Rwanda Gorilla Trekking & Safari Tours

Visit Rwanda

Rwanda is open

Rwanda lies just south of the Equator, in the heart of Africa. In the space of a week, it’s possible to experience an extraordinary range of wildlife and landscapes thanks to the country’s relatively small size and biodiversity.

Rwanda is easy to explore by car. The popular circuit between the national parks passes through magnificent scenery, with a new vista and warm smiles greeting travelers around every corner.

Known as the land of a thousand hills, Rwanda’s stunning scenery and warm, friendly people offer unique experiences in one of the most remarkable countries in the world. It is blessed with extraordinary biodiversity, with incredible wildlife living throughout its volcanoes, montane rainforest and sweeping plains.

Travellers come from far and wide to catch a glimpse of the magnificent gorillas, yet there is so much more to see and experience.

Rwanda Destionations

Kibeho

Kibeho Parish has been a global pilgrimage destination for Roman Catholics since the Virgin Mary appeared on 28th November 1981. The focal point is Kibeho Church, where the faithful receive Holy Communion.

Today the site is host to pilgrims throughout the year with two majors dates dominating the calendar – Assumption Day (15th August) and 28th November (the anniversary of the Virgin Mary’s appearance).

During peak season, Kibeho Church receives between 25,000-30,000 visitors. Religious tourists and pilgrims flock from across the world, including America, Poland, The Czech Republic, Slovakia, France, Italy and India.

During low season, Kibeho receives approximately 100 religious tourists a week, mostly from Rwanda, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania.

Gishwati Mukura National Park

Rwanda’s fourth national park, Gishwati Mukura is made up of two separate forests – the larger Gishwati and small Mukura, forming a total of 34 square kilometres plus a buffer zone.

The forests sit on the ridge which divides the Congo and Nile water catchment areas, along the incredibly biodiverse Albertine Rift in the west of the country. It is made up of 60 species of tree, including indigenous hardwoods and bamboo.

Gishwati is home to a group of 20 chimpanzees which live alongside golden monkeys, L’Hoest’s and Blue Monkeys. Birds are well represented too, 232 species have been seen at Gishwati and 163 at Mukura, among them Albertine Rift Endemic species and forest specialists.

Activities in the park started in 2019 and include a guided nature hike, guided chimp and monkey tracking, bird watching and a visit to the waterfalls.

The area was nearly depleted largely due to resettlement, illegal mining in the mineral-rich forest and livestock farming.

The formalisation of its National Park status in 2015 aims to help redress the balance, to increase the number of trees to improve soil fertility, stabilise slopes and regulate stream flow.

It will also contribute to improving the livelihoods of the population living in the surrounding areas, which in turn offers the forest a better chance of regeneration in tandem with the potential to raise living standards in the longer term.

Community-based activities include a farm stay, a live cultural dance, making handicrafts, beekeeping, a tea plantation tour and the chance to learn from traditional healers, who use natural plants to support modern medicine and synthesised drugs.

Huye

Peaceful and compact, Huye was founded in the early colonial era, a matter evident in the architecture of the city centre. For a period it was known as Astrida, after the late wife of the Belgian King Leopold III.

The region has long been significant as a centre of power, although much of its history has been passed down the generations through oral tradition alone.

Today, Huye is a centre of academia, housing the National University of Rwanda and the National Institute of Scientific Research, as well as various training schools and colleges.

It is also notably religious, with massive cathedrals and churches where congregations sing with rousing vigour and passion.

The excellent Ethnographic Museum, also known as the National Museum, houses perhaps the finest ethnographic collection in Africa. Displays of traditional artefacts and antique monochrome photographs provide an insight in to the pre-colonial era as well as Rwanda’s transition into a modern state.

An arboretum, planted with a mixture of exotic and indigenous species, was established on Ruhande Hill in 1933. The 200-hectare forest has recently been dedicated to the Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy project, chosen because it is a research forest and a ‘gene bank’ of the forests found in Rwanda, which hold a tremendous importance to the country’s conservation.

Nearby, the King’s Palace in Nyanza brings the old ways to life, with its replica royal hut with sacred Inyambo (Ankole) cows in the field behind, to whom their herders sing.

Nyungwe National Park

One of the oldest rainforests in Africa, Nyungwe is rich in biodiversity and spectacularly beautiful. The mountainous region is teaming with wildlife, including a small population of chimpanzees as well as 12 other species of primate, including the L’Hoest’s monkey endemic to the Albertine Rift.

With 15 trails, some of which are detailed here, along with various other activities, visitors can choose to sample the delights of the forest or indulge themselves for a week or more in one of Africa’s most stunning forests.

Primate tracking tops most visitor’s list, but it’s worth lingering a little longer for those with time to relax and take in the primal atmosphere.

Botanists will marvel at the 1,068 plant species and 140 orchids. The birdwatching is among the best in Africa with 322 birds species including Red-collared Babbler and 29 other Albertine Rift Endemic species. Butterflies are also a common sight, with at least 120 species.

There are 75 known mammals in Nyungwe, such as the cerval cat, mongoose, congo clawless otter and leopard to name but a few. Many tend to be shy so sightings are luck of the draw.

Memorable and photogenic moments include walking up to the Isumo waterfall or along the Canopy Walk suspension bridge. Tea plantations border the edges of the park, with a habituated troop of Ruwenzori colobus monkeys at Gisakura as well as forest fringe birds.

With plenty of rainfall, Nyungwe is also the major catchment area in Rwanda, and supplies water to 70% of the country.

A ridge running through the forest forms a watershed between the drainage systems of the Nile and the Congo. A spring on the slopes of Mt Bigugu is said to be the most remote source of the Nile, the world’s longest river.