Kigali

The immediate notable aspect of the city being its overwhelming hospitality, organisation and cleanliness.

Kigali is a truly vibrant place and conveniently, as the starting point to 99% of trips, it is located in the geographic centre of the country making access to most areas of Rwanda within a maximum half a day drive. Akagera National Park is around 2.5-3 hours drive away, Volcanoes National Park and Lake Kivu a similar time away, with Nyungwe National Park around 5 hours away.

The city is very safe and clean, with extremely welcoming people. Most trips here should include at least one night or maybe even 2 or 3 and we recommend exploring the cultural activities on offer including several museums, its burgeoning music scene, and some of East Africa's most exciting and fun restaurants.

Tailormade Africa feels a trip to the Genocide Museum in Kigali is essential to understand the past, present and the future of this remarkable country. The people of Rwanda embrace reconciliation and peace and on the whole are very open about the 1994 Genocide. The Museum was inaugurated on the 10th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide and the Kigali Genocide Memorial at Gisozi is where 259,000 victims have been buried.

This memorial also serves to educate about how the 1994 Genocide took shape and examines genocide in the 20th century. There are memorials found throughout the country and these are moving testimonies in memory of the people who died. We feel it is important to understand the history before exploring the country and seeing how far Rwanda has come in the past two decades.