10 Days East Africa from Kigali
Overview
This 10 Days Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda Gorillas Safari from Kigali is an incredible East African adventure combining mountain gorilla trekking in Uganda with world-famous wildlife experiences in Kenya and Tanzania. The safari takes you through Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Masai Mara National Reserve, Serengeti National Park, and Ngorongoro Conservation Area, offering opportunities to see mountain gorillas, the Big Five, the Great Migration depending on the season, and some of Africa’s most spectacular landscapes.
The journey begins in Kigali, Rwanda, and ends in Arusha, Tanzania, making it one of the most rewarding multi-country safaris in East Africa.
Safari Highlights
- Gorilla trekking
- Nature walks
- Game drive
- Boat cruise
Detailed Itinerary
Day 1: Arrival in Kigali, Rwanda
Upon arrival at Kigali International Airport, you will be welcomed by your safari guide and transferred to your hotel.
Depending on your arrival time, enjoy a short Kigali city tour including local markets, craft centres, and cultural attractions.
Accommodation Options
Budget: Eagle View Lodge Kigali
Mid-range: Hotel des Mille Collines
Luxury: Kigali Serena Hotel
Meals: Dinner
Day 2: Kigali to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park
After breakfast, depart Kigali and drive through Rwanda’s beautiful countryside towards the Uganda border.
After immigration formalities, continue to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, home to nearly half of the world’s remaining mountain gorillas.
Arrive at your lodge in the afternoon and spend the evening relaxing while preparing for the next day’s trek.
Accommodation Options
Budget: Rushaga Gorilla Camp
Mid-range: Ichumbi Gorilla Lodge
Luxury: Four Gorillas Lodge
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Day 3: Gorilla Trekking in Bwindi
After an early breakfast, proceed to the park headquarters for a briefing by Uganda Wildlife Authority rangers.
Begin your trek through the rainforest in search of a habituated gorilla family. The trek can take several hours depending on the gorillas’ location.
Once located, spend one unforgettable hour observing these magnificent primates in their natural habitat.
Return to the lodge for lunch and relaxation.
Accommodation
As above
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Day 4: Transfer to Kigali and Flight to Nairobi
After breakfast, drive back to Kigali and transfer to Kigali International Airport for your flight to Nairobi, Kenya.
Upon arrival, meet your Kenyan safari guide and transfer to your hotel.
Accommodation Options
Budget: Ibis Styles Nairobi
Mid-range: Tamarind Tree Hotel
Luxury: Nairobi Serena Hotel
Meals: Breakfast and Dinner
Day 5: Nairobi to Masai Mara National Reserve
After breakfast, drive through the Great Rift Valley towards Masai Mara National Reserve.
Arrive in time for lunch before enjoying your first afternoon game drive.
Search for lions, elephants, buffaloes, giraffes, cheetahs, zebras, and numerous antelope species.
Accommodation Options
Budget: Enchoro Wildlife Camp
Mid-range: Zebra Plains Mara Camp
Luxury: Mara Serena Safari Lodge
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Day 6: Full Day Safari in Masai Mara
Spend the entire day exploring the vast plains of the Masai Mara.
Look for the Big Five and, depending on the season, witness the Great Migration as thousands of wildebeest and zebras move across the ecosystem.
Enjoy a picnic lunch in the reserve before continuing your wildlife viewing adventure.
Accommodation
As above
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Day 7: Flight to Serengeti National Park
After breakfast, transfer to the airstrip for a flight to Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park.
Upon arrival, begin a game drive through one of Africa’s greatest wildlife destinations.
Spend the afternoon searching for predators, elephants, giraffes, and large herds of plains game.
Accommodation Options
Budget: Tukaone Serengeti Camp
Mid-range: Serengeti Tortilis Camp
Luxury: Serengeti Serena Safari Lodge
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Day 8: Full Day Serengeti Safari
Enjoy a full day exploring the Serengeti.
Visit different regions of the park in search of lions, leopards, cheetahs, elephants, hyenas, and vast herds of wildebeest and zebras.
The Serengeti offers some of the best wildlife photography opportunities in Africa.
Accommodation
As above
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Day 9: Serengeti to Ngorongoro Conservation Area
After breakfast, enjoy a final morning game drive before departing for the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.
Arrive at the crater rim and enjoy spectacular views of the world’s largest intact volcanic caldera.
Spend the evening at your lodge overlooking the crater.
Accommodation Options
Budget: Rhino Lodge
Mid-range: Ngorongoro Farm House
Luxury: Ngorongoro Serena Safari Lodge
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Day 10: Ngorongoro Crater Safari and Departure
After an early breakfast, descend into the Ngorongoro Crater for a half-day game drive.
