Rwanda Safaris

If you’re look­ing for an African safari des­ti­na­tion, Rwan­da should be your best alter­na­tive. The coun­try is rich with excit­ing attrac­tions as tourism is also the country’s largest source of for­eign exchange earn­ing. Rwan­da cur­rent­ly receives vis­i­tors from dif­fer­ent parts of the world through­out the year who come to have a chance to have an expe­ri­ence of the Rwanda’s diverse beau­ty through vis­it­ing numer­ous pris­tine destinations.

Locat­ed in the Great Rift Val­ley, Repub­lic of Rwan­da is one oth­er best tourism des­ti­na­tion in Africa and East Africa due to the dif­fer­ent nation­al parks that are habi­tat to dif­fer­ent wildlife includ­ing one of the world’s endan­gered pri­mates — Moun­tain Goril­las. Rwan­da is bor­dered to the North by Ugan­da, to the East by Tan­za­nia, to South by Burun­di and to West by Demo­c­ra­t­ic Repub­lic of Con­go (D.R.C).

WHAT TO DO IN RWANDA?

Gorilla Trekking in Rwanda

Rwan­da is home to ¼ of world’s Moun­tain Goril­la pop­u­la­tion which are endan­gered pri­mates that can only be found in three coun­tries in the world includ­ing Rwan­da, D.R. Con­go and Uganda.

Goril­la trekking in Rwan­da takes place in the Vol­ca­noes Nation­al Park through­out the year as tourists trek down the dif­fer­ent goril­la fam­i­lies that have been habit­u­at­ed. This involves hik­ing the slopes of Virun­ga vol­ca­noes includ­ing Mount Karisim­bi, Mount Bisoke, Mount Sabyinyo where these goril­las usu­al­ly inhab­it as they hide far away from human dis­tur­bance. Goril­la trekking per­mits are booked either from a rep­utable tour agency or from Rwan­da Devel­op­ment Board. It’s always advis­able that you book a goril­la per­mit ear­li­er since many tourists vis­it the park daily.

Big Five Safari in Akagera National Park

Akagera Nation­al Park pro­vides an explic­it ani­mal view­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties as it’s the only nation­al park in Rwan­da that inhab­its big five wildlife includ­ing lions, leop­ards, ele­phants, buf­faloes and the black rhi­nos. There are dif­fer­ent activ­i­ties with­in the park that can enable you view the big five along­side oth­er wildlife.

Game dri­ves are con­duct­ed through­out the park, these usu­al­ly occur in the morn­ing so that tourists can watch ear­ly ris­ers and also get the game breeze before it gets hot as the day goes by.

Dur­ing game dri­ves, a tour guide is avail­able to pro­vide all the infor­ma­tion you may need to know about these ani­mals includ­ing their life style, life span, among oth­ers. Akagera Nation­al Park is home to water bod­ies inclu­sive of the Akagera Riv­er and Lake Ihe­ma mak­ing it pos­si­ble to have a boat cruise. While on a boat cruise, tourists are able to see rhi­nos as they graze with­in the grass­lands that are near the riv­er banks and also the lions hid­ing in the shrubs as they lay traps to get their next prey.

Canopy Walking in Nyungwe Forest

An expe­ri­ence of scary heights from a lush for­est is one that can’t be com­pa­ra­ble to any­thing else, espe­cial­ly for those who enjoy hav­ing their adren­a­line run though their body. Above the trop­i­cal Nyung­we rain­for­est, the sus­pend­ed canopy walk­way which is 160 meters’ long and 70 meters high. The rain for­est is home to over 300 bird species, over 1000 dif­fer­ent tree species plus dif­fer­ent pri­mate species includ­ing endan­gered chimpanzees.

All these with­out doubt add to the nature of the for­est and also make canopy walk expe­ri­ence more adven­tur­ous. The canopy walk can only be tak­en by peo­ple above 6 years of age, how­ev­er all chil­dren are required to have adults accom­pa­ny them through the walk. There’s some hik­ing before one can access the walk­way how­ev­er that shouldn’t both­er you.

Golden Monkey Trekking in Volcanoes National Park

Also referred to as the “Old World Mon­keys”, gold­en mon­keys are also one of the world’s endan­gered species and can only be tracked in the Vol­ca­noes Nation­al Park with­in Rwan­da and Mgahin­ga nation­al park in Ugan­da. Iden­ti­fied by the yel­low patch­es that cov­er their body, gold­en mon­keys inhab­it the bam­boo forests that are found at the foot of Virun­ga Volcanoes.

Gold­en Mon­key trekking is eas­i­er com­pared to goril­la trekking since the gold­en mon­keys can eas­i­ly be tracked by tourists regard­less of the weath­er con­di­tions or sea­son. Gold­en mon­key trekking is always done in ses­sion with only one ses­sion con­duct­ed in the morn­ing lim­it­ed to only 8 people.

Bird watching experiences

The bird list in Rwan­da is unlim­it­ed with over 750 bird species that are record­ed con­cen­trat­ing in the dif­fer­ent areas. These birds inhab­it the mon­tane forests, wet­lands such as lake and riv­er shores.

Bird­ing in Rwan­da is pos­si­ble year-round but more inter­est­ing in the months of Decem­ber, Jan­u­ary and Feb­ru­ary as the coun­try receives migrant birds. The most notable bird­ing des­ti­na­tions include Akagera Nation­al Park, Vol­ca­noes Nation­al Park, Nyung­we Nation­al Park, among others.

Cultural expeditions

You would be inter­est­ed in hav­ing a glimpse of an expe­ri­ence of Rwan­dan tra­di­tion­al cul­ture. Cul­ture here is usu­al­ly dis­played through Intore danc­ing troupes where you have a chance to explore how dynam­ic their tra­di­tion­al music and dance styles are, a unique hair­style known as “Ama­sun­zu” and dress­ing style which can be pre­sent­ed to tourists that pick interest.

Rwan­da has his­tor­i­cal sites and muse­ums, notably the Ethno­graph­ic Muse­um and King’s Palace which are all open to tourists who have inter­est in learn­ing about the cul­tur­al her­itage of Rwanda.

BEST TIME TO VISIT RWANDA

Rwan­da being a small coun­try, her cli­mate doesn’t vary so much. Regard­less of this, every nation­al park with­in Rwan­da can be vis­it­ed through­out the entire year.

The peak sea­son for all Rwan­dan nation­al parks is always in the dry months of June to Sep­tem­ber and Decem­ber to February.