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◆ Country guide · East Africa

Burundi, the top of Lake Tanganyika and the hills behind it

Burundi holds the northern tip of Lake Tanganyika, the second deepest lake on earth, and the spring the Nile is measured from. Almost nobody stops here between Rwanda and Tanzania. It is small, steep and densely farmed: a lakeshore of sand and fishing pirogues, a royal drum tradition UNESCO lists, and a seat of government that moved inland in 2019.

12.3M

People

27,834 km²

Area

443 / km²

Density

Region

Isombe

Mukeke

Brochettes

Best months

Jun · Jul · Aug

Ideal length

6–9 days

Budget / day

$70–150

Language

Kirundi

Getting around

Shared minibuses on the trunk roads

When to visit Burundi

Two wet seasons and two dry ones, and the good months are all in the dry half.

Full month guide →

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Best: June, July and August, the long dry season, when the roads hold and the hills are clear Good: September, December and January, the short dry window either side of the light rains Hard going: February to May and October to November, the two wet seasons, heaviest in April

Quick answer · where to go in Burundi

Give Bujumbura two nights: a hot lakeside city with beaches north of the centre and the Livingstone-Stanley monument at Mugere to the south. Take the lake road to Rumonge for the fishing beaches. Then go inland to Gitega, the political capital, and the Gishora Drum Sanctuary. In Rutovu, a pyramid marks the southernmost Nile source. East lie the Karera Falls and Ruvubu National Park. The northwest is under a travel advisory. Six days covers the lake, Gitega and one eastern loop.

Jump toMap Fun fact Stereotypes Famous faces Food FAQ

Fun fact

One number worth knowing

The Nile is measured from a hillside in Burundi. On 12 November 1937 the German explorer Burkhart Waldecker fixed on Kasumo, a trickle below the summit of Mount Kikizi near Rutovu, as its southernmost source, and built a pyramid over it. The water reaches the Mediterranean 6,700 kilometres later.

Stereotypes, sorted out

The clichés you have heard, what is actually true, and how to behave once you land.

"Burundi is just Rwanda with worse roads."

The realityThey share a border and a language family, and they are not interchangeable. Rwanda built its itinerary on gorillas and premium lodges. Burundi has Lake Tanganyika, which Rwanda does not touch: sand, fishing boats, grilled mukeke and beach bars. The drumming is Burundian, and a day costs far less.

"There is nothing to see there."

The realityThere is no single famous sight. There is the northern tip of Lake Tanganyika with empty beaches, a UNESCO-listed royal drum tradition and the sanctuary that teaches it, the southernmost Nile source under a pyramid in Rutovu, waterfalls in the southeast and savanna on the Ruvubu. It rewards a week.

"The whole country is off limits."

The realityThe UK advises against all travel to five northwestern communes, the area west of the Rusizi river and the roads through Kibira National Park. The US rates the country Level 3, Reconsider Travel. The lake south of the capital, Gitega, the north and the east lie outside those zones.

"The drummers are a show put on for visitors."

The realityThe ritual dance of the royal drum joined the UNESCO intangible heritage list in 2014. The drums were royal instruments, sounded at accessions and harvests, and Mwezi IV Gisabo founded the Gishora sanctuary. Drummers carry a dozen drums in on their heads. A 2017 decree limits who may drum.

Drums, and nothing elseToo dangerous to visitA poorer RwandaNothing but coffeeNo beaches, because it is landlockedImpossible to get to

Cultural notes that actually help

Greet before anything else. A handshake and a Kirundi amahoro (peace) opens a conversation that starting with the question does not.
French gets you further than English outside Bujumbura, and any attempt at Kirundi gets you further than either.
Ask before photographing people, and never photograph government buildings, the airport, bridges or anyone in uniform.
Carry cash. Cards are accepted in a handful of Bujumbura hotels and effectively nowhere else, and ATMs outside the capital are unreliable.
Drinking is social and shared. Urwarwa and impeke are passed round from hand to hand, and refusing outright reads as a snub.
The ethnic history of the 1970s and 1990s is present in every family and is not small talk. Let a host raise it if they want to.

Famous Burundian faces

The names behind Burundian politics, sport, music and writing. Pick a field.

Louis Rwagasore

Prince and independence leader, prime minister in 1961 and assassinated two weeks in.

Melchior Ndadaye

First elected and first Hutu president, killed in 1993. The main airport bears his name.

Francine Niyonsaba

800m silver at Rio in 2016, world indoor champion, then a winner at 5000 and 10000 metres.

Saido Berahino

Bujumbura-born refugee who joined West Brom at eleven, then switched to Burundi in 2018.

Khadja Nin

Singer in Kirundi, Swahili and French, and the country's best-known musical export.

Marguerite Barankitse

Her Maison Shalom sheltered tens of thousands of children in the war. Aurora Prize 2016.

Pierre Claver Mbonimpa

APRODH founder and leading rights defender. Shot in 2015, he survived and kept working.

Ketty Nivyabandi

Poet who led the first women-only street protest in Burundian history, in 2015.

Mwezi IV Gisabo

Last independent mwami, who resisted German rule and founded the Gishora drum sanctuary.

Vénuste Niyongabo

Won the 5000 metres at Atlanta in 1996: Burundi's first Olympic medal, and a gold.

Gaël Bigirimana

Midfielder from Coventry City and Newcastle United who later captained the national side.

Alexis Sinduhije

Journalist who founded Radio Publique Africaine, staffed with ex-fighters from both sides.

Roland Rugero

Novelist born in 1986, whose Baho! was the second Burundian novel in English.

Must-try Burundian food

Beans, plantain, lake fish and a great deal of coffee that leaves the country. Pick a category.

