Summary

This trip includes B&B (bed and breakfast) on the price and activities are as follow: Kigali City tour. Nyungwe Forest NP-Canopy walk.. Pfunda Tea Factory. Boat cruise along Lake Kivu,. Diann Fossey Memorial, Musanze Caves. Musanze Market. Mt Karisimbi Hike. Ishuti Art and Culture.

Full Description

Day 1. Our Company driver guide will pick you from Kigali International Airport and do the City tour includes the Genocide memorial and then proceed to Nyungwe Forest National Park via Nyanza Kingdom Palace. Dinner and overnight at Nyungwenziza Eco Lodge. Day 2. In the morning at 6.am you will travel with your packed lunch to Nyungwe Forest National Park headquarters for the Canopy walk, its 45 minutes drive, later you will proceed to Ruzizi-Lake Kivu in the evening for dinner and overnight at Peace guest House. This is Rwanda’s most iconic wildlife during this private trek through Nyungwe National Park, with a chance to spot endangered bird species, rare orchids, and the park’s most famous inhabitants: their chimpanzees. Day 3. After breakfast around 10 am you will start to enjoy the boat trip along the Lake Kivu-In western Rwanda, along on the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo lies the lively Lake Kivu, the largest of the many scenic lakes scattered throughout Rwanda but one of the smallest of the Great Lakes of Africa in terms of size. It is however the third deepest with its deepest point being around 485m. Your lunch break will be served at the choice of your accommodation: Peace guest House for the 2nd night. The lake and its surrounds have a unique feel to them; reminiscent of what you could describe as being an inland freshwater sea. Filled with volcanic islands, surrounded by beautiful beaches, terraced hills and fishing villages, all giving it a dramatic. Day 4. After breakfast you will drive between 5 to 6 hour to Musanze Province includes via Pfunda Tea Factory on the way Spend some times at the green tea fields of Pfunda and experience how tea in Rwanda is picked, dried, fermented, packed and drunk. The Pfunda Tea Tour starts at the Cooperative office where your guide will explain the background of the cooperative and history of tea and tea production in Rwanda. From Pfunda head office, the day continues on the back of one of the Tea Cooperative’s trucks where guests travel with the rest of the tea workers from the Pfunda tea cooperative out into the tea plantations. Your guide will teach you about growth and lifecycle of the tea bush in Rwanda. After this, everyone gets a crash course in tea picking before setting out into the plantation to pick tea. Tea picking is not as easy and straightforward as it might seem. Tea picking in Rwanda is totally manual and does not rely on any machinery. All tea is picked by hand. Only the young top three leaves on the bush. After weighing the harvest, the day ends for workers and they are transported back to the tea factory. You will join the transport of your harvested tea leaves with the rest of the workers on the back of the track to the Pfunda Tea Factory. The tour continues at the Pfunda Tea Factory, one of the largest Rwandan tea factories. After learning and experiencing how the tea is processed in different ways will end while tasting by the cups. Dinner and overnight at Isange Paradise Resort Day 5. In the late 1960s, Rwanda’s Virunga mountains became home to one of the world’s most famous prima-tologists, Dian Fossey. Inspired to travel to Africa by a friend’s photographs and stories, Fossey took out a loan and made the trip in 1963. Fossey’s life, and those of Rwanda’s endangered mountain gorillas, would be changed forever. Fossey founded the Karisoke Research Center in the remote rainforests of northwest Rwanda and, for the next twenty years, devoted her life to living with and studying eight gorilla groups in the surrounding mountain. In 1983, Fossey published Gorillas in the Mist, a detailed look at her scientific research and how it came about. It served as the inspiration for the 1988 film of the same title. Just two years later, however, she was brutally murdered as she slept in the bedroom of her cabin. Today, Fossey’s legacy lives on, namely through the conservation efforts of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International. Fossey was buried next to her favorite gorilla, Digit, not far from her research center. Tourists now have the chance to visit her tomb in remembrance of one of the most dedicated and fearless wildlife researchers in the world. This hike may take up to 2hours uphill with a slight chance to encounter Mountain Gorillas, Golden Monkeys, numerous birds and wide range of wildlife along the trail. Dinner and overnight at Isunga Paradise Resort. Day 6. In the morning you will go to the Diann Fossey memorial and tour the Musanze caves which are not mere caves, but special historical and cultural sites. During the ancient times, it was from these caves where new kings were crowned. Of recent, they offered shelter to 1000s of refugees during the 1994 Rwanda genocide. At Musanze caves, cave explorers are welcomed by the resistible beauty of the surrounding vegetation. At Musanze caves, visitors are also position to enjoy the breathtaking view of the spectacular Virunga Volcanoes, especially Mount Gahinga, Karisimbi and Muhabura volcanoes. Musanze caves have many tunnels, and contain 1000s of bats. As you walk through the tunnels, you can see several of bats hanging on the cave walls. These caves are typical formation of Cenozoic volcanic rocks. The interior is cold and quiet, then you can find streams of water flowing slowly out of the rock ceiling. The length of Musanze caves measure about 2 km and they are the most explored of the many caves in Rwanda. The Musanze caves formed about 65 million years back, they are geographically lying in an area with so much lava flow effect that resulted into creation of the Albertine Rift Valley. Dinner and overnight at Isange Paradise Resort. Day 7. After breakfast you will visit the Ishuti Art; Inshuti arts and culture Centre is a trendsetting institution principally nurturing Rwanda’s art talents. The Inshuti art Centre is a multi-disciplinary creative hub for contemporary art, it consists of the main gallery, an open mini kitchen, refreshment bus, a visual arts studio, performance sculpture garden area and the craft shop The Centre hosts a variety of captivating and insightful events and provides conceptual workshops as well as art residences. Musanze market; Poised to become one of Rwanda’s major cities, Musanze strategic location in the foothills of the Virunga Massif is attractive to tourism, business, and agriculture, with notably fertile land in the surrounding region. Set at an altitude of 1,850m, the city is a convenient base for gorilla tracking with the Kinigi headquarters 13km away, after that you will drive to Kigali International Airport for your evening flight back home.

Highlights

• Tour is customizable and flexible based on guest interest and pace.
• Hike and drive through the trail depend on pace and fitness .
• Skyway Expeditions ensure that tourism dollars benefit the community you vist.
• Comfort-enjoy travel with our well organized accommodations.

Inclusions and Exclusions

Know Before You Go

• No littering.
• Ensure the booking is confirmed 1-3 weeks before the start date.
• Don't bring plastic bags, the country has a strict ban. on it.
• Respect local culture.
• No smoking in public areas and in car.
• Don't photography military sites or local people without permission.
• Valid passport, visa (copies of ID).

Not Allowed

• Plastic bags
• off trail