The Muzungu’s top reasons to travel to Burundi
I loved visiting Burundi. My Burundian and Rwandese hosts treated me like royalty; I will never forget their kindness and hospitality. Sadly, few people will travel to Burundi until the political situation improves. When it does, here are the muzungu’s Burundi travel tips!
Map of Burundi. “Bujumbura welcomes you” but without a local guide, you may find touring Burundi a challenge
The official lingua franca is French, which is fine if you’re at a tourist hotel or bar, but I found few street vendors, for example, spoke French. Educated Burundians generally speak French – the man or woman on the street may not. English is not widely spoken either.
Burundians are not used to tourists, nor having their photo taken – although the guys below completely disprove that point 🙂
One of my favourite photos from Bujumbura. “Kiosque le silence” – the silent kiosk – what a wonderful name for a public telephone booth!
Watching the hippos at Rusizi Nature Reserve was a nice day out but can’t honestly match up to other East African safari destinations for wildlife numbers, diversity or even tourism infrastructure.
Watch out for the crocs! Rusizi Nature Reserve is home to crocodiles, hippo, antelope and birds
Burundi is an excellent destination for birdwatchers (sharing almost the same birdlife as neighbouring Rwanda).
Rusizi Nature Reserve is a short drive from Bujumbura. Part of Burundi’s charm are the wonderful handpainted signs
Burundi’s two other National Parks are Rurubu National Park and Rusizi National Park. Kibira Forest once formed a continuous forest with Nyungwe Forest, Mukura and Gishwati Forests in Rwanda. We drove through Rusizi on our journey from Kigali. Burundi also has six nature reserves: Bururi Forest, Kigwena, Lake Rwihinda (Lac aux Oiseaux), Rumonge, Rusizi and Vyanda Forest.
Shop in Bujumbura’s markets for woven baskets and mats, vibrant kitenge and huge multicoloured umbrellas
You can’t beat drive-by shopping! En route from Bujumbura to Kigali, my friends stopped to buy beautiful handwoven baskets
The muzungu and the must-have fashion accessory! Burundians love these huge multicoloured umbrellas
Ugali flour seller in Bujumbura. No day is complete without at least one serving of ugali… !
Burundi may be off the travel and tourism circuit for now, but let’s pray normality returns to the ‘Heart of Africa’ as quickly as possible.
Looking to the future. My two young friends from Rwanda and Burundi, arm in arm, overlooking Lake Tanganyika
Burundians eat well!
Lake Tanganyika has a variety of fish. Mukeke is very tasty!
Burundi has scrumptious ‘fusion’ cuisine.
In addition to the traditional African foods of matooke (banana), ugali and cassava we ate a variety of fish from Lake Tanganyika, French-style crusty baguette bread and fantastic beers. (I can’t say I’m a fan of ugali though…)
Popular beers in Burundi include Primus, Amstel and Heineken
I wanted to visit Bujumbura the moment Lonely Planet wrote “Bujumbura has the best inland beaches in Africa.” Lake Tanganyika is safe to swim in (there is no Bilharzia, like in many of East Africa’s lakes).
It had been raining on the morning we went to the beach. The beach was deserted except for one fisherman. The low cloud semi-obscured the Blue Mountains of the Congo
“Lake Tanganyika is second largest of the lakes of eastern Africa. It is the longest freshwater lake in the world (660km or 410 miles) and the second deepest (1,436 metres or 4,710 feet) in the world. It is comparatively narrow and varies in width from (16 to 72 km or 10 to 45 miles). Lake Tanganyika covers about (32,900 square km or 12,700 square miles) and its shores are in Burundi, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Zambia. It occupies the southern end of the Western Rift Valley, and for most of its length the land rises steeply from its shores.”
Burundians love to party at the beaches’ many bars and nightclubs. The capital city of Bujumbura boasts a vibrant beach nightlife of bars, restaurants and nightclubs (you can see why I want to go back, can’t you?!)
The sun sets on the beach of Lake Tanganyika
Dusk over Bujumbura. City view from the Monument de l’Unite (Unity Memorial)
Lake Tanganyika’s white sandy beaches are just a stone’s throw from Bujumbura. The city is laid out in a classic European colonial grid-type layout. There’s an interesting variety of architecture.
Art deco style architecture of Palais des Arts et de la Culture – art museum – Bujumbura
Palais des Arts et de la Culture, painted in the colours of the Burundi flag
Postal boxes. I love the symmetry of La Poste, the European-inspired Post Office, Bujumbura
Bicycles all in a row. La Poste, the old colonial Post Office, Bujumbura
“La Poste d’Usumbura” – the Post Office of Usumbura. The city was renamed Bujumbura in 1962 at independence, circa 1940s
Bujumbura is an interesting mix of European influence of the 1940s – and earlier – of eclectic hand-painted African shop signs and, sadly, even more potholes than Kampala.
The handpainted signs and shopfronts give Burundi a very original feel. I loved the painted “boucherie” butcher’s shop
A rainbow lights up an otherwise cloudy day in Bujumbura
As the sun set, we drove to the highest point of Bujumbura. View of Lake Tanganyika from the Monument de l’Unite (Unity Memorial)
The beaches attract Burundians and expats from neighbouring DR Congo to wile away their Sunday afternoons.
On a future visit, I plan to visit Chutes de la Kagera (Karera Waterfalls) and Faille des Allemands (German Gorge). One place I would not recommend visiting is the “Musée Vivant” (Living Museum) in Bujumbura. The living conditions of the animals were appalling. This was in 2016. (Has it improved?)
One of the cultural highlights – and most noteworthy tourism exports – are ‘les Tambourinaires de Burundi’ the traditional drummers. A must-see (hear!) experience when in Burundi.
Did you know…? The East Africa Tourist Visa makes it possible to buy one visa for travel to Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya. Tanzania still looks unlikely to sign up to the EATV (January 2020). The muzungu sincerely hopes that Burundi will join the East Africa Tourist Visa party one day.
Thanks for the insightful article!
Burundi sounds like an interesting challenge, Charlotte. I must give it a try next year. Many thanks for all the information.
Les.
I might have to come with you, Les! I really loved Burundi!