, the hair salons, the recording studio with its local rap music, the butcher, the health centre and the primary school.
Your hosts will also invite you to one of their homes, where you will learn how to cook a Rwandan meal and share lunch over intriguing conversations.
This experience is combined with a guided driving tour of Kigali that will introduce you to the history of Rwanda’s capital and largest city, as well as its landmarks. Scheduled stops will include:
Transfer to Kinigi (2½ hours away). There will be a preparatory presentation on gorilla trekking and conservation in the Volcanoes National Park. Overnight at a hotel of your choice (Full board).
Day 3: Volcanoes National Park and Gisenyi
Deep in the heart of Rwanda’s thousand hills exists a creature so precious and rare that tourists the world over come each year to catch a glimpse. It is the critically endangered mountain gorilla, and more than half of the almost 700 mountain gorillas remaining in the world make their home in Rwanda’s stunning Volcanoes National Park.
These highly sociable primates sleep in trees but spend most of their waking hours on the ground, moving less than 1km a day and remaining easily accessible. Let an experienced gorilla tracker guide you through the towering Hagenia and Bamboo trees, the weaving vines and the flowering Lobelias of the park to their tiny oasis, where you will spend one hour face to face with man’s closest living relatives in their remarkable natural habitat.
Visitors can follow one of the park’s seven habituated gorilla families as they go about their daily lives in troops of anywhere between eight and 39. Watch a mother tenderly feed her baby while the younger gorillas frolic in the bushes around her. Feel the cautious stare of a 200kg silverback on you as he keeps a protective eye overhead. Witness a youngster put on a chest-beating display to playfully signal his dominance.
During your hour with the gorillas, you will come to experience the inspiration for the film Gorillas in the Mist and understand why the late American primatologist, Dian Fossey, made it her life’s mission to live with, study and protect these gentle giants.
A trek to the heart of Volcanoes National Park could bring you into contact with golden monkeys, buffalo, bush duiker and a vast array of bird species. For conservation reasons, each gorilla family can only be seen by one group of eight tourists per day. This is a once-in-a-lifetime wildlife experience that should not be missed.
Lunch at the lodge. Transfer to Gisenyi and check in. Enjoy some leisure time.
Dinner and overnight at a hotel of your choice. (Full board)
Day 4: Gisenyi and Nyungwe
The Kivu Coffee Tour combines an educational experience, where visitors learn about the coffee-growing process, with the stunning scenery of Lake Kivu. Its shores are particularly fertile and host a range of plantations where some of the best coffee in the world is grown.
In early 2008, we started to collaborate with Ingoboka, a local co-operative of coffee farming families. Ingoboka has a total of 350 members, all of whom own small coffee farms on or close to the shores of the lake.
We have trained some of their members to provide a personal introduction to coffee growing that will teach you everything you need to know about this complicated process, from crop to cup.
On Nyamirundi Island, you will visit the plantation of one of Ingoboka’s member families. Each coffee plant is hand-raised and cared for by the farmer. Combined with the volcanic soils of the area, this special treatment gives the coffee a full-bodied yet non-acidic flavour.
From the island, you will continue your journey to the nearby Gashishi Washing Station on the shores of the lake. This is where coffee is processed. During the main coffee season (March to June), you can witness over 700 men and women working at the station day and night. The washing station is also a fascinating place in other seasons.
The process is complicated and involves over 20 different steps. You will get a full explanation of this coffee processing, from picking to washing and later roasting, and even have the chance to pick a few cherries yourself. After an opportunity to sample the co-operative’s coffee, you will return to Gisenyi.
Transfer by boat to Kibuye and enjoy lunch at Moriah Hill. Then transfer by car to Nyungwe National Park.
Dinner and overnight at Nyungwe Forest Lodge. (Full board)
Day 5: Nyungwe National Park
There’s a Chimpanzee trek, followed by lunch at the lodge.
Nyungwe National Park is home to 13 different species of primates, one of the most sought-after being the chimpanzee. Although there may be just 500 chimpanzees in this park, most of what the world knows of these primates has come from research conducted in East Africa. Hence, tourists from around the world come to Nyungwe to try and catch a glimpse of this primate.
A trained guide will take you through the flourishing rainforest as you track down these nimble mammals. Chimpanzee tracking is not easy since the terrain and vast bushes makes spotting them difficult.
