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You are browsing the UK site. Visit our US site.
You are browsing the US site. Visit our UK site.
You are browsing the US site. Visit our Rest of World site.
You are browsing the UK site. Visit our US site.
You are browsing the US site. Visit our UK site.
You are browsing the US site. Visit our Rest of World site.
Family Holidays
Our team is full of family travellers, meaning we know what it takes to make sure everyone enjoys the experience just as much as each other.
Couples Holidays
Our couple itineraries are paced perfectly for you to enjoy the very best a country has to offer whilst making sure you enjoy the quality time together you’re after.
Group Holidays
No matter what the size or the occasion, we’re well versed in taking larger groups of people away for those special adventures.
Honeymoons
We’ve been crafting dream itineraries for newly married couples for years. Learn more about the ins and outs of our honeymoon service here.
Multi Generational Trips
From very small to very big. Families come in all shapes and sizes, and our multi-generational holidays are perfectly designed to tick the boxes for the whole family.
Anniversary Trips
Whether you’re celebrating as a couple, or across multiple generations, our anniversary trips are crafted around the milestone – and the people sharing it.
Travel With Teens
This is a list of the very best places to travel with teenagers – one that’s crammed with bragging rights (for them) and bonding moments (for you).
Grown Up Family Holidays
As your children become adults, your family trips are also due to change and grow. These are our favourite trips for you and your grown up family.
Solo Holidays
Our travel experts have experienced the thrills and challenges of solo travel, all with the aim of producing some of our most immersive and exciting itineraries.
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Safari Holidays
With a team of experts that have worked as conservationists and wildlife photographers, we have the expertise to make your safari dreams come true.
Remote Destinations
We’ve chosen these experiences, destinations and adventures to bring you closer to the great outdoors. This is your ticket to our wonderful world.
Unusual Holidays
The world may be conquered, but enough secrets remain to keep us up all night, dreaming of ways to whisk you off to the most unique corners of the globe. Where first?
Adventure Holidays
Hike across mountain ridgelines, scramble across glaciers and kayak down rivers – these trips are designed to immerse you in vast wildernesses and ancient cultures.
Beach Holidays
Porcelain shores, perfect seas and swaying palms; the allure of a beach break is hard to ignore. Which is why we handpick the best beachfront boltholes to offer you…
Food Holidays
Food and travel have long gone hand in hand, and we have put together some mouth-watering trips that capture the palate, of countries across the world. Bon appétit.
Slow Travel
As the world becomes busier, slow travel has never felt so fitting. Whether it’s meeting fishermen in Maine or learning the Dukha-way in Mongolia, take time to connect.
Eclipse Holidays
Eclipse travel celebrates our place in the wider cosmos. Let us take you to wherever in the world the eclipse is at its most arresting, and we’ll do it in style.
Proposal Service
Found the one and want to propose in style? The moment will be a memory forever and we’re here to help you make sure it’s the most perfect moment for you and your loved one.
Train Travel
“It’s not the destination, it’s the journey.” We’ve all heard this, haven’t we? And with these captivating luxury train journeys, we’ll show you the joy to be found travelling across the world by rail.
The Pursuit of Feeling
From impassioned and emotive journeys, to podcasts and our Feelings Engine, you’ll find something to move you and something to soothe you. We want to fire your heart and provide food for your soul.
Set Jetting
Swapping salubrious saloons and questionable lodgings for sumptuous hotels and eye-opening experiences, each of our show-stopping journeys will take you behind scenes of some of TV’s most awe-inspiring locations.
See You in the Moment
You need only bring yourselves – your people, your histories. We’ll provide the moment itself. The anticipation, the togetherness, the memory. This is something to savour. This is something to remember.
Field Trip
Education begins in the classroom, but it’s IRL that younger generations put their lessons to the test. Field Trip is a curriculum of educational encounters around the world.
Take me on a Story
A series of family experiences celebrating the transformative power of the books we loved when we were young, and the stories our children have come to adore.
Get Lost
Designed as a once-in-a-lifetime challenge, train with elite survival experts before traversing a polar, jungle, coastal, mountain or desert region in your mission back to civilisation.
