Congo Travel Guide – Explore Virunga National Park, Gorilla Trekking & Cultural Experiences

Find the best Congo travel guide, advice and important travel information you may need when visiting Congo in Africa. Despite having a great deal of political unrest, some areas in Congo are safe to visit. Authorities provide visitors with the necessary safety protocols and protection.

The safest places and sites to have safaris are in the eastern province, near Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda.

Why Visit Congo?

Congo is home of the oldest national park in Africa: The oldest national park, Virunga is located in eastern D.R. Congo giving tourists a reason to visit this country.

• Visit the Mountain Gorillas: Mountain gorillas are endangered animals therefore the remaining one are scarce and not found in usual national parks. With almost half of the population of the mountain gorillas being in Uganda, Congo is also another country where gorilla trekking safaris can be done because it has these huge apes in Virunga National Park.
• Congo’s biggest export is Music: Congolese are known for their love for music and dancing; their music types like Lingala, ndombolo and others have influenced different types of music and lifestyle all over the world.
• Kinshasa is the world’s second best French speaking city in the world: Kinshasa city has over 10 million people and it’s the second largest French speaking city after Paris. This makes the whole situation bizarre since the country has over 250 ethnic speaking 250 languages but most of them adopted to speaking French.
• Congo owns the last natural habitat on earth: Most national parks in the world have been tampered and interfered with but the Nouabale-Ndoki National Park is the only place that hasn’t been overwhelmed by global changes thus its nickname, the last Eden on earth.
• Deepest river in the world: River Congo is 220m deep making it the deepest and second largest river in the world by discharge of over 41,000 m³ of water per second.
• Second largest rain forest in the world: Almost 70% of the country is made up of rain forests but the most outstanding is the Congo basin forest because it’s the second largest rain forest in the world and stretches to other various countries like Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.
• Home for the pygmy tribe: This famous tribe of short people lives in the Congo Forest. The men are usually four feet and ten inches tall while women are four feet and one inch tall on average. Since they live in the forest, they survive mainly on hunting and gathering fruits.

Popular Congo Travel Activities

• Cultural experiences: The country has over 250 ethnic groups each having different cultural norms but the tourists would be as happy as Larry to experience and digest the culture of indigenous Mbuti pygmies found in the midst of Congo Forest.
• Historical visits in Kinshasa: Because this is the country’s capital city, it has various prestigious structures that paying a visit to them is considered worthwhile. These prominent building include the parliament building, National Museum of Kinshasa, The Chapel of American Baptist Missionary society and the Roman Catholic cathedral.
• Chimpanzee Trekking: This is a less known activity as its over shadowed by gorilla trekking but it is done close to Virunga National Park and there is only one fully habituated group with around twelve chimpanzees. This activity is exciting because chimps are playful creatures that enjoy jumping and swinging on tree tops hence tourists will have to follow them before they take their pictures while tracking them.
• Gorilla Trekking: While tourists enjoy gorilla trekking adventure, they can as well have it from the famous Virunga National Park since it’s one of the national parks that is home these almost extinct apes.
• Cave Exploration: The terrain of this country hosts historical caves hence tourists interested in this activity would enjoy ancient artifacts like arrows, spears from caves like Matupi and Dimba.
• Mountain Climbing: This is a must do activity for tourists especially those engaged in gorilla and chimpanzee trekking adventures. But away from that, visitors can as well take the burden of moving through thick shrubs, rocks and forests but it will be worthwhile when the 5-hour trek is done to sight the lava lakes found on top of Mountain Nyiragongo. And for a tourist to have “the night I will never forget story”; they should watch the molten liquid bubbles and spurts during the night fall. But if volcanic Mountains aren’t your thing, there is a chance for hiking on Mountain Rwenzori as well.
• Meet the Congo Bloodhounds: Poachers have done a great deal of fault by endangering wildlife where huge apes like Mountain gorillas have also not been spared. However, different ways have been brought up by the regulating bodies to curb this mysterious vice but what is being done in Congo is way beyond just curbing. This country has well trained dogs called bloodhounds that are used to track down individuals that engage in poaching but they can also be used to hunt and trace injured tourists.
• Nature Walks: For tourists not much interested in hiking for fear of the challenges that come along with the exercise, nature walks can do a great deal because individuals get to walk through a forest with an experienced guide who spots for them exquisite and interesting flora and fauna during the walk.
• Game Drives: Of course, this is a must do activity in different national parks because some tourists prefer sighting these animals from the comfort of their vehicles. Therefore, national parks like Maiko, Salonga, Virunga are a great deal of this activity providing for wildlife such as buffalos, forest elephants, bonodos among others.

