Bisate Reserve is four thatched villas on the rim of a weathered volcanic cone beside Volcanoes National Park in north-west Rwanda. Mornings belong to the mountain gorillas of the Virunga volcanoes. The rest of the day unfolds on the private concession, where old farmland is growing back as forest and six peaks crowd the skyline.
Mornings belong to the mountain gorillas of the Virunga volcanoes.
The villas opened in late 2024, a short walk from their sister, Bisate Lodge, yet out of its sight. With eight guests at most, one family or group of friends can take every bed. Each morning a trek leaves Kinigi for one of twelve habituated gorilla families, and an hour in their company is the reward for the climb. Back at the villas, a mud room takes the boots before the fireplace or hot tub.
Bisate means “pieces”, after the volcanic rock strewn across the slope. The same stone, chipped by hand, returns in the villas alongside timber and exposed brick. The thatch and basket weave borrow from Rwanda’s royal architecture. Each villa has a large living room and a fireplace, and outside, on the deck, a hot tub faces the six Virunga volcanoes.
Cloud rests on Karisimbi and Bisoke until the morning mist lifts.
Village sounds carry up from the slopes below, while the volcanoes fill the view. Cloud rests on Karisimbi and Bisoke until the morning mist lifts. Bisate Kwanda is the private day lounge. Spa treatments and dinners are brought to the villas, with bottles from a climate-controlled wine tower.
Before the concession existed, this slope was potato fields and smallholdings. It was pieced together plot by plot, bought from the farming families who formed the Tuzamurane Co-operative. Since then around 100,000 indigenous trees have gone into the ground, widening the forest edge that the gorillas of Volcanoes National Park can use. Invasive eucalyptus is cut out and burned as firewood, and the replanting extends to Gishwati.
Trails wind through the young forest and along the crater rim, and the wildlife has followed the trees in. The camera traps have caught serval and side-striped jackal, and even a mountain gorilla. Golden monkeys and tree hyraxes have been recorded too, as have chameleons. Birders watch the canopy for the African pitta and the Rwenzori batis, the white-starred robin and the yellow-bellied waxbill. Guests can plant a sapling from the on-site nursery and leave with a certificate giving its GPS coordinates.
The camera traps have caught serval and side-striped jackal, and even a mountain gorilla.
From Kinigi, the walk in to a gorilla family can take anything from half an hour to four hours or more over demanding ground. Every trekker aged fifteen or over needs a permit, at USD 1,500 each, and the time with the family itself is held to one hour. Other days in the park bring golden monkey treks, or the climb up Mount Bisoke to the lake in its summit crater. A hike leads to the ruins of Dian Fossey’s Karisoke camp, where her grave lies beside Digit’s. The Virunga weather is unpredictable, and a clear morning on the deck can turn to rain on the trail.
A resident chef cooks health-conscious, seasonal food from what is grown locally, and guests can pick ingredients themselves. The Tuzamurane Co-operative, formed by the families who sold the land, supplies produce as well as labour. Its members also run a nursery that grows saplings for the national park. Six-year scholarships support local students. Community visits lead into the neighbouring villages, where a water project completed in 2019 with the Fossey Fund and the Rwanda Development Board now brings clean water to several of them.
accommodation
Bisate Reserve has four en-suite villas for up to eight guests in all. Each has a fireplace, a large living room and a private deck with a hot tub facing the Virunga volcanoes. The thatched villas are finished in hand-chipped volcanic stone, exposed brick, timber and basket weave with bright textiles, and have Wi-Fi.
activities
In the national park: gorilla treks from Kinigi to one of twelve habituated families, golden monkey treks, the Bisoke climb to its crater lake and the hike to Dian Fossey's Karisoke camp and grave. On the private concession: nature and bird walks, the crater-rim trail and tree planting. Plus community visits and spa treatments.
conservation
Indigenous trees from the on-site nursery are turning former potato fields back into forest, and reforestation extends to Gishwati. The Tuzamurane Co-operative runs a nursery supplying the national park, a 2019 water project with the Fossey Fund brings clean water to nearby villages, and six-year scholarships support local students.
