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Rwanda
Known as 'the land of a thousand hills', Rwanda is a small country of picturesque and varied landscapes.
Volcanoes National Park is extraordinarily beautiful and most famous for its brilliant gorilla tracking, often the highlight of any trip to Rwanda. It is also home to the magnificent Virunga Volcanic Mountains, whose dense high-altitude forests protect about half the world’s remaining mountain gorillas.
Standard game viewing is especially good in A’Kagera National Park in eastern Rwanda. The park is a mixture of woodland, open grassland and papyrus swamps. It boasts healthy populations of lion, leopard, plains game, hippo, giraffe, elephant, as well as many bird species.
Nyungwe National Park contains the largest remaining single tract of montane forest in Africa and is home to a phenomenal number of birds and primates, including chimpanzees, the Ruwenzori colobus monkey and the endangered golden monkey.
Lake Kivu, on the other hand, offers quite a contrast to the large National Parks, and can be an excellent finish to any trip around Rwanda; beautiful beaches, jutting peninsulas and an archipelago of islands, busy with traders and local fishermen in their dugout canoes, can be found here. Life around Lake Kivu is lively, and visitors if they so choose can get a real feel for Rwandan culture.
Rwanda is a great destination in its own right, or added on as an extension to a safari in Kenya or Tanzania (it is only a short flight from Nairobi). Tourism to Rwanda has dropped greatly since the tragedy of the early 1990's, but visitors will be pleasantly surprised by the spirit of reconciliation which now exists in the country.
TRAVEL ADVICE
Rwanda is a good year round destination and combines well with a safari in Tanzania or Kenya.
Rwanda's dry seasons run from June to October and December to February, and are best for gorilla tracking, while the rainy seasons run from March to early October and mid-November to mid-December.
Bird watching is sensational November to March.
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Regions in Rwanda
Set at a relatively low altitude on the border with Tanzania, Akagera National Park could scarcely be more different in mood to the breezy cultivated hills that characterise much of Rwanda.
Located at Rwanda’s geographical heart, the rapidly growing city of Kigali is not only the national capital, but also the country’s most important business centre and main port of entry.
Nyungwe Forest National Park is one of the best places in the world to see a range of different primate species.
Rwanda's lakes offer visitors glimpses into ancient African lifestyles. Here, fishermen still fish in dugout canoes unchanged in design for centuries, while the local populace can be seen working, or sitting on the shores in colourful local dress, smoking traditional wooden pipes.
Volcanoes National Park is situated in the Virunga Mountains in northwest Rwanda and ideal for gorilla trekking.
