Self-drive in Rwanda

Rwanda, the country of a thousand hills as the country is known of, is experiencing a growing number of people from all around the world. The transportation being one of the essential services to travelers who visit Rwanda, the self-drive in Rwanda is also another option for transportation.  Rwanda is mostly known for gorilla trekking as the endangered primates said to be sharing 98% of their DNA are only remained in the great lake region. However, Rwanda also offers wildlife experience in Akagera National Park to see the big five animals, chimpanzee trekking in Nyungwe national park among others.

Typically, tourists and visitors preferred to hire a driver along with the vehicle due to various reasons, such as unfamiliarity with local roads, language barriers, and the convenience of having someone familiar with the area. However, the self-drive in Rwanda service is also available as an option to visitors, though not common. The self-drive car hire options, will allow you to enjoy your stay by having your time to explore the country, connecting to the locals and learn from the local culture, mode of life and practices. When traveling to Rwanda and opt to use the self-drive transport option, there are some notes to keep in mind so that you have a good experience. Here are some of the tips to help you.

To choose a good option for self-drive in Rwanda, you need to work with a professional tour operator who will help you to plan for your trip by offering you options of the destination, organizing your transportation and booking your hotels as well as the entrance to the national parks. You can conduct an online search for recent information and reviews from travelers who have visited Rwanda more recently. You can also get a recommendation from someone who has been to Rwanda of a contact he has used and has offered a good experience.

When looking for serf drive cars in Rwanda, look for a car of the recent models. Most of the cars used in Rwanda are bought second hand from Europe or Asia. When choosing the car look at the option of cars that are of the recent manufacturing date. This will be for ensuring that it has not been driven for a lot of kilometers. The cars of less than 10 years in service are preferred.

Also when looking for self-drive cars in Rwanda, make sure it has comprehensive insurance. Most of the cars use third party insurance. This third party insurance helps to cover damages or injuries you may cause to someone else, but not yours including the damages on your car. But if you have comprehensive insurance, it can cover damage caused by events considered to be outside of your control, like theft, vandalism, hitting an animal, glass breakage, fire, and weather-related incidents.

When you use a self-drive car in Rwanda, ensure that you comply with the country’s traffic regulations with necessary documents to drive in Rwanda. Rwanda has rigorous traffic regulation including security cameras on the road. Most common mistakes fined are over speeding, violating road signs, parking at a non-permitted area among others. When driving and caught in a breach of the code, an automatic notification is sent to the owner with an amount of money to be paid as a fine. To note Rwanda is a left hand car drive.

Before starting your-self-drive in Rwanda, have a good briefing with your tour operator on your destination. Have all the important information with including but not limited to:

Traffic regulations important notes, recommendation on stop overs, hotels and restaurants. Have contacts to help you along the way.

It is also recommended to have a telephone local line to be able to communicate easily when on self-drive in Rwanda. The internet connectivity is good and accessible all around the country. This will help on google maps and connecting with your family back home and your tour operator. But a local line will help you to have quick and efficient communication with your tour operator when you need quick help.

Kinyarwanda is the widely spoken language. You need to know some few words in Kinyarwanda when you are on self-drive in Rwanda to help you connect with locals like amakuru “how are you” mwaramutse “Good morning” or murakoze “Thank you”. However, most services that a tourist needs have staff that can communicate in either English, French or both, as well as printed materials displayed in most public places with important notices and guidance. 101968859

The above are just some tips for your insight into self-drive cars in Rwanda, but to get well prepared for your trip to Rwanda and make it a memorable experience, you need to connect with a professional tour operator as mentioned above. We at Unique Rwanda Vacation Experts are ready to help you organize a self-drive car in Rwanda from designing an itinerary, booking hotels and activities and offering you a car for self-drive all suitable to your time, interest and budget, to make your stay in Rwanda a once in lifetime experience. Please book with us and we do the rest for you.

You are the most welcome in Rwanda.