There are approximately 1,000 mountain gorillas left on earth, and roughly half of them live in the Virunga volcanic chain that straddles the borders of Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park — a small park by African standards, but an extraordinarily dense one — protects the Rwandan portion of this population and provides the most organised, most accessible, and most controlled gorilla trekking in the region. The trek itself is neither guaranteed nor easy: groups hike through dense bamboo and hagenia forest for anything from 30 minutes to several hours before encountering a habituated family, and then spend one permitted hour in the presence of animals that share 98.3% of human DNA and appear to understand that the strange bipeds surrounding them are harmless.
Bisate Lodge is positioned at the base of Bisoke volcano, 10 minutes from the national park’s main gate. The six Forest Villa domes are andBeyond’s most theatrically designed structures: great thatched cones inspired by the rondavel architecture of traditional Rwandan homesteads, set on a hillside that has been systematically reforested with indigenous species since the lodge opened in 2017. The volcanic peaks of Karisimbi, Mikeno, and Bisoke are visible from the villa terraces; on clear mornings before cloud moves in from the DRC, the panorama across the chain is spectacular.
Inside, the villas are properly comfortable: sunken baths, fireplaces for cold highland evenings, four-poster beds with forest views, and butler service that manages the complex logistics of gorilla trekking permits without any guest involvement. Each gorilla family in the park has been habituated over years by the Rwanda Development Board’s rangers; the permits (currently $1,500 per person per trek) are limited by the Board and represent the single most significant item in a Rwanda safari budget. Bisate can arrange these for guests and sequences them into a logical multi-day itinerary.
Kigali is Rwanda’s capital and international gateway, 2.5 hours by road from the park (or 30 minutes by charter flight). Direct flights connect Kigali to Nairobi, Addis Ababa, Dubai, Amsterdam, Brussels, and London.
