Rwanda — Gorillas in the Mist, Done Right

Rwanda has become the benchmark for responsible mountain gorilla tourism. Volcanoes National Park, part of the Virunga Massif that stretches across the Rwanda-Uganda-DRC border region, protects a population of mountain gorillas that has grown steadily thanks to a strict, permit-limited trekking system that channels tourism revenue directly into conservation and local communities — one trek, with a small group and a fixed time limit with the gorillas, for an experience most travelers describe as the highlight of their life.

Rwanda offers more than gorillas: Nyungwe Forest National Park, one of Africa's oldest rainforests, is home to chimpanzee trekking and a canopy walkway suspended above the forest floor, along with golden monkeys and hundreds of bird species. The country itself, often called the "Land of a Thousand Hills," is one of the cleanest and most orderly in Africa, making logistics easy for travelers combining it with Uganda or Kenya.

Several of our gorilla-trekking itineraries route through Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park — ask us about combining it with Uganda's Bwindi for a two-country gorilla experience.