All itinerariesRwanda in 5 Days - Kigali and the Gorillas of Volcanoes National Park
Five days in Rwanda, two in Kigali and two at the foot of the Virunga volcanoes, around a gorilla permit booked months ahead.
≈ RWF 2,826,000 per person
Copies all 24 stops into a trip of your own, on your dates.
Scored by our reviewer at publish time — traveler ratings replace it at 3.
Five days on one road: two in Kigali, two and a half at the foot of the Virunga volcanoes, and one permit that has to be bought months before anything else. Everything here is inside Rwanda and priced in Rwandan francs, so there is no border and no second currency to reconcile. The number that decides whether this trip happens is the gorilla permit: USD 1,500 for a foreign non-resident, checked on 3 August 2026, which is roughly RWF 2,205,000 and about four fifths of the total below. It is not a ticket you buy on the day. Volcanoes National Park releases eight permits per habituated gorilla family per day and no more, which is a national ceiling of somewhere around 96 to 112 trekkers depending on how many families are open to visitors that season, and June to September sells out first. Book three to six months ahead through the Rwanda Development Board on the Irembo portal, or through a licensed operator, with your passport details, for one named date. Golden monkey trekking is a completely separate permit at USD 100 and is bought the same way, which is why day 4 exists as its own line rather than as an add-on. Two more rules that catch people. The briefing at the park headquarters in Kinigi is at 07:00 sharp and there is no public transport to Kinigi at that hour, so you sleep in Musanze or Kinigi and arrange a vehicle the night before; a missed briefing is a forfeited USD 1,500 with no refund. And the last Saturday of every month is Umuganda, three hours of compulsory national community work from 08:00 to 11:00 when businesses shut and traffic stops across the whole country - the Kigali Genocide Memorial opens at 13:00 that day instead of 09:00. Do not put a city day or the intercity transfer on it. Come in the long dry season from June to September or the short one from December to February; the long rains from March to May are the wettest months on a mountain that is wet anyway. Minimum age is 15 for gorillas and 12 for golden monkeys, and both are enforced at the desk.
Day by day
Day 1 — Kigali - the country's own account of itself, on a hill in GisoziKigali - the country's own account of itself, on a hill in Gisozi
Day 2 — A morning in Nyamirambo, then 110 km north to the volcanoesA morning in Nyamirambo, then 110 km north to the volcanoes
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Field checks & ratings
Every venue in this itinerary was checked against current public sources — opening hours, prices, closures — before it was published. Stops that aren't venues — transit legs, walks between them — aren't in the count.
Checked against tripadvisor.com · evendo.com · gorillafund.org · kgm.rw · chelipeacock.com · coffeebeansroutes.com + 9 more
How we check
Anything with a kitchen or a ticket gate is verified individually: the official site where one exists, plus recent traveler reviews. Public squares, parks and viewpoints get an existence check. A venue we can’t confirm is flagged below rather than quietly kept, and the whole itinerary is re-checked on a cadence — past 12 months without one, the checked claim is dropped and the date above stops being a promise.
+5 more flagged venues on the days beyond this preview.
Every venue was checked against current public sources — hours, prices, closures — before it was published. Walks and transit legs are not in the count.
checked against tripadvisor.com · evendo.com · gorillafund.org · kgm.rw · chelipeacock.com · coffeebeansroutes.com + 9 more
5 more flagged venues on the days beyond this preview.
How we check
Anything with a kitchen or a ticket gate is verified individually: the official site where one exists, plus recent traveler reviews. Public squares, parks and viewpoints get an existence check. A venue we can’t confirm is flagged below rather than quietly kept, and the whole itinerary is re-checked on a cadence — past 12 months without one, the checked claim is dropped and the date above stops being a promise.