Get in touch and let’s start the conversation. An initial consultation helps us understand what you’re looking for, whether that’s specific experiences, luxury touches, or marking a special occasion, and from there we’ll guide you through what’s possible so you can decide if we’re the right fit.
01
Volcanoes National Park
02
Volcanoes National Park
03
Volcanoes National Park
04
Volcanoes National Park
05
Volcanoes National Park
06
Volcanoes National Park
07
Volcanoes National Park
08
Volcanoes National Park
They are two separate places on the same private concession beside Volcanoes National Park. Bisate Lodge opened in 2017 with six villas. Bisate Reserve opened in late 2024 with four, for no more than eight guests in all, on the rim of a weathered volcanic cone within walking distance of the lodge but out of sight of it.
Each thatched villa has a fireplace, a large sitting room and a private deck with a hot tub, looking across the Virunga volcanoes. The reserve has its own day lounge, Bisate Kwanda, a wine tower and a mud room for gorilla days, and meals and massages come to the villa. With only four villas, a family or a group of friends can have the whole place to themselves.
By road from Kigali International Airport, two and a half to three hours north-west through Musanze, climbing through terraced hills to the southern edge of Volcanoes National Park. We arrange the transfer as part of the trip. Gorilla treks start at 7am at the park headquarters at Kinigi, a short drive from the villas, so the first trek is best planned for the morning after arrival.
To save the drive, we can book a private helicopter charter from Kigali to Bisate with Akagera Aviation, based at Kigali International Airport. Its fleet is an AgustaWestland AW139 for up to five passengers, an Agusta A109S or an AW119 for six, and a Robinson R44 for three, so the aircraft is matched to the size of the party and its luggage.
Every trekker needs a permit from the Rwanda Development Board, which costs 1,500 US dollars a person for one trek, and only those aged fifteen and over may go. Eight permits are issued each day for each of the twelve habituated gorilla families in Volcanoes National Park, so we buy them as soon as your dates are fixed.
On the day, everyone meets at the park headquarters at Kinigi at 7am, where the rangers match each group of eight to a family that suits its pace. The walk in depends on where the family has moved overnight, and once the trackers reach them the group has one hour with the gorillas. A second permit on another day buys a second hour.
Golden monkey treks are the gentler primate outing, a morning with a troop of these rare monkeys on the lower slopes. The climb of Mount Bisoke takes a full day and reaches a crater lake on its 3,711-metre summit, on the border with Congo. A separate hike leads to the site of Dian Fossey's Karisoke research camp, between Bisoke and Karisimbi, where she is buried.
Without leaving the concession, there are guided nature and bird walks, a talk on the forest and its wildlife, tree planting, and a massage in the Sanctuary after a long trek. Visits to the neighbouring villages can be arranged as well. With up to two hundred bird species in the park, the walks around the villas are worth a morning of their own.
Yes. TravelHealthPro, the UK's official travel health service, rates Rwanda as high risk for malaria and recommends antimalarial tablets, and the American CDC lists all areas of the country, the national parks included. The villas sit high on the volcano slopes, but neither service makes an exception for altitude in Rwanda, so the advice for the park is the same as for the rest of the country.
We are travel planners, not doctors, so we do not make recommendations about tablets. Which ones suit you and everyone travelling with you is a question for your own doctor or a travel clinic. The practical part we can help with: cover arms and legs from late afternoon and keep repellent to hand.
Because it was farmland right up to the park boundary, and the gorillas need more forest. Since the first Bisate villas were built, around 100,000 indigenous trees have been planted on the concession, turning fields back into native woodland that joins the edge of Volcanoes National Park and widens the habitat for the gorillas, the golden monkeys and the birds.
Guests can plant a tree of their own during the stay, and the guided walks on the concession pass through the young forest, so the work is something to see rather than read about.
rated five stars by our clients
our approach
Every journey starts with a conversation. We take the time to understand your vision before we start planning.
Whether by phone or in person, we work with you directly to shape something that is considered, personal, and expertly delivered.
