Kigali With Kids
A capital built across a dozen green hills, with swept streets, no plastic bags, motorbike taxis in matching helmets and a feeling of calm that surprises most families who arrive expecting chaos. Kigali is where the gorilla trip starts, and the two nights here are the part people wish they had made three.
Nicole Damiano, ASTA Verified Travel Advisor with FG Luxury Travel
Is Kigali good for kids?
Yes. It is one of the cleanest, safest big cities in Africa, with a wetland park for bikes, a market where a tailor makes the kids a shirt, a walking tour that ends with lunch in a home, good hotel pools and gentle people. The Genocide Memorial is for kids about 12 and up.
How many days do you need in Kigali?
Two nights for the city itself. Three if you add Akagera National Park. A week for Rwanda with the gorillas or golden monkeys at Musanze and Lake Kivu.
Can kids see the gorillas in Rwanda?
Only from age 15. The gorilla trek in Volcanoes National Park has a strict minimum age of 15 and permits cost 1,500 dollars a person. Younger kids can do the golden monkey trek and the cultural village at Musanze while the teenagers go up.
Is Kigali safe for families?
Yes. Kigali is widely considered one of the safest capitals in Africa, with low crime, clean streets, police on the corners and a culture of order. Walk by day and night in the main neighborhoods, use the apps for taxis, and the usual care with bags in the market.
When is the best time to visit Kigali and Rwanda?
June to September for the long dry season and the clearest trekking, or December to February for a shorter dry spell. The city is 75 degrees most of the year. The rains are March to May and October to November, muddy for the parks but green and cheaper.
The Calm Capital On The Hills
Kigali spreads over hills at the center of Rwanda, with the business district and the convention center on one, Kimihurura and the restaurants on another, Nyamirambo, the old Muslim quarter, on a third, and valleys of restored wetland between. It is clean in a way that stops you, because plastic bags have been banned since 2008 and the whole country cleans the streets together on the last Saturday of the month. It is safe to walk by day and night, the people are gentle, and the 1994 genocide is part of the city’s story, told at the memorial with honesty and care. From here the gorillas are two and a half hours north, Akagera’s lions and elephants two and a half hours east, and Lake Kivu three hours west.
Two nights covers the memorial for older kids, Nyamirambo and the market, Nyandungu park by bike and a coffee tasting. Add the gorillas and Akagera and Rwanda is a week.
Getting Around
Taxis and the Yego Cab or Move apps, or a driver for the day, which is what I arrange. Kigali is hilly and spread out, so it is not a walking city between neighborhoods, but each neighborhood is on foot. Moto taxis, the motorbike taxis with a spare helmet for you, are how the city moves and fine for older kids with a parent, one per bike. The roads out to the parks are smooth and the driver and guide come with the trip.
Neighborhoods worth basing in
Kiyovu and the city center
The oldest neighborhood, on the hill next to the business district, with the Hotel des Mille Collines, the big hotels, embassies and shaded streets. Central, quiet, and the base for a family who wants to be near the memorial, the museums and the airport road.
Kimihurura and Kacyiru
The hill east of the center where the restaurants, the cafes and the galleries are, with Inema Arts Centre, Question Coffee and the convention center dome lit up at night. Boutique hotels and guesthouses with gardens, and the simplest evenings out with kids.
Nyarutarama and the golf course
The leafy residential hill north of the center with the golf course, the Marriott and a few serviced apartments. Quieter, greener, 15 minutes from everything by car, and the pick for a family who wants a pool and space between the park days.
Kigali Serena Hotel
In the center near the memorial road, with a big pool in a garden, a terrace restaurant and the kind of staff who remember the kids’ names. The one I use for a family doing Kigali before the gorillas, because the pool and the breakfast make the first jet lagged day easy.
Kigali Marriott Hotel
On the edge of the business district with a large outdoor pool, big family rooms and a buffet the kids can handle. Reliable, central and good value for a Marriott, with the moto taxis and the city a step from the door.
The Retreat by Heaven
A small boutique hotel in Kiyovu with a saltwater pool, a garden, family villas and the Heaven restaurant next door, which trains young Rwandans and serves food the kids will eat. The one for a family who wants a home with a pool rather than a big hotel.
The Three I Build Every Kigali Trip Around
Nyamirambo, the market and the evening streets
Nyamirambo is the old quarter, with its mosque, its tailors and its music, and the Nyamirambo Women’s Center runs a three hour walking tour that ends with a Rwandan lunch cooked in a home, which is the morning I plan first in Kigali for a family. Kimironko market is the big covered market where the kids pick fabric for a dress or a shirt made by the tailors in the back while you shop for fruit and baskets. In the evening the streets of Kimihurura and the center are lit, swept and safe to walk, with the convention center dome glowing on its hill and the kids eating brochettes at a sidewalk table.
The Genocide Memorial, then the quiet of Nyandungu
The Kigali Genocide Memorial at Gisozi is where 250,000 victims of the 1994 genocide are buried, and the exhibition tells the story plainly, with a section on children that is the hardest room you will walk through. I take kids 12 and up, with a conversation before and after, and I leave younger ones at the pool with a parent. It is the key to understanding the country you are standing in. The afternoon after it is Nyandungu Eco Park, a restored wetland on the edge of the city with bike rentals, ponds, boardwalks and birds, where an hour on bikes puts the whole family back together.
