Buhoma Community Haven Lodge

Bwindi Impenetrable National Park holds roughly half the world's remaining mountain gorillas, and Buhoma Community Haven Lodge sits five minutes from the northern gate where daily treks to several habituated gorilla families begin. Eight self-contained twin and double cottages, plus one family cottage, sit on an elevated site above Buhoma village, built from local materials on raised wooden platforms with mosquito-netted beds and a clear run of forest below the terrace.

The lodge is run for the benefit of the local community. It opened in 2014 as a mid-range extension of the Buhoma Community Rest Camp, one of Uganda's earliest community tourism ventures at Bwindi, dating back to the early 1990s, and proceeds go back through the Buhoma Mukono Community Development Association to the wider village. A community walk, running since 2002, takes guests through Buhoma itself and on to meet Batwa families, the forest's original inhabitants, who share what daily life looked like before Bwindi became a protected park. Meals mix Ugandan and Western dishes cooked with locally grown produce, and packed lunches go out with anyone heading off before dawn to track gorillas.