Lake Kivu
Rwanda
A deep, cool lake under the volcanoes, where the fishermen sing as they row out at dusk
Photo by Derricks Nature Book on Unsplash
Photos by Serrah Galos, Ayooluwa Isaiah, Ifeoluwa B. and Ifeoluwa B. on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of Rwanda
June to September (the long dry season), December to February
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 150mm in Apr
Where it is
1.70°S, 29.26°E Open in Google Maps
Things to do
Several days- Watch the fishing boats row out from Gisenyi or Kibuye at dusk, three hulls lashed together and the crews singing to keep time
- Walk or cycle a section of the Congo Nile Trail between Gisenyi and Kibuye, with a guide and the luggage sent ahead
- Visit a coffee washing station on the hills above the shore during the harvest
- Stay at least two nights — one is spent mostly arriving
- Come down from the gorillas rather than up from Kigali; Musanze to Gisenyi is the shorter drive
- Keep to Rubavu and Karongi, and do not plan on crossing to Goma or continuing south to Rusizi
Lake Kivu travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget Rwanda
Mid-rangeThe lakeside hotels take cards; the boatmen, the guesthouses in Kibuye and the market in Gisenyi want francs or MTN Mobile Money. Agree a boat trip’s price, length and stops before you step aboard, in francs.
ATMs & cards
Gisenyi has Bank of Kigali, Equity and I&M machines in the town centre; Kibuye has fewer, so draw what you need before you go down the shore. Visa is the card most reliably taken.
Avoid these
- leaving it until Kibuye, which has fewer machines
- changing money with the touts near the Goma border post
Use these instead
- Bank of Kigali
- Equity
- I&M — in Gisenyi
Boat trips and the trail guides are paid in francs, in cash or Mobile Money.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of Rwanda
Reasonably safeThe 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.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (7 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
Worth more attention
- 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
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa Rwanda visa rules
Visa on arrivalup to 30 days
Free. Rwanda has issued a visa on arrival to every nationality since 2018, and waives the fee for citizens of Commonwealth, African Union and Francophonie member states, for a 30-day stay.
Other passports
No visa neededup to 90 days
Named by Rwanda’s immigration service for 90 days without a visa.
Visa on arrivalup to 30 days$50 single entry, $70 multiple
Issued at the airport without applying in advance. If Kenya or Uganda are on the same trip, the $100 East Africa Tourist Visa covers all three for 90 days.
Visa on arrivalup to 30 daysfree, or up to $50
Every nationality can get a visa on arrival. It is free for Commonwealth, African Union and Francophonie member states and up to $50 for everyone else.
How to get it: Nothing to apply for in advance: the visa is issued at Kigali airport and at the land borders. Do not pack plastic bags — they are banned and taken off you at the airport.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Health & emergencies all of Rwanda
LimitedRequired to enter
- Yellow fever certificate, but only if you are arriving from a country where yellow fever is present
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Hepatitis A and typhoid
- Tetanus up to date
- Malaria prophylaxis — the risk is high across the country
- Rabies for longer or rural stays
- Meningitis and cholera for some itineraries — ask a travel clinic
Getting treated
Limited. Kigali has the country’s best hospitals and private clinics and they cope with the everyday; anything serious means an air ambulance to Nairobi or South Africa. Volcanoes and Nyungwe are hours from Kigali by road, so evacuation cover is the clause that matters.
Malaria is the everyday risk; take the tablets. The gorilla and golden monkey treks go up to around 3,000m in the Virungas, and trekkers with a cold or a stomach bug are turned away, because the gorillas catch what we carry. Neighbouring DR Congo has had Ebola and mpox outbreaks — check the current advice before you fly.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
GoodIsambaza, the tiny lake sardines fried whole and eaten by the handful, are what to order on the shore, with a brochette of goat and grilled plantain. Tilapia from the lake is everywhere. The coffee is grown on the hills above the lake, and some of the washing stations will show you how.
Travel tipsGetting around
Limited- UberNot here
- BoltNot here
Time zone and your working day
Africa/Kigali — 6 hours ahead of you
2 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — 09:00–11:00 your time, 15:00–17:00 theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 03:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 03:00–11:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
eSIM
A data eSIM for Rwanda, installed before you fly and working the moment you land:
Works here
Works here
Must-see
Travel tipsNearby day trips
Travel tipsSay a few words
Kinyarwanda
- HelloMurahomoo-RAH-ho
- Good morningMwaramutsemwa-ra-MOOT-seh
- Good afternoon / eveningMwiriwemwee-REE-weh
- How are you? (news?)Amakuru?ah-ma-KOO-roo
6 more phrases
- FineNi mezanee MEH-za
- Thank you (very much)Murakoze (cyane)moo-ra-KO-zeh (CHA-neh)
- Yes / NoYego / OyaYEH-go / OH-ya
- Sorry / excuse meMbabariramm-ba-ba-REE-ra
- How much?Ni angahe?nee an-GA-heh
- GoodbyeMurabehomoo-ra-BEH-ho
Almost every Rwandan speaks Kinyarwanda, which is unusual in Africa and part of why the country feels so unified. English, French and Swahili are official too; English replaced French in schools in 2008, so the young answer in English and their parents often in French. A muraho before anything else is expected, not decorative.
Travel tipsReligion
Christian — Catholic, Protestant and Adventist
Overwhelmingly Christian: about four in ten are Catholic, and Protestant, Pentecostal and Seventh-day Adventist churches account for most of the rest, with a small Muslim minority. Sunday services are long, full and sung. Several churches, at Nyamata and Ntarama among them, are now genocide memorials, because people who sheltered in them in 1994 were killed there; they are visited as graves, quietly.
Travel tipsDo's and don'ts
Do
- Greet before anything else — muraho, and a handshake that lingers; getting straight to business reads as cold
- Give and receive with the right hand, or with both, the left touching the right forearm
- Plan around Umuganda, the community work on the last Saturday morning of each month, when shops close and traffic largely stops until about midday
- Visit the Kigali Genocide Memorial early in the trip; it explains the country, and people will assume you have
- Follow the gorilla rules exactly: seven metres, no flash, an hour with the family, and no trek if you are ill
Don't
- Do not ask anyone whether they are Hutu or Tutsi; ethnic labels are avoided in public life, and promoting division is a crime
- Do not bring plastic bags — they have been banned since 2008 and are taken off you at the airport
- Do not litter or cross the road carelessly in Kigali; the city is famously clean and the rules are enforced
- Do not photograph police, soldiers or government buildings, or inside a memorial where signs ask you not to
- Do not treat the memorials as sightseeing; they are graves, and many of the guides lost family there
Where to stay in Lake Kivu
No Holistay rentals in Lake Kivu yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Lake Kivu on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Kigali International KGL
3h 30mfrom the airport· 102 km as the crow flies
3h 30m by road to Gisenyi.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
