11-Day Rwanda Gorillas & Serengeti Private Safari

Day 2 · Kinigi (park HQ)

Memorial Morning, Mountain Evening

Drive · Kigali → Volcanoes National Park · about 2–2.5 hours — A charter helicopter is available on request.

The Kigali Genocide Memorial opens at 09:00, and a morning there is the right place to begin understanding the country you are about to travel through. Its gardens hold the graves of more than 250,000 victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi; take the time you need, and consider a guided visit, as some of the guides are survivors. Afterwards you drive north for about 2–2.5 hours toward the Virungas, reaching your lodge, on the ridge above the twin lakes or on a reforestation reserve at the park edge, in time to watch the light fade over the volcanoes.

• Kigali Genocide Memorial
• Drive north to the Virunga foothills
• Evening at your lodge

Overnight

Volcanoes National Park

Meals

Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Day 4 · Volcanoes National Park

Golden Monkeys, or a Second Family

The included option this morning is the golden monkeys: a gentler trek into the bamboo on the lower slopes to spend an hour with a troop of these quick, gold-backed monkeys. The alternative is a second gorilla trek, to meet a different family on different terrain; it needs a second permit, which we secure at booking if you want it. In the afternoon, the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund’s Ellen DeGeneres Campus explains the research behind the gorillas’ recovery, or you can simply rest before tomorrow’s change of country.

• Golden monkey trek (included)
• Or a second gorilla trek (optional)
• Ellen DeGeneres Campus or an afternoon at leisure

Overnight

Volcanoes National Park

Meals

Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Day 5 · Kilimanjaro Airport

Kigali to Kilimanjaro

Flight · Kigali International Airport → Kilimanjaro International Airport · about 1.5–2 hours, depending on the schedule — Followed by a road transfer of about 1 hour to Arusha.

After breakfast you drive back to Kigali for the regional flight to Kilimanjaro International Airport in northern Tanzania; flight times depend on the day’s routing. Well before you travel, check the Tanzania visa guide and the yellow fever rules, since both are checked on arrival. After immigration you meet your Tanzanian guide for the hour’s drive to a coffee estate on the edge of Arusha, where dinner is served with Mount Meru somewhere in the darkness beyond the plantation.

• Drive to Kigali airport
• Regional flight to Kilimanjaro
• Transfer to an Arusha coffee estate

Overnight

Arusha

Meals

Breakfast & dinner

Day 6 · Serengeti

Into the Serengeti

Flight · Arusha airport → Serengeti airstrip · about 1–2 hours

A short drive to Arusha’s airport and a scheduled light-aircraft flight carry you over the Rift Valley and the crater highlands to a Serengeti airstrip, roughly 1–2 hours depending on where your camp is and how many stops the plane makes. Soft-sided bags are required on these small aircraft, typically with a limit of around 15 kg each, so repack before you leave Rwanda and leave the rest in Arusha. Your guide meets you at the strip, the drive to camp becomes your first game drive, and the afternoon is for getting your bearings on the plains.

• Light-aircraft flight to the Serengeti
• Afternoon game drive
• Sundowner on the plains

Overnight

Serengeti

Meals

Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Day 7–8 · Serengeti

Following the Season on the Serengeti

Two full days, shaped by the time of year. In January and February the wildebeest herds are usually on the short-grass plains of the south, where calving draws lions, cheetahs and hyenas; from July to September they are generally in the north near the Mara River, where crossings follow no timetable. At the ultra level your camp can be placed to follow them, while the luxury camp around Seronera puts you among resident prides and leopards in any month. The great migration guide explains the cycle, and your guide plans each day around what is moving.

• Full-day game drives with picnic lunches
• Migration herds, where the season allows
• Optional sunrise balloon flight

Overnight

Serengeti

Meals

Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Day 9 · Ngorongoro Crater

Up to the Crater Highlands

Drive · Serengeti → Ngorongoro Crater rim · about 3–4 hours from the central Serengeti — From the far north, a light-aircraft flight to the Lake Manyara airstrip is quicker.

After a final morning drive, you head south-east across the plains, leave the park at Naabi Hill and climb into the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, where Maasai herders graze cattle alongside the wildlife. From the central Serengeti the drive takes about 3–4 hours with game viewing on the way; from the far north or south, a short flight to the Lake Manyara airstrip and the climb up to the rim is quicker. Your lodge stands on the crater rim, some 600 m above the caldera floor, and the evenings are cold enough for a fire.

• Last Serengeti game drive
• Drive through the Ngorongoro Conservation Area
• Evening on the crater rim

Overnight

Ngorongoro highlands

Meals

Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Day 10 · Ngorongoro Crater

A Morning on the Crater Floor

Descend into the crater as early as the gate allows, with breakfast packed for a picnic on the floor. The caldera, roughly 260 km², works like a natural amphitheatre: buffalo, zebra, wildebeest, hyenas and lions live here all year, and it is one of Tanzania’s better places to look for black rhino, though a sighting is never assured. Hippos wallow in the pools, and flamingos sometimes gather on the soda lake. Time on the floor is limited by park rules, so you climb back out for a slow afternoon and a last evening on the rim.

• Early descent into the Ngorongoro Crater
• Picnic breakfast on the crater floor
• Game drive in search of black rhino

Overnight

Ngorongoro highlands

Meals

Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Day 11 · Kilimanjaro Airport

Homeward from the Highlands

Drive · Ngorongoro Crater rim → Kilimanjaro International Airport · about 4–5 hours — Or fly from the Lake Manyara airstrip to Kilimanjaro or Arusha.

After breakfast on the rim, your guide drives you down through Karatu and the Rift Valley escarpment toward Arusha and Kilimanjaro International Airport, about 4–5 hours with a lunch stop. You can shorten the day with a flight from the Lake Manyara airstrip instead. A day room near Arusha can be arranged if your international departure is late, and if you would like more time before going home, Zanzibar’s beaches are a short flight from either airport.

• Morning on the crater rim
• Drive or fly to Kilimanjaro
• International departure

Meals

Breakfast & lunch