Great Escapes
Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge

Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge

Virungas, Rwanda

  • Mountains
  • Rural
  • Wildlife
  • Nature
  • Culture
££££pp / nightVisit website

Rwanda's first community-owned lodge, facing the Virunga volcanoes

Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge sits at around 2,500 metres in the foothills of the Virunga chain, on the edge of Volcanoes National Park in northern Rwanda. Five stone cottages, two suites and a family suite are set into the folds of a terraced hillside, each with an open fireplace, a deep bath and a private balcony looking out to the peaks of Sabyinyo, Gahinga and Muhabura. The park headquarters at Kinigi, where every gorilla trek begins, is a quarter of an hour away.

The lodge is owned outright by SACOLA, a trust representing the villages around the park, and run day to day by Wilderness, so rentals and community fees flow back into schools, clinics, water supply and small businesses. Days start early with gorilla or golden monkey trekking, then fill out with the hike to Dian Fossey's grave, the climb up Bisoke to its crater lake, birding walks along the forest edge, village visits and mountain bike rides through the potato fields.

Sustainability

Climate & conservation

  • Works with the International Gorilla Conservation Programme
  • Reforestation or restoration, Trust projects plant trees and manage the buffer zone so farmland stops encroaching on gorilla habitat.
  • Menus are built around produce from the lodge garden and neighbouring farms
  • Filters and refills drinking water to avoid single-use bottles
  • Cottages built by Rwandan craftsmen from local volcanic stone

Community & culture

  • Employs nearly all staff from villages bordering the park
  • Funds community water tanks and bridges across Musanze district
  • Education, Trust revenue funds school buildings, classrooms and bursaries for children living next to the park.
  • Supports health posts serving tens of thousands near the park
  • Preservation of cultural heritage, A community centre, village walks and dance performances are run by residents, who keep the fees.
  • Wildlife protection, Giving households an income from gorilla tourism has reduced snaring and forest clearance along the park boundary.

Commercial

  • Owned by the SACOLA community trust, returning income to villages
  • Buys vegetables, eggs and dairy from smallholders in Kinigi

In brief

Price bracket
££££
Type of property
Lodge
No. of rooms
Small (8 rooms)
Max guests per room
Up to 4 guests in the family suite
Facilities
Restaurant, Bar, Wifi
Activities
Safari, Wildlife watching, Birdwatching, Cultural visit, Hiking, Cycling
Setting
Mountains · Rural

Best time to visit

  • Jan
  • Feb
  • Mar
  • Apr
  • May
  • Jun
  • Jul
  • Aug
  • Sep
  • Oct
  • Nov
  • Dec

Trekking runs all year. The drier months of June to September and December to February give firmer trails; April and May are wettest but quietest and cheapest.

Kids

Families welcome; the family suite sleeps four, and gorilla trekking is 15 and over.

Accessibility

Cottages are spread across a steep terraced hillside on paths and steps, so it is hard going for guests with limited mobility.

Virungas, Rwanda

££££pp / night Visit website

Guide price · £ <£100 · ££ £100–300 · £££ £300–800 · ££££ £800+ pp / night