Akagera National Park is the oldest national park in Rwanda and the only protected wildlife savanna protected area. It is home to over 500 different types of Birds and 12000 large mammals which are thriving in this park thanks to the great law enforcement and community awareness and engagement. It is a very good place to visit on you Safari in Rwanda that will reward you with a memorial wildlife encounter experience.
The park is located in eastern Rwanda with Kibungu being the nearest town close to it, as well as where most of the tourist activities in the park begin. Akagera National park covers an area of more than 2500sq.km. The terrain of this park comprises of rising and falling sandstone hills on the western side with deep narrow verdant valleys. Moving to the eastern part of the park are swamps plus flood plains dominating the park. This national park was named after the adjacent rive Akagera. Also important worth noting about this park is that it offers a number of varied wildlife habitats which explains its large numbers of reside animals and birds.
What to do in Akagera National Park
Game Drives
In Rwanda, Akagera Park is the best place to see some of the large animals and these include: large herds of buffaloes plus elephants, spotted hyenas, different types of antelopes, chestnut impalas, crocodiles, Giraffes, bush babies, hippos, zebra, and on rare occasions black rhinos, leopards and lions. We conduct our game drive in 4WD safari Vans led by our skilled guides.
Bird watching:
Akagera Park prides in a number of different bird species including the fish eagles, papyrus gonolek, shoebill stork, grey hornbill, the gorgeous lilac-breasted roller, ross’s turaco, black headed gonalek, crested barbet and the heuglin’s robin-chat. We conduct our bird watching trips in the morning and evenings.
Boat Trips:
You can also enjoy amazing Boat trips on Lake Ihema, however we recommend that you make your reservations early to guarantee availability for you preferred date especially due to the high demand of this activity. Some of the animals you will see include several giant crocodiles and hippos, plus various birds including cormorants and the African darters.
How to Get There
When using private transport means, Akagera National Park can be accessed from Kigali in about 2 hours by road. However, if traveling from Kibungo or from Rwamagana it may take you about 1 hour. The main entrance gate to the park is 500m from the Akagera Game Lodge and its only 27km along a dusty road. This road is in great condition, and can be used by all sorts of vehicle in the dry sunny months. However to best traverse the Inside roads in the park, we recommend that you use a 4WD vehicle.