Isombe

Cassava leaves pounded and simmered with palm oil and groundnut paste. Eaten with ubugali.

Mukeke

Firm white Lake Tanganyika fish, grilled whole with lime and chilli. Best at Rumonge.

Brochettes

Goat, beef or lake fish skewers over charcoal, the default order with a beer after dark.

Boko boko harees

Shredded chicken cooked down with bulgur and turmeric. Often named the national dish.

Ibiharage

Red kidney beans, slow-cooked then fried with onion and chilli. The everyday plate.

Ndagala

Tiny lake sardines, dried on shore racks, then fried crisp or stewed and eaten whole.

Ubugali

Thick paste of millet, sorghum or maize, torn by hand to lift beans, greens or sauce.

Ibitoke

Cooking bananas, boiled or stewed. A staple under almost everything on the plate.

Urwarwa

Home-fermented banana wine of varying strength, passed round at celebrations.

Impeke

Sweet-sour sorghum beer, brewed at home and shared. The drink that marks an occasion.

Primus

The national lager, brewed by Brarudi in Bujumbura and sold in a large bottle for sharing.

Burundian coffee

Smallholder arabica from Kayanza and Ngozi, prized by roasters abroad. Little stays home.

Know before you go

The essentials for planning a Burundi trip, starting with the visa and the advisory.

Currency

Burundian franc (BIF)

A cash economy. Cards work in a few Bujumbura hotels and ATMs outside the capital are unreliable. Clean, recent US dollar notes change best, and older or marked notes are refused.

Language

Kirundi, French, English

All three are official. Kirundi is universal, French carries business, signage and officialdom, and English is thin outside Bujumbura. Swahili is useful around the lake and the border towns.

Emergency

Police 117 · Fire 118 · Medical 112

Trauma care is very limited and serious cases are evacuated to Nairobi. Travel insurance covering medical evacuation is the single most important thing to arrange before flying.

Visa

Required for most nationalities

Apply online before flying. Visa on arrival is issued at the airport and land borders. A yellow fever certificate is checked at entry. East African Community passports need no visa.

Travel advisory

Northwest restricted

The UK advises against all travel to five northwestern communes, west of the Rusizi river including its national park, and the RN6 and RN10 through Kibira. The US says Level 3, Reconsider Travel.

Getting around

Minibuses and a hired 4x4

Shared minibuses run the trunk roads cheaply, and the Bujumbura to Gitega road is paved. For the east, Ruvubu and the Nile source, hire a vehicle with a driver. Roads set the pace.

Health

Yellow fever certificate · malaria countrywide

Malaria is present at all altitudes and prophylaxis is standard advice. Drink treated or bottled water. Cholera outbreaks occur around the lake in the rains.

Tipping

Not expected, always welcome

Round up in restaurants and pay a guide or driver properly at the end. There is no service-charge convention to work around.

Connectivity

Mobile data is the network

A local SIM is cheap and covers the populated country. Fixed lines barely exist and power cuts are routine outside Bujumbura, so travel with a battery pack.

Burundi travel FAQ

Do you need a visa for Burundi?+

Most nationalities do, and the sensible route is to arrange it before flying through the immigration service online, which asks for the passport bio page, a yellow fever certificate and an itinerary. A visa on arrival is also issued at Melchior Ndadaye International Airport and at land borders, but it is not the option to rely on if a flight is late or a system is down. East African Community passport holders enter without a visa. Carry the yellow fever card with the passport: it is checked at the border.

Is Burundi safe to visit?+

Parts of it carry a formal advisory and most of it does not. The UK Foreign Office advises against all travel to the northwestern communes of Mugina, Cibitoke, Bukinyayana, Bubanza and Mpanda, to the area west of the Rusizi river including Rusizi National Park, and to the RN6 and RN10 running west from Kayanza through Kibira National Park, citing an armed group in the forest and incursions from the Congolese side. The United States holds the whole country at Level 3, Reconsider Travel. Bujumbura, the lake south of it, Gitega, the northern highlands and the eastern circuit sit outside those areas. Petty crime is the everyday risk, medical facilities are very limited and there is no adequate trauma care, so evacuation insurance is not optional. Read your own foreign ministry the week you book and again the week you fly.

When is the best time to visit Burundi?+

June to August, the long dry season. Roads hold, the hills are clear, the lake is calm and the humidity drops. There is a shorter dry spell around December and January that also works. Avoid the long rains from February to May, which peak in April and turn unpaved roads into a serious problem, and treat the short rains from September to November as workable but unpredictable. Altitude matters more than season for temperature: Bujumbura on the lake is warm all year, the highlands around Ngozi and Kayanza are cool, and evenings at altitude want a jacket.

Is the capital of Burundi Gitega or Bujumbura?+

Both, in different senses. Gitega was named the political capital on 21 December 2018 and took the institutions over the following year, restoring the status it held as the seat of the Burundian kings. Bujumbura remains the economic capital, the largest city by a wide margin, the port on Lake Tanganyika and the site of the only international airport. For a visitor that means you arrive in Bujumbura and go to Gitega, ninety minutes east on the one good road, and both are worth time.

How do you get to Burundi and around it?+

Melchior Ndadaye International Airport in Bujumbura is the only international airport, and almost everyone arrives on a regional connection through Nairobi, Addis Ababa or Kigali. Overland from Rwanda is straightforward and the crossing from Tanzania is used. Inside the country, shared minibuses run the trunk roads cheaply, the Bujumbura to Gitega road is paved and quick, and anything beyond that (the eastern falls, Ruvubu, the Nile source) is a hired 4x4 with a driver. Distances are short and the country is small enough to cross in a day, but road conditions set the timetable.

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