Kigali, Rwanda

Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, is one of the most pleasant surprises in Africa — a city draped across a series of green ridges and valleys in the heart of 'the land of a thousand hills', and renowned as one of the cleanest, safest and most orderly cities on the continent. Rwanda's famous emphasis on order and environment is visible everywhere: plastic bags are banned, the streets are spotless (the whole country pauses for a monthly community clean-up, Umuganda), and walking the leafy, hilly avenues feels calm and secure. For visitors, Kigali is both a gentle, rewarding city in its own right and the comfortable base from which to reach Rwanda's spectacular wildlife. The city's most important site is the Kigali Genocide Memorial, a dignified and deeply moving place of remembrance for the more than 250,000 victims buried there and a thoughtful education centre — an essential, sobering visit that has become central to understanding modern Rwanda. Beyond it, Kigali offers a genuinely good café culture built on Rwanda's superb coffee, a creative arts scene (the Inema Arts Centre and Niyo gallery, with their cooperatives of painters), the colourful, bustling Kimironko market, the modern landmark of the dome-lit Kigali Convention Centre, and the Kandt House natural-history museum. Getting around by the ubiquitous moto-taxis (with helmets) is part of the experience. But the real reason most travellers come to Rwanda lies beyond the city: Kigali is the launchpad for trekking to see the mountain gorillas in the misty Volcanoes National Park to the north-west — one of the world's great wildlife encounters — as well as chimpanzee tracking and the canopy walkway of Nyungwe Forest, Big Five safaris in Akagera National Park, and the beaches of Lake Kivu. Sitting at altitude near the equator, Kigali enjoys a mild, spring-like climate year-round; the two drier seasons (roughly June to September and December to February) are the best times for gorilla trekking and travel.