Rwanda

Rwanda packs mountain gorilla trekking, chimpanzees, a Big Five savanna and a clean, easy-to-visit capital into a country you can cross in a day.

Volcanoes National Park, in the Virunga Mountains of north-west Rwanda, is home to habituated mountain gorilla families. Treks start at the park headquarters at Kinigi; you walk up through farmland, bamboo and montane forest and then spend a limited, regulated hour with your gorilla family. The number of permits is limited each day, so trips need to be booked well in advance.

Elsewhere, Nyungwe Forest National Park offers chimpanzee tracking and a canopy walkway above the rainforest, and Akagera National Park in the east has classic savanna game drives, where lions and rhinos have been reintroduced.

Kigali, the capital, is orderly and easy to move around, and the Kigali Genocide Memorial is a sobering and important visit. Gorilla permit fees are set by the Rwanda Development Board and change from time to time, so we confirm the current fee in every quote.