Upon your arrival, meet the guide and thereafter transfer to your hotel for dinner and overnight.
After breakfast, you will have a guided tour at the Kigali Genocide Memorial Center. The center is the final resting place for more than 250,000 victims of the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. It honors the memory of the more than one million Rwandans killed in 1994 through education and peace-building. You will also visit a couple of other places and later retire to your lodge for dinner and rest.
After breakfast, your tour will start your day with a visit to Ntarama Church, where mass killings occurred during the dreaded 1994 genocide. The church was the site of the deaths of more than 5,000 people and remains a powerful reminder of the horrifying violence that took place during Rwanda’s infamous genocide. While visiting the church, you’ll also learn more about the efforts to reunite Rwanda’s people following the genocide.
We’ll then proceed to Nyamata Church, where a further 2,500 people were massacred during the genocide. The church is also closely associated with the barbaric treatment of women during the genocide, and you’ll learn more about the incidences of mass rape, brutalization, and even the horrific use of HIV as a weapon of genocide.
You’ll then be taken to the village of Mayange, where a revolutionary project to reconcile the perpetrators and survivors of the 1994 Genocide by having them live side by side is underway. You’ll be taken on a guided tour of the Reconciliation Village, learning about how the healing process between victims and perpetrators is taking place.
You’ll then have lunch with the locals before continuing your tour of the Reconciliation Village with visits to facilities such as the school and health centre, the local plantations, and an art gallery.
After your busy day of discovery, you’ll continue on to Musanze to overnight (FB)
After an early breakfast, you’ll get to meet the youth of Rwanda and see how they’re being prepared for the future by visiting a local school. You’ll not only get to meet and interact with these children, but you’ll also have the opportunity to teach a class or play games with these smiling kids.
Once your morning with the kids is done, you’ll drive to the world famous Imbabazi Orphanage where Rosamond Halsey Carr and her staff cared for more than 400 Rwandan orphanages. While the orphanage was closed down by the Rwandan government, you can still visit the homestead and roam its grounds as you learn more about the author of ‘Land of a Thousand Hills: My Life in Rwanda’.You’ll have lunch at the Serena Lake Kivu, and in the afternoon you can pay a visit to a local fishing village as well as a hot springs.
You’ll overnight in Gisenyi, Rwanda’s largest port city which sits on the shores of Lake Kivu. You’ll have the opportunity to both explore the quaint colonial town and (if time allows) even take a dip in the vast freshwater lake’s cool waters.
Have breakfast, and then drive to Nyanza, the historical seat of the ancient Rwandan kings and visit the Palace, then drive to Butare, Rwanda cultural centre and visit the National Museum. Drive to Kigaliand tour the city. Evening experience the cultural performances of the Batwa Pottery Project with an introduction to the life of the first Rwandans, their art of pottery as well as singing, drumming and dancing. Return to lodge for dinner and overnight.
After breakfast, you’ll be driven back to Kigali where you’ll enjoy a complimentary city tour including visits to the Natural History Museum and local craft markets.
You’ll then to be taken to your hotel or the airport dependent on your travel plans.
