Between steep valleys and thickly forested ridges, Kigali flourishes, an ever-building drumbeat of flash boutiques and flowery cafes. A gateway to the national parks, there is much to discover here before escaping to the jungle: a pulsing party scene, and places of quiet reflection to better understand the country’s past, notably at the Kigali Genocide Memorial, a haunting tribute to the lives lost in the 1994 atrocities.

Your African Experiences: Visit the Kigali Genocide Memorial, a powerful tribute to the one million Tutsis and Hutus killed in 1994. Intensely moving exhibits explore how the atrocities unfolded, and survivors’ videos offer a spiriting show of the Rwandans’ resilience.

Some of Africa’s most spellbinding scenery can be found in Volcanoes National Park; Rwanda’s calling card, this is the jungle of every explorer’s dream, where the sky crowns the green Virungas (volcanoes) with halos of cloud and hiking trails twist deep into forests ringing with birdsong. It also promises glimpses of some of Rwanda’s most enigmatic species: the elusive golden monkeys, and around half of the world’s population of majestic mountain gorillas.

Your African Experiences: One of Africa’s most extraordinary wildlife experiences awaits travellers trekking into the dense, high-altitude forests of Volcanoes National Park, where experienced rangers will read the forest to locate one of 18 habituated families of mountain gorilla. Spend an hour in the company of these fascinating, endangered primates, observing their behavior and taking pictures from a respectful distance.