About Us

  From day one I was impressed with Umubano Tours. Found them thanks to reviews on tripadvisor, and so glad I did. Herbert Gato organized a dream trip for me. Everything... read more was arranged perfectly. Accommodation, gorilla trekking permits, airport transfers and a hotel in Kigali for the required 24 hours quarantine, everything. It was easy to communicate, Herbert was always available on phone, whatsapp, and via email.

On arrival at Kigali airport, I was met by the driver from 2000 Hotel, and taken straight to the hotel, awaiting my Covid test results. After receiving the negative test result the next morning at around 10am, I was met at the hotel by Bosco - my guide from Umubano Tours. Bosco was an excellent guide and incredibly good driver. He speaks English, and I learned so much about Rwanda in this week.

In the north, I stayed at Ingagi Park View lodge, as arranged by Umubano Tours. I was able to book 2 gorilla treks, due to the discount offered to African citizens ($500 per permit instead of $1500, for a limited time in 2021). On the gorilla trekking days, Bosco met me at the lodge, to leave early, to drive to the Volcanoes National Park entrance. All I can say is, if seeing gorillas in their natural habitat is something you want to do, DO IT NOW, contact Umubano Tours and travel to Rwanda. It was one of the best experiences of my life, and I will most definitely be back. Bosco, Herbert and everyone else I met in Rwanda was so welcoming and a joy to meet. Rwanda is a beautiful country with incredible people and scenery.



The rural north is beautiful, I extended my stay by an extra day, rather than going back to Kigali. This extra day was arranged by Umubano Tours and was much appreciated.



I highly recommend using Umubano Tours for a trip to Rwanda, I will certainly book through them again, soon.

  gorilla Trecking and golden monkey a life experience - We did a 3 day 2 night tour that took us through the volcanoes national park over the boarder to Uganda. It was quite journey driving to the motel Dianne... read more Fossey stayed in Uganda. From there it was the most amazing day trekking to the gorillas where we spent an hour with a family of 9. Do you get close? Well we were within a couple of feet at times it was just remarkable. Herbert communicated well and everything was smooth. our guide was also terrific. I suggest you get a porter to assist on your trek.

  Umubano Rwanda Tour - We had a fantastic time in Rwanda and cannot praise Herbert and his team highly enough. Our guide, over 10 days, was excellent. Didier was knowledgable, helpful and shared... read more his passion for his country and its people. We had a wonderful insight into rural life and also enjoyed the well organised tourism of the National Parks.
We would strongly recommend this local company. Attention to detail and the care in generating our itinerary meant that we had a taylor made trip that gave us a variety of very special experiences.
We hope to return to Rwanda soon and would definitely use umubano tours again.

  Great planning and service - Herbert Gato helped plan the perfect Trip to Rwanda, it combined 2 days of Gorilla Trekking, golden Monkey walk and relaxing day at Lake Kivu. Once we arrived, he met... read more us at the airport and explained the history of Rwanda He also made certain we were in the correct Gorilla trekking group. After 3 days, Didier became our driver and guide Both men were excellent drivers and guides. I would highly recommend you contact Herbert to assist you in your plans.

  Amazing Rwanda Gorilla and golden monkey trekking - I took my dad on this trip and we were not disappointed. Everything was very well organized and the trekkings were just amazing. Our tour guide/driver Gato was awesome. He... read more was very caring, knowledgeable and had a lot of cool stories to tell. We were there when the World Cup was on and he went out of his way to take us to bars to watch the games after the activities. Highly recommended!

  Perfect service, great experience - Me and my wife travelled to Rwanda and DRC with Umubano Tours in January 2018. We did gorilla tour and climbed Nyiragongo volcano. Both the Rwanda part (with guide Arbat)... read more and the DRC part (with guide Barrack) were very well organized. We felt very safe all the time and enjoyed the trip very much. We can only recommend professional services of Umubano. Thanks for them!

  Overall, fantastic. From the point of inquiring into our trip, Herbert was always quick to respond to emails and was able to tailor a package to suit our needs. Their... read more price was also the best by far compared to other companies that I enquired into before booking. On arrival into Kigali we were met by Didier, our tour guide. Didier was excellent, very knowledgeable, funny and ensured we were happy throughout our trip. We booked a 7day tour in Rwanda which included a trek to the Dian Fossey research centre and grave site, gorilla trekking and chimpanzee trekking. The tour was very well organised and ran extremely smoothly. At no point did we encounter any problem. The hotels booked for the tour were also good, the best by far being the gorilla mountain view lodge. I would therefore defiantly recommend booking with Umubano tours, and would defiantly book with them in the future on one of their other tours.

  Nyungwe Birding Trip - Herbert at Umubano tours organised a tailor-made 5 day birding trip to Nyungwe Forest in the south of Rwanda. It was great! The pre-trip arrangements went smoothly and... read more Didier was an excellent guide and traveling companion. He was able to arrange for last minute changes to the program (once at Nyungwe, we decided to also do the chimp trekking and visit Lake Kivu for lunch and birding) and he managed this with a smile.

Narcisse, the local birding guide Umubano arranged, was brilliant and he had an incredible knowledge of the Nyungwe birds. We saw lots of birds (including most of the Albertine endemics) but also had a lot of fun.

I can highly recommend Umubano Tours and both Didier and Narcisse.

  Great experience - I contacted Umubano tours some two weeks before my trip to Rwanda to see if they can arrange a 1 day trip for me to the Akagera national park. They... read more were very responsive, I usually received a feedback to my emails within 24 hours. They sent me the exact schedule of the trip and all the needful details. As per their commitment the drive was there waiting for me in front of the indicated hotel at 5.30AM. The guide in the park was great, and staff spoke good English (my French knowledge is limited so I cannot comment on that one). All in all, everything went well beyond my expectations, from the point of establishing contact with the company via email to the end of my trip. I wish I could do the gorillas trip with them as well, but my travel schedule didn't allow that. Hopefully next time. I cannot but recommend Umubano tours.

  3 day Gorilla Trip - Great experience with Umubano Tours on a 3 day Gorilla Trip. They were the quickest company to respond to our inquires and were very prompt with all my many... read more questions, from the beginning of our research, up to the week before we arrived. They are also a locally owned business, which is important to us. We had 2 different last minute flight time changes with Rwandair and Peter quickly re-arranged our schedules to accommodate the changes. Our driver/guide Didier was wonderful! He choose the gorilla group and trek difficulty he felt was best for our family and we had a wonderful and successful trek! Being close to the gorillas is an amazing experience! A genocide survivor, Didier loves his country and proudly told us all about how it is recovering from that horrible event. He is very knowledgable about all aspects of Rwanda and made us realize there's a lot to see and do in this beautiful country! Wish we had spent more time there. I'd definitely recommend Umubano Tours!

  They did not respond to any of my contact attempts - I tried to contact this company via their website form and to make an appointment via their online appointment form but they never responded. I suppose they don't want customers.... read more My friend also tried calling them but they did not pick up either.

  Fantastic service - Travelled with Umubano tours for their 3 Day Gorilla Trek Tour. Bosco our driver and guide was fantastic in looking after us, particularly after I became ill. The... read more Muhabura Hotel where we stayed was a little tired but still comfortable, with good little restaurant and bar. We missed the gorillas due to me being sick but still had a good time in Rwanda. Thanks Bosco and Umubano.