A beautiful yet brutalized country, Rwanda is known to the world for all the wrong reasons, but shatters visitors’ preconceptions with its outrageous natural beauty, warm and welcoming locals and legendary mountain gorillas.

Rwanda’s hills stretch into infinite horizon in every direction, making bus travel akin to a dose of the bends. To the west is the stunning shoreline of Lake Kivu, with its hidden bays, plunging cliffs and secret beaches. In the east, the hills finally trail off towards Tanzania and the land turns to the grassy plains and acacias of Akagera National Park.

Small but perfectly formed, Rwanda can compete with the big boys of Africa in beauty. Almost every square inch of the country is farmed and terraces have been etched, impossibly, into the most precipitous hillsides, where farmers scratch out a living on slopes as steep as ski runs.

It is all abut the mountain gorillas. They are one of the world’s rarest and most captivating mammals in the wild. A gorilla encounter on the forested slopes of the Virungas is one of the most magical experiences on earth.