Trip Report: Republic of the Congo
Visited in May 2025
The Congo River is the second longest river in Africa and the ninth longest in the world. It is also the deepest river in the world, with some sections reaching depths of up to 220 meters, and the only river in the world that crosses the equator twice. Two countries are named after it: the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
After starting my Central African journey in Gabon, it was now time for the two Congos. You may wonder why there are two countries called Congo. This dates back to the colonial era. The Republic of the Congo (ROC) was a French colony, while the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) was a Belgian colony. ROC was the first of the two countries I visited.
An airline called Afrijet took us from the Gabonese capital Libreville to Brazzaville, the capital of ROC. To better distinguish between the two countries, they are sometimes referred to as Congo-Brazzaville and Congo-Kinshasa (the capital of DRC). Incidentally, Afrijet changed the date of the flight not once but twice. It reminded me of my first trip to Central Africa, when four out of eight flights were either canceled or rescheduled…
The Republic of the Congo is considered the safer and more stable of the two Congos. However, ROC is not free of corruption either. Especially at the airport, you have to make sure you have all the necessary documents with you. A letter of invitation that has not been printed out can lead to problems with the corrupt police, even if you have a valid visa in your passport. Fortunately, we did not experience any negative incidents.
As in Gabon, our group consisted of six seasoned travelers. Our visit to the Republic of the Congo included the capital city of Brazzaville and the Lesio Louna Reserve, a nature reserve where you can see gorillas, among other things.
Our guide Jouve picked us up at the airport and drove us to the Capital Hotel, where we spent our first night. The good hotels in Brazzaville, i.e. those with a certain standard and decent ratings, are unfortunately quite expensive. The Capital Hotel was one of the few under $100 per night with a reasonably decent rating. So we accepted that it was a few minutes’ drive outside the center.
Our program for the first evening was the Sapeurs, a kind of subcultural group of men who dress in very fashionable, often eye-catching and elegant clothing. The Sapeurs have now established themselves as a tourist attraction. On Saturdays, they reportedly often hang out in the same bar. If you want to see them during the week, you have to book them (cost: 70,000 FCFA, about €106).
We drove out of the city center of Brazzaville to the Sapeurs. They then put on a dance show that was a mixture of fascinating and bizarre. The performance lasted about an hour, and as a visitor, they invite you to dance along with them. At the same time, you can take as many photos as you want.
The Sapeur movement traces its origins back to the colonial era in the early 20th century. The Congolese men began emulating the elegant dress of European colonizers as a form of resistance, self-expression, and reclaiming dignity. After World War II, returning soldiers and migrants who had been exposed to European fashion further popularized the style.
They told us facts like these after their performance and there was a Q&A session. If I had traveled alone in the Republic of the Congo, I probably wouldn’t have thought of seeing the Sapeurs. I had seen photos of them many times in the past, but I never understood the fascination of tourists.
After seeing this performance, I have to say that it was pretty cool. Precisely because it was also kind of weird and therefore something you do not see in every country. It plays in the same league as other unusual tourist attractions such as Cholitas Wrestling in Bolivia or the Wagah border ceremony in Pakistan.
Can you see the Sapeurs without a tour? Apparently, they often hang out at the same bar (Chez Deguy) on Saturdays. However, I read this somewhere and cannot confirm whether it is actually true. So if you really want to see them, you should probably book in advance.
We ended the evening at Mami Wata, a restaurant that travelers should visit if only for the atmosphere. It has a beautiful outdoor terrace and is located directly on the Congo River. On the other side, you can see Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Brazzaville and Kinshasa are the two capitals in the world with the shortest distance between them. Less than a kilometer separates the cities in some places. I had to cross to the other side three days later, and at that point I didn’t know how I was going to do it…
But I didn’t want to worry about that problem yet, because the Lesio Louna Nature Reserve was on the agenda for the next two days. It is located about three to four hours’ drive from Brazzaville and is one of the few places in the world to see gorillas in the wild (well, sort of…). In this reserve, the gorillas are rehabilitated and cared for by park rangers.
By the time we arrived at Lesio Louna, it was already early afternoon. According to the itinerary, we should have arrived at 9:30am. But since we left a little late and the roads change from asphalt to gravel in the last section, the estimated two hours were a bit optimistic.
The start of the tour was that two boats took us through the rivers of the reserve. After driving a few minutes, we arrived at a small island where a silverback gorilla was sitting. His family rejected him some time ago and therefore he got into a zoo in London for a few years. Now, he lives alone on an island, awaiting eventual release into the wild.
The park rangers come here twice a day to feed him. They throw fruit and vegetables from two filled buckets onto the island, where the gorilla picks out what he likes and eats it, leaving the rest behind. According to the rangers, he will remain on this island until he can survive alone in the jungle.
“How long has he been living on this island?” we asked. ‘Since 2010.’ It seems that attempts to prepare the gorilla for life in the wild have not really worked, so the poor creature has to remain in isolation on this small island.
We then visited other gorillas, but they live in a fenced-in area. Because of this, a visit to the gorillas in Lesio Louna is not comparable to gorilla tracking in Rwanda, Uganda, or the DRC, where you actually see gorillas in the wild. If Rwanda and Uganda offer National Geographic-level gorilla encounters, Lesio Louna is more like a behind-the-scenes visit – rough around the edges, but still rewarding.
The safety precautions for the gorillas also do not seem to be the same as in those countries. During my gorilla tracking in Rwanda and Uganda, face masks were mandatory so that the gorillas would not come into contact with human bacteria. There, it would also not have been possible to throw food to the gorillas that you had previously touched with your bare hands.
