Safari Overview

This 5 Day safari will enable you to do game viewing, birding, nature walks and boat cruises at Akagera National Park.  This attractive park of rolling hills and open grassy valleys is interspersed with thickets, woodlands and rich wetlands. It is the only place in Rwanda of this sort, and the best to see large schools of hippos. While a visit to the presidential museum will give you an insight of the tragedy that happened on April 6th 1994 when president Habyarimana’s plane was shot down, to date it is a museum and a noteworthy item on the bucket list of  the Rwanda tour.

Tour Highlights

• Akagera National Park

• Presidential Museum

• King’s Palace Museum

This tour starts from $1,000.00

ITINERARY

Day 1: Arrival in Rwanda

Upon arrival at Kigali International Airport, you will be met by our safari guide who will transfer you to Kigali to a hotel booked for you. In case you have had an early flight to Rwanda, you will be taken on a brief tour of the city of Kigali. The next day, your adventure of the Akagera National Park will commence.

Day 2: Transfer to Akagera National Park via King’s Palace Museum

You will wake up early in the morning, and after your breakfast at exactly 7:00 AM our tour guide/driver will be at your hotel to brief you about the whole travel plan. Thereafter, you will embark on a 3 hours’ drive to Akagera National Park, which is located in the west, 106 kms from Kigali. You will have a stopover at the King’s Palace Museum, located 88 kms south of Kigali. It was built for King Mutara III, which explains why it has a palace-like appearance. It offers a detailed study of the Rwandan tradition of the monarchy rule, and it is composed of traditional materials like the artistically designed wooden African chairs plus animal skin mats. While here, you may opt to visit the royal burial grounds of King Mutara and his wife. After this cultural experience, you will resume your journey to the park with an hour’s lunch break en route, thus you will reach Akagera National Park in the evening for dinner and your much needed night’s rest.

 Accommodation:                           

Luxury: Ruzizi Tented Camp

Midrange: Akagera Game Lodge

Budget: Dereva Hotel

Day 3: Boat Cruise and Sport Fishing

After an early morning breakfast, you will go for a boat cruise on Lake Ihema. A tour guide on the boat will journey you through the history of its existence. You should expect to see a variety of aquatic life like elephants, hippos, crocodiles, birdlife plus other wildlife. The boat cruise takes around 3 hours, after which you will head back to your accommodation for lunch. Later on, you will go for sport fishing on the same lake. The most common fish species caught is tilapia, but there are also other species in the lake like cat fish and lung fish. After this amazing experience, you will return to your lodge for dinner and your night’s accommodation.

Accommodation:

Luxury: Ruzizi Tented Camp

Midrange: Akagera Game Lodge

Budget: Dereva Hotel

Day 4: Game Drive and Nature Walk

You will wake up to the sounds on nature with an early morning breakfast, after which you will embark on your 3 hours’ morning game drive in the open savannahs of the park. Here, your sightseeing adventure will bring you close to countless groups of wildlife including, elephants, zebras, buffaloes, topis, giraffes and hyenas; along with of birds of various types. You will then retreat from the activity and head back to your lodge for lunch and afternoon relaxation. Thereafter, you may opt to do 3 hours’ evening nature walk, which will draw you close to the wildlife, and you will get to learn different animal behaviors as they retire after a long day. After this moment, you will make for your accommodation for dinner and an overnight stay.

 Accommodation:

Luxury: Ruzizi Tented Camp

Midrange: Akagera Game Lodge

Budget: Dereva Hotel

Day 5 Transfer back to Kigali with a Tour to the Presidential Palace

You arise to the early morning hums of Mother Nature, and following your breakfast, you will transfer back to Kigali, 106 kms from the park, which will take approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes, with 1 hour’s lunch en route. You will then get to visit the former presidential palace of the late Habyarimana, now turned into a museum, which is composed of wreckages from his jet that was gunned down on April 6th 1994. From here, you will be driven back to your accommodation or dropped off at the airport.

End of the Safari Adventure

ACTIVITIES

Akagera National Park

Akagera National Park is located in Eastern Rwanda, and it overlooks the savannah plains of Tanzania. This park, the only protected savannah region of the country, shelters a range of lakes including Lake Ihema – the second largest in Rwanda – as well as  Rwanyakizinga,  Shakani,  Mihindi and Gishanju lakes which together combine to form the largest wetland system in the whole of Central Africa.

Following the end of the Rwandan Genocide, the national park was depleted, with returning refugees using trees for timber and wild life for food—lions were hunted to extinction, as were rhinos. Biodiversity was almost completely ruined and tourism and local commerce disappeared. 

