cheap flights from Nairobi to Gorilla area in Rwanda

Hi fellow travellers,

Can anyone tell me the cheapest way to get from Nairobi to the national park for the gorillas in Rwanda. Sorry i am still waiting for my GB for Rwanda and am at the begining of my research.

So far it seems that the cheapest way from UK is to fly to Nairobi (around £700 return) then try to get a short hop flight to Kigali or the Virunga area (where I understand the gorillas are). can anyone help me with the cheapest way to get to the gorillas and incorporate a safari seeing all the usual sarafi big 5.

I would like to go in October 2010.

any tips on cheap flight search engines and short hop flights (where needed from Nairrobi or Da es Salaam or whereever...welcome- this really is proving very very tricky to make cheap.

thanks in advance for all your knowledge.

Athena.

Sorry i cant really help you with the flights to Rwanda but I would check your flights from the UK to Nairobi again. KLM fly for about £500-£550. With the money you save you could fly to Kigali with Rwandair or Kenyan airways which seem to be about £200-250.

Hope this helps

thanks susan- can you tell me was this on the KLM site direct or through another site?
I have found a flight to Nairobi for from £470 now with ethopian air...need to check this- does anyone know if ethopian are ok to fly with (being that it will be a long flight- re food and service).

any other cheap flight search engines to try besides:

Kayak, SKYscanners and southhall travel are welcome as responses please.

That was on KLM's UK website. I have had friends who flew Ethiopian airlines and thought they were great. Lots of people who are going to climb Kili fly with them as they give you an extra baggage allowance. Not sure of any search engines i always search direcly through airlines websites. BA are only about £500 as well and so is Virgin.

Ethiopian is one of the better airlines in the region. Fine for a long-haul flight.
In case you can find a deal, try for Kigali via Paris. Sometimes the prices come down a bit. Otherwise I agree Nairobi is the big hub so you would be better off going from there.

Hi All repliers,

Great to hear all your tips- thanks so much!

I found flights for £449 with Virgin direct with Flighthunters.

One word of warning, they added a booking fee of £19 even after I checked - "that is all inclusive with no extra charges?" yes, yes that is the total madam- you can see it all there in the email"

In the email they said per fare total, in fairness, but therefore actually avioded my question!

I managed to reduce the £19 per person charge to £15 after a chat, but actually, the price was still very very low.just treat with care and caution if you use them!

Athena