Blink
The ultimate luxury camping retreat. From the Sahara desert to the Andean Mountains, with Blink anywhere you can envisage it, we will create it.
Bring it Back
Bring It Back will embed you in an entirely different way of thinking, and of learning about a culture directly from its experts on the ground. You may be surprised by what you discover.
The Great American View
This series of breathtaking journeys culminate in some of America’s most legendary sights. They are the places you’ve always sought out, and now it’s your time to find them.
James Bond
We are proud to have been selected as the official travel partner to curate James Bond inspired trips.
Agatha Christie
We’ve been hand-picked by Agatha Christie Limited to help bring Agatha’s world-famous Grand Tour to life through a series of episodic trips across Africa, Australasia and North America, and a unique prelude in London.
Tasting Notes
Eating at a Michelin – starred restaurant is one thing. But now you can learn about the country through the lens of some of the most critically acclaimed chefs in the world, by travelling with them on the ultimately culinary experience
Take the Open Road with Auberge
With the iconic hotel brand Auberge Resorts, we’ve created a new series of tailormade, luxurious road trip itineraries. Emblems of America’s most iconic landscapes, regions, and people.
Remarkable Drives of Discovery with Auberge
Following on from the much lauded ‘Take the Open Road’ series, here’s five brand-new bespoke, multi-destination trips created with our friends at Auberge Resorts Collection. Delve deeper than ever before.
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Explore our inspiring experiences based on when you want to travel and how you want to feel.
The land of a thousand hills. The gorilla capital of the continent.
Rwanda serves up an entirely different spin on an African safari from its Sub-Saharan neighbours — home to roughly a third of the world’s remaining mountain gorillas, it offers one of the few wildlife experiences that genuinely cannot be replicated anywhere else on earth. Here, you’ll explore Kigali’s colourful past, hike epic peaks in Virunga National Park, and experience tracking and trekking with gorillas in Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park — walking side by side with veterinarians and conservation experts who monitor and provide lifesaving medical care to these endangered animals. Our luxury Rwanda gorilla safaris are fully private and tailor-made, from handpicking the right lodge for your group to organising private conservation experiences most visitors never access. Trips to Rwanda typically start from around £11,000 per person.
As ever, use the below travel inspiration to feed your imagination then make an enquiry about your very own Rwanda holiday.
Rwanda’s years of sorrow during the 1990s have largely faded away, giving the young country space in which to breathe and to reimagine itself. What remains is an invigorating, beautiful country whose dramatic mountain landscapes, thriving cities, and captivating wildlife make for a truly unforgettable travel experience. Today, it has become one of Africa’s most luxurious and safest holiday destinations for foreign tourists, and offers far more than safari and sun to those who want to find it.
The chance to trek with gorillas in Rwanda, whose intelligence and gentle power still many to silence, is undoubtedly why many travellers are drawn to this captivating country. But there’s more moments, more memories, to be made here. In the Nyungwe Forest, where over three hundred species of bird caw and call in the wild branches, you’ll watch as chimpanzees bounce and swing on the vines below. This realm, remote and undeveloped, demonstrates the many faces of Rwanda and the riches that can be discovered. One trail at a time.
For those who are moved by nature and love the idea of trekking across this lush and eye-opening land, a holiday or honeymoon to Rwanda is a no-brainer. Often, these experiences are paired with trips to idyllic Zanzibar or the balmy island of Mauritius. Others stay among the canopies, heading out from Bisate Lodge to trek the stately gorillas of this spectacular, forested region, where – by night – you can enjoy a view of countless stars by the crackling fireside, or else head into the volcano country of Virunga and the bamboo forests that thicken the highlands there.
Rwanda offers many unique experiences beyond the game drive. Akagera National Park is central Africa’s largest protected wetland and a wildlife success story. Having reintroduced lion, and both black and white rhino in 2017, Akagera re-established Rwanda as a Big Five safari destination.
Kigali
Perfectly positioned in the centre of Rwanda, cosmopolitan Kigali stretches across rolling hills, long ridges and verdant valleys.
While some travellers skip Kigali and head straight to the forests for gorilla trekking, we love stopping in the thriving capital to soak up some culture. More than 25 years after Rwanda’s devastating genocide, Kigali has emerged from the shadows and made a proud comeback with its vibrant art scene, stylish hideaways and delicious eateries.
