Gorilla Trekking and Great Migration: 9-Day Tanzania and Rwanda Safari

🛏 Stay: Plantation Lodge (Standard Room), Karatu · Full Board

✈️ International arrival at Kilimanjaro · Drive to Lake Manyara National Park and on to Karatu (3–5 hours)

Your Tanzania and Rwanda safari begins at Lake Manyara National Park, nestled at the base of the Great Rift Valley escarpment. The lake attracts more than 400 bird species, including flamingos and pelicans, and watching elephants, buffalo and hippos at the mud pools, with the escarpment as a backdrop, makes for wonderful safari moments. The park is also known for its tree-climbing lions.

Then comes your Ngorongoro Crater safari. The Ngorongoro Crater is one of the natural wonders of the world, its spectacular rim always in view as you search for wildlife on the crater floor. Its plains and swamps are home to a wide variety of animals, with good chances of seeing the Big Five. The conservation area is also home to the Maasai and their cattle, which co-exist with the wildlife in a unique ecosystem.

Activities: Game drives in Lake Manyara National Park and the Ngorongoro Crater

🛏 Stay: Ubuntu Camp (Luxury Tent) · Full Board

✈️ Transfer to the airstrip (30–60 minutes) · Flight to the Serengeti (1 hour)

The safari half of your Tanzania and Rwanda safari peaks in the Serengeti, the jewel in the crown of Tanzania’s parks and one of the best-known wildlife sanctuaries in the world. With countless predators, including lion, cheetah and leopard, alongside vast herds of wildebeest, zebra and Thomson’s gazelle, it has one of the greatest concentrations of wildlife on the planet.

The wildebeest and zebra are the star cast of the Serengeti Great Migration, which follows a yearly cycle:

• Late December to March: the calving season, with more than a million wildebeest and zebra

• May to July: herds and their newborns crossing the crocodile-infested Grumeti River

• August to October: the herds move to the remote northern Serengeti and cross the Mara River

Included: Breakfast, lunch, dinner, all drinks (except champagne, cellar wines and premium spirits) and laundry

Activities: Game drives in Serengeti National Park

🛏 Stay: Kigali Serena Hotel (Standard Room) · Bed & Breakfast

✈️ Transfer to the airstrip (20–30 minutes) · Flight to Kigali (2.5 hours) · Transfer to hotel (20–30 minutes)

Today your Tanzania and Rwanda safari crosses into Rwanda. At the country’s geographical heart, the fast-growing city of Kigali is the national capital, its most important business centre and its main port of entry.

Built across about four ridges and the valleys between them, Kigali keeps the feel of a garden city, its shape dictated by green slopes. The compact, low-rise centre surrounds a busy, colourful market and is studded with stalls selling a wide range of local crafts.

🛏 Stay: Virunga Lodge (Standard Room) · Full Board

🚙 Drive to Volcanoes National Park (3 hours)

The grand finale of your Tanzania and Rwanda safari takes place in Volcanoes National Park, part of the Virunga Mountains protected area shared by Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Virungas are home to around half of the world’s endangered mountain gorillas.

Sitting face to face with a 160 kg silverback in the rainforest is a once-in-a-lifetime experience and one of the highlights of any trip to Africa. A team of trackers and a ranger will guide you up the slopes of the volcanoes. Depending on the gorillas’ movements, you’ll spend three to nine hours trekking.

Activities: Gorilla trekking in Volcanoes National Park

🚗 Drive to Kigali (3 hours) · International departure

Enjoy your last day in Rwanda before transferring to the airport for your flight home or your onward journey.

End of itinerary.

9 days and 8 nights: 5 nights on safari in Tanzania (Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro and the Serengeti), 1 night in Kigali and 2 nights at Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda.

By flight from a Serengeti airstrip to Kigali, about 2.5 hours, followed by a 3-hour drive to Volcanoes National Park. All flights and transfers in both countries are included.

Between three and nine hours, depending on where the gorillas are. A team of trackers and a ranger guide you up the volcano slopes.

Late December to March is the calving season; May to July brings the Grumeti River crossings; and August to October the herds cross the Mara River in the northern Serengeti.

Yes. Gorilla trekking in Volcanoes National Park is included, along with all national park and conservation fees.

It starts at Kilimanjaro International Airport in Tanzania and ends at Kigali International Airport in Rwanda.