A City Built at the Foot of a Volcano
Goma sits on the northern shore of Lake Kivu, pressed directly against the Rwandan border town of Gisenyi and overshadowed by Nyiragongo, one of the most active volcanoes in Africa. The physical setting explains almost everything about the city: its streets are paved in places with hardened black lava from Nyiragongo’s catastrophic 2002 eruption, which sent a lava flow directly through the city center and split it in two, and its lakeside position has made it the natural entry point for anyone heading into Virunga National Park, the continent’s oldest protected area, just to the north. For decades, Goma functioned as the logistical heart of Congolese gorilla tourism, the place where visitors landed, cleared formalities, and staged their trip into the park before this section of the country became better known for headlines than for wildlife.
That dual identity, a genuinely spectacular natural gateway sitting inside one of the most unstable corners of Central Africa, is the honest starting point for understanding Goma today. This guide covers what the city has traditionally offered travelers heading into Virunga and to Nyiragongo, and what its current situation actually looks like, rather than pretending the city functions as it did a decade ago.
Goma’s Role as a Gateway City
In ordinary times, Goma has been the arrival point for two of Congo’s signature experiences: mountain gorilla trekking inside Virunga’s southern sector and the overnight hike to camp on the rim of Nyiragongo’s crater, home to the largest lava lake on Earth, covered in detail in our separate guide to the Nyiragongo overnight crater camping experience. Visitors typically flew into Goma International Airport or crossed overland from Kigali through the Gisenyi-Goma border post, a route documented step by step in our piece on crossing the Rwanda-DR Congo border for Virunga. From the border, it was a short transfer to Virunga’s Bukima or Kibumba patrol posts, the starting points for gorilla treks into the park’s habituated families.
The city itself, beyond its function as a transit point, has a genuine character worth noting: a lakeside promenade along Lake Kivu, a scattering of hotels and restaurants that catered to both aid workers and tourists, and a UN presence that has shaped much of its recent economy given the long-running instability across North Kivu province. Virunga’s own headquarters and visitor lodge, Mikeno Lodge, sit just outside the city, historically serving as the base from which trekking permits, ranger briefings, and park logistics were coordinated.
The Lake Kivu Waterfront
Lake Kivu itself deserves separate mention, since Goma’s stretch of shoreline is where the city’s more relaxed, non-conflict identity has always shown through, with lakeside bars, fishing boats, and a view across the water to Rwanda’s Gisenyi that made the crossing feel almost seamless on calm days. Our dedicated guide to Congo’s Lake Kivu shoreline covers this side of the region more fully, including how it compares to the Rwandan side of the same lake.
The lake itself carries an unusual scientific footnote that shapes how seriously the region is monitored: Kivu is one of only three known lakes in the world holding a limnic reservoir of dissolved carbon dioxide and methane deep in its waters, a legacy of the volcanic activity that built the Virunga chain in the first place. Congolese and Rwandan authorities, along with international researchers, track the lake’s gas layers continuously, and a methane extraction plant on the Rwandan side has doubled as both an energy project and a safety measure. It’s a reminder that Goma’s setting, however scenic, sits directly on top of genuinely active geology, volcanic and otherwise, which is part of why the city has always required a slightly different mindset from a typical lakeside town.
Markets, Neighborhoods, and Everyday Goma
Beyond its function as a jumping-off point, Goma in calmer years had its own rhythm worth understanding. The Birere market area buzzed with traders selling everything from Congolese textiles to imported goods brought in through the Rwandan border, reflecting the cross-border trade that has always defined the city’s economy. Virunga’s carbon-neutral hydroelectric projects, developed as part of the park’s broader strategy to give the surrounding population an economic stake in stability, brought electricity to parts of the city and neighboring communities that had never had reliable power, an initiative separate from, but tied to, the park’s conservation mission covered in our piece on how ecotourism funds Virunga’s anti-poaching patrols. Streets rebuilt after the 2002 eruption mixed newer construction with the hardened lava rock that never fully went away, giving the city a visibly volcanic texture unlike almost anywhere else in East or Central Africa.
