Rwanda · East Africa
Kigali and Lake Kivu.
Kigali is the calmest capital in the region, and Lake Kivu gives Rwanda a genuine lakeside pause.
Photo Derricks Nature Book / Unsplash
The Kigali Genocide Memorial is not an optional stop for a visitor trying to understand the country, and the city itself is safe, walkable and increasingly good for food and craft.
Kivu's shore towns — Rubavu, Karongi, Rusizi — are where Rwandans go for a weekend, and they work well as a decompression day between the forest and the flight home.
How do you get to Kigali?
Kigali International Airport has direct flights from Europe, the Middle East and across Africa, and is about half an hour from the city centre. It is the gateway for every Rwanda itinerary, and for the southern sectors of Bwindi in Uganda.
What is the Kigali Genocide Memorial?
The memorial and burial place of more than 250,000 victims of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, with an exhibition that explains its history, its course and its aftermath. It is the most important place in the country for understanding modern Rwanda.
What is Umuganda in Rwanda?
A national community work morning held on the last Saturday of each month, when Rwandans clean streets and work on local projects. Traffic stops and most businesses close until the late morning, and road transfers that morning are affected.
How big is Lake Kivu?
About 2,700 square kilometres, one of Africa's Great Lakes, on the border between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Rubavu at its northern end is around three hours by road from Kigali, and the Congo Nile Trail runs along its Rwandan shore.
How long should you spend in Kigali and on Lake Kivu?
A night or two in Kigali at the start or end of a trip, and two nights on Lake Kivu as a rest between the forests and the gorillas.
What is there to see in Kigali and Lake Kivu?
What does Kigali and Lake Kivu pair well with?
- Volcanoes National ParkVolcanoes is the Rwandan side of the Virunga massif and the most accessible mountain gorilla trekking in the world.
- Nyungwe ForestNyungwe is one of the oldest montane rainforests in Africa and Rwanda's chimpanzee and canopy-walk destination.
- AkageraAkagera is Rwanda's savannah park in the east, restocked with lion and rhino and now a genuine Big Five destination.
Planning
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