13 Best Burundi Attractions

Author: Iri­na Darovko

Updat­ed: 03 Sep­tem­ber 2020

Burun­di is a coun­try in East Africa with an equa­to­r­i­al humid cli­mate, rich in nation­al parks and reserves. There is some­thing for lovers of his­to­ry and nature, as well as extreme tourists.

Who travels to Burundi and why

The Repub­lic of Burun­di will be of inter­est to lovers of untouched nature — the coun­try is rich in nature reserves and vir­gin forests. Parks with chim­panzees and trop­i­cal birds, as well as lake beach­es, ther­mal water­falls and tea plan­ta­tions — it is worth get­ting to know the local nature reserves bet­ter.

In the riv­er deltas, you can see hip­pos, antelopes and croc­o­diles in their nat­ur­al habi­tat. Swim­ming in ther­mal springs will be use­ful for peo­ple with joint dis­eases.

Burun­di is locat­ed in the cen­ter of the con­ti­nent, there­fore it does not have its own access to the sea. This is com­pen­sat­ed by the pres­ence of a beau­ti­ful clear lake Tan­ganyi­ka. Its under­wa­ter world can be viewed even from a boat. Div­ing, beach hol­i­days, ani­mal watch­ing, walks in nature reserves, acquain­tance with the cul­ture, his­to­ry and archi­tec­ture of the coun­try — Burun­di knows what to offer the most demand­ing trav­el­er.

natural attractions

Reserve Rusizi

The park is locat­ed near the cap­i­tal, in the riv­er delta. Antelopes, hip­pos and croc­o­diles live on 500 hectares of fer­tile soil. Palm groves, milk­weed and thorn bush­es, as well as ponds of nat­ur­al ori­gin coex­ist in the val­ley. The Rusisi Delta is a par­adise for birds that flock here in hun­dreds and feed on under­wa­ter fish­ing.

Bururi Forest Reserve

The 3,000-hectare rain­for­est is home to 117 bird species and 25 mam­mal species. You can vis­it the reserve with a guide or as part of an excur­sion group. The route for the tourist is built in such a way as to cov­er beau­ti­ful panora­mas, pic­turesque lakes, botan­i­cal trails and ani­mal habi­tats.

Kibira National Park

The largest green zone in Burun­di is locat­ed on the top of the Zaire Nile moun­tain. More than 40 hectares of untouched forests are inhab­it­ed by baboons, chim­panzees and trop­i­cal birds. The park is entan­gled in a 180-kilo­me­ter net­work of trails and paths that are used by tourist groups. Moun­tain ranges hide ther­mal springs. You can get to the park through the Teza and Rwe­gu­ra tea plan­ta­tions, which offer some of the best nat­ur­al scenery.

Reserves of Rumonge, Kigwena and Mugara

These nat­ur­al parks are just devel­op­ing, but are already open to vis­i­tors. Chim­panzees and cer­co­p­ithecines live here in their nat­ur­al envi­ron­ment. In the Mugara Reserve, ther­mal springs gush out of the ground — the springs are locat­ed on a hill, descend­ing into a low­land with nat­ur­al water­falls. You can enjoy a ther­mal mas­sage while stand­ing under the jets of water. Near­by are the clean beach­es of Lake Tan­ganyi­ka.

Ruvubu National Park

The reserve is locat­ed on the banks of the riv­er of the same name and is bound­ed by high moun­tains. The tourist route, about 100 km long, includes many view­ing plat­forms. Trav­el­ers here are offered to set­tle in a new camp, and then track down buf­faloes, fol­low­ing them along the trails, sit by the fire in the evenings and lis­ten to bird­song at dawn.

Lake Rvihinda Nature Reserve

Tem­po­rary home for migra­to­ry water birds. Thou­sands of herons, cranes and ducks nest on the islands of this lake and breed. Birds are not afraid of peo­ple slow­ly float­ing across the lake on rafts and boats. Vivid impres­sions and beau­ti­ful pho­tos are pro­vid­ed.

Waterfalls and springs Burundi

The hot springs

The most vis­it­ed ther­mal springs in Burun­di are Mugara Bururi and Muhveza Rutana. The first includes two hot springs that fill a nat­ur­al pool at 48°C. The sec­ond place is not one, but many springs spout­ing from the ground, which pour into two large fonts. One is tra­di­tion­al­ly for men, the oth­er for women.

Karera

A mag­nif­i­cent cas­cad­ing water­fall 80 meters high with 4–5 main sec­tions is formed by the Kar­era Riv­er, which flows in a pro­tect­ed nature reserve. The water­fall ends with a small lake. Many tra­di­tions of the peo­ple of Burun­di are asso­ci­at­ed with this cas­cade. Kings, ascend­ing the throne, per­formed a sacred bath in its waters in a cave with a font. Not so long ago, this nat­ur­al won­der was includ­ed in the UNESCO World Her­itage List, and now the water­fall is pro­tect­ed by law.

german gorge

An impres­sive gorge with cliffs sev­er­al hun­dred meters high has its own zest. On the site of a Ger­man mil­i­tary for­ti­fi­ca­tion from the First World War, there is now a water­fall drop­ping its waters from a height of more than 100 meters.

Historical landmarks

In the 19th cen­tu­ry, the Ger­mans occu­pied Burun­di, mak­ing the coun­try a Ger­man colony. From the begin­ning of the twen­ti­eth cen­tu­ry, it was trans­ferred to Bel­gium, and only in 1962 became an inde­pen­dent repub­lic. The long pres­ence of the Basques also had a great influ­ence on the cul­ture, archi­tec­ture and tra­di­tions of the coun­try.

City of Gitega

Gite­ga is a kind of cul­tur­al cen­ter of the repub­lic with many edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tions. Here is the roy­al palace — a mon­u­men­tal build­ing of mod­ern archi­tec­ture inter­spersed with eth­nic details. Also in Gite­ga is the Ibwa­mi Roy­al Court and the Repub­li­can Muse­um.

National Museum

The Muse­um of the Repub­lic is rich in ethno­graph­ic exhibits that will acquaint tourists with the his­to­ry and cus­toms of the coun­try. The main asset of the muse­um is the col­lec­tion of roy­al drums. In the era of the monar­chy, drums were a sacred sym­bol of Burun­di and an oblig­a­tory attribute of the rulers.

Gishore Village

One of the main sanc­tu­ar­ies of the roy­al drums is locat­ed in the sub­urb of Gite­gi — in the vil­lage of Gisho­ra. The price­less tools are guard­ed by an ancient fam­i­ly of local res­i­dents, which has become an attrac­tion in itself. They reg­u­lar­ly take care of the drums for cen­turies, and some­times play them for tourists.

National Museum of Nature (Musée vivant)

The muse­um is locat­ed in the exten­sive park of the Com­mune of Roero and includes both nat­ur­al and arti­fi­cial attrac­tions. Here live croc­o­diles from Lake Tan­ganyi­ka and the Rusisi Riv­er, var­i­ous types of snakes (banana-green snakes, vipers from Gabon, cobras, boom­slangs, pythons). Vis­i­tors can watch rare species of fish, birds, antelopes and tur­tles, leop­ards and chim­panzees.

In addi­tion to ani­mals in the muse­um, vis­i­tors will get acquaint­ed with the works of tal­ent­ed local artists, tra­di­tion­al instru­ments of the peo­ple of Burun­di and pho­tographs of mem­bers of the roy­al fam­i­ly.