Rwanda: The Land of
a Thousand Hills

Featured Accommodation

Gisakura, Nyungwe National Park, Rwanda

One&Only Nyungwe House — a working tea plantation on the edge of Africa’s oldest rainforest

Nyungwe National Park protects 1,019 square kilometres of montane rainforest, one of the oldest and largest in Africa, and home to roughly 20 per cent of the continent’s primate species — chimpanzees, Ruwenzori colobus, owl-faced monkeys — alongside orchids, butterflies and several hundred bird species.

One&Only Nyungwe House sits on a hillside inside the neighbouring Gisakura tea estate, still worked, with 22 suites and villas looking out over the plantation towards the forested mountains beyond. Each opens through floor-to-ceiling glass onto a private terrace, with a log-burning fireplace for the cool, misty highland evenings and a deep soaking tub that earns its keep after a day’s trekking.

Chimpanzee trekking is the signature, with permits arranged through African Parks and habituated groups tracked deep into the forest by local guides. Beyond it: colobus troops that can number in the hundreds, a suspended canopy walkway across the treetops, tea picking and tasting on the estate itself, and Imigongo art workshops in the nearby village of Banda. A helipad connects the lodge to Kigali in around 35 minutes.