Akagera National Park

A park that came back

Akagera lies in eastern Rwanda, along the border with Tanzania. It’s a mix of open plains, woodland, papyrus swamps and a chain of lakes fed by the Akagera River. After the 1994 genocide, the park lost a large part of its land to resettlement, and poaching had wiped out lions and rhinos.

Since 2010, the Rwanda Development Board has run Akagera in partnership with African Parks, an NGO. The results are striking. Lions were reintroduced in 2015 and black rhinos in 2017, and the park now has all of the Big Five. It’s a conservation success that visitors help to fund.

Wildlife and activities

Game drives on the park’s well-maintained tracks reveal elephants, buffalo, giraffes, zebras, topi, impalas, waterbuck and warthogs. Lions are seen fairly often, and the park has a healthy population. Black rhinos are rarer, but trackers know where to look. Hippos and crocodiles are easy to see from the water.

A boat safari on Lake Ihema is a highlight, with hippos, crocodiles and several water birds. Night drives, offered in Akagera, give you a chance to see nocturnal animals, such as genets, civets, porcupines and hyenas. Birders also come for papyrus specialists such as the papyrus gonolek, and the shoebill is sometimes reported in the swamps.

When to go

June to September and December to February are drier and better for wildlife viewing. The park is green and beautiful between March and May and in November, but some tracks can be slippery. Lake Ihema is usually good at any time of the year.

Getting there

The southern entrance, the main gate, is about two to two and a half hours from Kigali by road. Some lodges are in the north, near the Kagitumba gate, which is about three hours from Kigali. Because the road is good, many travellers do a night or two here after Volcanoes or before flying out. See our Rwanda gorillas and Kigali itinerary and Kigali guide.

Costs

Park entry fees for foreign non-residents are set by the park’s management and are modest compared with gorilla permits. Activities such as boat trips and night drives are charged separately. Accommodation ranges from a campsite and midrange lodge to luxury tented camps.

A note on scale

Akagera doesn’t have a migration or thousands of animals on the horizon. Its appeal lies in wildlife you can see without other vehicles, and a landscape that has recovered. It pairs well with gorillas and Nyungwe, giving Rwanda visitors variety without needing to cross a border.