Praise for Gorilla Trek Africa

I loved reading Esther Perica’s letter about visiting the mountain gorillas in Rwanda (April ’17, pg. 27). My wife and I saw the gorillas in March 2016, incorporating the visit into a ’round-the-world ticket on Star Alliance (www.staralliance.com/en/home) airlines.

We talked to a number of companies in trying to arrange our time in Rwanda, and prices from representatives in the USA were in line with what Esther paid. It wasn’t a one-to-one comparison, as her tour included a stop in Akagera National Park, but hers was a group of nine and ours was just two. For the treks, we went in groups of six plus porters.

With a little online research and looking over reviews on Trip
Advisor.com, we found Gorilla Trek Africa (P.O. Box 22754, Kampala, Uganda; phone +256 705 487 517 or, in the US, 780/807-1456, www.gorillatrekafrica.com).

For a total of four nights and four days, we paid $2,950 per person. This included one night in Kigali, a tour of the Kigali Genocide Memorial (a “must do”), two days of gorilla treks and a trek to see the golden monkeys on our last day in Rwanda.

All of the accommodations were at the luxury level. The cost included the gorilla permits, monkey permits and full board plus all transportation while in Rwanda. 

For any trip to Rwanda, I highly recommend Gorilla Trek Africa.

We had similar experiences in arranging tours in Ethiopia, India, Thailand, Cambodia, China and Korea. We have found that by using companies local to the country, we give directly to their economy and save significant dollars. 

In many ways, it’s like arranging shore excursions. You can take the ship’s excursions and pay a high price for the cruise line doing the research or you can arrange tours on your own and see more at, often, a much lower cost. 

NORMAN DAILEY
Alexandria, VA

In a follow-up, a representative of Gorilla Trek Africa, Nelson, wrote to ITN,

“In a bid to strengthen conservation for mountain gorillas in Rwanda, the government in May opted to increase the price for the gorilla permit by 100% (from $750 to $1,500) in order to limit the tourist numbers as well as to raise more funds for this cause.

“Gorilla Trek Africa still offers opportunities to look straight in the eyes of these beautiful creatures at prices similar to last year’s by taking travelers across the border to Uganda, where the price of the gorilla permit is still the same as before, now about $900 less than the Rwanda fee.

“Mountain gorillas are found in only three countries — Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (though due to instabilities, D.R. Congo has been a bit left behind in gorilla tourism) — and the tracking experience is more or less similar in both Rwanda and Uganda.”