Chimpanzees live in communities of up to 100 individuals, the composition of which is constantly changing. However, the chimpanzees at Nyungwe are becoming increasingly habituated and tourists now have a 50 percent chance of seeing them.
In fact, you will hear them before seeing them. As their calls get increasingly loud, you will feel the excitement of knowing you are hot on their trail.
Be one of the few to spot these primates in their natural habitat. Seize the rare opportunity to watch them feed, play and swing through the branches of the bush canopy as they go about their daily lives.
After spending the half-day it takes to track chimpanzees, you will understand what kept the world-famous primatologist, Dr Jane Goodall, fascinated by them and studying them for over 45 years.
Dinner and overnight at Nyungwe Forest Lodge. (Full board)
Day 6: Nyungwe National Park, Butare and Kigali
Enjoy a guided nature walk to discover more about the exceptional nature of the park (including various further primate species). This will be followed by lunch at the lodge.
Transfer by car to Butare, where you can visit the National Museum of Butare. Butare is a quiet university town that most visitors only drive through to get to Nyungwe National Park. However, in doing so, they miss out on the National Museum, one of Rwanda’s most important historical sites.
Rwanda is a country with deeply embedded cultures and traditions, and a rich history. A trip to the National Museum in Butare will bring you closer to understanding the people of Rwanda.
While many of Rwanda’s tourist attractions focus on raising awareness of the 1994 genocide, this museum takes visitors further back into pre-colonial times to help them better understand the development of Rwanda as a modern African state.
The museum has seven main exhibitions. The first takes you through the basic geography of the country, including climate, vegetation and wildlife. From there, you will learn about different food sources such as bee keeping, fishing, gathering, hunting and trapping, as well as various types of habitation.
You will then discover different types of handicrafts, including pottery, wood carving and weaving. You’ll also learn more about the traditional costume and jewellery of Rwanda.
The final exhibition takes you on a detailed tour through prehistoric Rwanda, and enables you to see many of the artefacts and metal works used at the time.
By the end of your visit, you will have a better understanding of the Rwandan people, their culture, history and current state of development.
Transfer to Kigali and dinner at the Khana Khazana. Overnight at a hotel of your choice. (Full board).
Day 7: Millennium Village
Located in Mayange, 40km south of Kigali in Bugesera district, Rwanda’s Millennium Village is part of an innovative project designed to achieve the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals by 2015.
The UN Millennium Villages Project (MVP) is probably the most famous and comprehensive development initiative of our time. Spread over 10 African countries, it is designed to achieve the UN’s Millennium Development Goals and lift some of the world’s poorest areas out of extreme poverty within five years.
In Rwanda, the MVP started in December 2005 in Bugesera district, a desperately poor and dry region that was also severely affected by the genocide. Our Millennium Village Tour educates visitors about the challenges that so many African communities face, and teaches a variety of interventions that have proven to be successful in the fight against poverty.
The tour touches on topics such as sustainable agriculture, education, health care, infrastructure, micro-enterprise development as well as peace building and reconciliation, while offering opportunities to experience aspects of the local culture, including food, language and traditions, in an authentic way.
Guided in part by local inhabitants, the tour offers personal insights into the lives of the villagers while ensuring that the community and the individuals involved in tourism benefit from this initiative.
As the writer Maya Angelou once said: “Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.” With friendship, we may even become closer partners for progress.
Overnight at a hotel of your choice (dinner, bed and breakfast).
Day 8: Flight out
Optional excursions in the Kigali area (see below). Transfer to the airport and flight out.
Prices include
International flights from Johannesburg, all accommodation and meals as indicated, all excursions with car and driver, guides in the reserves, 1 Gorilla permit and all airport-hotel transfers.
Prices exclude
Meals not indicated, drinks including bottled water, tips and personal expenses, travel insurance, Internet access, airport taxes and visa fees.
Nyungwe Forest Lodge special offer: valid until 31st December 2010.
These terms and conditions will apply to your holiday and the arrangements which you make. Please read them carefully as you will be bound by them.
By making a booking, the client confirms that all of the people named in the booking made by him/her have read these conditions, and have agreed to be bound by them and all the other terms of the contract, and that he/she has the authority to accept these terms and conditions on their behalf.
