A Complete Uganda/Rwanda/Tanzania Safari Itinerary Guide

 Tour Summary

• Safari starts with pick up in Kigali
• Activities include gorilla trekking and game drive.
• Transfers will be by a 4×4 safari vehicle
•  Accommodation before and after a trip can be arranged on request at an extra cost

What you need to know

• Accommodation & meals are provided as included 
• Pack the right Gorilla trekking clothes
• Tour can start any time of the year
• The minimum age for Gorilla trekking is 15 years

Itinerary Highlights: Uganda/Rwanda/Tanzania Safari

• Day 01: Arrival in Kigali – transfer to hotel
• Day 02: Kigali City Tour
• Day 03: Musanze/Ruhengeri for Ibiwachu cultural experience
• Day 04: Lake Bunyonyi
• Day 05: Canoeing and transfer to Kibale
• Day 06: Chimpanzee Trekking – Bwindi
• Day 07: Gorilla trekking in Bwindi
• Day 08: Fly to Arusha
• Day 09: Ngorongoro Crater
• Day 10: Serengeti National Park
• Day 11: game drive & hotel relaxing
• Day 12: Tarangire National Park
• Day 13: Transfer to Arusha
• Day 14: Departure

What’s the real story?:

Itinerary Details: Uganda/Rwanda/Tanzania Safari

Day 1: Arrival in Kigali – transfer to hotel

Upon your arrival at Kigali International Airport, you will be picked up by your driver guide who will then brief you about your upcoming 14 days of Tanzania Safari through Rwanda and then drops you at your hotel for dinner and an overnight stay.

Meal Plan: Dinner

Day 02: Kigali City Tour

Kigali, Rwanda FULL CITY

Following an early morning breakfast, you will depart your hotel and head to the Gisozi Genocide memorial center. While here, you will witness the graveyards of the genocide victims laid to rest. You have a great opportunity to watch some of the touching videos and pictures and listen to stories that narrate the horrifying genocide act in the past years. You will then continue to Nyamata Church where over fifty thousand people were killed as they sought shelter in the church.

You will then visit the presidential palace museum, the state house of the former president the late Juvenal Habyarimana whose death in a plane crash sparked the genocide in 1994. You will end your day with a visit to the Caplaki crafts market as you will have a variety of items from which you can buy some souvenirs for yourself and your loved ones.

Meal Plan: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

Day 03: Musanze/Ruhengeri for Ibiwachu cultural experience

Today you will visit the Iby’lwacu village for your cultural experience.  The place is one of the best spots to hide, relax and recuperate your mind. The tranquility and hospitality of these locals are absolutely incredible as they will welcome you with a warm smile.

The village displays the traditional lifestyle of Rwandans Including dress code, food growing, processing and preparation, traditional ceremonies, and interpersonal relationships.

While here, you will enjoy different types of traditional dances performed by the locals like Intore Dance, and Ibyivugo using local and traditional musical instruments, like Umuduri, Ikembe, Iningiri, Inanga, Ingoma, Amakondera, and Agakenke among others

Meal Plan: Breakfast, Lunch, and dinner

Day 04: Lake Bunyonyi

Today you will wake up at leisure and transfer to Lake Bunyonyi in Kabale – Uganda for an Overnight stay and dinner

Meal Plan: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

Day 05: Canoeing and transfer to Kibale

After breakfast, you will embark on an early morning canoe cruise on Lake Bunyonyi, famously known for hosting several islands with around 29 found there. The cruise is a morning soothing recreational encounter that is worth exploring and refreshing. Later in the afternoon, you will continue with a transfer to Kibale National Park where you will enjoy a nature-guided walk in the Bigodi wetland.

Meal Plan: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

Day 06: Chimpanzee Trekking – Bwindi

After early morning breakfast, your tour guide will lead you to Kanyanchu park had quarters for a briefing from the senior park rangers. At exactly 8:00 am, you will join the rest of the trekking group and continue with your journey to the starting point.

While in the forest, you have a great opportunity to sight several primate species and other inhabitants including the L’Hoest monkey, baboons, white and black colobus monkeys, grey checked mangabey, red colobus, blue monkeys, and pottos.

In the afternoon, you will enjoy a delicious meal before heading for a guided nature walk in the Bigodi wetland to enhance your birding experience as you spot several bird species.

Meal Plan: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

Day 07: Gorilla trekking in Bwindi

MOUNTAIN GORILLAS in Uganda! Trekking in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest

In the early morning, have breakfast at the hotel before heading out for your gorilla trekking experience in Bwindi. With your gorilla trekking gear, you will meet your driver guide who will drive you to Ruhija Park headquarters for briefing and joining others before heading into the forest for your gorilla trek. This trek can last for between 30 minutes to 7 hours depending on the location of the mountain gorilla family on that particular day. Once the gorillas are located, you will be allowed to spend one hour with them while observing their behavior, taking photographs before you return to the park headquarters for your certificate of participation, and evidence that you did the trekking.

