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What to do in Rwanda
Rwanda is the place to go if you want to see some of the most beautiful scenery on the planet. Rwanda is an East African landlocked country bordered by Uganda to the north, Tanzania to the east, Burundi to the southeast, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west. The country is also known as “The Land of a Thousand Hills” because of its hilly terrain. Kigali, the country’s capital is well situated in the heart of the country and offers a wide range of tourist activities that have boosted the country’s tourism sector.
Rwanda is perhaps best known for being the site of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. This took place between the two major Rwanda tribes of the Hutus and the Tutsi and it ended with many lives being lost, which reduced the country’s population drastically. Rwanda, on the other hand, is now one of the safest and cleanest African countries, having emerged as peaceful and prosperous since the genocide. Tourism is an important part of the Rwandan economy, and there are many wonderful things to see and do in this beautiful country.
This small Central African country is home to one of the world’s densest primate populations, as well as some of the last mountain gorillas living in the wild. This location allows visitors to get up close and personal with some of the most amazing animals on the planet.
Safari Activities to do in Rwanda
Go gorilla trekking in Volcanoes National Park
Gorilla trekking in Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park is an unforgettable and life-changing experience. Its one of the highlight of the activities to do in Rwanda. Seeing mountain gorillas in the best natural habitat in Africa is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. In Rwanda, gorilla trekking is limited to Volcanoes National Park. Volcanoes National Park is a forested conserved area in Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Virunga Mountains. Volcanoes National Park is Rwanda’s most visited tourist park and the most popular tourist attraction. Located in the far northwest of Rwanda, Volcanoes National Park protects the steep slopes of this magnificent mountain range – home of the endangered mountain gorilla – as well as a rich mosaic of montane ecosystems, which embrace evergreen and bamboo forest, open grassland, and this rich living forest is home to the greatest primates known as Mountain Gorillas.
Most tourists have testified that gorilla trekking in Volcanoes is a life-changing experience that can happen to anyone who visits Africa. Meeting the gentle giants face to face is not only unforgettable but also very memorable in life. It’s a fantastic experience to see and track gorillas in the wild; it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. You are briefed early in the morning from the park headquarters by professional park rangers and guides who will be leading you in the forests with small groups of tourists; each gorilla family is only visited by 8 tourists per day. The trek into the bamboo-covered slopes to spend an unforgettable hour just a few feet away from the gentle creatures is known as gorilla trekking or gorilla tracking.
You can request a group for your gorilla trekking in Volcanoes before you start, but there is no guarantee that you will get it – at the start of the day, the park rangers speak with all the guides and try to match the trekkers to the various groups based on the trekker’s preferences but also where they expect each group to be found that day. Because the groups move, a group that is normally an easy trek on one day can become a much harder trek on another. In comparison to gorilla trekking in Uganda, gorilla trekking in Volcanoes National Park has been and continues to be safe and relatively accessible for many years. So far, twelve habituated gorilla families live in Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park, with a few others habituated solely for scientific research. On a gorilla safari, tourists can meet a family of gorillas, which includes at least one silverback and several females and children.
Game drive in Akagera National Park
With all of the attention on mountain gorillas, it’s easy to overlook Rwanda’s excellent game drives and standard wildlife safaris. Akagera national park is Rwanda’s only savanna park, spanning 1,085 square kilometers. It was established in 1934, but during the 1994 genocide, the park lost a significant number of animals. Thousands of fleeing citizens used the park as a safe haven in neighboring countries. When the genocide ended, many people chose to settle in the park, resulting in uncontrolled poaching and encroachment. When the African Parks Network collaborated with the government to manage the park, the number of wildlife increased, and lost species were reintroduced. Swamps, savanna plains, woodlands, lakes, rivers, and terraced hills make up Akagera National Park be sure to observe the rules and regulations of the park for your safety and comfort be sure to observe the rules and regulations of the park for your safety and comfort. Its one of the activities to do in Rwanda.
It now has all of the Big 5 animals, ie Lions, Rhinos, Elephants, Buffaloes, and Leopards, giving tourists the opportunity to go on a full Rwanda wildlife safari – Taking into consideration other activities like gorilla trekking, chimpanzee tracking, cultural encounters, and mountain climbing.
To name a few, Akagera is home to olive baboons, blue monkeys, vervet monkeys, hyenas, leopards, and hippos. Aside from traditional game drives, Akagera is ideal for bird watching, nature walks, and sport fishing in Lake Shakani. The afternoon boat cruise along Lake Ihema is also very popular, and it rewards tourists with beautiful scenery as well as encounters with aquatic birds, crocodiles, hippos, and antelopes drinking by the lake’s shores.