The crater supports an incredible concentration of wildlife including lions, elephants, buffaloes, zebras, wildebeest, hyenas, and the rare black rhino.
After lunch, drive to Arusha where you will be transferred to Kilimanjaro International Airport for your onward flight.
Meals: Breakfast and Lunch
Optional Activities
Kigali
- Kigali Genocide Memorial visit
- Inema Arts Centre tour
- Coffee tasting experience
- Local market tour
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park
- Batwa cultural experience
- Gorilla habituation experience
- Guided forest walks
- Bird watching excursions
Masai Mara National Reserve
- Hot air balloon safari
- Maasai village visit
- Night game drive in conservancies
- Bush breakfast experience
Serengeti National Park
- Hot air balloon safari
- Walking safari
- Cultural village visit
- Photography safari
Ngorongoro Conservation Area
- Olduvai Gorge visit
- Maasai cultural experience
- Nature walks around the crater rim
Tour Includes
- Travel in a 4×4 car
- Professional guide
- Park fees
- Accommodation
- Meals
- All Activities In Itinerary
Tour Excludes
- Alcoholic drinks
- Laundry
- Tips
- Shopping
- Insurance
- Anything not included per itinerary
A Three-Country East Africa Circuit
This ten-day itinerary combines gorilla trekking in Uganda with wildlife highlights from both Kenya and Tanzania, starting from Kigali and moving across the region to cover mountain gorillas alongside classic savannah destinations like the Maasai Mara or Serengeti, depending on the specific route.
Covering three countries in ten days is ambitious, and this itinerary typically uses a mix of road transfers and short regional flights to keep travel time manageable given the distances between Uganda’s gorilla trekking parks and East Africa’s savannah circuits further east.
Practical Notes
A Uganda e-visa or East Africa Tourist Visa, arranged before travel, is required for most nationalities, along with a yellow fever vaccination certificate if arriving from a country with risk of transmission. Travel insurance covering trekking or wildlife activities and medical evacuation is strongly recommended, and malaria prevention is worth discussing with a travel health clinic ahead of your trip.
US dollars printed after 2009 are widely accepted for park fees, permits and lodge bills, while local currency is more practical for tips and smaller day-to-day purchases. Mobile network coverage is generally reliable at lodges and along main routes but becomes patchy inside the parks themselves.
Because permits and lodge availability are limited, particularly during the June to September and December to February peak seasons, we recommend booking this itinerary well in advance, especially given the multiple destinations and border crossings this trip involves.
Tipping is customary though not compulsory. Rangers and trackers typically receive a tip at the end of any trekking activity, scaled to group size, while your driver-guide, who accompanies you throughout the trip, is usually tipped separately at the end. We’re glad to advise on typical tipping ranges when you book.
A private 4×4 safari vehicle with an experienced English-speaking driver-guide accompanies you throughout this itinerary, handling both park game-viewing tracks and the road transfers and border crossings this trip involves.
Who This Itinerary Suits
This itinerary suits travelers with the time and interest to cover Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania’s headline experiences in a single trip, gorilla trekking alongside classic East African savannah wildlife, rather than choosing between a primate-focused or a Big Five-focused itinerary.
Given the number of countries and border logistics involved, we coordinate visas, permits and regional flight connections directly as part of this booking, and recommend discussing your specific priorities with us early in the planning process.
Gorilla Permits and Booking
Only a limited number of gorilla trekking permits are issued for Bwindi each day, one per visitor per habituated family, which keeps groups small and disturbance to the gorillas to a minimum — a maximum of eight visitors are allowed with each family per day. Because demand regularly outstrips supply during the peak dry seasons, permits are best secured well in advance of travel; we handle the full booking process through the Uganda Wildlife Authority as part of your itinerary so you arrive with everything confirmed. Each permit covers one hour with the gorillas once they are located, though the trek itself to reach them is unregulated in length. Visitors under fifteen years of age and anyone showing symptoms of a communicable illness are not permitted to trek, a rule designed to protect the gorillas, which share close to 98% of human DNA and are highly susceptible to human respiratory infections.
The Great Migration in the Masai Mara
The Masai Mara National Reserve, an extension of Tanzania’s Serengeti ecosystem across the Kenyan border, is best known for the Great Migration, when over a million wildebeest along with hundreds of thousands of zebra and gazelle cross into the Mara between roughly July and October in search of fresh grazing. The dramatic river crossings at the Mara and Talek rivers, where crocodiles lie in wait and the herds must overcome both the current and steep banks, are among the most sought-after wildlife spectacles on the continent. Outside migration season, the Mara remains one of Africa’s most productive game-viewing areas year-round, with resident populations of lion, leopard, cheetah and elephant supported by its open, rolling grassland.
