Gorilla Trekking Hack – How to See Gorillas in Rwanda for $75

If you’re anything like us, you may have found yourself in East Africa wanting to go gorilla trekking but unwilling to pay the crazy price tag that comes with it.

With prices between $700 – $1500 USD, any long-term traveller knows how far this sort of money can get you!

Fortunately, there’s hope for us yet. Read on for an awesome hack that might have you seeing mountain gorillas for just $75 USD. Yep, you read the correctly, $75 USD!

Regular Gorilla Trekking 

With only 1000 left in the world, mountain gorillas are listed as an endangered species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). And they’re not just scarce – they only live in the wild in 3 countries in the entire world: the DRC, Rwanda and Uganda.

So, for those of you out there wanting to see these bad boys (and girls) in the wild, your options are limited to one of these 3 countries. 

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Gorilla Trekking in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)

Gorilla trekking in the DRC has been an on-again, off-again thing for a while now and was once the preferred choice for budget travellers.

While it’s still possible to go gorilla trekking in the DRC, the recent political unrest has made it more complicated to do so (i.e., Virunga National Park is closed and you have to venture further south).

This leaves just Rwanda and Uganda as the main contenders to spot mountain gorillas in the wild. 

Gorilla Trekking in Rwanda and Uganda

In true East African form, Rwanda recently skyrocketed the price of their gorilla trekking permits to $1500, while Uganda’s gorilla trekking permits (currently $800 USD) continue to steadily climb.

What this means is that if you want to go on a pure gorilla-spotting trek in either country, be prepared to spend a lot of your hard-earned dough to do so. 

Read next: The Ultimate Guide to Hiking the Congo Nile Trail

Rwanda Gorillas Budget Hack: The Rumour 

During our overlanding travels in Africa, we heard repeated rumours of a potential hack to the Rwanda gorilla trekking experience. 

The basis of the rumour is essentially this: Rwanda’s mountain gorilla population (over 400 of them) is entirely concentrated in Volcanoes National Park. While securing a gorilla trekking permit is very costly ($1500 USD), it’s waayy cheaper to simply book one of the several hikes in Volcanoes National Park and take your chances at seeing gorillas along the way. 

Never the type to shy away from a challenge, we decided to put this to the test. 

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Rwanda Gorillas Budget Hack: Our Experience

After doing a little digging, the Mount Bisoke trek seemed to offer the greatest chance of spotting mountain gorillas of all the hikes in Volcanoes National Park.

Therefore, we hopped online and booked our $75 USD Mount Bisoke trekking permit.

The following week we arrived at Volcanoes National Park at 7 a.m. to head out out on our hike. 

Read all about hiking Mount Bisoke

Creating an incentive

Before taking off, I asked our guide if we’d get to see any gorillas. He glanced at me with a coy smile and a shrug and said “maybe”. I then let him know that if we did get lucky enough to spot one, I would give him a big tip. 

Note: the reason I did this is because I’d been told that the Rwanda gorillas are tracked using GPS. Therefore, it wouldn’t be hard for our guide to know if we came close to any. 

Our hike to the summit, while pleasant enough, was relatively uneventful.

After summiting and making our way back down, I was beginning to lose hope of seeing any gorillas.

Just as I found myself saying, “oh well, it was worth a shot”, BOOM, to our left, was a family of several gorillas, including a massive silverback! 

Ok, the gorilla family was still 20 or so meters away, but we had a good view of them.

We’d also heard that if you see gorillas during the hike, you’re only allowed to spend 15 minutes with them and you’re not allowed to take any photos (this is actually detailed in the Mount Bisoke hiking permit).

However, these rules weren’t enforced for us as we took many photos and spent around 20 minutes with them. It was a really cool experience!  

How good are your chances of seeing Rwanda gorillas? 

Now, we have no idea of the odds or percentages here, but we reckon they’re okay.

Many people we met have seen them en route and so did we. For example, we had a man in our group who had done the trek before and saw gorillas. Now, he’s seen them 2 out of 2 times. We had another lady in our group who had two different friends who had done the hike previously. One saw gorillas, the other didn’t.

For us, the odds seemed high enough to be worth the gamble.

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Other Rwanda Gorillas Budget Hacks 

We’ve also heard of hikers on other trails in Volcanoes National Park spotting gorillas. This includes the hike up Mount Sabyinyo and the hike to Diane Fossey’s grave. 

The day before our hike, we met a couple who hiked Mount Sabyinyo and saw gorillas on the first 10 minutes of the hike. This sounds like a rarer chance, but it’s still worth noting. 

How to Use Our Gorilla Trekking Budget Hack

Now that we’ve got your attention and your interest in hiking Mount Bisoke to spot gorillas, you’re probably interested in booking the Mount Bisoke hike for yourself, right?

Check out our Mount Bisoke guide, which details everything you need to know about booking the hike, what to expect and more.

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