“I'm a writer and my husband runs a nonprofit organization. We have two teenagers. The type of family that usually goes to national parks, museums, and cultural events for holidays. We get bigger on educational trips. It's the equivalent of a month's backpacking trip we did in college in the 1990s. – Heather, Stanton, VA. Budget: Under $10,000.
A few years ago, T asked travel writers Pico Iyer and Aatish Taseer of T Writer-at-Large, as well as three other professional wanderers to devise a list of 25 most extraordinary travel experiences. If I were on that panel (I joined the magazine the following year), I would have been lobbying to add another destination. On the list: Rwanda. For me, the most memorable trip, as I said in the article, “reverberating within me” trips are places that have experienced recent devastating changes, but have conveyed a tremendous sense of optimism. Rwanda, a small East Central African country with its spectacular mountain scenery, is a prime example of its famous rehabilitation after the 1994 Genocide, when around 800,000 people were killed thanks to tourism. Today it is a glittering meeting hub and a gorgeous tourist destination. The main attraction of visitors is gorilla trekking. You can hike into the forests of Volcanic National Park and see some of the last mountain gorillas remaining in the wild (the park has about a third of the total population of the world). And while those encounters are undoubtedly thrilling, hiking permits are expensive ($1,500 per person per day), one of my favourites, Amakoro Songa Lodge, set in the Immaculate Gardens, is particularly good value (from $2,300 per night, $2,300 including meals). To save money, skip the gorilla trekking and look for the Golden Monkey instead ($100 per permit).
I also want to spend time in Kigali, the capital, with art galleries, outdoor restaurants and craft shops. The Kigali Massacre Memorial Museum is well worth a trip. For hotels there, Heaven (from about $125 per night) and its luxury sister property The Retreat (from about $570 per night) offers a wealth of charm and city tours. If you want to help organize your entire trip (and guides and drivers), try Custom Safari or Micato Safaris. They will probably exceed your budget, but both companies are longtime supporters of various community projects, including schools and scholarships. I can assume there is no more splurge.
