Visiting Kigali, you will revel in stunning bursts of colour in places like the Caplaki Handicrafts Cooperative, where you can buy holiday mementos, including exquisite handicrafts, nesting baskets, carved wooden relics, painted pots and ceramics, whimsical tribal masks, and so much more.
You must check out the gorgeous printed fabrics for sale in tiny stores, as well as sample the local cuisine. Try brochettes, lip-smacking treats on little sticks, or perhaps the traditional dishes of Rwanda, such as Nyama Choma (roasted goat meat) and ibirayi (crispy fried potatoes). Sip on delicious banana beer or try the local high-grade coffee and tea.
After the displays have whetted your appetite for more Rwandan sights and sounds, take a multi-day trip out to the parks and reserves.
Rwanda is home to an astonishing 14 species of primates, some of which are on the endangered list and not found anywhere else in the world. Its location on the Albertine Rift creates the ideal habitat for some 650 species of birds, making it a veritable heaven for bird lovers. You will also find 402 species of mammals and 293 varieties of amphibians and reptiles.
Travel out to Volcanoes National Park for the exhilarating experience of spending time with the magnificent mountain gorillas of Rwanda, found primarily in the Virunga Mountains. While being able to spend time watching a gorilla family is an amazing adventure, so is the journey to locate them.
You will be trekking through Eden-like forests where the song calls of birds and the melody of waterfalls accompany you. Keep an eye out for smaller animals darting around in the undergrowth as you walk.
Volcanoes National Park offers yet another unforgettable experience on your active holiday: the opportunity to view golden monkeys, another rare species of primate.
This is the most popular tourist activity that attracts thousands of visitors to Rwanda from all corners of the world. Rwanda offers the best luxurious gorilla trekking experience in East Africa. To fully experience the mountain gorillas in their natural habitat, go for a double gorilla trekking tours and experience gorilla trekking twice in Rwanda.
Rwanda is home to about 13 primate species such as Chimpanzees, Golden monkeys, L’Hoests Monkeys, Blue Monkeys, Black and White Colobus, Vervets, and Grey-Cheeked Mangabeys among others. Besides gorilla trekking, Volcanoes National Park inhabits 2 troupes of Golden Monkeys.
Tracking gorillas in Rwanda is a year-round activity but the periods just after the rains are perfect for the adventure. During gorilla safaris in East Africa, the decision on which gorilla family to track depends on your overall fitness and preference.
Some gorilla groups live near the starting points for tracking while others go deeper in the forest. During the drier months, the park roads are free of mud and the animals gather at specific waterholes to drink making it easy to spot them.
The Volcanoes woodlands are where mountain gorillas spend the majority of their time. Though they spend more time in the bamboo forests during the rainy season when new bamboo shoots are sprouting. Fantastic views can be found on the ascent to the bamboo forest and Hagenia woodlands’ natural habitats.
The length and difficulty of your gorilla trek will depend on which family of gorillas you are tracking and where they were last seen. As such, Rwanda gorilla treks can last anywhere between 1-6 hours, which includes hiking to find a specific family, watching them, and then returning back to your start point, where your transport out of the national park will wait for you.
You should also be in relatively good shape before you start hiking through the dense, tropical jungles of Rwanda. But if you are reasonably fit, you should be fine and the reward is beyond imagination! The magic of this experience unfolds as you come face-to-face with a gorilla family, observing their social interactions, playful antics, and serene moments.
Permits are limited to a certain number of visitors each day to minimize the impact on the gorillas’ habitat, so peak season permits can sometimes sell out a year in advance. To secure your Rwanda gorilla trekking permit, it’s advisable to book well in advance, regardless of the season, but you’ll have to book further ahead for dry-season treks.
You could also go hike up Mount Bisoke or Mount Karisimbi for breath-taking views of the lakes and landscape of the reserve, or perhaps go on a pilgrimage to the grave shrine of Dian Fossey, the remarkable woman who worked for the conservation of the unique Rwandan mountain gorillas.
Visit IbyI’wacu Village and relish the cultural opportunity to see how the local tribe lives. It has been preserved as a living relic with songs, dances, craft-making, cuisine, and medicine making, just as it existed centuries ago.
A visit to see golden monkeys is a remarkable experience, an add on to mountain gorilla trekking in Rwanda. The golden monkey is specie of the old-world monkey that survives in the Virunga Mountain regions in Mgahinga Gorilla National Park Uganda, and Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda.
Travelers who have visited golden monkeys before rate this primate encounter as a “lifetime” experience. The endangered primates are known for their active and playful behaviors which make their encounter. You will need a golden monkey trekking permit which costs $100 inclusive of the park entrance fee, conservation fee, and government taxes.
Wind up with a visit to Lake Kivu, one of Africa’s largest and deepest lakes; it has the distinction of having tiny islets, each of which hosts its own biome with rare flora and fauna.
Spend hours sunbathing on the golden beach beside the lake, listening to the birds chirping, or taking the occasional dip. As Kivu has no dangerous inhabitants, like crocodiles and hippos, to watch out for, this is a safe place to swim.
Those looking for something more adventurous may enjoy participating in exhilarating water sports such as water-skiing or jet-skiing or go fishing on the lake. The green beauty of Rwanda and its many attractions makes it a fabulous location to spend your valuable time.