The park has recovered remarkably, so much so that in 2017 it witnessed the return of black rhinos for the first time and after the reintroduction of lions, their population is now also on the increase. With strict anti-poaching monitoring methods in effect, elephants, buffaloes, and leopards have also been spotted again, with a growing population of monkeys as well.

The park offers the traditional suite of a savannah safari experience, with game drives and lake adventures, boat cruises and birding and nature walks. Bathing in the waters is strictly forbidden, since they are the home of some of the largest concentrations of hippos in East Africa.

Presidential Museum

This palace, now known to be a museum, is located in the outskirts of Kigali city; in the eastern side to be exact. It was known to be the residence of the Rwandan president before the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. Prior to this tragedy, the palace had housed two Rwandan presidents plus their families.

A visit to this historically noteworthy palace gives you an insight into the tragedy that happened on April 6th 1994, when President Juvenal Habyarimana’s plane was gunned down. Unfortunately, he was in the company of the then Burundian president, who did not survive either.

 It contains debris from this catastrophic occurrence which gave impetus to the already mentioned 1994 stain in Rwanda’s history, whereby the embittered Tutsi and Hutus wielded pangas plus other deadly tools at each other, massacring everyone who crossed their path; young or old, male or female, innocent or guilty.

Much as it has few exhibits, it is nonetheless intriguing to check out, for it has a unique history of its own, because it was at Habyarimana’s home (state house), in which he met his untimely death.

Besides the alluring history behind this place, there are some features about it that are worth seeing. These include the various fruit trees in the compound, the art piece that was gifted to the then president, plus the lavish nature of this domicile which has become a much sought-after museum for most history lovers. A tour guide on site is position to give visitors all details denoting to all the rooms of this building, plus any other mementos one may be curious about.

King’s Palace Museum

Situated in Nyanza ya Butare district, presently known as Huye, this history laden site was constructed in 1932. It a traditional stead with an unmistakable tinge of modernism to it, and a blend of these makes this place a must-visit for all tour enthusiasts.

According to www.visitrwanda.com, it is a reconstruction of the traditional royal residence, and the King’s Palace is a beautifully-crafted thatched dwelling shaped like a beehive.

This ethnographic museum encapsulates a great deal of Rwandan monarchical history, which sort of rule was abolished after Rwanda’s independence from their colonial masters. In its backyard, the cattle that formerly belonged to the monarchy are tended to, and their lineage has been maintained even after the abolishment of the kingdom that regarded them as a great source of prestige.

These cattle, which have a striking resemblance plus some genes of the famous Ankole long-horned cattle of Uganda, have one intriguing attribute. From the time they are mere calves, they are nurtured to listen to the voice of their herdsmen, and these sing them soothing songs and take care of them like the precious jewels they are.

While at this palace, therefore, one gets to experience all the aforementioned plus some royal regalia like the symbols of power, mats and chairs, all made in a peculiar way.

Lake Ihema

Situated in the southern arm of Akagera National Park, Lake Ihema has more to it than meets the eye. It is not only the second largest lake in Rwanda, but it also enjoys a high degree of protection, owing to the fact that it sits in the aforementioned national park.

According to www.globalnature.org, the main threat to this revered Rwandan lake is water hyacinth, which the lake has in abundance. Water hyacinth is an aquatic plant that multiplies at an insane rate, and it is known to be unlikeable to the areas outside its native range. Therefore, the presence of the water hyacinth on this lake is not just as a serious threat to the biodiversity of the region, but it also hinders water transport. Its damaging effects, among others, include lowering the quality of water because it covers the water and reduces the quantity of dissolved oxygen, phosphate and temperature, resulting in the direct decrease and disappearance of the biodiversity of the affected water body. Additionally, the lake is connected by the Akagera swamps with the Akagera River, which implies that this water hyacinth could be easily spread into nearby waterways such as Lake Victoria and the Nile River.

A boat cruise on this lake will give you the opportunity to see a variety of aquatic life like birdlife, elephants, hippos, and crocodiles. However, since Lake Ihema is not that blessed with a plethora of fish types, you should only anticipate seeing a few of these reptiles here and there. In any case, fishing is highly restricted on this lake. In spite of all this, your sightseeing expedition on a boat cruise on this lake will still be a rewarding undertaking.

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SAFARI INCLUSIONS

Safari includes:

Transportation in a Tour Van/Landcruiser.

Service of an English-speaking tour guide/Driver

Transportation in a Land Cruiser/Super Custom with pop up roof

All fuel for the trip

Driver / guide

Guide ranger fees

All activities are described in the itinerary

Park admission fees

Meals according to the program

WIFI on this trip

Safari excludes:

All activities not mentioned in the program

International flights

Personal expenses like, tobacco, telephone and drinks

Laundry services

Visas to Rwanda

Tips to guides

Personal effects of any nature

Hotel fees before and after the safari