1. Regardless of the place of execution, performance or domicile of the parties, this contract, together with all modifications and amendments, shall be governed by, construed under and in accordance with the laws of the Republic of South Africa.
2. All packages and tours are sold subject to our standard terms and conditions. Reservations must be signed on a booking form. If the services of a courier are employed during this process, the costs shall be borne by the client.
3. A 20% deposit is payable on confirmation, unless otherwise stated on the booking form. The balance must be paid 6 weeks prior to your departure. No contract is made between the client and Unusual Destinations until the deposit or, where required, the full price has been paid, whether or not a booking confirmation has been issued by Unusual Destinations or one of its agents. Failure by the client to pay any sum by due date shall entitle Unusual Destinations to cancel the booking, and to charge a cancellation fee as set out below (see point 17 below).
4. Quotations are based on the exchange rates valid at the time that they are sent to the client. Unusual Destinations reserves the right to increase any prices where currency fluctuations occur, until such time as they have been paid in full. It is the client’s responsibility to check on possible price increases prior to full payment. Airfares are subject to prices quoted by airlines, and Unusual Destinations can therefore not accept responsibility for unexpected fare increases.
5. It is the clients’ responsibility to obtain travel documents including a valid passport and air tickets. It is also the clients’ responsibility to contact the airlines at least 72 hours prior to departure to reconfirm all flights. All clients who, at the time of departure, are under the age of 18 years, must be accompanied by a client aged 21 or over who will at all times during the tour or trip be responsible for their welfare, conduct and behaviour. Clients are expected at all times to conduct themselves in an appropriate manner with due regard to the health, safety, comfort, enjoyment and general well- being of all the other people who may be on the tour or trip, or other people who may be staying in the relevant hotels. If it appears that the client’s conduct or behaviour is such as to be a breach of this requirement, or is likely to endanger the client’s own health or safety, or that of others, or where their actions or conduct impedes the operation of the trip, then Unusual Destinations reserves the right to refuse the further participation of any such client. No refund will be considered in respect of any client whose participation in the trip is terminated for these reasons. Further, where the client is repatriated pursuant to this clause at Unusual Destinations’ expense, or where Unusual Destinations is put to any additional expense as a result of the client’s conduct, then Unusual Destinations shall have the right to recover such costs upon demand. Under no circumstances, at any time, shall Unusual Destinations have any liability for the denial of boarding or expulsion from an aeroplane by any airline contracted in terms of this contract, such denial being at the sole discretion of the airline concerned.
6. While Unusual Destinations will do its best not to cancel or make any material alteration to the itinerary after a booking confirmation has been issued, it shall nonetheless be entitled at any time prior to departure to cancel the contract between the parties, or to change and/or curtail the scheduled itinerary where this becomes reasonably necessary on operational, commercial or other grounds. Unusual Destinations will however inform the client of any such cancellation or change of itinerary as soon as possible. Where such a change of itinerary amounts to a material alteration, the client shall be entitled to cancel the booking within 3 days of being advised of the itinerary change without any cancellation fee being applicable.
7. Although Unusual Destinations attempts to make all itineraries as accurate as possible at the time of printing, they are to be considered an approximate indication of the schedule and scope of the tour rather than an inflexible chronicle of events. The itinerary may be subject to change due to circumstances beyond the control of Unusual Destinations, whether as a result of weather, government restrictions, transportation problems, road conditions, acts of God, terrorist threats, natural disasters, fires or other circumstances. Unusual Destinations however undertakes to do its best to maintain the itinerary, and will not unreasonably change it. However any such changes shall not constitute a material alteration of the contract, and Unusual Destinations shall in consequence have no liability to the client in respect thereof.
8. Unusual Destinations will not be responsible for any additional costs occasioned by changes in the itinerary or flight schedules, such as additional flights, hotel nights or meals not included in the scheduled itinerary. Payment for such additional services will be required at the time when the amended itinerary is provided to the client. Further, any expenses incurred owing to unexpected extensions to packages, trips or tours caused by flight delays, bad weather, strikes or any other reason beyond Unusual Destinations’ control will be paid by the client upon demand.
9. Where the client is making a booking with a tour, the rates quoted are based upon group participation, and no partial refunds will be given for unused trip arrangements or sightseeing tours for any reason whatsoever.
