Rwanda is now firmly on the map for a stimulating adventure safari. It is small, so it’s easy to get around, despite the hilly terrain. (Not for nothing is Rwanda called ‘The Land of a Thousand Hills’!) Good tar roads wind through fertile hillsides terraced with coffee-plantations. Indeed, most places are within three hours drive from Kigali, the capital.  So, from a practical point of view, this means you can combine some gorilla trekking in Rwanda with a safari in neighbouring Tanzania. But it also makes for a great ‘stand-alone’ destination.

Rwanda Gorilla Trekking

The rare promise of seeing some of the last wild population of mountain gorillas is the lure for most visitors. The charismatic Great Apes live in the high-altitude rainforest of the Volcanoes massif. This protected area is home to over half of the estimated population of around 1000 mountain gorillas.  There are 12 habituated mountain gorilla groups in the Volcanoes National Park. So this is one of the best places for a clear sighting on a gorilla trekking tour.

Unexpected treats on a Rwanda Safari Tour

One or two days of gorilla trekking is likely to be the highlight of your Rwanda safari. Other ‘must sees’ include the ancient high-altitude forest of Nyungwe National Park and Akagera National Park.

How to get there & get around

Rwanda is well-connected to the Serengeti and Kenya (Nairobi), but also to Cape Town, Johannesburg, Lusaka (Zambia) and Harare (Zimbabwe). So it is now very easy to combine a safari either East or Southern Africa with the mountain gorillas of Rwanda. Most people combine it with Kenya or Tanzania because of the shorter flight connections. But South Africa is also on the cards, if you wish….