Best Things to Do in Goma City : The Democratic Republic of Congo has got a lot of impressive tourist attractions probably in Goma city, National park, and Goma city is impressed with quite a several attractions. Goma city lies in the eastern part of the Democratic Congo and it is near the northern shores of Lake Kivu on the border with Rwanda. More so, Goma is considered the capital of the Northern Kivu province and ranks as one of the largest towns after Kinshasa. However, it’s a very busy city because of being the major trading route for goods that leads to Congo. Above all, it receives a high number of UN and other international humanitarian organizations.
Furthermore, Goma is not the capital city of the Democratic Republic of Congo just because it’s a well-developed town with many fabulous attractions that attract several tourists to tour the place. Note, the capital city of Congo is called ‘’Kinshasa’’.
For those interested in nature and wildlife as same of visiting attractions in Goma, there is easy access to visiting Virunga National Park. From Goma takes a few driving minutes to reach the park for Gorilla trekking tours or other activities.
Goma is surrounded by very many striking and beautiful natures comprised of forests, hills, and mountains. More then, it’s a city found just outside the Virunga National Park thus making it a tourist hub in East Africa. The major key attraction around the city is the Nyiragongo Volcano which will be a subject of every traveler who visits the place. The city also stuns with spacious restaurants, museums, and theaters among others. While on your visit to Goma planning to visit and wondering what to do during your holiday tour here, then this article is right for you to read through;
Note; There is no worry about the disarmament within the area –country, it’s because the government of Congo has tried as much as possible to provide armed offices in national parks and around busy places, cities, and rural areas as well as the tighter border. These ways of the country suffering from the Ebola crisis now it’s all under control. To add on that, the ‘’UN’’ also provided a large peacekeeping team around the Goma area to protect their staff and help the government maintain peace in the country.
Below are the tourist attractions adventure in Goma as listed;
Visit Virunga National Park; This is the most visited safari destination in Congo because it houses several unique endangered mountain gorillas and one of the top active volcanoes in the world namely Mount Nyiragongo among others. The park measures an area of about 7,800 square kilometers and was created in 1925. It is the oldest national park in Congo and Africa. In addition to that, Virunga National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage site offering several mountains such as Mikeno, Nyiragongo, Nyamuringa, and the Rwenzori ranges within its boundaries.
More so, the park is renowned because of the famous rare mountain gorillas, the Bongo and Okapi. It is also bordered by outstanding national parks in Uganda like Queen Elizabeth National Park, Rwenzori Mountain National Park in Uganda, and Rwanda –Volcano National Park. Although, the park had to deal with a lot of challenges in the last two decade’s years ranging from illegal settlers and poaching.
While on a visit to Goma spare a day and go visit Virunga National park or other game parks and get to engage in the major activities like tracking the gorillas or having an unforgettable Nyiragongo hike.
Hiking Mount Nyiragongo; However, this is one of the major tourist attractions on Congo Tours that attracts thousands of tourists to come to visit this world’s most active volcano. Despite this fact, Mount Nyiragongo raises 3470 meters high and is located inside the Virunga National Park. The main crater measured 2 kilometers wide with a lava lake at the center. However, this volcano last erupted in 2002 and the lava flowed up to Goma town thus causing to loss of people’s lives, and property damage half a million people had to be evacuated and Goma Airport was also destroyed. Note, the runway was covered with ash and other people of the explosion as the lava meet its way up to lake Kivu. For instance, the volcano has calmed down ever since and there is no opportunity to erupt any time soon, and scientists have done their work by monitoring the mountain and any volcanic activity. Well, hiking the Nyiragongo Volcano is the main highlight of safari adventure activities while visiting Africa. And it is the only mountain with an incredible boiling lava lake that attracts tourists. The hike starts from Kibati village and takes two days.
Gorilla trekking in Virunga national park; These beautiful species the mountain gorillas are only found in three countries –Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In Congo, mountain gorillas are found in Virunga National Park, which can be seen through engaging in gorilla trekking activity that goes with valid gorilla permits. Congo gorilla permits cost USD400 compared to USD1500 Rwanda’s cost of gorilla permits and USD700 in Uganda per person per day.
Visit the Senkwekwe Mountain Gorilla Orphanage; The Senkwekwe Centre is famously home to the mountain gorilla Orphanage in the world. To make it easy for you to access the area you can stay at the luxury Mikeno lodge. The Centre was named after a great silverback Gorilla called Senkwekwe but sad was killed in 2007 by militias taking refuge within the park most of the time. It importance of existence is to take care of the orphanage gorillas that were rescued from poachers or animal traffickers after the death of their parents. You can support the area by making donations.
Visit Kahuzi Biega National park; This is one of the tops visited national parks in Congo safari tours and is listed on the UNESCO World Heritage site, located in Bukavu town next to Goma. It was established in 1970 and was named after the two dormant Volcanoes –Biega and Kahuzi Biega National Park home to a wide range of animals such as lions, elephants, buffaloes, giant forest hogs, and a variety of antelopes many more. The main attractions to see in the park are the famous Eastern Lowland gorillas among others.
Visit lake Kivu; This lake is also one of the tourist attractions to visit in Goma since it boasts lots of stunning activities to do such as swimming and island hopping, fishing, Kayaking, and birding among others.
Visit one of the restaurants; You can visit one of the restaurants and get to enjoy tasty local foods as well as another excellent buffet like sandwiches, salads, pastries and coffee, pizza, and meat dishes. Other restaurants are good at preparing Italian food, and Indian food, or else you can try to visit the village of Fatimata for its goat ribs, fish, and grilled chicken.
