Booking/Picking up the gorilla permit

Ps. Should I make contact with ORTPN once i have booked? to ensure they have my permit etc?

You should give them the exact date when you want to trek the gorillas since there is still time and I am sure the gorilla permits for June are still available.
As long as they secure your gorilla tracking permit, you can collect it on your arrival.

If you are traveling on your own, you need to arrange transportation your self to the park. There are special hires every where

Hi,

If you organise the permit from Amahoro Tours, you pay it (or part of it) in advance. Collect it from their office at Musanze on the day before (latest). If you wanna play safe, organise your trasportation to the park on the day before the trek. If you wanna save some money, take a regular taxi or moto to the park headquarters and try to get a lift from there to the starting point. We had 8 persons on our group in early December and each pair had our own vehicles. It didn't make much sense for 8 persons to use 4 cars to get to the park entrance.

alright thanks a lot,

so if i am going to rwanda mainly to see the gorillas, Should I try and pick up my permit the day of my arrival, see the gorillas the second day, spend the 3rd day sight seeing/shopping, and fly out the 4th day??

is that a realistic and adequate itinery?

thanks

Sure, perfect Itinerary.
Enjoy your safari

thanks heaps!

hey when in june are planning on doing the trek

I have been in Uganda/Rwanda for nearly two months and have never seen anyone fail to get a Gorilla permit, with most people turning up at either an agent or the authority office the day before. I think the information in the LP guide about how hard these permits are to get hold of is rather out of touch though I do appreciate that things may change toward the summer.

Transport to and from the park is a bit of a disgrace with tour groups charging $100 and no taxis willing to take you for less than $80. The problem isnt so much getting to the park gate, its getting to the trailhead after the 7am briefing as depending on what group of Gorillas you are selected to see some can be up to 15km away and the track is very poor.

Your best bet if you want to do it cheap is to get to the park entrance from the Ugandan border and then I would say that there is a 90% chance of you being able to get a ride to the trailhead PROVIDED that there are other people on the same trip as you. I cannot believe that anyone would just leave you there while they ride off into the sunset.

A bus to the border is about 300RWF and from there the park entrance is about 20km. I am sure that there will be a car willing to take you to the park for about $10 from here. This will be a lot cheaper than getting to the park from Musanze as ALL of the drivers here just charge $80 as they are in a league with the tour operators (i assume as none could be talked down).

Another option might just be to offer any local with a 4x4 some money in Musanze, I am sure a lot would welcome $30 odd if they are not too busy.

Before you do anything though, fInd out from your tour group if there are other people doing the same trek as you. If you find this out now ask for their contact details and you might be able to arrange to get transport together or jump in with them to split the $100 fare.

Hope this helps!

thanks that does help a lot!

Also if you wouldnt mind, suggesting some budget accomodation which isnt too far away from everything?
And because I am in Rwanda for a few days, if there is anything else you suggest for me to do? Shopping? etc

Thankyou!