Last December, I had a chance to visit the Kahuzi-Biega National Park in South Kivu. I grew up in Bukavu and spent most of my adulthood there but I have never had a chance to visit that park yet it was just a few kilometers from home.

It is only when I moved abroad that I find the need to visit our national treasure.

We planned a family trip with my siblings and cousins and decided to visit the mountain gorillas. When I posted the visit pictures online lot of people reached out to me asking for more information on how to visit the park. That is the reason why I decided to write this post. I will highlight the steps I took to see the park, hopefully, those who want to visit the park in the future will find this post useful.

Mountain Gorilla, the King of the Park

So you want to visit le Parc National de Kahuzi Biega where to start?

A brief info about the Parc.

The Kahuzi-Biega National Park (PNKB) was gazetted in 1970 to conserve the Grauer’s gorilla, the world’s largest gorilla species. It remains the only place in the world where visitors can see these gorillas in the wild. The park covers an area of 6000 km2 and protects a mountain forest in eastern DRC, which is the most densely populated region of the country. The park is named after the two spectacular extinct volcanoes that dominate its high-altitude sector, Mont Kahuzi (3,308m) and Mont Biega (2,790m).

The park is located in the South Kivu province in East DRC. It is a few kilometers from the Ruzizi Borders between DRC and Rwanda.

How close the park is to Rwanda

Is it safe to go there?

Currently, there is an ongoing rebellion in the North Kivu region, the region around Goma the twin province to Bukavu. However, Bukavu is quite safe to visit.

But things change quickly in the region, you can check this local website for more information about what is going on in the region.

How to get to Bukavu

In this section, I will write about the visa, how to get flights to Bukavu and how to get to the Park.

Welcome to Congo 🇨🇩

The visa

Our country is not well organized, we don’t have a working system for e-visa like other countries in the world or in Africa.(Actually, it seems like you can apply for an e-visa to visit Congo. check the section bellow.) We don’t also have a visa on Arrival for foreigners unless you know someone in Congo who can get an invitation for you. Check option B for more info.

The official way.

The first way to apply for a Congolese visa is to go to the nearest Congolese embassy in your region and submit your visa application from there. We have embassies in UK, US, Canada, and France, and major countries in the world. Please check out with the nearest Congolese embassy in your region to find out about the procedure to get a Congolese visa. The last time I checked the DRC embassy in France, they said that it is 85 euros for a single entry and 115 Euros for multiple entries for one month. For those in the UK it says, £ 135 for 1 month multiple entries, and it can goes up to £ 350 for six months multiple entries. More about that and the procedure cna be found here

Pro tip: Congo is a very corrupt country, and this is not something we are proud of. When you go to an official office and ask for the visa, after paying the official visa fees, you can add some extra fees (transport, or tips ) to the official who registered your application to speed up the application process. It is sometimes called transport buying a drink for the person who processes your application.

The second option.

The second way is to use an invitation from a Congolese national. A friend of mine told me if you have an invitation from a Congolese national, he can get you an invitation for 60 USD at the migration office and with that invitation, you can apply for a visa on arrival at the Congolese border. With this option, I need to double-check, as I don’t know who have used it before.

The third option.

The third way is to use the e-visa system. Yes, we have an e-visa system but I have never checked or used it. I need to document more about this option but it seems to be well documented.

In their FAQ, they said anyone who wants a Tourist visa to Congo can apply via the website. I have never tested it, please give it a try and let me know if it works. The site said that it cost 300 USD for the visa.

Fourth option.

If you have Congolese origins, you were either born in Congo, or your parents were born in Congo, you can apply for a visa on arrival. It costs around 100 USD for multiple entries for a month.

You can also read more about visas here:

Fifth Option.

There seems to be like there is a tourist visa offered by the parc. On their website, they said that they can help you to get a visa on arrival. If you book directly via the parc website, they can give you an invitation letter to show on arrival and help you to get a tourist visa to visit the park for 14 days. But please double check with the parc if this option is still there. Once you got the invitation, this become the same as the second option.

Flights

The beauty of Lake Kivu.

Congo is a huge country, it is almost as huge as the EU. You can’t travel to the Capital city Kinshasa which is in the Ouest, and drive to the Kivu region in the East because there are no roads. Local flights are expensive, sometimes more expensive than traveling from Congo to Europe or Congo to the Middle East.

As you can see on the map in the cover picture of this post, Bukavu can be covered by two Airports international airports. The Aeroport International de Goma, and the Kigali International Airport. However, it is easier and cheaper to use Kigali airport if you want to travel to Bukavu.

Kigali is in Rwanda and the Airport is served by major airlines such as Rwandair, KenyaAirways, Qatar Airways, AirFrance, etc.

In off-season periods, flights from major cities in Europe such as Brussels, Paris, and Amsterdam to Kigali are operated by either Rwandair, Kenya Airways, Air France, or Brussels Airlines and cost around 500-700 USD.

From Kigali Airport, you can usually take a 20-minute local flight to Kamembe which is a small town near the Congo - Rwanda Border. This flight cost around 100 USD return tickets and they are operated by Rwandair.

If you want to be more adventurous, you can take a bus from Kigali to Gisenyi, visit Gisenyi town, then cross the Congo-Rwanda border in Gisenyi and reach Congo via Goma.

From Goma, you can take a boat via Lake Kivu and reach Bukavu via the Beach. Those boats cost from 20 USD to 50 USD depending on the type of boat you take.

Where to stay in Bukavu?

Lake kivu

Once in Bukavu, you can stay in any hotel you want in BK. My favorite ones are Nediva, hotel La Roche, and Coco Lodge, or Orchid Safari Club. I don’t want to promote hotels here, you can check them by yourself. There are also Airbnbs running in the town.

How do we go to the Parc?

From Bukavu, you can hire a car by yourself and drive to the Parc. However, I would recommend having a local guide who will help you navigate the city and the way to the park.

The park is located 30 km from Bukavu, with the quality of the road it can take 1h30 minutes in the rainy season and 1 hour in the dry season.

A car rental can cost up to 100$ for the day, and the guide can charge you a negotiable fee to show you around.

If you decide to get there by yourself, once you reach the park you can find local guides there.

How much does it cost to visit the park?

It costs foreigners 400 USD to visit the parc as per the last documentation. For local, and african from SADEC and East Africa Community countries it cost less than that. Don’t let anyone foul you or scam you by asking more than that amount to visit the park. A travel agent may ask you for their fees, but there is no fixed amount for that and it can be negotiable. There is a saying in Bukavu that says : haba katalake franka. We don’t say no to money. You can use that to bargain with a guide when discussing his fees.

How much does it cost to visit the Gorilla?

I have spoken about the major points here. Let summarize how much does it cost to visit he Gorilla in Park National de Kahuzi-Biega.

  • Flight ticket: Depends on your origin country.
  • Local flight from Kigali to Kamembe: 100 USD.
  • Visa: 100 USD if you apply from your country or 300 USD for e-visa.
  • Hotel in Bukavu: 100 USD to 200 USD for two days.
  • Car hire: 100 USD.
  • Parc visit: 400 USD
  • Guide: This is negotiable but let’s say 100 USD.

Assuming you have reached Kigali airport and you got your e-visa it will cost you approximately 1200 USD to visit les gorilles de montages de Bukavu, and the cost of your flight to Kigali.

That is all for this post. I hope I have given you most of the information you need to visit the park. If you have any question or comment, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

References:

-Another Travel Blog About the parc