10. Unusual Destinations, in order to provide the tour as set out in the brochure, group/individual tour or individual package, quotation and/or booking, is obliged to make arrangements with local operators who may themselves engage the services of local suppliers. Unusual Destinations endeavours at all times to appoint reputable and competent local operators to comply with the requirements and standards expected by the client. However, although these local operators are appointed by Unusual Destinations, they are acting as an agent on behalf of the client directly, and a direct contract is therefore entered into between the client and the local operator or service provider, and the terms and conditions of the local operator, whether or not contained in this brochure, will apply to arrangements made by them. Unusual Destinations makes the travel arrangements on behalf of the client on the express condition that it is not liable for any inconvenience, irregularity or expense occasioned by the failure of the local operator to comply with the itinerary provided, whether in relation to travel arrangements, airline scheduling, airline changes, cancelled flights, missed flight connections or any other factor not directly under Unusual Destinations’ control. In the event however that Unusual Destinations is, in spite of the provisions of this clause, found to be liable to the client, then its liability will be limited to the sum paid by the client in respect of the travel arrangement(s) in question.
11. As Unusual Destinations acts only as an agent for local operators, it accepts no liability for any loss or damages which clients may suffer as a result of the failure by such local operators to fulfil their obligations whether in relation to travel flights, land arrangements, accommodation or otherwise. These local operators are independent suppliers who are not affiliated with Unusual Destinations in any way. Further, Unusual Destinations shall not be liable for any loss, damage, delay, accident or inconvenience caused to any person, their property or luggage under any circumstances.
12. Unusual Destinations will not be liable for bodily injury to, or death of any client, or damage to their property occasioned through the conduct or default of any company or local operator or individual engaged in providing these services or for any reason, including, but not limited to, acts of God, quarantine, strikes, industrial action, medical emergencies, civil disturbances, theft, detention, annoyance, natural or nuclear disaster, fire, closure of ports, changes in government regulations, terrorism, war, medical emergencies or failure of the conveyance to depart or arrive as scheduled.
13. Unusual Destinations does not provide medical services during the trip or tour. However, wherever possible, Unusual Destinations will offer general assistance to any client who suffers illness, personal injury or death, whether or not arising from an activity forming part of the trip or tour, and whether or not the result of fault by any party.
14. Clients should bring with an ample supply of any prescription medicines required, and a first aid kit.
15. Any cost or expense which is reasonably incurred by Unusual Destinations for or on behalf of the client in respect of any form of medical, dental or similar treatment, hotel, transportation, repatriation, or any other expenses of whatever nature, shall be repayable by the client to Unusual Destinations on demand, whether or not such sum is covered by the client’s travel insurance.
16. Travel insurance (medical and personal accident) is compulsory. However, clients are strongly recommended to take out insurance to cover the loss of their luggage, and the deposit or part of the tour fee through cancellation.
17. Any changes and/or cancellations will incur penalties; in many cases air tickets are totally non-refundable. All cancellations have to be in writing. Unless otherwise stipulated, the following fees shall be charged by Unusual Destinations if a client cancels a reservation:
More than 6 weeks prior to departure:
10% of price
4 – 6 weeks prior to departure:
50% of price
2 – 4 weeks prior to departure:
75% of price
Less than 2 weeks prior to departure:
100% of price
18. These terms and conditions, together with any other clauses set out on the application form, defines the responsibility of Unusual Destinations with respect to all of the trips/tours/arrangements made by them. Further, Unusual Destinations shall not be liable for the failure of performance or improper performance which is wholly attributable to any or all of the following:
a) The fault of the client;
b) The unforeseeable or unavoidable act of a third party unconnected with the provision of any services to be provided under this contract;
c) Unusual or unforeseeable circumstances beyond the control of Unusual Destinations, the consequences of which could not have been avoided even if all due care was exercised;
d) Any event which Unusual Destinations could not even with all due care have foreseen or avoided, including (but not limited to) an event or force major. Unusual Destinations further confirms that the carriage of passengers and their luggage by air is governed by various international conventions and the client shall be bound by the rules, regulations and conditions of contract laid down by any carrier upon which he / she may travel as a result of the reservations made, and Unusual Destinations shall be free from any liability in consequence thereof.