Nairobi City and Wildlife Highlights
Nairobi is one of the few capital cities in the world with a national park inside its boundaries, and a morning game drive in Nairobi National Park, with the city’s skyline visible behind grazing giraffe and rhino, is a genuinely unusual way to begin a Kenya safari. The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust’s Elephant Orphanage, where visitors can watch orphaned elephant calves being cared for and readied for eventual release back into the wild, and the Giraffe Centre, which lets visitors hand-feed endangered Rothschild’s giraffe at eye level, are both popular half-day additions for travellers with time before or after their safari.
Wildlife and the Great Migration in the Serengeti
The Serengeti’s vast, open plains support one of the last great terrestrial wildlife migrations on earth, as roughly two million wildebeest, zebra and gazelle move in a broadly circular pattern through the ecosystem each year, following the rains in search of fresh grass. Depending on the season, this can mean vast herds spread across the southern plains during calving season, dramatic river crossings in the west and north, or smaller, more dispersed groups elsewhere in the park — so the exact experience varies considerably by month. Beyond the migration, the Serengeti’s year-round resident wildlife, including some of Africa’s largest lion prides and healthy cheetah and leopard populations, makes it a rewarding destination regardless of when the herds themselves are present.
Wildlife Density in the Ngorongoro Crater
The Ngorongoro Crater, the world’s largest intact volcanic caldera, contains an estimated 25,000 large mammals within its roughly 260-square-kilometre floor, a natural enclosure formed when a volcano larger than Kilimanjaro collapsed in on itself some two to three million years ago. Because the crater walls largely confine the resident wildlife year-round, sighting rates for lion, elephant, buffalo, hippo and the crater’s small but present population of black rhino are exceptionally high regardless of season, making it one of the most reliable single-day game drives in Africa. The descent into the crater floor along a steep access road, followed by a full day exploring the grassland, swamp and forest habitats within, is typically treated as its own dedicated day on a Tanzania itinerary.
Get Your Tailored 10 Days Tanzania + kenya + Uganda gorillas from Kigali
Uganda Safari Photos
Our Green Spot Campaign
Every safari with us supports our Green Spot Campaign — planting trees across Uganda’s communities. Learn more & get involved →
All in Africa Safaris arranges tours to Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya and Tanzania
3 Days Murchison Falls Safari
Discover the Wildlife in the Murchison Falls National Park with engagement with a boat cruise and game drives which lead to a nature walk on top of the falls
4 Days Gorillas & Queen Wildlife
Visit the magical national parks of Uganda known as Bwindi Forest and Queen Elizabeth National Park including gorilla trekking and wildlife views for travelers
5 Days Gorillas & Chimps Track
Explore the great Mgahinga National Park conserving and protecting the endangered Mountain gorillas & chimpanzees in the pearl of Africa
6 Days Uganda Safari
Visit the magical national parks of Uganda known as Bwindi Forest and Queen Elizabeth National Park which include the gorilla trekking and wildlife views
1 Day Bwindi Gorilla Tour from Kigali
A fast-paced day trip from Kigali into Bwindi Impenetrable Forest for a single unforgettable hour with a mountain gorilla family
3 Days Chimpanzee Tracking in Kibale
Track chimpanzees through Africa’s primate capital, Kibale Forest, alongside a community walk through Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary
4 Days Kidepo Valley Wildlife Safari
Venture into Uganda’s most remote wilderness for cheetahs, ostriches and dramatic mountain scenery few visitors ever see
7 Day Kidepo and Sipi Safari
Combine Kidepo Valley’s wild plains with waterfall hikes and coffee tours in the Sipi Falls region
10 Days Rwanda Uganda Safari
A complete circuit through Volcanoes, Bwindi, Queen Elizabeth and Kibale for gorillas, chimps and classic wildlife
12 Days Uganda Leisure Holidays
An unhurried two-week journey through Murchison Falls, Kibale, Queen Elizabeth, Bwindi and Lake Mburo
14 Days Uganda Northern Circuit
Explore Kidepo Valley, Murchison Falls and Sipi Falls on this off-the-beaten-path northern adventure
15 Days Uganda Safari
Uganda’s full highlight reel across two relaxed weeks of gorillas, chimps, wildlife and scenic countryside