Rwanda’s capital and biggest city is built across an undulating series of lush hills surrounded by higher mountains, the largest of which is Mount Kigali, rising 1,850 metres above sea level. Kigali is the country’s financial, commercial and cultural hub, served by an international airport and featuring a wide range of accommodation options, restaurants and points of interest, including the Kigali Genocide Centre, an atmospheric market and numerous craft shops.

Akagera National Park stretches across a vast expanse of low-lying mountains and savannah plains, taking in the lakes and wetlands of the Kagera River along the way. Crocodiles and hippos wallow in the park’s watery basins, predators prowl through its acacia groves, and elephant, zebra, giraffe, buffalo and other animals roam across its grassy plains.

Set high on the jungle-covered slopes of the volcanic Virunga Mountains, Parc National des Volcans is best known as a sanctuary for the region’s rare mountain gorillas. Highly regulated treks through the reserve allow visitors to spend an hour at a time with these incredible primates in their natural habitat.

One of Africa’s Great Lakes, Kivu is the sixth-largest and eighteenth-deepest lake in the world, covering a whopping surface area of roughly 2,700 square kilometres and reaching to almost 500 metres at its maximum depth. Three vibrant resort towns – Kibuye, Gisenyi and Cyangugu – located on its shores provides an array of lodging options, while the steep hills that surround it are peppered with forests and waterfalls. Water sports enthusiasts will have a field day at Lake Kivu, and bird watchers are likely to be equally thrilled by the lake’s diverse menagerie of avian species.

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