The Land of a Thousand Hills

Rwanda Gorilla Trekking & Safaris

Rwanda pairs one of the world's great wildlife encounters with one of its great stories of renewal. Trek to mountain gorillas on the slopes of the Virunga volcanoes, walk the canopy of Nyungwe Forest, and spend time in Kigali, a capital that carries its history with honesty and its future with pride.

All Destinations

What Rwanda Is Known For

Gorilla trekking in Volcanoes National Park
Chimpanzees and the canopy walkway in Nyungwe Forest
Big Five safaris in Akagera National Park
Kigali and the Kigali Genocide Memorial
Lake Kivu and the thousand hills

Parks and Regions in Rwanda

6 places

Akagera National Park

National Park · Eastern Rwanda

Akagera National Park covers 1,122 km² along Rwanda's eastern border with Tanzania, where the Kagera River feeds a chain of lakes and papyrus swamps that make up more than a third of the park. Founded in 1934 by the Belgian administration at 2,500 km², it lost more than half its area to resettlement after 1994. Under a 20-year agreement signed in 2009, it has been run since 2010 by African Parks in partnership with the Rwanda Development Board. It is Rwanda's only savanna park and the only place in the country to see the Big Five. Lions were reintroduced in 2015 and numbered about 72 by 2025; eastern black rhino returned in 2017 and southern white rhino in 2021, with 70 more white rhino moved in June 2025. Elephant, buffalo, Masai giraffe, zebra, topi, eland and hippo are present, and around 490 bird species have been recorded, including shoebill and papyrus gonolek. Boat trips on Lake Ihema, night drives and self-drive are permitted. Annual visitors rose from 8,000 in 2010 to about 67,000 in 2025.

Best: June–September (long dry season)

Gishwati-Mukura National Park

National Park · Western Province (Rutsiro / Ngororero districts)

Gishwati-Mukura National Park is Rwanda's fourth and newest national park, gazetted in 2015 from two separate remnants of montane forest in the Western Province between Lake Kivu and the Nyungwe massif. The park covers about 34 km² plus a buffer zone; Gishwati, the larger fragment at 32 km², lies near the Kivu shore and Mukura further south-east. It was designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 2020 and opened to visitors in December of that year. Gishwati was once a forest of around 1,000 km², reduced to a few square kilometres by the 1990s through farming and the resettlement of refugees; replanting since 2008 has restored roughly 10 km². A group of about 20 eastern chimpanzees lives here alongside golden monkeys, blue monkeys and L'Hoest's monkeys, and 232 bird species have been recorded at Gishwati and 163 at Mukura. A forest corridor linking the park to Nyungwe, 48 km south, is planned. Activities include guided chimpanzee and monkey tracking, forest hikes to waterfalls, birdwatching and community visits.

Best: Jun–Sep (dry); Dec–Feb short dry season

Kigali

City · Kigali

Kigali is the capital of Rwanda and sits almost at the geographic centre of the country, spread across a series of ridges and valleys between about 1,300 m and 2,071 m. It was founded in 1907 by the German colonial resident Richard Kandt as an administrative post and became the capital at independence in 1962, when it had around 6,000 inhabitants; the 2022 census counted 1.75 million. The city is known for its order and cleanliness, reinforced by the monthly Umuganda community work morning. Most visitors spend a day here before or after the parks. The Kigali Genocide Memorial at Gisozi is the main site, followed by the Kandt House museum, the Nyamirambo quarter with its Green Mosque and walking tours, the Inema and Niyo art centres, Kimironko market and the viewpoint on Mount Kigali. Kigali International Airport lies 10 km east of the centre. Temperatures stay between roughly 15 °C and 27 °C all year, with rains from February to June and September to December; July is the driest month.

Best: Jun–Sep

Kigali Genocide Memorial

Cultural Site · Kigali City (Gisozi)

The Kigali Genocide Memorial stands on a hillside at Gisozi, a short drive north of the city centre, and is the national memorial to the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. Building began in 2000 and the site was inaugurated in April 2004, on the tenth anniversary. The remains of more than 250,000 people, gathered from mass graves across the capital, are interred in the terraced burial gardens. The memorial is run by the Aegis Trust on behalf of Rwanda's National Commission for the Fight Against Genocide, and in 2023 it was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as one of the Memorial Sites of the 1994 Genocide. Inside, three permanent exhibitions cover the history and course of the genocide, a children's memorial with life-sized photographs, and a comparative gallery on genocides elsewhere in the world. A wall of names, rose gardens and an amphitheatre surround the graves. An audio guide is available. Visits usually take one to two hours; the tone is sober, and operators normally allow time afterwards. Photography is restricted inside the exhibition.

Best: Year-round

Nyungwe Forest National Park

National Park · Southern Rwanda

Nyungwe National Park protects 1,019 km² of montane rainforest in south-western Rwanda, between Lake Kivu and the Burundi border, on the Congo–Nile divide. One of the oldest forests in Africa, it survived the last ice age and rises to about 3,000 m at Mount Bigugu (2,921 m). It was a forest reserve from 1933, became a national park in 2004, has been managed by African Parks with the Rwanda Development Board since 2020, and was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2023. The forest holds 13 primate species, a quarter of Africa's total, including chimpanzees, which are tracked from Uwinka and Cyamudongo, and large troops of Angolan colobus. More than 300 bird species have been recorded, with about 30 Albertine Rift endemics, alongside 85 mammal species and over 1,000 plants, including many orchids. The 160 m canopy walkway, suspended 70 m above a ravine on the Igishigishigi trail, is the best-known activity; other trails lead to waterfalls and viewpoints, and tea estates border the park.

Best: Jun–Sep (dry); Dec–Feb short dry season

Volcanoes National Park

National Park · Northern Rwanda

Volcanoes National Park covers 160 km² of montane forest on Rwanda's north-western border with Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, taking in five of the eight Virunga volcanoes: Karisimbi (4,507 m), Bisoke, Sabyinyo, Gahinga and Muhabura. Established in 1925 to protect the mountain gorilla, it is the oldest national park in Africa; it was enlarged in 1929 and forms part of the wider Virunga Massif with the adjoining parks in the two neighbouring countries. The park is the setting for Dian Fossey's work: she founded the Karisoke Research Centre between Karisimbi and Bisoke in 1967 and is buried there. Gorilla tracking with habituated families is the main activity, with a limit on group size and a minimum age of 15; golden monkey tracking, the Bisoke crater lake hike, the Karisimbi two-day climb and the Musanze caves are alternatives. The Kwita Izina gorilla naming ceremony is held each year. Vegetation runs from bamboo and Hagenia forest to alpine meadow, and 178 bird species have been recorded. Park headquarters are at Kinigi, near Musanze. Rwanda announced in 2022 a plan to expand the park to 230 km².

Best: Jun–Sep (dry); Dec–Feb short dry season

Journeys That Visit Rwanda

21-Day Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda AFCON Safari Adventure21 days

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