Lake Kivu is Rwanda's great haven of calm: a vast stretch of fresh water between green mountains on the border with the Congo, dotted with islands, peninsulas and fishing villages. It is one of Africa's Great Lakes and, interestingly, one of the safest for swimming: it has no crocodiles or hippos, and its shores are free of the malaria mosquito. That makes it the ideal place to rest, swim and enjoy the water after the intensity of gorilla trekking or the hikes through the forests of the south.
Its sandy beaches and lakeside promenades —especially in Rubavu (Gisenyi) and Kibuye (Karongi)—, its blazing sunsets, its islands to explore by boat and its laid-back atmosphere make Kivu a place to slow down. But it also offers adventure: the Congo Nile Trail, one of the most scenic hiking and cycling routes in Africa, runs along the lake through coffee plantations, hills and villages, and there is kayaking, boat trips to the hot springs and the bat island, and visits to the region's coffee and tea farms.
This guide explores Lake Kivu with a practical eye: what to do and see in its different towns, how to get around between them, how to combine it with the gorillas in the north and Nyungwe forest in the south, where to stay and what curiosities this unique lake hides —including the gas stored in its depths—. A destination of rest, nature and sunsets that perfectly rounds off any trip through Rwanda.
Lake Kivu was formed by the tectonic and volcanic activity of the Great Rift Valley, among mountains, on the border of what are now Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its waters hold a rarity and a danger: huge amounts of methane gas and carbon dioxide dissolved in the depths, which are now extracted to generate electricity but which also carry risks. During the 20th century it was a quiet colonial holiday destination; later, the region lived through the Great Lakes wars and the refugee crisis that followed the 1994 genocide at close range. Today Kivu is being reborn as a destination for relaxation and ecotourism. The full story is told on our history page.
Read the full history ↓The great freshwater lake on the border with Congo: beaches and sunsets, a volcanic geological past and a huge store of methane beneath its waters.
Read the history of The west and Lake Kivu →A local guide tells you in half an hour what no sign at the site will ever explain. We look ours up on Civitatis: guided in Spanish and booked online with no fuss. They have 7 activities in Kigali. And there are free tours here: you book without paying and tip the guide whatever you think at the end, so trying one costs you nothing. Have a look below: tap any of them to see them all.
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Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Lake Kivu is a child of the Great Rift Valley, the huge fracture in the Earth's crust that runs across East Africa and that, over millions of years, has been pulling tectonic plates apart, raising mountains and creating a chain of deep lakes. Kivu fills one of these tectonic depressions, on the border between what are now Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, at around 1,460 metres above sea level, making it the highest inhabited lake in Africa. With a surface area of about 2,700 km² and depths of up to 480 metres, it is one of the African Great Lakes.
Its geological history is closely tied to the volcanism of the Virunga Mountains to the north. Eruptions from these volcanoes have shaped the region and, in the past, even changed the lake's drainage: Kivu originally drained northwards, but volcanic activity blocked that outlet and diverted its outflow to the south, through the Ruzizi River, which today links Kivu with Lake Tanganyika. That mix of tectonics and volcanism also explains the lake's most famous, and most dangerous, quirk: the enormous volumes of gas dissolved in its depths.
The lake's surroundings of green mountains, indented shores, peninsulas and islands have been inhabited since ancient times. For centuries, lakeside communities lived from fishing and from farming on the slopes, in a landscape of great beauty but also hard to reach. Unlike other African lakes, Kivu has no crocodiles, hippos or the other wildlife that makes some shores dangerous, so people developed a closer, more everyday relationship with its waters.
Lake Kivu is one of only three known 'exploding lakes', or lakes prone to limnic eruptions, in the world (along with Lakes Nyos and Monoun in Cameroon). Its deep waters hold colossal amounts of dissolved carbon dioxide and, above all, methane, produced by volcanic activity and by biological processes on the lake bed. These deep layers, denser and saltier, normally stay stable and separate from the surface layers, trapping the gas under the pressure of the water.
That gas is both a treasure and a danger. As a resource, the methane is a huge source of energy: Rwanda has developed projects to extract it and generate electricity, such as the KivuWatt plant, which pumps up water from the depths, separates out the methane and burns it to produce power, making a significant contribution to the country's electricity grid. It's an ingenious solution that turns a geological oddity into a tool for development.