Meal Plan: Breakfast, lunch, and dinner

Day 08: Fly to Arusha

Today after breakfast, you will head to the airport to catch your flight which departs Kigali in the morning arriving in Arusha in the Afternoon.

You will then transfer to Ngorongoro arriving late in the evening to check in at your hotel for dinner and an overnight stay.

Meal Plan: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

Day 09: Ngorongoro Crater

You Won’t Believe What Happened on our Tanzania Safari (Ngorongoro Crater)

After breakfast, you will depart heading down into the crater. From the rim, we admire the incredible view and then descend into the vast crater itself. On one side there’s the Lerai Forest, a classic mountain forest landscape with almost tropical characteristics. This is good elephant country, so keep your eyes peeled. By the side of the nearby swampland is what is sometimes called the ‘elephant graveyard’ as the mighty male tuskers at the end of their lives come to chew on the soft, swampland grasses once their teeth have failed them.

The crater has a population of around 120 lions, with well-defined territories; 15,000 wildebeest, 9,000 zebra, 400 hyenas, and around 50 black rhinos. Many wildebeest and other herd animals are residents, benefiting from the many sources of year-round waters and are boosted by some migrators in season. Buffalo, Thomson’s gazelle, and eland are also present in numbers. Hippos can be found in pools and swampland and highland birdlife is colorful and plentiful around the waters. Flamingos can often be seen in Lake Magadi, which occupies part of the crater floor. In the late afternoon, you will be transferred back to Serengeti for an overnight stay and dinner.

Meal plan: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

Day 10: Serengeti National Park

Today will be the “Serengeti game viewing day”. After breakfast this morning, enjoy an amazing game drive. The great diversity of Serengeti wildlife is evident here—look for buffalo, hippopotami, elephant, giraffe, antelope, Thompson’s and Grant’s gazelle, and lions. If you are there during the spectacular wildebeest migration, you will be more than astonished. In the late afternoon, we venture out in another game drive.

Everywhere there are animals, monkeys, and, yes, birds…but look closely and you will be thrilled to see the huge jungle cats—lion, leopard, and cheetah—watching the world go by. And go by it does. Rhino, gazelle, antelope, and massive elephants by the hundreds. Animals in the trees, flying, camouflaged in the bush, in rivers, and in streams. This is the adventure of a lifetime! After an evening game drive, you head to your already booked and stated accommodation for dinner and an overnight stay.

Meal Plan: Breakfast, lunch, and dinner

Day 11: Game drive & Hotel relaxing

Today you will wake up at leisure and stay at the lodge relaxing. After lunch, you will embark on an afternoon game drive in Serengeti National Park as you witness more wildlife in the park. In the evening, you return to the lodge for dinner and an overnight stay.

Meal Plan: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

Day 12: Tarangire National Park

Safari in Tarangire National Park, Tanzania

After breakfast, you will depart for Tarangire National Park. Bush savannah, seasonal swamps, and giant baobab trees make up the landscape of this nature reserve and are perhaps the best place in East Africa to see elephants. Not only they are found in thousands but also they seem to be more accustomed to vehicles, and for this, you can be closer to these gigantic animals. It is not only the elephants rather a varied number of animals such as Masai giraffes, various gazelles, antelopes, buffaloes, lions, leopards, baboons, and more than 500 types of birds that make this the one-stop solution for both the bird and the animal lovers. After the game drive, you will leave the park in the late afternoon and drive to the lodge for your overnight stay. After the game drive, you will leave the park in the late afternoon and drive to the lodge for your overnight stay.

Meal Plan: Breakfast, lunch, and dinner

Day 13: Transfer to Arusha

After early morning breakfast, you will embark on a transfer to Arusha after enjoying a morning game drive, arriving at lunchtime and checking in to your lodge where you will have an overnight stay.

Meal Plan: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

Day 14: Departure

Depending on the time of your scheduled flight, your driver-guide will pick you up from your lodge and transfer you to the Airport for your onward flight.

Meal Plan: Breakfast

End of the 14 Days Uganda/Rwanda/Tanzania Safari

Cost Inclusions

• All activities as included
• Accommodation & meals as indicated
• 4×4 Safari Vehicle
• A professional English-speaking knowledgeable driver guide. (other Language speaking guides are provided at an extra cost)
• Bottled drinking water on board
• Regional flights between Kigali and Arusha, Tanzania with accompanying ground transfers

Cost Exclusions 

• International flights & Visas 
• Tips
• Travel and medical insurance
• Drinks
• Any changes to the itinerary 
• Laundry

Transport 

• 4×4 safari land cruiser for luxury travelers
• 4×4 safari van for budget travelers