Arrive in Kigali

Your guide meets the family at Kigali airport and takes you to your hotel. There is no schedule on the first day, so everyone can settle in at their own pace.

Depending on your arrival time, your guide can take you on a short drive around the city, with viewpoints over the hills and a stop at a craft cooperative where you can browse baskets, ceramics and textiles. Dinner, then an early night.

• Airport pickup and hotel check-in
• Optional short city drive
• Family dinner

Kigali City & Culture

After breakfast your guide takes you to Kimironko Market, the city's largest open-air market. Children enjoy the colour and noise, the fruit stalls and the craft stands. Look for agaseke baskets and imigongo painted panels made by the people selling them.

Your guide can add visits to craft cooperatives or cultural centres, adjusted to your children's ages. The Kigali Genocide Memorial is an optional visit. Your guide will advise on whether it suits your family, and the decision is yours.

Lunch is at a family-friendly restaurant in the centre, where you can try brochettes, isombe (cassava leaves with beans) and fresh juice. The afternoon is free at the hotel pool or garden.

• Kimironko Market
• Optional craft cooperative, cultural centre or memorial visit
• Lunch in the city, then free afternoon

Kigali → Lake Kivu

You drive west through terraced hills and tea estates. Your guide explains the farming and villages along the way, and children often enjoy the tea bushes rolling over every hillside. The drive takes about three to three and a half hours.

When Lake Kivu comes into view, you check in at your lakeside lodge. The afternoon is free for swimming, a beach walk, or watching the fishing boats come in at sunset.

• Scenic drive west through tea country
• Check in at the lakeside lodge
• Free afternoon on the beach or at the pool

Lake Kivu Cruise & Family Activities

After breakfast you take a boat out on the lake to visit small islands, some of them forested and home only to birds, others with fishing communities. Your guide explains how people fish the lake. Life jackets are provided for everyone, and the crew are experienced.

The afternoon is up to you. Active families can go kayaking on the calm water or cycle along the lakeshore path. Others can take a guided nature walk, or just swim and rest at the lodge.

• Island boat cruise on Lake Kivu
• Kayaking, cycling, nature walk or beach time
• Life jackets for all water activities

Lake Kivu → Nyungwe Forest

You drive south along the lake, then climb inland to the highlands. The road passes through the Gisakura tea estate, where your guide stops at a viewpoint over the plantation.

You reach Nyungwe Forest National Park in the early or mid afternoon. A ranger leads the family on a gentle walk to a waterfall. The trail is easy and suits children and older travellers. Along the way the ranger points out birds, butterflies and the plants local communities use as medicine.

• Drive through Gisakura tea estate
• Ranger-led waterfall walk in Nyungwe Forest

Nyungwe → Kigali & Departure

After breakfast you drive back to Kigali, about four hours. Your guide stops at viewpoints along the way, including the Congo-Nile Divide ridge, where rain falling on one side flows to the Congo River and on the other to the Nile. There's time for a last craft stop if you want one.

You reach Kigali airport in good time for your flight.

• Scenic viewpoints and Congo-Nile Divide stop
• Optional craft stop
• Transfer to Kigali airport