9-Day Rwanda Luxury Flying Safari: Gorillas, Chimpanzees & Big Five by Helicopter.

Your journey begins the moment you clear customs at Kigali International Airport, where a member of our team meets you personally at arrivals and manages your transfer directly to your hotel. The remainder of the day is intentionally unstructured, allowing you to recover from your international flight and adjust to the time zone before the safari itself begins.

Over dinner, your guide will walk you through the nine days ahead, including how the helicopter transfers between parks are timed, what to expect from each of the three trekking permits, and how the itinerary has been sequenced to build gradually toward the gorilla trek in the middle of the trip.

Accommodation: your choice of Kigali’s leading luxury hotels. Meals: Dinner.

After a relaxed breakfast, you transfer to the airfield for a short scenic flight to Akagera National Park in Rwanda’s far east, along the Tanzanian border, a flight of roughly fifteen minutes that replaces what would otherwise be a two-to-three-hour road transfer. From the air, Rwanda’s terraced hillsides give way abruptly to Akagera’s open savannah, wetland, and acacia woodland as you descend toward the park’s airstrip.

Akagera is Rwanda’s only savannah park and the site of one of Africa’s most successful conservation turnarounds: the lion was reintroduced in 2015 and the eastern black rhino in 2017, both after being locally extinct for over a decade, and the park now holds a genuine Big Five population alongside giraffe, buffalo, hippo, and more than 500 recorded bird species. The remainder of the day is spent settling into your lodge, with an afternoon game drive and, depending on timing, a first look at Lake Ihema from the shore.

Accommodation: Wilderness Magashi Camp, an exclusive tented camp on the shore of Lake Rwanyakazinga with its own private airstrip, or Ruzizi Tented Lodge on Lake Ihema. Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner.

Today is dedicated entirely to Akagera, with an early departure timed to catch the park at its most active the hour after sunrise, when predators are often still moving and the light across the savannah is at its best for photography. The drive follows ranger intelligence on recent sightings of lions, rhinos, and elephants, crossing terrain that shifts between open plains, dense woodland, and wetland fringes.

A picnic lunch is taken out in the field so the day is not broken up by a return drive to camp, and the afternoon continues with further game viewing, often including a stop near Lake Ihema for hippo, crocodile, and the strong birdlife the lake reliably produces. Guests with a serious interest in birding will want to allow extra time here, as Akagera’s bird checklist rivals far larger East African reserves.

Accommodation: as Day 2. Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner.

After breakfast, you transfer back to the airstrip for your onward flight to Nyungwe National Park in Rwanda’s south-west, typically routed via Kigali. Where the drive between these two parks can consume the better part of a day, the flight compresses that same distance into a fraction of the time, delivering you into one of Africa’s oldest montane rainforests with the whole afternoon still ahead of you.

On arrival, your guide meets you and transfers you to your lodge, set at the edge of the forest. Nyungwe shelters thirteen primate species and an exceptional bird list, and the shift in scenery from Akagera’s open savannah to dense, humid cloud forest is immediate and dramatic; most guests notice the drop in temperature and the sound of the forest within minutes of arrival. The rest of the afternoon is free to settle in ahead of tomorrow’s chimpanzee trek.

Accommodation: One&Only Nyungwe House, set inside a working tea estate on the forest edge. Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner.

Today begins early, with a strong cup of Rwandan coffee before you transfer to the park office for your ranger briefing and chimpanzee trek. The trek moves through dense, humid forest along narrow trails cut into steep hillsides, tracking a habituated chimpanzee community by sound as much as sight; their calls carry through the canopy well before you see them. Once located, you are given a full hour in their company, watching them forage, groom, and move through the upper canopy with a fluid confidence that is genuinely startling to witness at close range for the first time.

After a lunch back at the lodge, the afternoon shifts to Nyungwe’s suspended canopy walk, a series of steel bridges hung 70 meters above the forest floor that deliver an entirely different vantage point on the same ecosystem you walked through that morning. The walk takes roughly ninety minutes at an easy pace, and with a little luck you may spot additional primates moving through the canopy below or alongside the bridges.

Logistics note: chimpanzee trekking in Nyungwe involves steeper, more humid terrain than many travellers expect, and treks can last from one to several hours, depending on where the community is ranging that morning. Sturdy hiking boots and rain-ready layers are essential regardless of season. Accommodation: as Day 4. Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner.

After breakfast, you transfer to the airstrip for the final inter-park flight of the trip, a roughly twenty-minute hop north to Volcanoes National Park that rewards you with sweeping aerial views over Lake Kivu before the Virunga Mountains come into view on the horizon. It is, for many guests, the single most memorable leg of the entire journey, the volcanic cones of Karisimbi, Bisoke, and Sabyinyo rising directly ahead as you begin your descent.

On arrival, your guides are waiting to transfer you to your lodge in the foothills of the volcanoes. The remainder of the day is left deliberately unstructured: this is your last chance to rest, review your gorilla trekking briefing notes, and prepare gear before tomorrow’s main event.

Accommodation: Your choice of Bisate Lodge, Singita Kwitonda Lodge, One&Only Gorilla’s Nest, or Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge. Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner.

This is the day the entire itinerary has been building toward. After breakfast, your guide collects you for the transfer to the park’s Kinigi headquarters, where you receive the official Rwanda Development Board ranger briefing and are assigned to a specific gorilla family based on fitness levels discussed with our team in advance.

The trek begins on cultivated farmland at the park’s edge before entering the forest itself, a shifting mix of bamboo stands, stinging-nettle understorey, and montane hardwood that thins as the trail climbs. Depending on which family you are assigned and how far they have moved overnight, the walk to reach them can take anywhere from under an hour to several hours each way, at altitudes starting around 2,500 to 3,000 meters.

