The gorillas are two hours from the capital. The permit is the hard part.
What a trek costs once the permit is in it. Which Akagera day finds the Big Five and which one is really a boat ride. Whether Nyungwe is worth the drive south. Reviews of every tour you can book in Rwanda.
Volcanoes, Akagera, Nyungwe, and one morning on foot in Kigali.
The four days a first Rwandan week is built around. What each costs, how long it takes, and what the people who went say about it.
01Volcanoes, permit dayRwanda Gorilla Tracking in Volcanoes National ParkUp through the bamboo at seven, one hour with a habituated family, back down by lunch. Everything else on this list fits around it.
02The game driveDay Trip Safari – Akagera National Park with Optional Lake Ihema Boat SafariAkagera opens at six and the lions work the northern plains early. This one adds the Lake Ihema boat, which is where the hippos are.
03The drive south1 Day Canopy Walk Adventure in Nyungwe Forest National ParkFive hours to Nyungwe for a walkway strung seventy metres above the forest floor. Stay the night, or it is a very long day.
04Kigali on footKigali: Walking Tour with a Local GuideThree hours through the market lanes with someone local. The cheapest thing on this page and the one people write most about.
Six places, and the road between them is never long.
Rwanda fits inside a day of driving. A capital on a ridge, three national parks that share nothing but a fence, a lake ninety kilometres long, and the town the gorilla trekkers sleep in.
Rwanda takes eighty trekkers a day, and Kigali is also the road to Bwindi.
Volcanoes National Park caps trekking at eighty permits a day across the habituated families, one hour each, and the permit is bought separately from anything below. Kigali is also the closest airport to Bwindi, so a fair share of what leaves this city before dawn is a Ugandan trek with a Rwandan start. Both kinds are here, priced without the permit, so what you are really comparing is the ground arrangement.
Kigali on foot, behind a driver, or with your hands in a basket.
The capital sits across a set of ridges and almost nothing is walkable between them, so the shape of the day is really a choice about transport. Four kinds, what each opens up, and what it costs to start.
Kigali walks, Akagera game drives, and the treks people fly in for.
The whole Rwanda catalogue →The days more travellers take than any others in the country, and what each one costs to start.
1
Kigali City Tour
See Kigali with a local guide, from the Genocide Memorial and markets to coffee, street art, Mount Kigali, and a traditional lunch.
From · $162
Read our review →
2
Kigali: Walking Tour with a Local Guide
from $30
3
One-day Akagera National Park Game Drive with a Choice 4×4
from $205
4
Private Full-day Kigali City Tour with Pickup and Lunch
from $180
5
Kigali Walking Tour
from $30
6
Kigali E-Bike City Tour with Breakfast
from $39
7
Private 1 Day Akagera Big Five Safari with pick up and lunch.
from $440
8
Mount Kigali and Cultural Village Tour with Snacks
from $35
Three national parks, and they have nothing in common but a gate.
Rainforest in the south, savanna in the east, volcanoes on the northern border. Different animals, different altitudes, and days that price nothing like each other.
- 1One-day Akagera National Park Game Drive with a Choice 4×4from $205
- 21 Day Canopy Walk Adventure in Nyungwe Forest National Parkfrom $440
- 33 Day Gorilla Trek at Bwindi National Park via Kigalifrom $1,940
Rwanda prices in three tiers: the city, the road, and the permit.
Rwandan days out fall into three tiers, and the distance between the cheapest morning and the cheapest trek is the whole story of a budget here.
City walks, a coffee class, the craft workshops, an hour on a quad bike out on the dirt roads.
- 1Kigali: Walking Tour with a Local Guidefrom $30
- 2Kigali Walking Tourfrom $30
- 3Kigali E-Bike City Tour with Breakfastfrom $39
Full days out of the capital. Mount Kigali, the Kivu boats, the longer city runs with lunch in them.
- 1Kigali City Tourfrom $121
- 2Kigali: Traditional Coffee Experience ( Bean to Brew)from $50
- 3Kigali City Sightseeingfrom $130
The parks. Akagera game drives, the Nyungwe walkway, and the treks, where the permit is most of the number.
