3 Days Gorilla Trekking, Bwindi from Kigali
You land in Kigali. We cross at Cyanika and drive into the forest. Same mountain range as Rwanda, same hour with the same families, and a permit that costs $700 less.
Private departures, built around your datespermit, lodge and vehicle arranged for you
fromUSD 3,450per personbased on two travelling, permit included
Rwanda charges $1,500. Uganda charges $800.
The gorillas do not know about the border.
Volcanoes National Park and Bwindi sit in the same volcanic chain. The rules are identical: eight people per family, one hour, seven metres. What changes is the price and the forest.
Kigali International is the closest well-connected airport to southern Bwindi. Flying into Rwanda and trekking in Uganda is not a workaround. It is the shortest road to the cheaper permit, and it puts you at the forest edge the evening before you walk in.
In April, May and November the Uganda permit drops to $600. That is $900 less than Rwanda, for the same hour.
Highlights
The journey
Kigali to Bwindi
We collect you at Kigali International and drive north-west. The border at Cyanika usually takes forty minutes to clear and we handle the paperwork. By mid-afternoon the road is climbing through tea and the temperature drops. You reach the lodge with enough light to walk, eat properly and sleep before a six o'clock start.
About four and a half hours driving, plus the border.
LuxuryChameleon Hill Lodge
PremiumIchumbi Gorilla Lodge
The trek
Briefing at park headquarters at seven. Rangers assign the groups, and we tell them honestly what your party can walk. Being put on a four-hour ascent you did not expect is the fastest way to spoil the morning.
Then you walk. It can take forty minutes. It can take most of the day. When the trackers signal, you leave your bag on the path and you have one hour.
You are back at the lodge by mid-afternoon with nothing else scheduled. That is deliberate.
Two to six hours on foot, depending on where the family slept.
Second night at the same lodge.
Bwindi to Kigali
Breakfast without a clock. We drive back through Kisoro and stop at the Kigezi viewpoints, where the hills fall away in every direction and most people ask us to pull over anyway. You are at Kigali International with time to spare.
Late afternoon flights are comfortable. Early ones are not, and we will say so before you book them.
About four and a half hours driving.
Permits are released per day, and the best months go first.
Give us an approximate date and we check availability against it. No payment, no obligation.
What your trip includes
Gorilla permit, USD 800 per person
Two nights, full board
Private 4x4 and driver-guide throughout
All park fees and government taxes
Airport collection and return, Kigali
Border assistance at Cyanika
Bottled water every day
What it does not cover
International flights
Uganda and Rwanda visas
Porter, USD 20, and worth every dollar
Tips for guides, trackers and lodge staff
Drinks other than water
Travel insurance, which we require
Not quite the trip you had in mind? Every departure is private, so the length and the lodges are yours to change. Tell us what you want.
Rwanda
Kigali is the cleanest, best-connected arrival point in the region and the reason this itinerary works: you land there in the morning and sleep beside the forest that night. Rwanda also has its own gorillas in the Virungas, Nyungwe’s chimpanzees along the canopy walk, and Akagera, the only big-five park in the country.
Uganda
Half of the world’s mountain gorillas live in Bwindi, and the permit to sit with them costs less than anywhere else they exist. Beyond the forest the country runs from the snow on the Rwenzori to the tree-climbing lions of Ishasha and the point where the Nile leaves Lake Victoria.
Five things we tell everyone
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