Akagera National Park

Akagera National Park occupies Rwanda’s far eastern corner, its savanna, woodland and wetlands running along the Tanzanian border. Once one of Central Africa’s largest protected areas, the park was reduced by more than half after 1994, when returning refugees resettled much of its western section; since 2010, African Parks has managed Akagera in partnership with the Rwanda Development Board, rebuilding it into one of the continent’s clearest conservation turnaround stories.

Lions, locally extinct since the early 2000s, were reintroduced in 2015, and eastern black rhinos followed in 2017, restoring the Big Five to Rwanda for the first time in decades. The park’s patchwork of low hills, acacia woodland and papyrus swamp, threaded around a chain of lakes including Lake Ihema, supports a density of wildlife unmatched elsewhere in the country.

What to Expect

Akagera can be visited on a half-day or full-day game drive from Kigali, though an overnight stay allows time for both a game drive and a boat safari on Lake Ihema. Entry fees start around $50 per person per day, and self-drive access is permitted on the park’s well-maintained tracks.