Why Should I Visit Rwanda?

You should visit Rwanda because it’ll totally scramble your biases about East Africa. It’s gorgeous, friendly, and easy to navigate. It’s small enough to wrap your head around, but diverse enough to keep you busy. It’s got a tragic, complicated history which echoes throughout the region today. Oh, and it’s got gorillas, if that’s your thing.

Leaving a busy, dense, and chaotic city like Nairobi and landing in Kigali is almost disorienting. Draped across hills, it’s tough to get a sense of the size of the city. The city center is small, and the distinct neighborhoods occupying hills or valleys are somewhat isolated from each other. It’s lush and green, and almost shockingly free from litter.

Beyond Kigali, the country is just one impossibly gorgeous view after another. Every time you round a bend on the perfectly smooth mountain roads, you get another vista of a tea plantation, national park, or terraced farm community. If you choose to spend time in those national parks, you can have confidence that your tourist dollars are being spent on conservation, as the park system grows to better protect the gorillas and other wildlife.

Of course, Rwanda has its problems. Incomes are low, and Paul Kagame’s shift from “hero of the nation” to “democracy subverting authoritarian” is a troubling turn for a man with his backstory. The scars of the genocide are inescapable, and the country works hard to keep its people from forgetting. For a world that seems to have decided genocide is just a fact of life, a visit to Rwanda is a chance to shake away some of that complacency. And it’s a reminder that countries shouldn’t be defined by their darkest days.

Escaping the Bubble

I imagine there are parts of Rwanda where you’ll bump into packs of other tourists. If you’re on a gorilla trek, by definition you’re going to be rubbing shoulders with other well-heeled folks. Beyond that, you’ll mostly be running into people working for businesses or NGOs, or random independent travelers. Outside of the high-end tourism circle, most of the folks from outside Rwanda you encounter are likely to be from elsewhere in Africa.

There are plenty of companies that will help you put together a tour itinerary. For some of the national parks, using a guide is required to ensure that the wildlife is protected. If you’re planning to see the gorillas, that will define the rest of the trip. Access is limited, so you’ll need to plan well in advance, and you’ll pay for the privilege. Nothing else in the country is especially constrained, though if you’ve got your heart set on some of the top-notch Instagram sites, or the very high-end lodges, you’ll want to book in advance.

Kigali has a very limited number of “tourism” sites. No matter where you go, you’re not going to see a bus of midwesterners following a guide with a flag – the whole country gets less tourists in a year than Florence gets in a month.

Getting Around

In some respects, Kigali is a very walkable city. There are good sidewalks, traffic signals to cross busy roads, and most of the streets are quiet. However, the hills are no joke. Even though temperatures are generally mild, you’re a mile above sea level so the sun is intense. Renting an e-bike is a great way to explore the city. Alternatively, the Yego app makes it easy to hail a motorcycle taxi or a car. Although parts of the city can have traffic, it’s never the multi-hour jams of a city like Nairobi.

Outside Kigali, the roads are gorgeous, flowing and brand new. The only thing that will slow you down is trucks trundling up the steep hills. Rwandans follow the rules of the road, so there’s no passing on solid white lines. Everyone just patiently waits for a passing section. Speed limits are also strictly enforced with speed cameras. Your rental car agency will login to a central website to check for any fines when you return the car.

If you’ve ever driven the twisty roads in somewhere like the Amalfi Coast or Chianti, you’ll have no trouble navigating Rwanda. Just make sure you check with your rental agency about your overall itinerary. Most rentals can’t be taken across borders, and some of the national parks will have specific requirements for 4×4 vehicles. For those types of excursions, it’s often more cost effective and safer to just hire a driver and guide.

Sights

Let’s put the gorillas to the side, because they’re the obvious draw for many visitors. The country has a lot to offer beyond our hominid cousins. Akagera National Park is a savannah which is home to the “big five,” Nyungwe has chimpanzees and impressive canopy hikes, and Gishwati-Mukura is a birder’s paradise. Because it’s a small country, most of these are no more than a half-day’s drive apart, so it’s very doable to pack a lot of destinations into one trip.

In the west of the country, Lake Kivu forms much of the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. It’s the location of the Congo Nile Trail, a roughly 130 kilometer hiking and biking trail which runs north-south along the lake. Doable as a solo adventure or with a guide, it mixes remote forest trails with small villages and farms. For more hikes, check out the lovely hiking guide from the tourism authority. For biking, check out the exhaustive free guidebook created by Kaspar Kundert (a serious labor of love).

In Kigali, the Genocide Memorial is a required visit. Beyond that, you can take your pick of neighborhood tours, cultural activities, or small museums – there aren’t a lot of other must-do sights. The city itself is just a nice place to relax and slow down.

Eating

Rwanda is still statistically a poor country, and although it’s more equitable than many of its neighbors, the population isn’t yet able to support a big culinary scene. The food is a mix of East African staples like ugali, stews, and grilled meat. There’s also a fair amount of Indian food, reflecting the long history of trade between East Africa and the Indian subcontinent.

What Rwanda does have is fantastic coffee and tea, owing to a climate well suited to both. Throughout the country there are coffee washing stations, which take the raw coffee cherries from farmers and process them for distribution. Many of these stations offer tours and cupping experiences. The best coffee is harvested in the late spring. Tea plantations throughout the country also offer tours and a chance to see the drying and packaging process.

Get yourself to Rwanda

If you’re interested in seeing East Africa, but you feel a little intimidated, Rwanda will put you at ease. If you love mountains and wildlife, Rwanda is incredibly accessible. And if you’re interested in understanding how some of the developing world chaos of the late 20th century set the stage for our modern geopolitics, the history is unavoidable in Rwanda. The people are fantastic, and you’ll come back proselytizing its beauty to your friends. Get yourself to Rwanda!