Travel in Congo

For most travelers, entering the vast diversity of Ecuador’s Cuatro Mundos ("Four Worlds": the Pacific Coast, Andes, Amazon and Galápagos) requires nothing more than arriving with your passport.

By all accounts, I am a nervous traveler and I never quite feel safe until I return home. 

If you're feeling tired of your local concert hall, or you fancy combining a trip with some world-class music, you may want to consider one of these truly memorable music holidays, from Rough Guides' Make The Most Of Your Time On Earth .

Life on two wheels is a beautiful thing, and travel on two wheels can be epic. Here are a few of the world's greatest cycle routes to consider for your next big trip.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been known for too long as the ‘heart of darkness’, but it rewards intrepid travellers with beautiful countryside and some of the continent’s most exciting trekking.

Rwanda’s capital is often described as a city that sleeps, rather than one that doesn’t. Rwandans are, by nature, more reserved than Kenyans, or other Africans. Loud music isn’t tolerated after 8pm and bars tend to close early. Some may call it boring, but Kigali’s residents embrace the city’s quiet calm. Yet, the oldest part of Kigali defies this stereotype.

Africa is a continent of wild open savannahs, terracotta sunsets, thousands of vibrant green hills and rugged coastlines. You can be chugging along on a rickety old railway one day and standing atop a rust-coloured sand dune the next. As American author John Hemingway once said, “If I have ever seen magic, it has been in Africa.” There’s no end to the amazing adventures this continent offers, but as a starting point, here are a few of our favourite African journeys.

Rwanda is emerging as a top wildlife destination, not least for visitors looking to see gorillas in their natural habitat. The country is home to hundreds of mountain gorillas that move between Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo in the rainforests of the Virunga Mountains. New luxury lodges are opening up in the area, making it easier than ever to get a glimpse of these kings of the jungle.

Once a Dutch colony, Suriname sits on the northeast coast of South America and has a population of around a mere 550,000 people. Venturing deep into the jungle-clad interior, Rough Guides writer Anna Kaminski went to explore the ancestral territory of the Saramacca, descendants of seventeenth-century West African slaves.

Rwanda is renowned for its rare mountain gorillas, and rightly so. Some 400 of our primate cousins roam the rainforests of Volcanoes National Park, with ten groups available for tracking. But this tiny country has so much more to see. Known as the «Land of a Thousand Hills», it’s rich with beautiful mountains, valleys and lakes, with a gleaming capital city, abundant wildlife and resilient and gracious people. Here are ten reasons to explore further.

Millions of years old and home to over a third of planet Earth’s plant and animal species – plus some of the world’s last uncontacted tribes – the vast forest nicknamed the «Earth’s Lungs» is under serious threat from deforestation. Over the past four decades around 40 percent of the Amazon has been destroyed, primarily for mining, industrial agriculture and illegal logging.

I was born in Salvador, in the Brazilian state of Bahia, and lived in the general vicinity until I reached the age of 15. But it was when I left that I really came to know my city. How was I able to discover more about my birthplace while traveling far from home? It might sound rather clichéd but, I assure you, literature made this possible: It took me on a journey, long and profound, back home, enveloping me in words and imagination.