Your guide meets you at Kigali International Airport and drives south toward the Cyangugu border, tracing the edge of Rwanda toward Lake Kivu. Along the way, you’ll stop for lunch at the Butare Ibis Hotel before continuing to the crossing point into DR Congo. Once through immigration, you’ll proceed to Bukavu, a lakeside city built across steep hills. If time and border formalities allow, there’s an optional stop at the genocide memorials along Nyungwe road.
Have an early morning breakfast, then drive to Kahuzi-Biega National Park to track the lowland gorillas — about 1 hour from Orchid Safari Lodge to the park headquarters. In the briefing, clients are entertained by cultural dance and offered hot tea by the park. Tracking these lowland gorillas is amazing, since they differ from mountain gorillas and live in bigger family groups. After tracking, return to the hotel for dinner and overnight.
After breakfast, you’ll begin the return journey from Bukavu back across the DR Congo–Rwanda border and on to Kigali. The drive retraces the previous route along Lake Kivu, giving you one more look at the lakeside scenery and hillside terrain before re-entering Rwanda. Border formalities are typically straightforward on exit, though timing can vary. Once through, the drive continues to Kigali, where the trip concludes — either at your hotel or in time for onward flights, depending on your schedule.
Mount Nyiragongo offers one of Africa’s most extraordinary treks: a steep climb through rainforest and volcanic terrain to the rim of the world’s largest lava lake.
The trip begins and ends in Kigali, Rwanda, with a border crossing at Goma, and centers on a single, unforgettable hour spent with a gorilla family in their natural habitat.
This 4-day itinerary combines mountain gorilla trekking with a summit hike of Mount Nyiragongo, one of the world’s most active volcanoes, in Virunga National Park.