Best time to visit Volcanoes NP
The month-by-month edit — when Volcanoes NP actually opens up, when to avoid it, and how crowds and hotel rates move through the year.
The short answer
When Volcanoes NP is at its best
Volcanoes National Park is the single most important reason to come to Rwanda — 160 square kilometres of bamboo forest and afro-alpine vegetation on the Virunga Mountains volcanic chain, home to roughly 350 mountain gorillas (a third of the world's total) and the only place outside Uganda's Bwindi where you can trek to see them in their habituated family groups. Dian Fossey did her work here from 1967 to 1985, and the park's ten habituated families are managed today by the Rwanda Development Board with a strict daily limit of 96 trekking permits at $1,500 each.
Month by month
The Volcanoes NP calendar
Average daytime high, rain days, crowd pressure (1–5) and hotel-rate index (1–5). Verified against climate-data.org and our hotel-rate tracking.
| Month | Avg high | Rain days | Crowd | Rate idx |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 21°C | 12 d | ||
| Feb | 21°C | 13 d | ||
| Mar | 21°C | 16 d | ||
| Apr | 21°C | 18 d | ||
| May | 21°C | 14 d | ||
| Jun | 21°C | 4 d | ||
| Jul | 21°C | 3 d | ||
| Aug | 21°C | 5 d | ||
| Sep | 21°C | 11 d | ||
| Oct | 21°C | 17 d | ||
| Nov | 21°C | 16 d | ||
| Dec | 21°C | 12 d |
Sources: Numbeo cost-of-living — Volcanoes NP · climate-data.org — Volcanoes NP