Welcome to Kigali, one of Africa’s cleanest, greenest and most progressive cities. Take in the views of winding boulevards, flowering trees and lush hillsides as your private transfer escorts you from the airport to your boutique hotel in a peaceful residential area. After settling in, it’s time to meet your fellow Pack Leader and group and get to know each other over a special welcome dinner. With the lights of the city twinkling across the valley beneath you, raise a toast with your fellow Flashpackers to nine days of adventure to come. 

Spend your first day immersed in rural village life, gaining an insight into the beauty and rigor of Rwandan culture. Together with local artisans, you’ll learn traditional crafts such as basket weaving and cooking, as well as fetching water from the spring and mastering the technique for carrying loads on your head in true African style. You’ll even have a go at hoeing and planting the land. Share a simple home-cooked lunch with the villagers, while you listen to stories about their lives and ancestors, before continuing to your overnight stop in Huye (Batare).

Today, you’ll travel west to Nyungwe Forest National Park, one of the most biodiverse places in Africa. Here, the characteristic Rwandan landscape of rolling tea plantations and terraced hills, gives way to a dense tangle of steep forested slopes thick with ancient rainforest. Led by a forest ranger, you’ll set off in search of black-and-white colobus monkeys, often seen in troops of up to 200 – a spectacular sight as they jump from tree to tree. After a picnic lunch overlooking the forest, you’ll gain an exhilarating treetop perspective from a canopy walkway suspended 70 meters over a ravine. Keep your eyes peeled for butterflies, orchids and colourful birds – even a chance encounter with an endangered chimpanzee. 

Enjoy breakfast with a view from your hilltop hotel, as you prepare for your kayaking adventure. Ringed by beautiful mountains of Rwanda and the DRC, Kivu is the only African Great Lake that contains no hippos or crocodiles, making it a safe haven for watersports. Setting off across the deep turquoise water, you’ll paddle around an uninhabited island before a picnic lunch with your group. Soak up the blissful tranquility, before this afternoon’s activity: hiking to the newly discovered Ndambarare waterfall. Deep in the valley and cradled by cliffs, the cascade tumbles 45 meters into a perfect pool below – a luxuriant sight within the forest. 

Wake up to spectacular views of dawn breaking over immense Lake Kivu. Boarding your air-conditioned minibus, you’ll wind your way north to the beautiful Kumbya Peninsula, a pristine natural habitat home to sea otters, vervet monkeys and over a hundred species of bird. After lunch – and an optional swim – you’ll take a gentle hike through rice fields and native forest. Here, you’ll hop aboard a houseboat and sip cocktails as you bask in the balmy late afternoon sun. Gliding across the tranquil water, you’ll see fisherfolk and villagers going about their daily lives, before arriving at your lakeside resort in time for dinner.  

After breakfast, a motorboat will pick you up from the hotel and transfer you across the bay to Munini Island. This emerald hill jutting out of the water is known for its large colonies of straw-colored fruit bats, and you’ll soon spot clusters of these raucous flying mammals hanging upside down in the trees. Your next stop is a coffee plantation, where you’ll see how the beans are processed from crop to cup, using both traditional and modern methods, before sampling a delicious brew. Enjoy lunch on the terrace before transferring to a speedboat for the next leg of your journey to the legendary Virunga volcanoes.  

The five conical volcanoes on Rwanda’s northern border form one of Africa’s most exciting national parks. Hidden among the bamboo forests are some of the world’s last remaining mountain gorillas. Sharing the park are rare golden monkeys, endemic to the Virungas, and it’s these cheeky primates that you’ll be going in search of today. Playful and inquisitive, the troops are likely to come up close as they chase each other round in circles. Later, you’ll have the chance to visit the excellent Ellen DeGeneres Campus – a world-class visitor center full of interactive displays on conservation – before finishing your day with a banana beer workshop.     

Expect an early start this morning, as you prepare for a very special experience: trekking into the forest to encounter Rwanda’s majestic mountain gorillas in the flesh. You’ll come face to face with these incredible primates in their natural habitat, observing their gentle human-like nature and family interaction. From the playful mischief of the youngsters to the watchful concern of their mothers, the boisterous energy of adolescents to the authority of the imposing silverback, encountering these creatures is an experience like no other. Feeling profoundly moved and privileged, you’ll return to Kigali for your final farewell dinner.

Your journey has come to an end and it’s now over to you to make your own way to your next destination. It’s been an incredible nine days exploring one of Africa’s most charismatic countries and you’ve created memories – and friendships – to last a lifetime. To help stave off those post-trip blues, why not start planning your next wildlife adventure in Kenya, Tanzania or South Africa? Our trip experts are ready and waiting for your call.