Kigali, Rwanda

Often described as the friendliest African city, the Rwandan capital of Kigali is pushing toward a green future, especially for its growing tourism trade. GuraRide, the new Rwandan bike-sharing app, provides easy, affordable access to scooters, road bikes, and e-bikes, with docks peppered throughout the city. Kigali is also upgrading its roads as part of the recently launched yearslong Kigali Infrastructure Project, which aims to ease congestion, provide more direct connection among hard-to-reach neighborhoods, and reduce pollution. Newly created car-free zones, the most recent launched in Gisimenti, let residents and visitors take back city streets on weekends.

More investment has yielded more development in the tourism sector in the last year. The first 18-hole golf course in the city, at the new Kigali Golf Resort and Villas, hosted its first golf tournament last December. And the opening of the Nyandungu Wetland Ecotourism Park early in January safeguards 121 hectares of endangered wetlands, including more than 70 bird species and a fig forest—viewable from walking routes and cycling paths.

Located southeast of Kigali, Bugesera International Airport is set to open in late December, delivering more direct flights. And a new Four Points by Sheraton opened in Kigali in June, just in time to house attendees of the Commonwealth Heads of Government summit.

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