Akagera has beautiful undulating plains with dense, broad-leafed woodland, lighter acacia woodland and rolling grassland with an extensive series of lakes linked by papyrus swamps forming a sprawling wetland.

It is perhaps misleading to compare Akagera to East Africa's finest parks but it is well worth a visit if not for the stunning scenery and vistas across Lake Ilhema. Although it does not have lion and the same prolific numbers of game, it does have elephant, leopard, buffalo, giraffe, hippo and 11 species of antelope including the elusive sitatunga. Akagera, is after Nyungwe, the most important ornithological site in Rwanda.