3 guides, each rated 1 to 5 with the reason — and two lists per place, where you are comfortable and where to pay attention. Nowhere is called dangerous; the specific thing is what helps.
Kigali is one of the calmest capitals in Africa: well policed, well lit on the main roads, and comfortable to walk by evening. The UK FCDO notes some bag-snatching and theft in the city, so the ordinary precautions apply. Plastic bags are banned and are confiscated at the airport, so pack in something else. On the last Saturday of the month, Umuganda — national community work — closes most services from 7am to 11am and empties the roads; plan to be still. The week from 7 April begins the national commemoration of the 1994 genocide, when the mood is sombre and music and events are subdued. The UK advice against travel covers only part of Rusizi District, in the far south-west, nowhere near the capital.
The trek is the risk worth thinking about: steep, wet and at altitude, and harder than people expect — hire a porter at the start and take gloves for the nettles. The gorilla rules on distance, masks and not trekking with a cold are absolute, because the gorillas catch our illnesses. The park runs along the borders with the DRC and Uganda; the UK FCDO says borders here are poorly marked and that fighting in the DRC can affect the Rwandan side, so stay with your ranger group. Its advice against travel covers part of Rusizi District, in the far south-west, not this park. Nights are cold at this height. Plastic bags are banned in Rwanda and confiscated on arrival.
Comfortable: Musanze · Kinigi
Trekking without a porter or the right boots — the slopes are steep mud at 2,500m and above
Trekking with a cold or a cough, which can pass to the gorillas and is the reason for the masks
Mount Bisoke — the rim is the DRC border; stay with the ranger and the path
Roads after dark outside Musanze, which are unlit and shared with people walking home
The UK FCDO advises against all but essential travel to the parts of Rusizi District within 10km of the DRC border — the southern end of the lake — and its wording takes in the Rwandan islands in Lake Kivu and Kamembe airport; ask your insurer before taking a boat out to any island. Gisenyi is on the border with Goma, which is in the DRC: the UK advises against all travel to North Kivu, the border crossing is not a day trip, and the FCDO says fighting in the DRC can affect the Rwandan side. Gisenyi and Kibuye themselves are calm. The lake has no hippos or crocodiles, but it is deep, and its bottom waters hold dissolved gas — swim at the hotel beaches, not alone off a boat. Plastic bags are banned in Rwanda and confiscated on arrival.
Comfortable: Gisenyi lakefront · Kibuye
Rusizi District — within 10km of the DRC border, the southern end of the lake — the UK advises against all but essential travel there
Lake Kivu islands — the UK advice names the Rwandan islands in the lake; check with your insurer before a boat trip out to one
Gisenyi–Goma border — Goma is in the DRC, which the UK advises against all travel to; the crossing is not a day trip
Swimming off a boat or alone in deep water, which is cold below the surface and has no lifeguards
Boats without life jackets, which you can and should ask for
The ratings are this site's own, from the guides' authors and the corrections readers send in; they are not an index. Read the general advice in travel safety tips.
