For a honeymoon
Rwanda: an hour, and a complete trip in six nights
The only country here where six nights is a whole honeymoon rather than a compressed one.
The case
An hour with a gorilla family is, for a great many people, the most extraordinary hour of their lives — and Rwanda offers the shortest and most comfortable route to it. Two hours on good tarmac from an international airport, staying in lodges that are among the best-designed on the continent.
Rwanda is small, safe, clean and unusually easy to travel. That combination is why it is the only country on this list where a six-night honeymoon is a complete trip rather than a compressed one, and it is exactly right for couples with limited leave.
Add Nyungwe for chimpanzees and a canopy walk through montane rainforest, or Lake Kivu to stop moving for three days, and you have a fortnight without ever getting on a long flight.
The caveat
The trek is a hard morning. Steep, wet, muddy, at altitude, with no path for much of it and up to several hours each way. Porters are available, inexpensive and worth taking.
People of a very wide range of ages and fitness do it successfully every day, but nobody should book it into a honeymoon expecting a gentle walk — and it should not be scheduled for the morning after a long flight.
There is also less to fill a second week with than in Kenya or Tanzania unless you add Nyungwe or Kivu. Rwanda rewards a short, focused trip.
The Rwandan honeymoon that works
Two nights near Volcanoes with the trek on the middle day, two at Lake Kivu or Nyungwe, and then either home or a flight to a beach.
Put a soft day either side of the trek. It is the one piece of scheduling advice on this page that couples thank us for afterwards.
When to go
Year-round. June to September and December to February are drier and the trekking is easier underfoot. The wetter months are muddier, not closed, which makes Rwanda the answer for couples marrying in April or May.
What it costs, relatively
High per night, and the permit is the largest single-item cost in East African travel. But the trips are short, which often makes the total lower than a Kenyan or Tanzanian fortnight.
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