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Kigali, Rwanda

Piotr Jaworski
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Flowing along and down the sides of a ridge in what appears to be the exact centre of Rwanda is the country's capital, Kigali. The city is small but rates big on the attractiveness scale, dotted as it is with a wide variety of colourful flora and with a number of viewpoints looking out over Rwanda's other 999 hills. Besides the natural splendour of its verdant location, there's not a lot of sightseeing material in Kigali; in fact, just the opposite applies to the parts of the city that have yet to undergo architectural rehabilitation from the damage inflicted during the last round of civil conflict. However, Kigali does offer a good number of eateries, clubs and liquid refreshment joints and is a good place to indulge the senses.

The nightlife in Kigali is accessible with a fair degree of safety, though just like most other African cities it still pays to be cautious and taxis are recommended after dark. There's an NGO-satisfying array of restaurants clustered around Place de l'Independence that serve up everything from regional African fare to upmarket French dishes to Italian, Greek, Indian and Chinese cuisines. Sprinkled among these are numerous bars and a batch of nightclubs of the please-stay-and-watch-the-sun-come-up variety, frequented by a sometimes beguiling mixture of locals, expats and folk for hire.

For a taste of grim reality, a drive of just under an hour from the capital will bring you to either of the genocide memorials at Nyamata and Ntarama. Be warned, though, that these aren't memorials in the polished, symbolic sense, but are the bare bones of places that bore witness to the butchery of 1994.