Rwanda offers one of the world's greatest wildlife experiences: trekking to see mountain gorillas in Volcanoes National Park. Kigali is clean and safe with moving genocide memorials, and Nyungwe has chimpanzees and canopy walks. June to September is driest.
Good to know
- Gorilla permits cost about USD 1,500 and sell out; book months ahead via RDB.
- Pack rain gear and gardening gloves for the trek.
- Plastic bags are banned; do not bring them.
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Places the planner can use
Mark places as a must or something to skip. The itinerary is built only from this list; ★ marks the destination’s highlights.
Contemporary Rwandan art gallery with artist studios.
Colorful local market of fabrics, produce and handicrafts.
Charcoal goat skewers with plantains at a local bar.
Hike with trackers to spend one hour near a gorilla family in the bamboo forest.
A gentler trek among playful, rare golden monkeys, a good alternative to gorillas.
Visit a cooperative to pick, process and taste high-grade coffee.
Rwanda's national museum on culture and history.
Walk to the research camp and grave of the pioneering primatologist.
Powerful, essential museum and memorial documenting the 1994 genocide.
Walkway 50 meters above the ancient rainforest, with chimpanzee tracking nearby.
Rwanda's savannah park with lions, rhinos and giraffes, a day or two from Kigali.
Relaxed lake with beaches, coffee tours and sunsets.