Popular places to visit in DR Congo

• Lola ya Bonobo: Lola ya bonobo stands for “paradise of bonobos” in Lingala. The long-doubted rumor about Congolese eating monkeys can finally be shaken off because these individuals hunt hundreds of adult bonobos each year for meat and sell their young ones as pets. For that reason, this Sanctuary was established in 1994 as a rehabilitation center for these kids who go through pain after their parents are taken away from them. Young bonobos are brought to the Sanctuary in their infancy stages and are given a human motherly treatment. It is therefore the only Sanctuary in the world that takes care of infant orphan bonobos and tourists would very much love these captive creatures that live in an environment similar to the wilderness.
• Salonga National Park: D.R. Congo is blessed with the largest forest National Park in Africa which also doubles as the second largest tropical forest in the world. For that reason, it was established as one of the world heritage sites in 1984 as it also posses the rare existing biotopes in their natural form. Just to add beauty to this national park, it’s only accessed by water transport since it resides in the isolated areas of the central basin of River Congo. This means that tourists enjoy the water trip on their way to sight Congo peacocks, forest elephants, false crocodiles and other wildlife found in this reputable park.
• Nyiragongo Mountain: This is a volcano and it features the world’s largest lava lake. Tourists expecting heat and warmth while trekking this mountain because of its vulcanicity nature should be shocked to find out that the area is rather cold because there is mist and ice at its top. Visitors have to endure the trek to the top of this mountain, the prestigious lava lake and viewing the dazzling red color of molten magma of this strato-volcano.
• Virunga National Park: The saying old is gold is proved in this Africa’s oldest national park. Known as Albert National Park earlier on, the park is commonly visited for gorilla trekking since it’s one of the few parks blessed to host endangered mountain gorillas but visitors also get the privilege of viewing block mountains, volcanic mountains like Nyiragongo, Lake Kivu, tree species and of course wildlife since it’s a national park.
• Lake Kivu: Due to volcanicity from active volcanos like Nyiragongo, lake kivu came into existence. This is one of the smallest African Great Lakes but its also the third deepest in this category. Twenty-eight fish species are extant in this lake therefore tourists interested in sport fishing should just get their fishing equipment ready. This lake also has methane underneath that could possibly generate over 25 mega watts of power.
• Garamba National Park: This park was declared a world heritage site because it was the last known home of northern white rhinoceros living in their natural habitat. Parc National des Garamba is not a home for only the rare white rhinoceros but to other huge wildlife like giraffes, elephants, buffaloes and hippopotamus.
• Kahuzi-Biega National Park: Parc National des Kahuzi Biega is a great destination for tourists interested in tracking eastern lowland gorillas. It’s one of the few national parks with these apes. The two dormant volcanoes found in the park, Kahuzi and Biega explain why it is called so. It was named a UNESCO world heritage site in 1980. While the park is best known for accommodating these huge species of gorillas, it is also famous for other safaris like nature walks, mountain hikes, boat cruises, habituation, camping, birding since the park has over 349 bird species and 42 are endemic.
• Boyoma Falls: This water fall is made up of seven rapids where the roars of falls dispose their waters in river Congo found at the bottom. It was anciently known as Stanley falls, named after the famous explorer Henry Morton Stanley and renamed later to Boyoma. Seven outpourings form the largest waterfall by volume of annual flow in the world, with a drop of 61m. These falls obviously facilitate water activities like sport fishing, hiking with the prominent unique fishing technique of the Wagenya people of constructing huge wooden tripod systems across the river confirm that Africans are people with a unique way of thinking.
• Maiko National Park: This is the most remote and inaccessible park while on a safari in Congo but since it’s the only park with the three most important indigenous species – Congo peafowl, Okapi and eastern lowland gorillas hence the misery meet through the journey will be worthwhile. Other wildlife species here include leopards, forest elephants, chimpanzees are found in the park.
• Okapi Wildlife Reserve: Its name clearly explains that it’s a great habitat for the endangered okapis and because of that it was listed as a UNESCO world heritage site in 1996. The game reserve doesn’t provide for okapis only but also other wildlife like water chevrotain, forest buffaloes, leopards, giant forest hogs, over 370 bird species and the nomadic Mbuti pygmies.
• Idjwi Island: Despite the political unrests that have long dominated the country, this island has been spared and saved from all the challenges these wars come along with. It is nicknamed Africa’s forgotten island. Inhabitants of this island are friendly since they have not been affected by wars hence tourists will be more than certain that their life is safe while doing community walks, cultural tours on this island.

