• Rwanda has earned global recognition for standing out on the subject of gender equity.
• Women who decide to travel alone to Rwanda will have little to worry about as the country has scored high in the protection of women.
• Rwandese women’s participation in politics, governance, and nation building in quite significant.

The British Broadcasting Corporation – BBC, on the 3rd of April, revealed through a ranking, after due consultations with the internationally renowned Global Peace Index – GPI, the Georgetown University’s Women’s Peace and Security Index, the Institute for Economics and Peace – IEP, and the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap report, that Rwanda, in East Africa, is the second safest country for any female who is travelling solo; this is credited to its steadfast hospitality and visible interest in women’s safety and protection.

Also, the BBC, in trying to understand what made female travelers feel safe, pick travel tips from them, as well as find out the best exploration ideas for solo adventurers, found, after a chat with women who have single-handedly toured top-standing countries, that Rwanda ticks the right boxes when the question of inclusion for women is raised.

Globally, according to the Women’s Peace and Security Index, Rwanda sits on the number one spot on the list of countries with gender equality in parliament; there is no surprise because its parliament boasts of more than 60 per cent of female representatives. According to the index, the East African country is also graded highly in community safety awareness and is ranked sixth in the world according to the Global Gender Gap index, which weighs how much attention a country pays to equity when it comes to education, healthcare, economics, and political participation. Even the government of the country agrees that its women are a force to reckon with in fueling its progress, expansion, and transformation.

Even though situations recurrently require a woman to travel alone, especially now that the trend of lone travels seem to be catching on, women are still prone to unique challenges when they move solo. It is also believed in some quarters that a woman travelling solo might be characteristically dangerous. Ideally, every part of the world should be secure enough for women to get to; but in reality, women still deal with safety and security concerns in different parts of the world. Based on the foregoing issues, many countries of the world have focused their efforts on improving the safety of women, even as most countries regularly review female inhabitants’ behavior towards the subject of safety in their country.

According to the BBC, Rwanda shares this enviable position with other countries making up the top five list including Norway, Slovenia, Japan, and the United Arab Emirates. These countries share several factors like a low number of conflicts – internal or external, absence of legal discrimination, women’s financial inclusion, women’s community safety, and a minimally reduced rate of violent crime. In their cities, walks at night are quite safe, which makes it relaxed as well as comfortable for women to explore and feel secured while doing so. These countries have put in significant amounts of work to ensure safety for women, and they are getting duly recognized for these great traits.

According to Toronto-born tourist, Lydia Klemensowicz, with some precaution, and courage to look beyond misconceptions and stereotypes, one can easily tell a dangerous city from the ones where it is safe for women to move around solo. She visited Rwanda as a lone female traveler and she talked about how secured, empowered, and assured she felt as she confidently moved around the beautiful country. Many female tourists consider Europe first when looking to sojourn solo, however, in East Africa, in Rwanda to be precise, a touring female will find warmth. Based on her Observations, Klemensowicz, who has also been to Tanzania, outlines reasons the whole world should see Rwanda as the next best destination for unaccompanied female travelers.

Top on her list are the friendly locals. Rwandans, according to the Canadian tourist, are unbelievably friendly. The tour guides, bus drivers, and passing natives are all hasty in offering help or guidance. She enjoyed warmth in Kigali as the neighbors shared food, danced under the stars, and exchanged pleasant banters.  Also, there are activities good enough for solo travelers including seeing the famous mountain gorillas, learning more about women’s social enterprises or Rwandan history, and generally touring the city. She references the Nyamirambo Women’s Center where classes are offered, and tours are utterly run by the natives.

Rwanda, even with French, English, and Kinyarwanda as its official languages, English is extensively understood and spoken thinning out the barriers that communication might pose to tourists. When travelling alone, especially as a woman, it is undoubtedly helpful to have little or no communication barriers because a traveler might ask questions or take local transport and unavoidably rapport with locals. French speakers are also in luck as some locals speak French. Also, because the ground to cover is not overwhelming, chiefly because the country is not intimidatingly massive, travelling within the country is a lot more comfortable and safer for tourists. It will typically take about four hours to move from Kigali to any part, hence, traveling to different locations around the country within a short period of time becomes an easy fun activity.

Transportation is quite essential to travelling and touring, and Rwanda has operative local and international transportation options, including buses. The international airport sits prominently in Kigali, the capital city, while the main bus station in the capital connects centers across the country with reasonably priced buses frequently crisscrossing various destinations. The sparkly lakes, mountainous arrays, and picturesque rivers are enough to entice tourists into trips. Traveling round this country alone, according to Klemensowicz, becomes even more special with heightened awareness. Foreign expats and travelers have found the country welcoming enough which explains why there are numerous foreigners in Rwanda who travel to the country alone but are hardly alone, especially in Kigali, where there is a display of famous social events in restaurants, bars, and other conducive atmospheres for relaxation and networking.

Another interesting social feature of the country is the culture of coffee shops. These spots provide food for solo travelers as well as food for thought for the soul; it presents nice spaces to refresh as well as relax. The Coffee culture is not so much of a surprise because Rwanda grows enjoyable coffee beans, even as coffee franchises, chains, and cafés grow in the country which is reliably and rapidly recovering in spite of the historic imprint from the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. The country has gone ahead to pave paths to economic growth, government conscientiousness, educational expansion, and protection of women’s rights.

Tourism and Coffee are two big deals in Rwanda that visitors can explore. Rwanda has something for every solo female traveler. There is an abundance of activities, experiences, and even food for different budgets and interests as well, but more importantly solo female travelers have minimal worries in Rwanda. Kigali is widely regarded as the cleanest and safest city in Africa.