Rwanda’s permit is USD 1,500; Uganda’s is USD 800. Rwanda’s trailhead is 2 hours from Kigali airport on tarmac; Uganda’s Bwindi is a long drive or a light-aircraft hop.
Rwanda’s Volcanoes NP is open bamboo and potato fields on a volcano’s flank — photogenic, often muddy, sometimes high. Bwindi is true rainforest: darker, denser, more of a scramble.
The best trips do both, back to back — one trek in each, crossing at Cyanika. See our Uganda–Rwanda combo.