1 Day Akagera National Park Wildlife Safari

Safari highlights

• Game drives across Akagera's savannah, hills and lakes
• Chance to see elephants, giraffes, zebras, buffalo and hippos
• Possibility of spotting lions and black rhinos
• Rich birdlife including water birds and raptors
• Short drive from Kigali

Itinerary route map

1. Kigali
2. Akagera National Park

Day-by-day itinerary

1. 01
   Day 1 Kigali to Akagera National Park and back

   Depart Kigali early in the morning, around 5:30, and drive east for about two to two and a half hours to the park's southern entrance at Kayonza. The road passes lively villages and rolling farmland, and the landscape opens into acacia woodland and savannah as you approach the park. You can have breakfast on the way.

   Akagera is Rwanda's only savannah park and has benefited from major conservation efforts, including the return of lions and black rhinos. You spend the day on game drives through varied habitats, from open grassland to wetlands, looking for elephants, giraffes, zebras, buffalo, hippos, topis, impalas and many bird species. Your guide explains how the park is managed and how local communities benefit from tourism.

   A picnic lunch is taken in the park, perhaps at a lakeshore viewpoint, and you continue game viewing through the afternoon when animals are active. Your guide shares knowledge about the park's ecology and recovery. Late in the afternoon you leave the park and drive back to Kigali, arriving in the evening.