Rwanda – Exclusive Touch Africa

Rwanda is a stunningly beautiful safari gem in the heart of East Africa. Most famously known for its protected forest parks that are home to a variety of endangered primates. It also has the world renowned Akagera National Park and a fabulous and vibrant cultural history.

Rwanda - Known as “Land of a Thousand Hills” and home to the gentle giants of the forest

Overview
Safari Ideas
Activities
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Rwanda is a landlocked East African country with a green, mountainous landscape. Its renowned Volcanoes National Park is home to mountain gorillas and golden monkeys. The park encompasses 4,507m-tall Mt. Karisimbi and 4 other forested volcanoes. In the southwest is Nyungwe National Park, with ancient montane rainforest that's a habitat for chimpanzees and other primates.

Rwanda shares borders with Tanzania to the East, Democratic Republic of Congo to the west, Uganda to the North, and Burundi to the south. Rwanda has a temperate tropical highland climate, with lower temperatures than are typical for equatorial countries due to its high elevation.

Best time to go - June to mid-September is the long dry season; this is generally the best time to visit if you have the choice.

Rain - Rwanda's long rainy season lasts from about March to May, when the rain is heavy and persistent. Then from October to November is a shorter rainy season and it's followed by a short dry season from December to February

Temp - Summer avg. 30C, Winter avg. 22C

Language - Kinyarwanda is the national language of Rwanda, and the first language of almost the entire population of the country. It is one of the country's official languages alongside French, English, and Swahili.

Visas - Can be obtained at port of entry.

Monetary unit - Rwandan Franc.

Health Requirements - No innoculations required.

Travel Insurance - Recommended

National Parks & Places of interest in Rwanda

Volcanoes National park

The most famous destination in Rwanda, Volcanoes National Park has become synonymous with mountain gorilla tracking safaris and no visit to the country would be complete without visiting these majestic primates. Volcanoes National Park has an historic connection with gorilla conservation and the amazing work of primatologist Dian Fossey in the late 1960s was based in this park and is evocatively portrayed in the book and film Gorillas in the Mist.

Volcanoes National Park is the Rwandan section of the great volcanic massif called the Virunga Mountains that straddles the borders of Rwanda, Uganda and the DRC. The massif is home to around half of the world's precious mountain gorillas – some 400 of them – making Rwanda probably the best place in Africa for a tracking safari.

In addition to Gorilla Trekking, tracking of the golden monkeys in the Volcanoes National Park, is also a thrilling experience that gives an impressive happenstance with these beautiful species of monkeys known as the Golden Monkeys.

Kigali

Kigali is the capital city of Rwanda and is a modern and very clean city. It is scattered over several hills and One of the first things most people notice is that, particularly for an African city, Kigali is spotlessly clean, partly because plastic bags are banned in the country but also because of a universal service called Umuganda when everyone gets together on the last Saturday morning of each month working on community projects like keeping streets clean, tending to gardens and helping neighbours.