The gorillas, two and a half hours away
Volcanoes National Park at Musanze is where the mountain gorillas live on the slopes of the Virunga volcanoes, and the trek to sit with a family of them for an hour is the reason most families come to Rwanda. Permits are 1,500 dollars a person and the minimum age is 15, so this is the trip for a family with teenagers. Younger kids do the golden monkey trek, the Iby’Iwacu cultural village and the Dian Fossey story at the Ellen DeGeneres campus, while the older ones go up. Two nights at Musanze from Kigali, and back for the flight.
Family Time, Built In: Kigali With Kids
Kigali with kids is a bike through the wetlands, a dress made at the market in an afternoon, lunch in a Nyamirambo home, a moto taxi with a helmet and the gorillas waiting up the road.
A tailor made shirt from Kimironko
The Nyamirambo walking tour and lunch
A moto taxi ride with a parent
Coffee cupping at Question Coffee
PARK & DOWNTIME PICK
Nyandungu Eco Park is the park, 300 acres of restored wetland with bike hire, a cafe, boardwalks and a lot of birds, and a morning there is calm after a long flight. The Inema Arts Centre in Kacyiru has a garden to run in while the parents look at the art. Question Coffee in Gishushu does a coffee tasting where the kids smell and the adults drink, and Rwandan coffee is a reason to visit on its own. The hotel pools matter here, because the sun at 5,000 feet is stronger than it feels.
Five Things To Eat In Kigali
Brochettes, goat or beef on a skewer
Ugali with isombe, cassava leaves
Grilled tilapia from Lake Kivu
Tree tomatoes, passion fruit and mangoes
Rwandan coffee at Question CoffeeNicole’s Perspective
The city families try to skip
Most families fly into Kigali, sleep one night and drive straight to the gorillas, and they miss a city that is one of the gentlest in Africa to be in with children. Clean, safe, calm, with a market where a tailor makes the kids a shirt by dinner and a park where they ride bikes through a wetland. I give it two nights at the start, so the jet lag happens by a pool and the first day in the country is gentle.
The memorial is the hard part, and I plan it carefully. Gavin, at nearly 13, would go with me and we would talk about it for days. Avilene and Jake would spend that morning at the pool with Adam, and that is the right call. The gorillas are for 15 and up, so for most families with younger kids Rwanda is the city, Akagera for the lions and the golden monkeys at Musanze, and the gorillas are the trip they come back for.
The Day Trip: Akagera, Or The Road To The Gorillas
Two and a half hours east, Akagera National Park is Rwanda’s savanna, with lions, elephants, giraffes, zebras, hippos in the lakes and rhinos brought back in the last decade, and a game drive there works for any age. Day trips from Kigali exist, but one night at the Ruzizi tented lodge on the lake, with the hippos grunting at dinner, is the version the kids remember. The other road is north, two and a half hours to Musanze under the Virunga volcanoes, for the gorillas for 15 and up and the golden monkeys for the rest, with two nights in a lodge looking at the peaks.
Things I Would Tell A Friend Before They Booked
How Many Days
Two nights covers the city. Add Akagera or the gorillas and Rwanda becomes a week.
The memorial for older kids on the first morning while the younger ones swim, Nyandungu by bike in the afternoon, the Nyamirambo walk and lunch the next day, Kimironko market for the tailor, and dinner at Heaven.
Add one night at Akagera for the lions, giraffes and the hippos on the lake, back to Kigali for the last night and the shirts from the tailor.
Two nights in Kigali, two at Musanze for the gorillas and the golden monkeys, two at Lake Kivu for the swimming and the kayaks, and a last night in Kigali. Eight days, and the whole of Rwanda for a family with a teenager.
Kigali With Kids, Answered
Is Kigali good for kids?
Yes. It is one of the cleanest, safest big cities in Africa, with a wetland park for bikes, a market where a tailor makes the kids a shirt, a walking tour that ends with lunch in a home, good hotel pools and gentle people. The Genocide Memorial is for kids about 12 and up.
How many days do you need in Kigali?
Two nights for the city itself. Three if you add Akagera National Park. A week for Rwanda with the gorillas or golden monkeys at Musanze and Lake Kivu.
Can kids see the gorillas in Rwanda?
Only from age 15. The gorilla trek in Volcanoes National Park has a strict minimum age of 15 and permits cost 1,500 dollars a person. Younger kids can do the golden monkey trek and the cultural village at Musanze while the teenagers go up.
Is Kigali safe for families?
Yes. Kigali is widely considered one of the safest capitals in Africa, with low crime, clean streets, police on the corners and a culture of order. Walk by day and night in the main neighborhoods, use the apps for taxis, and the usual care with bags in the market.
When is the best time to visit Kigali and Rwanda?
June to September for the long dry season and the clearest trekking, or December to February for a shorter dry spell. The city is 75 degrees most of the year. The rains are March to May and October to November, muddy for the parks but green and cheaper.
Ready To Put Kigali On The Calendar
Send me your dates and your kids’ ages and I will build the Rwanda trip, Kigali at the start, the gorillas or the golden monkeys at Musanze, and Akagera or Lake Kivu to finish.
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