10 Days in Rwanda & Tanzania

AFTERNOON

Arrive at Kigali International Airport and transfer to your hotel in the city. Kigali is one of Africa’s cleanest and most orderly capitals — a city of hills, gardens, and quiet ambition. After settling in, the rest of the day is yours to explore at leisure or simply rest before the journey ahead.

EVENING

Dinner at the hotel. Your guide will brief you on the coming days over a relaxed meal, with particular focus on tomorrow’s drive to the Virungas.

MORNING

After breakfast, drive north toward Musanze and the foothills of the Virunga Mountains. The road climbs steadily through terraced hillsides, banana plantations, and small villages that give way to cool forest and eucalyptus. The drive takes roughly two and a half hours and offers a vivid introduction to Rwanda’s rural landscape.

AFTERNOON

Check in to your lodge near the park boundary. The air here is cooler and the light softer — you are now at the edge of one of Africa’s most important conservation zones. Spend the afternoon at leisure, walking the lodge grounds or visiting a nearby community project. This is a good day to rest your legs before tomorrow’s trek.

EVENING

Dinner at the lodge with views toward the volcanic peaks. An early night is recommended — gorilla trekking begins at first light.

MORNING

Report to the Volcanoes National Park headquarters at 07:00 for your gorilla trekking briefing. Rangers will assign you a gorilla family and guide group before the trek begins. The hike passes through cultivated fields and into dense bamboo and montane forest, climbing between 2,500 and 3,000 metres. The terrain is steep in places, the undergrowth thick, and the anticipation considerable. When you find the gorillas — and you will — you are given one hour in their presence. It is, without exaggeration, one of the most powerful wildlife encounters on Earth.

AFTERNOON

Descend back to the trailhead and return to Kigali. The drive takes approximately two and a half hours. You may wish to visit the Kigali Genocide Memorial en route — a deeply moving and important experience. Arrive in Kigali by late afternoon and check into your hotel.

EVENING

A final evening in Kigali. Dinner at leisure. Tomorrow you cross into Tanzania.

MORNING

Transfer to Kigali International Airport for your flight to Kilimanjaro International Airport in Tanzania. The flight takes approximately one hour and forty-five minutes, crossing the breadth of East Africa’s rift landscape.

AFTERNOON

On arrival at Kilimanjaro, you will be met by your Inspire guide and transferred to your lodge in Arusha. The drive is roughly forty-five minutes. Arusha sits at the base of Mount Meru and serves as the gateway to Tanzania’s northern safari circuit. Settle in and enjoy the change in atmosphere — from Rwanda’s highland intimacy to Tanzania’s wide-open energy.

EVENING

Dinner at the lodge. Your guide will walk you through the safari days ahead — the Serengeti, the Crater, and Tarangire.

MORNING

Transfer to Arusha’s domestic airstrip for your scheduled flight to the central Serengeti. As the aircraft descends over the Seronera Valley, the landscape shifts from green highlands to an expanse of golden grassland broken by granite kopjes and ribbons of riverine forest. This is the heart of the Serengeti — and it is exactly as vast as it sounds.

AFTERNOON

Met on arrival and begin your first game drive directly from the airstrip. The central Serengeti is renowned for its resident predator populations — lion prides, cheetah, leopard in the kopjes, and hyena clans that patrol the open ground. The Seronera River draws large herds of buffalo and hippo, and the surrounding plains support giraffe, topi, and eland throughout the year.

EVENING

Arrive at your camp as the sun lowers. Sundowners, dinner, and the particular silence of a Serengeti night — broken only by distant calls. Optional: Hot Air Balloon Safari — A pre-dawn ascent over the plains, drifting silently above the wildlife, followed by champagne breakfast in the bush. USD 490 per person.

MORNING

An early start into the Seronera Valley. The first light in the Serengeti is exceptional — flat, golden, and full of movement. Your guide will track the morning’s activity: lion prides returning from overnight hunts, cheetah scanning the grasslands from termite mounds, jackal moving through the short grass. The kopjes are always worth circling; leopard often rest on their warm surfaces before the heat arrives.

AFTERNOON

Continue deeper into the ecosystem with a packed lunch. The Serengeti rewards patience — a seemingly empty plain can reveal a hunting sequence, a river crossing, or a congregation of vultures that signals something worth finding. Hippo pools, elephant herds along the Grumeti tributaries, and large mixed herds of zebra and wildebeest are constants in this region.

EVENING

Return to camp at dusk. Dinner and fireside conversation beneath a sky that seems closer here than anywhere else. Optional: Hot Air Balloon Safari — A pre-dawn ascent over the plains, drifting silently above the wildlife, followed by champagne breakfast in the bush. USD 490 per person.

MORNING

A second full day offers the chance to explore areas your guide may have earmarked the day before. The Serengeti is a place that reveals itself slowly — second days here tend to produce the most memorable sightings. The Moru Kopjes to the south, Makoma Hill, or the Retima hippo pool are all within reach and offer distinct landscapes and wildlife concentrations.

AFTERNOON

Continue exploring at your own pace. By now the rhythm of the Serengeti will have settled in — the unhurried movement between sightings, the long pauses to watch a pride or a herd, the feeling that the landscape extends further than you can see. This is what the Serengeti does best.

EVENING

A final evening in the Serengeti. Savour it.

MORNING

Drive southeast from the Serengeti through the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. The route follows the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater before descending 600 metres to the caldera floor — a collapsed volcanic basin that holds one of the densest concentrations of wildlife in Africa. Black rhino, lion, flamingo, buffalo, and elephant all inhabit this self-contained world, and sightings are remarkably close.

AFTERNOON

A full circuit of the crater floor, stopping at Lake Magadi for flamingo, the Lerai Forest for elephant and vervet monkeys, and the open grasslands where lion and hyena patrol. A packed lunch is taken within the crater. Ascend in the late afternoon and continue to your lodge in Karatu, a highland town in the shadow of the crater rim.

EVENING

Dinner at the lodge. The cooler highland air and garden setting in Karatu offer a welcome change of pace.

MORNING

Drive south to Tarangire National Park, known for its ancient baobab forests, seasonal elephant concentrations, and the Tarangire River that draws wildlife from across the surrounding steppe. The landscape here is different from the Serengeti — denser, more textured, with a distinctly African palette of rust, green, and grey.

AFTERNOON

A full afternoon game drive through Tarangire. Elephant herds of fifty or more are common along the river, and the park supports large populations of wildebeest, zebra, buffalo, and tree-climbing lion. Birdlife is outstanding, with over 500 species recorded. As the afternoon light shifts, the baobabs take on an almost sculptural presence against the sky.

EVENING

Depart Tarangire and drive to Arusha. Settle in to your lodge for a final evening. Dinner and time to reflect on a journey that moved from mountain gorillas to African plains in ten extraordinary days.

MORNING

After a leisurely breakfast, transfer to Kilimanjaro International Airport for your onward flight. Alternatively, extend your stay with a day in Arusha or a connection to Zanzibar. Your guide will assist with any final arrangements.