Volcanoes National Park Day Pass

Wonderful experience tracking the mountain gorillas. Our guide, Epa, was amazing and taught us so much. The hike was 6 hours and hard, but incredibly rewarding!

Hi everyone, i want to share my adventurous experience in Volcanoes National Park. In the first place i wanted to do the gorilla trekking but i was discouraged by the price of the permit which was 1500$ for internationals, so in my mind i was already planning other activities i could do and went on to do research and i come across a review of a tourist writing on a guide that made his stay in rwanda unforgettable. I took his contact and texted him and Woow the guy was full of ideas and i talked to him about the desire to see the gorillas and limitations that i had and he was like i have an option for you, he said ‘’you do the bisoke hike and you will see the gorillas’’ i asked him how sure are you? he said, am 70% sure, i was like okay and he went on suggesting me other activities to do around the volcanoes National Park. So the day come and i landed in kigali and the guide was the one who come to pick me up at the airport and drove me at the hotel. The next day early in the morning like 5:00 AM we took the road to the headquarters of Volcanoes National Park for briefings after that we went to the starting point of the hike, i re-asked my guide ‘’are you sure am going to see the gorilla on the way to the summit’’ he said, yes am sure 😅 with a smiling face and wished me good luck. I started the hike with a group of 10 people and only 6 people managed to reach on the top including me. On the top the view was breathtaking and fabulous, the park guide only gave us 30 minutes to rest and have something to eat. On my way down feeling exhausted i suddenly saw a mother gorilla carrying a child, i was shocked and surprised and on the other side i saw a silverback and the rest of the family, the park guide immediately told us that we have only 2 minutes to see them because it was not included in the package, with my frozen hands i managed to take some pictures and continued our way down, we reached the end point around 5:30 PM and Emmanuel my guide was waiting for me. on my way to the hotel i told him the whole story of the journey, and he was like ‘’i knew you were going to see them’’ 😅😅 The next day he drove me to do other activities that he suggested for me, i visited the Buhanga Eco-park, the caves of musanze, the gorilla guardians village and the Ellen DeGenere Campus all these places were amazing! That’s how my journey in rwanda ended with unforgettable memories but all these would not have happened without Emmanuel my personal guide he is so professional, experienced, comprehensive and drives smoothly. I would not finish describing him, i would recommend him to anyone who wants to have a fabulous stay in rwanda because he is familiar with all the parks found in rwanda. You can text him through WhatsApp on this number +250785019310. Thank!

I’d had the mountain gorilla trek on my to-do list for years. It lived up to my expectations and more. To spend an hour with a gorilla family is a truly magical experience and one that I would thoroughly recommend.

Over 3 days we did the gorilla, Dian Fossy and monkey hikes. The Dian Fossy hike was the hardest (6hrs round trip) because it rained that morning and the trail was more mud and river than anything else. Seeing the gorillas is magical and the golden monkeys are fun to watch. The guides or rangers are extremely knowledgeable and do quite a bit to ensure the tourists are safe, we had to hike around 20 forest buffalo, while also ensuring the animals are protected. Porters are definitely worth it, especially on the longer, muddier hikes. And there may be armed militia escortyou if the hike takes you close to the DRC border. It's a precaution and we didn't encounter any problems, even though we were 300m from the border.