Lake Kivu Holidays

Stretching to the horizon and beyond, shimmering Lake Kivu is landlocked Rwanda’s holiday playground. Part of the Great Rift Valley, its eastern shore has some of the best, and cleanest, inland beaches on the continent, where you can take a refreshing dip in cool, crystal-clear and croc-free waters – bliss for trek-weary travellers and local city dwellers alike – or just laze on the warm sand drinking in the serenity-inducing atmosphere. 

There are myriad reasons to do more than just dip a toe in Africa’s sixth-largest lake, however. Out on the water, you can discover tiny archipelagos that shelter Malachite kingfishers, crowned cranes and a multitude of other birds, or where canoe-going herdsmen guide their cattle as they swim from one island pasture to the next. You can take a sunset cruise to catch the fishermen in full song as they head out for the night or spend a few hours paddling a kayak along the wildly indented shoreline. And if you’d rather admire the scene from the land, the Congo Nile Trail that meanders through the hills and mountains bordering the lake is breathtakingly beautiful territory for mountain biking and hiking.