When you encounter the family, you spend a strict one hour in their presence, accompanied throughout by armed park rangers and expert trackers. A few descriptions fully prepare first-time visitors for how close and unguarded this encounter feels: a silverback moving through vegetation only meters away, juveniles wrestling in the undergrowth, and an infant clinging to its mother’s back as she feeds. Photography and video are permitted, without flash. The walk back to the trailhead is often quieter than the climb in, as most guests spend it processing what they have just witnessed before returning to the lodge for lunch and a relaxed evening.

Logistics note: expect a wake-up call around 5:00am, dress in warm, waterproof layers regardless of season, and bring hiking poles or plan to hire one at the trailhead. Accommodation: as of Day 6. Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner.

On your final morning in Volcanoes National Park, you trek golden monkeys, an endangered primate found only in the bamboo forests of the Albertine Rift. After a briefing at park headquarters on the code of conduct for the trek, you head into the lower-altitude bamboo zone considerably less demanding underfoot than yesterday’s gorilla trek to find one of the park’s large, habituated golden monkey troops, typically thirty or more animals moving rapidly through the canopy.

After roughly an hour with the troop, you visit the Iby’iwacu Cultural Village near the park boundary, where former poachers and local community members now share traditional dance, music, and demonstrations of pre-colonial Rwandan life, a meaningful, community-linked counterpoint to the past two days of wildlife encounters. Following a leisurely lunch, you begin the road transfer back to Kigali, arriving in the early evening in time for a final dinner in the capital.

Accommodation: your choice of Kigali’s leading luxury hotels. Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner.

After a final breakfast, and depending on your onward flight schedule, you are transferred to Kigali International Airport for your international departure, bringing a nine-day journey across three national parks, three primate treks, and some of the most scenic flying in East Africa to a close.

Meals: Breakfast.

A standard permit for gorilla trekking in Rwanda costs USD 1,500 per person, a fee set by the Rwanda Development Board. This is separate from the overall safari package price, which also covers accommodation, helicopter transfers, meals, guides, and the other permits and activities on this itinerary.

For travellers who want to cover all three of Rwanda’s national parks without losing days of their trip to the road, a helicopter safari is genuinely transformative: it turns transfers that would otherwise take a full day of driving into a twenty-minute scenic flight, and it delivers aerial views of Lake Kivu and the Virunga volcanoes that are simply not visible from the ground.

On this itinerary, the flight from Kigali to Akagera National Park takes roughly 15 minutes, and the flight from Nyungwe National Park to Volcanoes National Park takes roughly 20 minutes. Exact flight times vary depending on routing, aircraft, and weather conditions on the day.

Chimpanzee trekking permit fees in Nyungwe are set by the Rwanda Development Board and are confirmed at the time of booking, since rates are periodically revised, but the current price is $250 per person. We include the current permit fee in every formal quotation for this itinerary.

A reasonable level of general fitness is recommended for the chimpanzee and gorilla treks in particular, since both involve steep, uneven terrain and can run several hours depending on where the animals are ranging that day. Akagera’s game drives and golden monkey trekking are considerably gentler, making this itinerary broadly manageable for most reasonably active travellers when paced as intended.

Neither destination is universally better; they suit different priorities. Rwanda offers shorter transfer times between parks, especially on a flying safari like this one, a wider selection of true luxury lodges, and a higher permit cost, while Uganda offers lower permit prices and a larger number of habituated gorilla families spread across two parks. A full comparison is available on our Rwanda vs Uganda Gorilla Trekking page.

The two dry seasons, June to September and December to February offer the firmest trekking conditions for gorillas and chimpanzees and generally the clearest flying conditions for the helicopter transfers, making them the most popular booking windows. The wetter months of March to May and October to November bring muddier trails and can occasionally affect flight visibility, though parks are typically quieter.

We recommend booking four to six months ahead of travel for peak dry-season dates, since both gorilla and chimpanzee permits are limited in daily supply and demand regularly exceeds availability during June–September and December–February. Helicopter charters are generally scheduled once permit dates are confirmed.

Porters are available at the trailhead to help carry gear and offer physical support on steep sections, and rangers can adjust pace throughout the walk. If a guest genuinely cannot continue, park staff will assist with a safe return to the trailhead; permit fees are non-refundable in this scenario, which is one reason we discuss fitness and health honestly with every guest before booking.

Rwanda Development Board rules set a minimum age of 15 for both mountain gorilla trekking and chimpanzee trekking. There is no strict minimum age for golden monkey trekking or Akagera’s game drives, so families with younger children may wish to adjust or substitute the two primate trekking days.

Waterproof hiking boots, gardening-style gloves, long sleeves and trousers, a genuinely waterproof rain jacket, and a soft-sided duffel bag suitable for light aircraft luggage restrictions are essential. A full packing list for this itinerary is set out above.

Yes. Every trek is accompanied by armed park rangers and experienced trackers; strict distance and group-size protocols are enforced to protect both visitors and gorillas, and Rwanda’s mountain gorilla population has grown consistently under this conservation model over the past two decades.

Most nationalities can obtain a Rwanda visa on arrival or in advance via the online East Africa Tourist Visa system. Visa fees are not included in this itinerary; we advise confirming requirements for your specific nationality before travel.

Yes. Travellers with additional time often extend a Rwanda flying safari with a Tanzania or Kenya wildlife extension or a Zanzibar beach stay to close the trip. Speak to our team about tailoring the sequence and inter-country flights to your available time.

A standard permit places you in a shared group of up to eight visitors with a habituated gorilla family for one hour, as included in this itinerary. An exclusive permit, priced considerably higher, grants a private group full-day access to a chosen family. Details are available on our exclusive gorilla trekking guide.