Upon arrival at Kigali International Airport, you will be met by your our guide who will then transfer you to your hotel in Kigali, where you’ll spend the night and enjoy a nourishing breakfast.

Overnight: (Budget, Midmarket, Upmarket)

Meal Plan: Bed and Breakfast

After breakfast, you will depart for a 2-hour drive to Ruhengeri, the second largest town in Rwanda. It boasts a stunning backdrop with five volcanic mountains, The Virunga, towering above the town. You will then arrive at the Red Rocks Intercultural Exchange Centre for a lunch that you will help prepare. Our cooking lessons involve mainly Rwandese dishes using African cuisine techniques and prepared in an African Kitchen. Made with a range of fresh crops, the ingredients for African cuisine are diverse, even though certain foods are common to many regions. Ground maize or corn (called ‘sweet corn’ in the UK) is used as the basis for many meals. Maize flour is cooked with boiling water to form a stiff porridge (called ‘ugali’ in Swahili or ‘kaunga’ in Kinyarwanda).

Sometimes it’s made into dough. This starchy staple is served with sauces or stews as well as different fresh vegetables like cabbage, carrots, spinach and other traditional greens. You will join our staff in the kitchen as you explore the varieties of food grown from our farm behind the main building. Get your hands dirty; it’s fun! If you haven’t cried in a long time, the smoke from the kitchen will give you plenty to cry about, but only if aren’t quick enough to keep the flames burning. Enjoy the meal outside, in the sun, or at the dining area, as you chat with the locals and are introduced to traditional Rwandese evening stories about our the past and present. This tour will offer you an inside look at Rwandan cultural and history, giving you a better picture of how Rwanda’s past has shaped its present. Ask as many questions as you like, and feel free to join in on the discussions.

Later in the afternoon, take part in banana beer production to understand the chemistry involved in brewing a local beer from bananas fruits. If you find the activity interesting enough, you can join the women in squeezing the juice out of the bananas and drink a glass of juice yourself, if you wish. Learn about sorghum flour and how long it takes to turn juice into an alcoholic beverage. Continue to your local homestay, arriving for dinner.

“Red Rocks” is a cultural exchange project, which aims to raise awareness of all the aspects of Rwandese Culture, life style, traditions and history. Among other activities, they also do basket weaving workshops, supporting local weavers by offering them the attention and the custom of our visitors. We help the locals become involved in and benefit from tourism. They offer basic types of accommodation, perfect for backpackers, and community-related activities. The rooms have clean but shared bathrooms and hot showers.

Overnight: (Budget, Midmarket, Upmarket)

Meal Plan: Full Board

This day is set out for Golden Monkey tracking in the Volcanoes National Park. Entering dense stands of bamboo interspersed with open glades; you will make your way deep into golden monkey territory.  Though viewing is kept to a maximum of one hour, travellers can get an up-close look at the golden monkey in its natural habitat. Adult monkeys like to put on a show for on-lookers, feeding on bamboo leaves and leaping from one branch to the next. Females carry their young, completely comfortable in the spotlight.

Return to your hotel to freshen up and have lunch. Then depart for the twin lakes of Burera & Ruhondo. These are beautiful lakes located at the base of Volcano Muhabura and close to the border with Uganda. Their deep blue waters, ringed by steep hills and tall waterfalls, with the outlines of the nearby Virunga Volcanoes hovering in the distance, provide a spectacular backdrop. These twin lakes were once referred to as neglected gems, but the tides have turned.

Overnight: (Budget, Midmarket, Upmarket)

Meal Plan: Full Board

After an early breakfast, you will proceed to the National Park headquarters to meet your guides for the day. After completing the necessary formalities at the park, we will embark on an unforgettable mountain gorilla tracking expedition. Once you spot them, you will be able to spend an hour watching your long-lost cousin in his natural habitat. This is perhaps one of the most breath-taking wildlife experiences on earth!!! You will come very close to these awesome giant primates. You will stare at each other blankly, daring one another to blink first. Tracking the gorillas through the light mountain forest on the slopes of the Virunga chain is a magical experience. These massive primates are extremely rare, with less than 700 alive today. You will get within meters of the family, and you will have the privilege to spend an hour amongst them.

The trekking is bound to be strenuous; up to six hours or longer at a relatively high altitude. We encourage people to make sure that they are perfectly fit and healthy, for their own enjoyment. It is important to bring good hiking boots, long trousers, gloves for protection against stinging nettles, some snacks and sweets (for you, not the gorillas), and sufficient water, as the rain forest gets hot and humid during the day. You will spend one hour with the gorillas, but it is an hour you will never forget. Later, enjoy an evening visit to the Kagano, where the once forest-dwelling locals will tell you all about when and why they left the park. Return to your hotel for lunch, and later enjoy a hearty dinner and an overnight stay.