Three things Rwanda has and its neighbours do not.
Savanna and rainforest run across half of Africa. A capped hour with a mountain gorilla family, a walkway strung through the Nyungwe canopy, and a painting made of cow dung do not.
The Volcanoes Permit
Rwanda caps trekking at eight visitors per habituated family and one hour on the clock, which is why the permit costs what it costs and sells out months ahead. Briefing is at seven in Kinigi, the walk to the family runs anywhere from forty minutes to six hours depending on where they slept, and a porter costs a few dollars and is worth every one of them. Nobody under fifteen goes up.
- 13 Day Gorilla Trek at Bwindi National Park via Kigali★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 32 reviews
- 21 Day Rwanda Gorilla Trekking Tour In The Volcanoes National Park★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 31 reviews
- 32 Day Gorilla Trekking Safari in Uganda via Kigali★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 26 reviews
The Nyungwe Suspension Walkway
A steel walkway runs a hundred and sixty metres across a ravine in Nyungwe, seventy metres above the forest floor, and it is the only one of its kind in East Africa. Groups go out on timed slots with a guide, it sways, and the mist usually arrives before you do. Nyungwe is five hours south of Kigali on good tarmac, which makes this a night away rather than a day trip.
- 11 Day Canopy Walk Adventure in Nyungwe Forest National Park★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 32 reviews
- 21 Day Nyungwe Canopy Walk & Waterfall Tour adventure★★★★★★★★★★ 3.7 · 7 reviews
- 31 Day Canopy walk way in Nyungwe Natioinal park★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 6 reviews
Imigongo and the Agaseke
Imigongo is relief painting made from cow dung and ash, worked into hard geometric zigzags and spirals and finished in black, white and ochre. It comes from Nyarubuye in the east and it is now on half the walls in Kigali. The other craft worth an afternoon is the agaseke, the tightly coiled basket with the conical lid that turns up on the national coat of arms.
- 1Mount Kigali and Cultural Village Tour with Snacks★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 62 reviews
- 2Kigali: Traditional Coffee Experience ( Bean to Brew)★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 54 reviews
- 3Kigali: Traditional Basket Weaving in a Garden★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 41 reviews
Four Rwandan bookings that will not wait for you.
Nearly everything in Rwanda can be settled over dinner the evening before. Not these four. They run on permits, park gates and boat departures that take no notice of your arrival.
- 013 Day Gorilla Trek at Bwindi National Park via KigaliEighty permits a day for the whole park, sold months ahead and separately from the tour. No permit, no trek, whatever you paid for the transfer.
- 021 Day Canopy Walk Adventure in Nyungwe Forest National ParkThe walkway runs on timed groups and Nyungwe is five hours from Kigali. This is a trip you build a night around, not one you bolt onto a Friday.
- 03One-day Akagera National Park Game Drive with a Choice 4×4The park gates open at six and close at six, and the lions are worked in the first two hours. A late start is a different day out entirely.
- 04Lake Kivu Boat Trips & ExperiencesThe lake boats leave on their own departures, not yours. Miss the morning run and the island stays a view from the shore.
March to May the hills come down with the rain.
Rwanda runs two wet seasons: a long one from March into May, a shorter one across October and November. Trekking still goes ahead, in mud, and the forest tracks get slow. This is when the capital earns its keep, because almost everything good in Kigali happens under a roof or a short dash from one.
The capital, the volcanoes, the lake
Kigali, Musanze, Kivu, Nyungwe, Akagera: the loop a first trip usually makes.
Musanze
Volcanoes
Lake Kivu
Nyungwe
AkageraJust added to the Rwanda list.
More recent Rwandan reviews →
1 Day Gorilla Trekking Safari in Rwanda Volcanoes National Park
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Kigali: Guided City Tour let us learn, enjoy together ❤️
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1-Day Lake Kivu Karongi Boat Cruise & Coffee farming with Lunch
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