But the same gas carries a hidden risk. Scientists warn that, in theory, an extreme event, such as a large underwater volcanic eruption or a powerful earthquake, could destabilise the lake's layers and trigger a sudden, massive release of gas, a 'limnic eruption' that would be catastrophic for the millions of people living on its shores in Rwanda and the Congo. That is why the lake is monitored, and controlled methane extraction is also seen as a way to gradually reduce the danger. For visitors, however, swimming and surface activities are completely safe.
Before the Europeans arrived, the Lake Kivu region was part of the trade networks and kingdoms of the Great Lakes area, with fishing and farming communities on both shores. The lake was one of the last corners of Africa's interior to be 'explored' by Europeans: German expeditions only reached its shores at the end of the 19th century, during the colonial scramble for the continent. The colonial border, and later the international one, ended up dividing the lake between the territory under Belgian administration (Rwanda) and the Belgian Congo.
In the first half of the 20th century, under Belgian administration, the shores of Kivu, especially Gisenyi (now Rubavu) and, on the Congolese side, Goma, grew into holiday and rest spots for settlers and officials, drawn by the pleasant climate, the beaches and the beauty of the lake. Hotels, villas and lakeside promenades were built, and Gisenyi earned a reputation as an elegant resort. That role as a place for tourism and rest, born in the colonial era, is the seed of the part the lake plays for travellers today.
With Rwanda's independence in 1962 and the Congo's in 1960, the lake became, for good, the border between two independent countries. The twin cities of Gisenyi and Goma, separated only by a border post, stayed linked by trade and daily life, although their political fates were very different. Meanwhile, the lake kept its role as a place for fishing, transport and rest, until the upheavals of the late 20th century shook the entire region.
The end of the 20th century hit the Lake Kivu region hard. After the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and the victory of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, nearly two million Hutus, among them many of those responsible for the genocide mixed in with terrified civilians, fled into the Congo (then Zaire) through the lake area, mainly via Gisenyi and Goma. On the other side of the border, gigantic refugee camps sprang up in dire conditions, and they became a source of new tensions and a base for armed groups.
That crisis set off a series of conflicts that bloodied the Great Lakes region for years: the Congo Wars, which drew in many countries and caused millions of deaths, had one of their epicentres in the Congolese provinces of Kivu, just across the lake. The Rwandan border area lived through this instability at close range, with incursions, insecurity and the weight of the humanitarian crisis. In 2002 the Congolese city of Goma was also struck by the devastating eruption of the Nyiragongo volcano, whose lava reached the lake.
Rwanda, for its part, managed to stabilise and rebuild, and its side of the lake gradually regained the calm and safety that define it today, in sharp contrast with the ongoing instability on the Congolese side. This recent history, complex and painful, is part of Lake Kivu's backdrop: a place of beauty and rest that has nonetheless witnessed, and been the setting for, some of the most tragic episodes in modern African history. Knowing it helps you understand the region with a respectful, not naive, eye.
Over the last two decades, as Rwanda has stabilised and developed, the Rwandan side of Lake Kivu has come back to life as a destination for rest and ecotourism. The towns of Rubavu (Gisenyi), Karongi (Kibuye) and Rusizi (Cyangugu) have restored and expanded their tourism infrastructure, with hotels, resorts, restaurants and lakeside promenades. The lake has become the country's go-to place to relax, the perfect complement for travellers who arrive worn out from gorilla trekking or the southern forests and want a beach, water and sunsets.
Alongside relaxation, a whole range of adventure and nature activities has flourished: the Congo Nile Trail, opened as a waymarked hiking and cycling route along the whole lake; kayak trips between islands; boat rides to the bat island, the hot springs and the fishing villages; and coffee tours through the hillside coffee cooperatives, which produce some of the best coffee in Africa. All of it with a focus on sustainability and benefits for local communities, in line with Rwanda's tourism policy.
On top of tourism comes energy: extracting methane from the depths to generate electricity (KivuWatt and future projects) makes Kivu a unique lake economically too, able to light up the country from its waters. So the 21st-century Lake Kivu combines beauty, rest, adventure, coffee and energy, against a fascinating geological and historical backdrop. For travellers, it's the calm, luminous finale to a trip through Rwanda: a place to slow down, swim in safe waters and watch the sun set behind the mountains of the Congo.
