Nyungwe House

the only good quality option in this area

One and Only Nyungwe House is located in the Nyungwe area of western Rwanda.

Set on an extensive tea plantation, the lodge is centred on a large main building, leading out to a swimming pool area.

There is also a good spa facility and a small gym.

Rooms

Guest accommodation at Nyungwe House is in twenty two detached rooms, all with air-conditioning.

• Standard Rooms : x20
• Forest Suites : x2

Activities

Nyungwe House provides the following guided activities, not all of which are necessarily included in the room rate …

• Chimp tracking
• Forest hiking
• Forest suspension bridge
• Tea plantation walks
• Cultural activities

The Nyungwe area tends to feature relatively rarely in trips, with the vast majority of visitors satisfying their primate urge with the gorillas of the Virunga Mountains. In truth, the chimpanzee experience is very different and touring around the country is a delight.

The usual stay duration is 3-4 nights.

Seasonality

The best time of year to visit the Nyungwe Forest is during the May-Sep and Dec-Feb winter dry seasons, when the lower rainfall should make trekking conditions easier.

The climate in Nyungwe follows the same basic pattern as most other reserves in East Africa, but with the high altitudes ensuring greater rainfall and lower temperatures year round.

Temperatures during the day average around 20C/68F year round, dropping to around 10C/50F at night, so at least a good jacket is likely to be needed.

Getting around

Considering the small size of Rwanda, getting around is surprisingly difficult. The main problem is that there are no scheduled light aircraft services between the key locations, meaning that connections almost always have to be done by private road transfers. There are options to travel by helicopter instead, but this can get very expensive.

Nyungwe lies in the extreme southwest corner of the country, as far as it is possible to get from the other key locations of Virunga Mountains (northwest) and Akagera (northeast). The capital Kigali lies in the middle.

The area is almost always combined with the mountain gorilla areas of Virunga Mountains, from where it is a road journey of either one long day or two shorter days with an overnight in the Lake Kivu area. The drive back to Kigali is about a half day, with options to break the journey at the important Genocide Museum in Butare. The drive to Akagera is largely on the same route, but takes a full day. These are all interesting drives through scenic terrain and, for the most part, the roads are pretty good.

a long but scenic drive to connect with the gorilla areas