Democratic Republic of Congo — Virunga's Mountain Gorillas and an Active Volcano

Virunga National Park, Africa's oldest national park, is one of the most extraordinary protected areas on the continent when it is open to visitors: home to roughly a third of the world's remaining mountain gorillas, and to Nyiragongo, one of the few volcanoes on Earth with a permanent, accessible lava lake, reachable by an overnight hike to the crater rim.

We want to be completely upfront: Virunga National Park is currently closed to tourism due to ongoing conflict and instability in North Kivu province in eastern DRC, and has been closed for most of the period since 2020. Official government travel advisories continue to advise against travel to the region, and we are not currently booking trips into Virunga, including gorilla trekking or the Nyiragongo hike, until the park reopens and conditions are confirmed safe.

We're keeping a close eye on the situation and will update this page the moment that changes. In the meantime, our Rwanda and Uganda itineraries offer mountain gorilla trekking that is open and operating right now, in Volcanoes National Park and Bwindi Impenetrable Forest respectively.