A permit does not buy you a trek. It buys one hour. Rwanda sells 96 permits a day, eight for each of the 12 habituated gorilla families, and the clock that matters starts when your group reaches the gorillas, not when you leave the trailhead. Seen that way, the USD 1,500 price is a charge for scarce, rationed contact, and RDB has described its pricing as "high-value, low-volume" since it doubled the fee in 2017.
How much is a gorilla permit in Rwanda?
The Visit Rwanda gorilla tracking page lists USD 1,500 per person per day for foreign non-residents. The same page says special offers are available for Rwandan and East African Community (EAC) residents but gives no figures.
The Book A Trip page links a notice for tourism and travel stakeholders dated 14 January 2025, alongside permit fee and reservation guidelines, and says the full price list is on RDB's booking platform. The notice is published as a scanned image that we could not read, so this guide does not quote any rates from it. If you hold an EAC passport or have residence in Rwanda, check the platform before paying the non-resident rate.
How the price got here
RDB raised the permit from USD 750 to USD 1,500 on 6 May 2017, "for all visitors effective immediately". In the same announcement it doubled the share of park revenue going to neighbouring communities from 5% to 10%.
It also announced two discounts: 30% for visitors who add at least three days in Nyungwe and Akagera national parks, and 15% for conference visitors trekking before or after an event. In a September 2018 statement, RDB described the 30% offer as applying during the low season, November to May, and called its approach "high-value, low-volume". We found no current RDB page confirming that either discount is still offered, so treat them as history until the booking platform shows them.
What you actually get for USD 1,500
According to Visit Rwanda, trekkers meet at the park headquarters in Kinigi at 7am. Rangers assign each visitor to a gorilla family on the day, taking fitness into account, and brief the group on the rules.
The walk to the family can take anywhere from 30 minutes to four hours or more, at altitudes between 2,500 m and 4,000 m. You do not choose the family in advance, which is why two people with the same permit can have very different days. Porters can be hired to carry bags and cameras and to help on steep ground. Visit Rwanda recommends solid walking shoes with gaiters, clothes that stand up to stinging nettles, gardening or leather gloves and a light waterproof jacket.
How do you book a gorilla permit?
There are two routes, and the official pages name them slightly differently.
- Book directly with RDB. The Book A Trip page points to RDB's platform at visitrwandabookings.rdb.rw for gorilla and primate tracking permits. The gorilla tracking page says advance booking "can be done through the Irembo platform", the government's online services portal. Both pages load only with JavaScript and did not show us their payment, change or refund terms, so read those on screen before you pay.
- Book through a licensed tour operator. Visit Rwanda directs travellers to the member list of the Rwanda Tour and Travel Association. An operator usually handles the permit together with transport from Kigali, which matters because treks start at 7am in Kinigi.
With eight places per family per day, dates in popular months can sell out. Book the permit first, then build flights and lodging around it.
What are the rules on the trek?
The rules below come from Visit Rwanda and from the international guidance that gorilla parks draw on. Your rangers' briefing on the day is what applies.
- Minimum age 15. Visit Rwanda sets it, and the IUCN's great ape tourism guidelines recommend the same limit.
- One hour with the gorillas. Visit Rwanda calls this a strict maximum per family per day, so that each family meets tourists for no more than an hour.
- Eight visitors per family. Each family has one group of eight permit holders a day.
- Do not go if you are ill. The IUCN guidelines advise against visits by sick people, because gorillas can catch human respiratory diseases.
Many guidebooks quote a 7-metre distance rule. We did not find a distance on an RDB page. The Gorilla Friendly pledge, a conservation campaign, asks visitors to stay at least 10 metres away, wear a surgical mask and turn off flash and phone sounds. Plan for 10 metres and follow the ranger if they ask you to step back.
Where does the permit money go?
Rwanda has run a tourism revenue sharing programme since 2005, according to the International Gorilla Conservation Programme. Its stated aims include improving living conditions around the parks and compensating farmers for crop damage by wildlife.
The share is 10% of national park tourism revenue, not 10% of your permit handed to the village next to your trailhead. RDB said in August 2026 that more than RWF 23 billion has gone to communities over 20 years, funding nearly 1,300 projects. The latest allocation for the four districts around Volcanoes was about RWF 1.98 billion: RWF 659.8 million each for Musanze and Nyabihu, RWF 495 million for Burera and RWF 164.95 million for Rubavu. In the same statement RDB said work had begun on a USD 49 million Smart Green Village in Kinigi for 547 households.
The results are debated. A peer-reviewed 2020 study in Oryx found that, for 2018/19, Volcanoes received 40% of the shared pool across three parks. It also found that revenue-sharing money had no measurable effect on illegal resource use in the park, while conservation NGO funding did. The authors linked the difference to where the money went: revenue-sharing projects did not always reach the areas with the most illegal activity.
What is not debated is the trend. At the 2026 Kwita Izina naming ceremony, RDB reported more than 600 mountain gorillas in the Virunga Massif, compared with about 250 in the early 1980s.
Before you pay
Check three things on the booking platform: whether your passport or residence qualifies for a resident or special rate, the change and refund terms, and whether your trek date is a last Saturday. If it is, read our Umuganda guide before planning the early drive from Kigali. If a package price looks low, subtract USD 1,500 per person per trekking day to see what you are paying for everything else.