Chimp trekking in Nyungwe National Park
Nyungwe forest national park is one of Rwanda’s most popular tourist destinations, and it is the second most visited national park after Volcanoes National Park. It is one of Africa’s largest and oldest national parks, located in Rwanda’s southwestern region. Although Nyungwe Forest National Park is best known for its chimp trekking experience, it is also home to a variety of wildlife animal species and birds such as huge forest hogs, golden cats, duikers, African civets, serval cats, amphibians, butterflies, reptiles, and other primates such as blue monkeys, red-tailed monkeys, grey checked mangabey, L’Hoest’s monkeys, white and black colobus monkeys, golden monkeys.
In Nyungwe Forest National Park, there are over 500 chimp populations, with 90 habituated chimp communities open for tourism all year. The habituated chimp communities can be found in a variety of locations throughout the park, including Nyungwe forest, which has approximately 60 habituated chimp communities, and Cyamudongo forest, which has approximately 30 habituated chimp communities.
Traveling to a chimp community in Nyungwe forest national park will take travelers approximately 2-6 hours due to the fact that chimps in Nyungwe forest national park are known to move from one location to another from tree to tree as they search for food the day in the forest. Visitors who go chimp trekking in Nyungwe Forest National Park are only allowed to spend one hour with the chimp community after meeting it. During the one-hour experience, visitors are permitted to photograph chimps as they de-nest, beast-feed, and interact with juvenile monkeys.
Visit Lake Kivu
After all of your outdoor adventures, you’ll be ready to relax—and there’s no better place to relax in Rwanda than Lake Kivu. Rwanda’s largest lake is a 2,700-square-kilometer emerald-green oasis surrounded by misty mountains.
Take it all in from Rubavu, a resort town on Lake Kivu’s northern tip. It has a vibrant waterfront, a sandy beach, and beautiful resorts including the Lake Kivu Serena Hotel. A few days in this tranquil town will rejuvenate you. With boat cruise journeys, you can get even closer to the landscape. The tour operator can arrange a stunning sunset kayak trip on Lake Kivu with a singing fisherman, as well as multi-day paddling adventures that will take your breath away.
Gishwati-Mukura National Park Nature Walk, Birding, and Primates Tracking
Gishwat-Mukura is Rwanda’s newest national park. It was formed by joining the Gishwati and Mukura forests. The park, which is located near Lake Kivu, is an excellent example of Rwanda’s conservation efforts. Refugees encroached on forested land during and after the genocide, resulting in severe deforestation and land degradation. The government, with the help of partners such as the World Bank, has revitalized the entire landscape by replanting trees and relocating locals who had encroached on the forest. Tourists can go on nature walks, watch birds, and track primates like Chimpanzees and L’Hoest’s monkeys in the park.
Visit Coffee and Tea Plantations:
Rwanda is well-known for exporting some of Africa’s best tea and coffee. In fact, tea is the country’s leading export, and the quality of its coffee has won numerous international awards. Coffee and tea farming is aided in part by the country’s fertile volcanic soils, high altitude, and favorable weather. For tourists interested in learning about how the two cash crops are grown and processed, coffee and tea plantation tours can be arranged. The tours include seeing how workers plant the crop, pick, select, wash, and dry it, and then turn it into a finished product ready for consumption.
Every tour should conclude with a taste of freshly brewed coffee, also known as African tea (Coffee or tea mixed with milk and other flavors). If you are interested in one of their coffee tours, please contact us for further details.
Genocide memorial museum visits
You can’t visit Rwanda and not visit the genocide memorial museums because the country’s dark period helped to make it better and much safer than it had ever been before. The 1994 Rwanda genocide was a dark period in which the Hutu in the country was fighting against the Tutsis because of social classes, with the Hutu being the original inhabitants of Rwanda and the Tutsi being the people who migrated to Rwanda later on and were cattle rearers.
They were wealthier than the original inhabitants, and after independence, the tutsis were given important and numerous positions in the government, infuriating the hutus and contributing to the outbreak of the Rwanda genocide.
Despite the fact that the Rwanda genocide occurred and many people were killed and the property was destroyed, peace was restored thanks to the efforts of the Rwanda patriotic front, which was led by Rwanda’s current president, Paul Kagame, making it one of the safest and most peaceful countries in Africa for tourists to visit for an unforgettable experience. A number of genocide memorial sites were also built to commemorate and serve as a reminder of the dark period that the people of Rwanda endured, bringing the people closer than they had ever been before.
Some of the genocide memorial sites you can visit include the Kigali genocide memorial museum and the Bugesera reconciliation camp, where you can see how ex-murderers and victims have forgiven each other and made peace with whatever happened, which is quite memorable and has contributed to long-standing relationships of mutual respect for one another, as well as harmonious living between the two groups of people.
