Hop, Skip, and a Long Jump

A Short Survey of Getting to Rwanda

Unfortunately for Americans, shifting continental plates many millennia ago has made current day travel to Africa into a 2 or 3-day journey. There are a variety of ways to fly into Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda.

First, let the buyer beware: try not to exceed 2 airlines when booking your flights, and make sure you have plenty of time to make your connections. If a flight is delayed and you miss a connection, you may be cross cut by quarreling airlines as to who finds your luggage and pays to reroute you.

Aside to chronic discount Internet bookers: going directly through an airline or agency is a more secure way of reaching African destinations. Many times paper tickets are required anyway, so the speed of the process is eliminated. And if your itinerary alters for any reason (and it might), changing tickets is a simple and relatively inexpensive affair if your ticket is issued directly from the airline.

For many Americans traveling to Rwanda, getting to Europe would be the first step. There are three main European connections to aim for. First, Kenyan Airlines (a BA partner) flies from London to Nairobi to Kigali. If you get a sweet deal to London, this route could be one of the most cost effective options. Another city to shoot for is Amsterdam, as KLM also uses Kenyan to fly via Nairobi to Kigali. For those travelers with a bit more pocket change and an aversion to layovers, SNL Airways has biweekly direct flights from Brussels to Kigali. This is a remarkable but pricy timesaver.

An option that allows you to stay on one airline all the way from American soil to Rwanda is Ethiopian Airlines, which flies a creative route from Washington DC (Dulles airport) via Rome, Italy, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and Entebbe, Uganda. A savings of several hundred US dollars might make this trip attractive to someone with a tighter budget and flexible time frame.

Malawi Cyclones

This image is taken of a cyclone approaching Mozambique two years ago. Many people wouldn't think that a landlocked country like Malawi would be affected by such storms; however, these cyclones crush the coast lines and penetrate beyond Mozambique all the way into Malawi. The resulting rainfall causes flash flooding and washes out bridges. This in turn shuts down or severely hampers transportation. Even in unexpected places, Mother Nature shows us that we can't barricade ourselves off from nature and must prepare accordingly.

"By the end of February, the DMC had given a warning about Tropical cyclone 'Japhet' positioned around 23 S and 37.8 E moving south-westwards. The periphery of the cyclone was expected to remain active over the southern coast of Mozambique. Further intensification, which could bring relief rains to drought prone areas but could also be catastrophic as strong winds between 63km/hr and 93km/hr, had been detected. Significant rainfall was anticipated over the central and southern Mozambique, northern Zimbabwe, Malawi and most of central and southern Zambia."