Rwanda for a Honeymoon

Rwanda is not the obvious honeymoon country, and that is most of its appeal. It has none of the beach-resort sameness, the lodges at the top end are genuinely exceptional, and an hour with a gorilla family is the kind of shared experience people talk about for the rest of their lives.

It also has a structural advantage: it is small. You are not spending your honeymoon in airports.

Get the order right

This is the one piece of advice that matters. Do the demanding things first and the lake last.

A gorilla trek is a five-in-the-morning start and a hard, muddy climb. Chimp tracking is worse. If you finish your honeymoon on those, you fly home tired. Finish on Lake Kivu instead — swimming, boats, and nothing scheduled — and you fly home rested.

Volcanoes first, lake last. Almost every couple who does it the other way round tells us afterwards they wished they had not.

A shape that works

• Two nights Kigali to arrive, recover from the flight and see the city properly.
• Three nights near Kinigi: gorilla trek, a rest day, then golden monkeys or the Fossey hike.
• Three nights on Lake Kivu, doing as little as possible.
• Add Nyungwe in the middle if you want the rainforest, or Akagera at the start if you want the savannah.

Where to stay

The lodges around Volcanoes National Park include some of the most impressive on the continent — thatched villas set into forested hillsides, fireplaces, volcano views from the bath. This is where a honeymoon budget goes furthest in terms of sheer memorability.

Lake Kivu is the opposite and should be. Lakeside rooms with a balcony over the water, somewhere you can swim before breakfast. Ask for a room facing the lake; it is the entire point of being there.

Practical things worth arranging

• Tell us it is a honeymoon. Lodges will usually do something, and we would rather ask than assume.
• A private vehicle throughout, which you will have anyway, means no group dynamics.
• Book the gorilla permits first. They are the constraint, and honeymoon dates are usually fixed.
• Consider a second trek. Couples who do two often say the second was better, because you spend the hour watching rather than processing.
• Build in one genuinely empty day. Not a travel day, an empty one.

When to go

The drier months are easier underfoot and better for photographs, and they are also when permits are hardest to get. If your dates are fixed by a wedding, tell us early — three to six months is not unusual for a peak-season permit.

The green season is worth considering if you can be flexible. Quieter lodges, easier permits, and the hills are at their most spectacular.

What it will not be

Rwanda is not a lie-on-a-beach honeymoon, and pretending otherwise sets people up for disappointment. Even at the gentlest pace there are early starts and some walking, and the trekking days are genuinely strenuous.

If what you want is two weeks horizontal, this is the wrong country. If what you want is something you will still be describing to people in twenty years, it is very much the right one.