Rwanda is a landlocked East African country with a green, mountainous landscape. Its renowned Volcanoes National Park is home to mountain gorillas and golden monkeys.
The park encompasses 4,507m-tall Mt. Karisimbi and 4 other forested volcanoes. In the southwest is Nyungwe National Park, with ancient montane rain forest that’s a habitat for chimpanzees and other primates.
Rwanda has 3 national parks with protected ecosystems and wildlife reserves located within the borders of Rwanda in east central Africa. In 2012, these protected natural zones include the Volcanoes National Park, Akagera National Park and Nyungwe Forest.
Maintenance of the national park system, as well as tourism infrastructure and promotion of the parks, is managed by the Rwanda Development Board with assistance from government ministries.
Kigali City Tours
A city tour with a guide and private vehicle will visit some of the cities sights and monuments and teach you more about Rwanda’s history.
The tour will include the deeply moving and very well designed Gisozi Genocide Museum, where more than 250,000 Rwandans who were killed during the 1994 genocide have been buried.
Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, straggles over several hills, with the city centre on one and the government/administrative quarter on another. The centre of Kigali is bustling, colorful, noisy but clean and safe.
Its occupants, from smart-suited business people to scruffy kids, go about their activities, only lessening their tempo briefly in the middle of the day.
Peaceful tree-lined residential streets stretch outwards and generally downwards from the city’s heart, and give visitors ample scope for strolling.
Hotels in Kigali
There aren’t many tourist attractions in Kigali itself and you’re unlikely to want to spend many full days there, but there are some good hotels, where the services are plentiful and the ambience is pleasant.
It is a good base from which to explore the rest of Rwanda, all parts of which are easily accessible by road in less than a day.
Lake Kivu is the country’s largest body of water and takes up about half of Rwanda’s western border. There are three main towns along the Lake shore – Cyangugu in the south, Kibuye in the middle and Gisenyi further north.
As the lake attracts a number of tourists and Rwandan holidaymakers, the level of accommodation here is generally of a better standard than in the parks. The views from many hotels and guesthouses across the palm-fringed lake are lovely, with little sandy beaches and grassy banks leading down to the shore.