It was still a cool experience, and Lesio Louna is probably the cheapest place where you can see gorillas outside of a zoo (guaranteed). However, if you want a better experience with the gorillas, you have to go to the countries mentioned above.
After seeing the gorillas, we took our motorboats through the rivers of the nature reserve, where we saw hippos (which tended to hide under the bushes on the riverbank) in addition to the beautiful natural surroundings.
All in all, Lesio Louna was a very cool place, and due to its proximity to Brazzaville, visiting the reserve is almost a must when in the Republic of the Congo.
The day ended at Lac Bleu, a lake that, contrary to its name, is not particularly blue, which we first viewed from a vantage point above and then from the lake shore. Certainly an idyllic place, but if you don’t have time for it, it’s not a deal-breaker.
We spent the night in a very basic camp in the jungle, where we had fish, chicken, and vegetables for dinner. The rooms were quite rustic and some of them a little dirty. The mattresses on the beds had stains and were not very comfortable either. The mosquito nets over the beds also had holes in them. Not accommodation for the faint-hearted, but it was okay for one night.
The second day of the tour was just the return journey. Jouve said that we would be back in Brazzaville by 10am. However, the second car broke down several times (as it had on the first day) and it seemed that the driver was not a particularly good one.
We lost a lot of time on a hill that one of the cars couldn’t climb. Not that we had any plans for the rest of the day, but I slowly began to feel that three hours could easily turn into six or seven. Considering the high tour cost (€385 per person), We were disappointed with the quality of the cars. Especially, since we already had issues with our vehicle in Gabon three days before.
We arrived in Brazzaville in the early afternoon and checked into the Hilton for our last night. That was sorely needed after the camp the night before. Since we had no further plans, we spent the next few hours exploring the city center of Brazzaville.
Brazzaville is a fairly quiet and relaxed city by African standards. No crazy traffic, no excessive noise, and no streets crammed with people. In fact, the Republic of the Congo is a rather sparsely populated country. Around six million people live here in an area the size of Germany. A third of them live in Brazzaville.
However, there isn’t really much to see in the capital. The Basilica of Saint Anne and the Nabemba Tower are the only real sights. On the outskirts of the city, there are also the Congo Rapids, but we skipped those. It took us about an hour to see both attractions and take a short walk through the center.
Part of the group flew out of the country on the same day, while I crossed the river between Brazzaville and Kinshasa the next day. As I still didn’t have a visa, I hoped that everything would work out. If not, I risked ending up somewhere in no man’s land between the two countries – stamped out of the ROC (and without a multiple entry visa) and not allowed into the DRC. I had never been so nervous before a border crossing, but more on that in the next report…
So, how was the Republic of the Congo? In my trip report for Gabon, I said that Gabon is probably my new favorite country in Central Africa. However, ROC would come right behind it. For me, the Republic of the Congo is a country that has a lot to offer travelers, which is not necessarily a given in this region.
With a little more time, we could have seen the Loufoulakari Falls or the Cliffs of Manguengue from Brazzaville. A Congo River cruise would also have been possible, but we didn’t have the time for that. With two or three more days, Pointe Noire on the coast of the country would also have been an option. So it’s true that there is a lot to do in the Republic of the Congo.
I also found ROC to be quite relaxed compared to other countries in the region. The people we met were friendly. Surprisingly, the level of English in hotels, restaurants, etc. was better than what you usually find in French-speaking African countries.
Looking back, we had a few cool days in the Republic of the Congo. We used Tourisme au Congo (has a Facebook page) as our tour guide. I can only recommend them with reservations, as we had a few issues with them.
Things that went wrong were: the tour operator added someone to our private tour without asking us. In my opinion, that’s not acceptable, especially when there’s no price reduction. Furthermore, he planned to put seven tourists, a guide, and a driver in an SUV for the trip to Lesio Louna. Including luggage.
I am extremely glad that some of our group intervened the evening before. They made it clear to them that one car was not enough for this number of people, including luggage. As a somewhat curt response, Jouve told us that we would just have to rent a second car. We rejected this. Obviously, we expected not to spend two four-hour rides crammed together with our luggage on our laps.
Another problem was that, according to the tour program, there was lunch around noon. But after our arrival in Lesio Louna, suddenly no one wanted to know anything about it. Here, too, we had to intervene, so that in the end we were able to buy snacks such as potato chips, cookies, etc. in a store. According to our guide, it is normal on tours in Africa that you only get dinner. Everyone in our group had been on tours in at least 20-30 African countries and could not confirm this.
To be fair, not everything was bad, and this tour operator would probably rank somewhere in the average for Africa. It was a reminder that tour operators in Africa often charge premium prices that are more expensive than in many Western European countries, but don’t know what tourists expect.
In most cases, you only get about 30% of the service quality you would get in Europe. But I guess these are things you have to deal with when you travel in this part of the world.
By the way, I was in contact with several tour operators from ROC, and their prices were relatively similar. Another provider that many people spoke positively about was a company named Lawanda. This would probably be a good alternative to Tourisme au Congo.
Is it possible to visit the Republic of the Congo without a tour? Basically, there is no reason why not. The country is certainly safe enough. However, it is not the easiest country to self-drive, especially if you leave the main roads. So I would advise against it if you are going to Lesio Louna, for example. In any case, a guide certainly makes the trip easier.
Anyway, this is the end of the ROC chapter. But not the whole Congo chapter, because the Democratic Republic of the Congo and probably the craziest border crossing ever were already waiting for me.
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