Overnight: (Budget, Midmarket, Upmarket)

Meal Plan: Full Board

After an early breakfast and with your packed lunches, depart for Kinigi and head over to the starting point of your hike. Mt. Bisoke stands at 3700m. It has the typical conic shape of a ‘perfect’ volcano, and in its crater lays a deep lake. The volcano does not present an exceptionally demanding climb, but it is challenging nonetheless. The high elevation demands extra strength from climbers, and the whole excursion can take between 5 hours and the whole day, depending on the speed of the walk and the frequency of stops.

The ascent typically takes around 3 hours. During the climb, you will cross a series of different vegetation habitats, starting with bamboo forests, then moving into Hagenia – Hypericum forest and finally moving through the Senecio – Lobelia bush, near the summit. The trek starts at 07:00am from the Park’s headquarters in Kinigi. Porters can also be hired from the park headquarters, but a professional guide from the park will accompany you for the hike.

 It is important to bring sufficient drinking water with you, as the rain forest gets hot and humid during the day

Overnight: (Budget, Midmarket, Upmarket)

Meal Plan: Full Board

After breakfast and with your packed lunch, we depart for a village Walk. This is a walk through one of the villages in Musanze. It helps visitors gain a broader perspective of the Rwandan way of life. The walks go through the villages nestled at the foothills of the volcanoes, with breath-taking views and unspoilt mountainous vegetation throughout. Continue for a visit to the bee keepers. Members of various bee keeping associations keep bee hives in the swamps and forests around Red Rocks. That’s because they’re lush with greenery and rich in certain types of plants, including banana trees, and every plant gives the honey a unique flavor.

Depending on the season and the varieties of flowers in bloom at the moment, you’ll see these beehives strategically scattered across the valleys.

For the locals, honey is more than an essential foodstuff. It’s also an age-old remedy for countless ailments and diseases the locals suffer from. Traditional doctors and healers use it to cure and alleviate symptoms, and that’s where most of the local honey goes to. The remainder is sold to the locals, and the proceeds are shared with the member association. It’s a well-oiled machine, but also a means for you to have hands-on training from some of Rwanda’s most skilled beekeepers.

Herbal medicine is ingrained in Rwandese culture. So much so, in fact, that a visit to Rwanda will most likely include a stroll by one of our many medicinal sites, the local village market pharmacy. Later take a walk around the town of Musanze. From there, you can enjoy your packed lunch and see different types of birds while taking in the view of all the towering Volcanoes. Later return to your hotel for dinner and an overnight stay.

Overnight: (Budget, Midmarket, Upmarket)

Meal Plan: Full Board

After breakfast, take a closer look at education in Rwanda by visiting local schools, and participate in either teaching or playing games with the children. Later, depart for Gisenyi with a stop at the Imbabazi Orphanage founded by Rosamond Halsey Carr (1912-2006) in 1994. Since then, Roz and her staff have cared for more than 400 children, but the children’s home was closed by the government, as it goes against the grain. Luckily, all the children are now adults, and have guardians following up on them.

Roz wrote the book “Land of a Thousand Hills: My Life in Rwanda,” with her niece, Ann Howard Halsey, chronicling her love affair with one of the world’s most beautiful and tormented regions. She is also the 2004 recipient of the Volvo for Life Award and a movie based on her life story is currently in production.

Take a walk around the homestead and admire the colorful flowers planted by this green-fingered lady in her lifetime. Have a cup of tea/coffee as you watch the local dancers, and enjoy the traditional entertainment. After the traditional Rwandan dancing show, guests will be given an opportunity to join in the dance. Continue to Gisenyi, arriving for lunch and check in at your hotel. Time permitting; take an afternoon swim at Lake Kivu, one of the African Great Lakes. It straddles the border between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda

Overnight: (Budget, Midmarket, Upmarket)

Meal Plan: Full Board

After breakfast, the early part of the day is spent in Gisenyi, the largest port on the Rwandan shore of Lake Kivu. Enjoy a boat ride to one of the islands in Lake Kivu. Explore the town, enjoying the hustle and bustle of the local market or wander through the leafy streets, admiring the old colonial buildings. Enjoy a nourishing lunch, and set off on a 3-hour drive back to Kigali later in the afternoon, arriving for an overnight stay at your hotel.

Overnight: (Budget, Midmarket, Upmarket)

Meal Plan: Bed and Breakfast

Depending on your flight departure, we could pay a visit to the Ntarama Church. It’s where mass killings with over 5,000 victims occurred during the 1994 genocide. The Ntarama Genocide Memorial is located about 30 km (19 miles or so) south of the capital city of Kigali. Learn about the unity and reconciliation commission. Proceed to Nyamata memorial site, a church where around 2,500 people were killed, now testament of the barbaric treatment of women during the genocide. In the church at Nyamata, there will be graphic, audio-visual displays that will focus particularly on the mass rape and brutalization of women, as well as the use of HIV as a deliberate weapon of genocide.

 Return to the city for lunch, and then you will be offered an airport transfer onto Kigali International Airport.