What Has Changed Since Early 2025
Goma’s situation shifted decisively in January 2025, when the M23 armed group captured the city after a rapid offensive, followed weeks later by the fall of Bukavu further south. As of late 2026, Goma continues to function under M23 administration rather than the Congolese government, and while daily life in the city itself has continued in some form, the surrounding front lines around Masisi, Walikale, and the Nyiragongo approach have remained active and prone to sudden movement. Virunga National Park has not reopened to tourism through this period, and multiple governments maintain do-not-travel or non-essential-travel-only advisories covering Goma and the wider eastern DRC region.
This is covered in more depth, alongside the broader question of current safety across the country, in our guide to whether it is safe to visit DR Congo in 2026, and in our companion beginner’s guide to eastern DR Congo, which sets out how trip planning across this whole region works under current conditions. The short version for Goma specifically: it is not currently a straightforward tourist entry point, and any traveler considering it needs direct, current confirmation from an operator or from Virunga’s own official channels before assuming the old routes and routines still apply.
Why the City Still Matters to the Region’s Future
It’s worth resisting the temptation to write Goma off as simply a conflict zone, because its underlying assets, the lake, the volcano, the proximity to some of the last mountain gorillas on Earth, have not gone anywhere, and the city has weathered serious disruption before and rebuilt its tourism role. Virunga National Park has reopened after previous closures caused by both the Ebola crisis in the late 2010s and earlier rounds of armed conflict, each time restoring gorilla trekking and Nyiragongo hikes once conditions allowed it. Rangers and park staff, whose extraordinary and often dangerous work is covered in our profile of Virunga’s rangers, have continued conservation efforts through the current disruption as best they can, which matters for how quickly tourism could resume once the security situation allows it.
What Goma Offered Travelers in Calmer Periods
For anyone planning ahead to a point when conditions stabilize, it’s useful to know what a Goma stopover has typically involved. Most visitors spent one or two nights in the city either side of their park activities, staying at one of a handful of established hotels along or near the lakeshore, with Chinese, Congolese, and international menus available and reasonably reliable generator power given the region’s inconsistent electricity grid. Money changers and a small number of banks handled currency exchange, though US dollars in good condition were, and remain, the most practical currency to carry. Mobile connectivity in the city itself was generally better than in the surrounding countryside, though it has fluctuated considerably during the current disruption.
Security briefings from Virunga staff or from a tour operator were standard practice even in calmer years, given the region’s long history of instability, and travelers were routinely advised to avoid moving around the city after dark and to keep valuables minimal and low-key. That underlying caution, appropriate even before 2025, is simply more pronounced now, and anyone eventually returning to Goma as a tourist should expect a more structured, escorted experience than a typical East African city visit.
Looking Toward Goma’s Eventual Reopening
There is no way to responsibly predict when Goma will again function as a reliable gateway to Virunga, and this guide will not attempt to. What can be said is that the underlying draw, a volcano, a lake, and mountain gorillas within a short drive of a real city, remains exactly what made Goma worth visiting in the first place, and that Virunga’s own history of reopening after previous crises gives some reason for cautious optimism over a longer timeframe. Anyone with Goma on a future wish list is best served by following Virunga’s official updates directly, working with operators who maintain current relationships in the city, and treating any specific travel date as provisional until conditions are independently confirmed close to departure.
In the meantime, the wider region has not stood still. Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park, a short drive from the Goma border on the other side, continues to offer mountain gorilla trekking on the same volcanic massif, and Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable Forest remains fully open for both gorilla and golden monkey trekking. Travelers drawn to Goma primarily for its access to gorillas and volcanic landscapes, rather than the city itself, can still experience much of what made this region famous while conditions in eastern DRC remain unsettled, and can plan a Congo leg as an addition to that trip once circumstances allow rather than the sole reason for booking. That flexible approach, treating Goma as one possible chapter in a broader Central and East African itinerary rather than a fixed destination, tends to serve travelers far better than building an entire trip around a single, currently uncertain gateway.