Nyungwe National Park
Lying in southwest Rwanda, Nyungwe Forest is a wildlife haven and hiker’s paradise.
One of Rwanda’s most important areas of biodiversity and home to hundreds of incredible plant, bird, butterfly and mammal species, Nyungwe Forest is the remote and undiscovered area many only dream of. Listen to birds caw from the wild branches, watch chimpanzees swing from the vines below and breathe in the fresh air of this little known but infinitely rewarding holiday destination.
Volcanoes National Park
Sitting peacefully in northwest Rwanda, this is one of the best places in the world to trek with mountain gorillas.
Running along the border with Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Volcanoes National Park plays home to 62 square miles of verdant rainforest. Encompassing five of the eight volcanoes that sit in the Virunga Mountains, our skilled tracker will take you to the best spot along the slopes to trek with Rwanda’s mountain gorillas, before weaving through the bamboo forests in search of elusive (and playful) golden monkeys.
One&Only Nyungwe House, Nyungwe Forest National Park
One&Only Gorilla's Nest, Volcanoes National Park
Singita Kwitonda Lodge, Volcanoes National Park
The best time for gorilla trekking in Rwanda is during the two dry seasons: June to September and December to February. Trails are drier, easier to navigate, and vegetation is less dense, making it easier to spot and photograph the gorillas. The short rains in November and long rains from March to May make trekking more challenging, though permits are available year-round and gorilla sightings are guaranteed regardless of season. If budget allows, we recommend June to September for the most comfortable conditions. Your Black Tomato travel expert can advise on the best timing for your specific itinerary.
A luxury gorilla trekking safari in Rwanda typically starts from around £11,250 per person. A more comprehensive 9-night trip combining Kigali, Akagera National Park, and the gorilla trekking lodges of Volcanoes National Park usually falls between £11,250 and £18,750 per person. Costs are shaped by the lodges selected (Singita Kwitonda, One&Only Gorilla’s Nest, and Bisate are the finest), private guide arrangements, and whether you fly between parks by helicopter. Every Black Tomato trip is fully tailor-made, so your travel expert will design something that fits your budget and ambitions.
Gorilla trekking in Rwanda is worth it for the right traveller. Spending one hour in the presence of a wild mountain gorilla family in their natural habitat is one of the most profound wildlife experiences on earth. There are fewer than 1,100 mountain gorillas left in the world, all of them living in this corner of central Africa, and Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park offers the most accessible and well-managed trekking experience. We consistently hear from clients that gorilla trekking in Rwanda is the single most memorable travel experience of their lives.
Gorilla trekking in Rwanda ranges from moderate to strenuous depending on where the gorilla family has moved overnight. Treks can last anywhere from 30 minutes to 4 hours, typically through rainforest and bamboo at altitudes between 8,000 and 11,000 feet. A reasonable level of fitness is required, and walkers with mobility challenges can hire porters and sedan chairs for assistance on the trails. Your Black Tomato travel expert will brief you fully on what to expect and can match you with the most appropriate gorilla family group based on your fitness level.
The difference between gorilla trekking in Rwanda and Uganda comes down to accessibility, setting, and lodge quality. Rwanda offers a more polished experience with exceptional luxury lodges immediately adjacent to Volcanoes National Park and shorter, better-maintained trails. Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable Forest feels wilder and more remote, with longer treks through denser jungle. Uganda offers the advantage of combining gorilla trekking with chimpanzee tracking and savannah safaris across Queen Elizabeth National Park in one trip. We offer combined Rwanda and Uganda itineraries for those who want both.
Yes, combining Rwanda with another destination is one of the most popular ways to plan the trip. Rwanda pairs exceptionally well with Zanzibar or the Maldives for a gorillas-and-beach combination after the intensity of trekking. It also works beautifully with Uganda, where you can extend your primate experience with chimpanzee tracking and savannah game drives. For a more ambitious East Africa adventure, Rwanda combines naturally with Kenya or Tanzania for a full safari circuit. Your Black Tomato travel expert will advise on the best pairing based on your interests, travel pace, and time available.
