Tourism in Rwanda is open to all tourist looking at exploring the best wildlife and primates’ tours in Africa while vigilant at keeping the tourists and the people of Rwanda safe from catching the deadly pandemic. All national parks in Rwanda are open to tourists including the most sought-after mountain gorilla trekking in the Volcanoes national park.
The government has set up a number of preventive protocols to help balance the interests of tourism in Rwanda and the tourists coming into the country to prevent the spread of covid-19.
Tourism is the backbone and a strong component to Rwanda’s developing economy contributing over 30% percent to the country’s total budget. With such importance, the country cannot completely close its doors to tourists.
A number of standards of operation procedures have been temporarily put in place to manage the COVID-19 situation so that the country remains protected as well as visitors coming into and out of the country.
Below are travel requirements for visitors arriving in Rwanda
All travelers arriving and those in transit – Those vaccinated and not yet vaccinated must have a 72hour negative PCR OR SARS-COV 2 covid test results printed out. The 72hr covid tests expire 3 days after the results have been received after which you are not allowed to arrive into the country.
The Rapid Diagnostic Test is not considered valid at the entry into Rwanda and strictly enforced at the Kigali international airport at arrival.
Upon arrival in Rwanda, all tourists are subject to another Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test done at a clinic at the Kigali airport and the results of the test made available in 24hours.
Within the 24hours of waiting for the results, all visitors are advised to book overnight at government designated Kigali accommodations most of which are 2 minutes to 10 minutes’ drive from the airport. The tourist must be picked from the airport by
Children under 5 years may not do the covid-19 tests since they arrive with parents or guardians who are negative travelling together
The tourists pay their covid-19 tests at arrival at a fee of $50 per person and hotel bookings respectively according to the hotel of your choice charges.
All Tourists coming from India and Uganda or have been there in the last one week must complete 7-day mandatory quarantine in designated hotels in Kigali at own cost. Tourists in this category must have booked 7 days prior accommodation before arrival in the country else not allowed to enter at the airport.
Before arrival in Kigali, all tourists must fill out a Passenger locator form with all personal details of your tour in Rwanda. Among the requirements are Negative PRC test of 72hours, passport information, Travel itinerary and accommodations, arrival hotel booing confirmations at the designated accommodations in Kigali. Specific hotels to consider include Landmark Suites, Colors Club SPA & Garden Resort, Ubumwe Grande Hotel, Corina K. Guest house
The PRC test taken at the airport on arrival in Rwanda expires after 72 hours of your stay in Rwanda and require to have a rapid test after the 3 days expire. Every accommodation countrywide must check the status of the clients’ covid tests before admission.
All Passenger form must be submitted online within 72 hours before arrival and an email will be sent back after the information submitted as been verified. The confirmation will contain a personal Unique Health Code (UPC) which must be presented at arrival in Rwanda.
Tourists Visa can still be obtained at arrival without prior application at a cost of usd50 expiring after 30 days into the country.
Guideline on visiting the different national parks
To boost tourism in Rwanda, the government has discounted some of the park entrance fees and gorilla permit rates for some Rwandan citizens and Rwandan foreign residents.
For tourists who had to postpone their planned safari in Rwanda due to COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions to a future date, the Rwanda Development Board has eased the terms of booking to allow you to extend your tour as far as 2022 with your confirmed gorilla permits able to reschedule accordingly.
In the event that the tourists had to cancel the tour completely, its now possible to resell the gorilla permit to another traveler and change the passport details of the permit for gorillas, chimpanzees and golden monkey permits.
Visitors must have a negative PCR OR SARS-COV 2 covid-19 test results when planning a primate’s tour to see gorillas in Volcanoes national park, Chimpanzee tracking in Nyungwe forest and Gishwati- Mukura forest national parks. However, while visiting Akagera national park, visitors can arrive with a 72hour Rapid Antigen Test.
Visitors need to fill out a guest registration and indemnity form when visiting Rwanda national parks and send each form to the following email addresses below.
- Volcanoes national park – budahera@rdb.rw
- Nyungwe national Park – hitimana@rdb.rw
- Akagera national park – akagera@africanparks.org or can be filled-out at arrival
All accommodations in Rwanda must admit only tourists with a negative PCR, SARS-CoV 2 or Rapid Antigen covid-19 test done within 72hours. This means that every 3 days, visitors must do any of the 3 acceptable tests when traveling in Rwanda.
Children under 12 years – under the care of an adult are not required to have covid-19 tests if the adult has been tested
Tour guides/ drivers must first receive approval to serve a tourist. One must fill out a tourist facilitation form capturing information of the tour itinerary to ease tourists’ movements in privately hired vehicles
At least 24hours prior to the tour, tour driver / guides must submit their negative SARS-CoV 2 or Rapid Antigen Test or PCR tests done within 72hr to visitrwanda@rdb.rw
Costs of covid-19 Tests in Rwanda
Arrival in Rwanda Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) costs USD50 / Rwf 47,200 results available within 24hours
Departure from Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) costs USD60 / Rwf 57,200 test findings available within 24hours
The Rapid Antigen test is Rwf 10,000 / USD10 – Results are available within 15 minutes
Checkout list of clinics / hospitals where one can do covid-19 tests countrywide www.rbc.gov.rw.
Rwanda Permits special offers due to covid-19
Rwanda gorilla permits for Rwandans and East African nationals cost USD 200, USD 500 for foreign residents living in Rwanda and African citizens. The gorilla permits costs USD1500 for international tourists.
Other special offers favor groups travels with a 10% discount on large groups of 30 people and above
15% discount for family travels with children of 15 years and above
30% discount for Rwandan nationals, foreign residents in Rwanda and EastAfricans citizens of a group of 3o people and above
10% discount for single travels within Rwanda
30% discount on bulk purchases of 30 people and above
15% discount on family tours in Rwanda for a couple and children.
Useful Links
Covid-19 guide to Rwanda – Frequently asked questions and answers.
Require more clarity about Rwanda’s response and daily updates on COVID-19 in the country, visit the Rwanda Biomedical Centre’s website.
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