Safety guidelines when visiting DR Congo

• Tourists should move around with experienced Congolese tour guides since they have the knowledge about entire country and its instabilities to the core as they know the safe and impassable routes.
• Visitors are not advised to move alone, exposing valuable items like money since most parts of the country are not safe, and can attack anyone regardless of where they come from.
• Because forests harbor rebel groups and yet they also offer precious activities like gorilla trekking, tourists should ensure that they are accompanied by armed guides to protect them in case of any challenges faced during the treks.
• Some parts of Congo are infested with Ebola, tourists should get vaccinated so that they are protected from contracting this infection and also come along with pain killers of simple ailments, anti-malaria pills, insect repellent to protect them against any infections.
• Tourists should be cautious while taking pictures and photographs while in public because it’s prohibited to take pictures of government properties like the parliament, military bases and this might call for an immediate arrest for an individual snapping these places.
• Travelers should ensure that they move around with important personal belongings like travel documents so that its quicker for them to flee the country incase of any war or demonstration threat that may come up.
• Tourists should also turn down any help offered by strangers in busy cities since they might be scheming something dangerous while taking advantage of individual’s innocence.

Congo Travel Tips

• Travelers should be cautious while travelling in public and crowded places and take close looks on their personal property considering robbers in the country.
• They should ensure that valuable property like phones, laptops, cameras are kept out of sight or locked up in their hotel rooms.
• Tourists should exchange some of their currencies to Congolese franc because this is the medium of exchange that most of the people in small towns and villages accept in exchange of different commodities.
• It is customary to reward anyone whose services rendered please you; therefore, tipping lodge service providers, guides in anyway and currency is very okay depending on the service they have provided and how much the traveler wishes to pay.
• Tourists should ensure that they have valid passports and visas and all their travel documents meet with the specified requirements to avoid any inconveniences that might come due to this.
• Travelers should pack clothes that bring comfort to them while on their safari journey which can be light weight clothes but should also pack heavy clothes like sweaters incase of rains and for cold areas due to the nature of the country.
• To facilitate communication without too much difficulty, its advised that visitors purchase local Simcards whose network is good in different areas to facilitate quick communication and response in case of any problem.

Getting a visa to D.R Congo

D.R. Congo visa is usually valid for 30 – 90 days depending on the holder’s country of residence.

While most countries are going electronic in issuing these documents, it hasn’t been implemented in this country therefore tourists can get visas from either the embassies found in their respective countries or purchased through national park’s web portals for countries without Congo embassies and it will be received between two to five business days upon submission of a fully complete application.

Best Time to visit Congo

The country experiences Equatorial climate since its crossed by the equator hence it has both the wet and dry seasons.

For tourism activities, the best time to visit Congo is during the dry season which stretches from June to September and a short dry season from December to February.