Singita Kwitonda Lodge

Within the forested slopes of Volcanoes National Park in northern Rwanda, Singita Kwitonda Lodge occupies a position at the boundary of one of the world’s most significant mountain gorilla habitats, where the Virunga volcanoes’ bamboo and Hagenia forest sustains multiple habituated gorilla families whose territory overlaps the lodge’s access routes. The 10 suites are designed in an aesthetic that draws on the volcanic stone, dark timber, and woven natural materials of the Rwandan highland tradition, with fireplaces appropriate to the 2,500-metre altitude’s cool evenings and the views across the lodge’s garden towards the volcanic forest canopy that rises above it. The gorilla trekking permit system, managed by the Rwanda Development Board, gives guests a single hour of daily proximity to a gorilla family under the guidance of expert trackers and a veterinary team that monitors the families’ health.

The gorilla trekking experience from Kwitonda is among the most emotionally significant wildlife encounters available in luxury travel: approaching a habituated mountain gorilla family in the misty bamboo and Hagenia forest of the Virungas, sitting within metres of a silverback and his extended family group for the permitted hour, constitutes an encounter with our closest wild relatives whose intimacy and emotional charge is unlike any other wildlife experience. The golden monkey tracking programme provides a complementary primate experience in the bamboo zone below the gorilla habitat, and guided forest walks with the lodge’s naturalist team give context to the Virunga ecosystem’s remarkable botanical and ornithological diversity. The kitchen draws on Rwandan and East African produce in menus appropriate to the lodge’s altitude and cool climate.

Singita Kwitonda Lodge’s conservation contribution is expressed through the Singita Kwitonda Foundation’s community enterprise and education work in the villages surrounding the Volcanoes National Park, whose human communities and the gorilla population share a landscape of limited extent and increasing pressure from agricultural expansion.