The tea plantation at One&Only Nyungwe House. Tea thrives in the rich volcanic soil and forms one of Rwanda’s largest exports.

All tourists to Rwanda have the Genocide Museum in Kigali on their itinerary. The story would be gut-wrenching in any context, but against the background of what is happening in Gaza (our trip was in summer 2024), it is almost unbearable. Outside the museum, there are peaceful hillside gardens above a valley housing a mass grave where perhaps 100,000 souls rest uneasily. The Hutu and Tutsi groups were famously categories created by Belgian colonialists with no ethnic or historical basis. The myth of an ancient antagonism, which justified and enabled colonial logics, still casts a malign and brutal shadow. That every tourist visits this museum makes any journey to Rwanda far more profound than just another African safari destination.

The emphasis by the Rwandan government to focus on encouraging tourists who spend on high-quality and thoughtful tourism is evident throughout our stay at the One&Only Nyungwe House and One&Only Gorilla’s Nest. These hotels reflect not only the governments’ commitment to focusing on the “luxury” end of the tourism spectrum, but also the hotels’ own goal of cementing a connection with its local community, economic benefits for all and a push for sustainable practices. One&Only Nyungwe House, on the edge of the Nyungwe Forest, is a luxurious sanctuary surrounded by trees and “small poisonous green vipers”, but, as our trail guide pointed out as we ventured deep within, also stands as an actualisation of “community engagement” principles given its partnerships with the locals. The land on which the resort sits has become a vital lifeline for the nearby village of Gisakura, where tea picking offers one of the few reliable income streams. In collaboration with Cooperative Du Thé Mulindi (COOPTHE), a cooperative made up of men and women from the village, One&Only has not only provided access to land but created a source of employment. You wake up and walk to the main guesthouse weaving through the green tea plants and trying not to disturb the pickers who are adept at pinching off the green, young shoots at the top of the tea plant and throwing them into their wicker baskets strapped on their backs. The harvested tea leaves from the property are then processed by the local factory and sold. The scene is beautiful if tinged with a shade of guilt at watching the backbreaking work while tucking into your avocado toast.

The Kwibuka Flame of Hope is a permanent memorial to the resilience of Rwandans after the 1994 genocide, in which over one million Tutsis and their sympathisers were killed, following years of deliberate stoking of ethnic tension. The Flame was lit to mark the 30th anniversary of the genocide this year.

At One&Only Gorilla’s Nest in the shadow of the towering Volcanoes National Park, the resort has partnered with the Coko Coffee Cooperative, a female-led initiative that provides a sustainable income for women in the region. The cooperative’s coffee is served at the resort, and the women themselves lead coffee tasting experiences for guests, allowing them to connect with a long tradition of craftsmanship that’s vital to the region’s economy. For those of use whose daily routine starts with a cup of coffee, it was a revelation to taste Rwanda’s coffee and important, learn about its coffee industry. I’ve been lobbying for my local coffeeshop to buy in from Rwanda ever since.

The main itinerary point, the most anticipated on my journey, was the moment where we would seek out furry animals in the wild. Gorilla trekking in Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park is highly regulated to ensure the protection of these mountain gorillas and the conservation of their natural habitat. Each day, a limited number of tourists – currently capped at 96 – are allowed to visit the park, with a maximum of eight people per gorilla group. This helps minimise human impact on the gorillas and their environment and visitor groups are allocated a family on the day. With 24 gorilla families living in the Volcanoes National Park, the troops are constantly monitored and protected by park rangers. Many of them are ex-poachers now incentivised to protect, rather than destroy, the gorillas, and their almost-always-successful ability to track the nests made by the troops the night before means that the tourist groups are not disappointed the next day. How long you’ll be walking to find them is another matter, as they are constantly on the move and the tracking is done with natural indicators, with each group coming into contact with tourists for one hour per day to minimise any stress. That one hour will set you back $1500 per permit, a steep price but in line with Rwanda’s strategy to promote high-value, low-impact tourism, ensuring that 10% of these funds support gorilla conservation and benefit local communities.

We started the day at a briefing camp where the tourists are divided into groups of eight before we set off to “meet” the gorillas; the idea is that eight is the optimum number of people gorillas are comfortable being in close proximity to at any time. The guides then set out a brief introduction to gorilla etiquette. Your group’s trek is hard to anticipate, as it may take an hour or six until contact, and each group of tourists fans out across a truly vast and inaccessible mountain range in search of a different family group the trekkers had identified the night before. Gorillas never sleep in the same place twice. The typical family is usually about a dozen strong, consisting of a silverback with a harem of females and his offspring.

A hike through the Nyungwe National Forest leads you to the thundering Isumu Falls. Here, the park officials have elected to allow visitors to observe the majesty of the falls through an incongruous Instagram frame.

It is impossible to come close to a gorilla and not realise our own ape-ness

As we reached the edge of the forest, we were met by a group of carriers who were tasked to help us through the walk. What initially seemed like unnecessary support quickly revealed itself to be vital. Despite the fact we had barely anything heavier than our cameras, walking in the deep jungle isn’t an easily acquired skill. Our carriers were local farmers used to the thin air and unsteady footing. When the gorillas were spotted the carriers fell back, and we walked on in hushed tones with hastened heartbeats through the thick curtains of jungle. We found ourselves within a few feet of a large family of three nursing mothers, one sleeping silverback and four or five hyperactive teenagers.

Suddenly, the importance of our lessons in ape etiquette became vividly important. The intensity of ape-to-ape confrontation was heart-stopping. It is impossible to come close to a gorilla and not realise our own ape-ness, and our direct disadvantage next to our mighty cousins. We held to our peaceful, submissive postures, all too aware and comforted by, the machetes and Kalashnikovs carried by our guides. The young gorillas dashed about at lightning speed playing rough and tumble, or making mischief, while the adults pretended to be asleep. At some point the silverback, grumpy and woken from his slumber, charged at us directly, beating the ground and uprooting a bush in the process as if it was a toothpick. Petrified, we stood our ground not out of bravery or fear, but simply because it all happened so quickly. Within seconds it became clear that the charge was more performative than genuine and that his audience was probably more his own pesky kids than us. Just as fast as he had charged, he returned to his standard posture, sitting, munching and farting. Gorillas consume a huge amount of roughage and chewing is most of what they do. Visitors often talk of the awe-inspiring nature of such encounters. As such close relatives, gorillas reflect our animal nature and with it our insignificance and vulnerability – the two main ingredients of the experience of sublime. Without overselling the true wildness of the experience (to arrive, you will have been supported by a small army of enablers and meet only a subgroup of these magnificent animals that are habituated to human presence), such a breathtakingly beautiful setting is pretty wild. .

Ten per cent of the revenue from the trekking permits is channelled towards local communities, and there is a compensation fund for local farmers should any gorillas damage their crops, which helps to ensure peaceful co-existence.