Exclusive History of Rwanda Tour

You’ll be greeted at the airport and transferred to a five-star base in the heart of the capital city, the perfect place to recuperate from the flight and gaze out on the hills of Rwanda. Take your time, enjoy your lunch, and then visit the memorial in the afternoon. Tens of thousands are buried in mass graves here, a very moving sight as locals regularly visit the memorial. Almost as poignant is the story on the inside, a detailed walk through the events that led to the genocide. It doesn’t hold back any punches in the complicity of the United Nations, and a poignant phrase sticks in the memory: the world was silent when we died. Another intriguing piece of complicity comes from early colonial times when the two ethnic groups – Hutus and Tutsis – were created from one harmonious people. While this may not be a happy place, understanding what happened in detail evokes real admiration for the country of today.

Vivid colors fill Kimilonko Market, a rainbow of styles merging with the fluttering shouts of traders. It’s Rwanda’s biggest and brightest, a throb of colorful chaos that makes for a very entertaining morning. Your guide takes you past various food stalls, enabling you to sample all the country’s delicacies, and then you continue the tour at the Belgium memorial site, located at the exact point where Kigali was founded in 1907. After lunch, you visit the memorial sites of Ntarama and Nyamta. These are old red-brick churches, untouched since 1994, piled high with the skeletons of the murdered. Clothes and fabrics hang from the roof, belongings are left in piles, and skulls rise in huge columns. Local guides conduct the tours and narrate the specific stories of these churches, helping to put a very individual picture of the overarching story at the national genocide memorial. It’s not always a pleasant viewing and many visitors leave in tears. However, there’s always a message of hope and it’s inspiring to take in the brutality of the genocide, and then compare that to the resilience of reconciliation of everything around you.

The four-hour journey to Nyungwe is dotted with delightful sights. Drive through thick tea plantations, where women carry baskets of leaves on their heads; admire the wood and thatch houses that dot the hillside, and visit the palace of the Nyanza kings. It’s opulent in a sense, although you must remember that it was built at a time when Rwanda was completely isolated from the world. And it’s an opportunity to wander through the 19th-century tales of the nation, discovering how the Nyanza kings ruled and the intriguing customs that came with the time. Later on, you stop for a traditional lunch in a small village, a chance to spend time in one of the thousands of little communities that dot the Land of 1000 Hills. For the next three nights, you’re staying at a luxury lodge, a sumptuous accommodation that’s surrounded by the shouts of monkeys.

Rwanda’s history definitely didn’t start in 1994. Nor did it start at the Berlin Conference. If anything, the colonial period blunted many of the rich traditions that had been passed down from antiquity. Rwanda Ethnographic Museum is the finest museum in Rwanda, if not East Africa, celebrating and evoking the time before the white settlers. A specialist guide takes you around and it’s a captivating story. On this relaxed day, you’ll also visit the botanical gardens in Butare and some sublime hot springs in Bugarama, before returning to the forest, where there are likely to be various monkeys within sights of your balcony.

Immense troops of Angolan colobus monkeys swing through the trees of Nyungwe Forest, hundreds of them parading through the high branches. Endangered golden monkeys greet visitors with their blue faces, while chimpanzee families occupy the remote reaches. This thick forest is quintessential Central Africa, a chance to explore the landscape of the Congo Basin and discover over a quarter of Africa’s primate species. Park trackers expertly lead a morning primate tracking tour and a number of endangered monkeys will be spotted. You won’t be seeing just a few of them. Hundreds of them will be surrounding you, some scampering across the ground and others curling their tails high in the canopy. After a late lunch and time to refresh at the lodge, you drive to Gisenyi along Lake Kivu, where your hotel gazes across the water to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Enthusiasm is infectious. Take one step into Ross Carr’s Orphanage and you’re greeted by a wall of smiles and a cacophony of shouts. Starting in 1994, the orphanage has helped over 400 children, and there are some incredible individual stories. You’ll be impressed by how so many of the older children can speak English, as well as how they play the role of older siblings and parents, looking after the youngest of the children. From here it’s a short journey back to Kigali, with stops at a couple of vibrant villages along the way. Everyone is keen to share their story in Rwanda and you’ll find that, by now, you’re fully immersed in the customs of the country.

Rwanda is small and almost everywhere is within two hours of the capital. No road is straight, nor flat, but every highway is in perfect condition, another indication of the strides made in recent years. You’ll arrive in Ruhengeri in the middle of the morning, where you spend the day walking between rural communities that occupy the outskirts of the forest. Many of these have been assisted and uplifted through the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund. You’ll visit rural schools, health clinics, and community centers, and meet the locals that occupy this remote world in the heart of Africa. It’s not where you come to point the camera and take a few photos, but where you connect with the culture and see a very authentic side to the country. As always, your guide helps lead the way and acts as a translator throughout.

On a gorilla trek, you have a whole hour with the habituated troop, admiring them as they go about their day. They’re usually feeding, some gnawing at bark, others picking berries off trees, still more pulling down branches and feasting on their favorite green shoots. Officially you can come within seven meters of the world’s largest primate, although it feels much closer than this. Only around 1000 of these beautiful creatures remain and gorilla trekking is arguably the most intimate wildlife experience on the planet, a chance to spend time with truly wild and remarkable creatures. It’s two hours back to your lodge where you spend the night in Rwanda’s most salubrious accommodation.

Gorillas aren’t the only indigenous residents in the forests of Volcanoes National Park. The Batwa people have shared the trees with them for centuries, along with the forest elephants, golden monkeys, and various other wildlife. On a full-day private tour, you explore their living history, seeing how they originally lived on the land. Local Batwa guides showcase their knowledge of medicinal plants and their original hunting methods. Small communities welcome you with a traditional dance and there’s a chance to trade in the same way as centuries past, with the Batwa offering their honey and you bringing something of value to them (your guide will assist as the most useful is staple foods, just like the Hutus and Tutsis would bring in the past).

Today brings two intriguing stops as you journey back to Kigali. Firstly, venture to the Karisoke Gorilla Research Centre, an immersive hands-on perspective at how a gorilla conservation functions. It’s a remarkable story started by Dian Fossey. Then, you travel onwards to the National Liberation Museum, which tells the tale of how the genocide was stopped. It’s worth noting the political overtones here, as there’s a certain amount of propaganda being peddled at this new museum. In hushed tones, your guide will help to balance truth with fiction. Arriving in Kigali, the evening is at your leisure and you’ve got time to rest and relax before departing tomorrow.

After a relaxed morning, you’re transferred to the airport for your departing flight, taking the tales of Rwanda’s history onwards.