Tribes Travel

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Tribes Travel

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Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge

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About Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge

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Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge is on the edge of the Parc National des Volcans in North Western Rwanda. It is in an undulating area of 11 hectares with fabulous views towards the Parc National des Volcans and lowland agricultural areas. All guest cottages are detatched and privately situated in the folds of the hills and trees.

The altitude is about 7,000 feet above sea level so the climate is generally cool, and the volcanoes rise to a height of almost 15,000 feet.

The lodge has been designed and is managed by Governors Camps in Kenya, but is owned by a community trust called SACOLA. Governors Camp leases the lodge from SACOLA, and SACOLA uses rental and other income from Governors Camp to finance its socio-economic development and conservation objectives in the area.

Sabyinyo has a central building, with reception, bar, dining room, library / games room,bathrooms and shop. Both the bar and dining room have extensive outdoor decks from which our clients can enjoy the spectacular views. Client accommodation consists of 5 cottages, 2 suites and one family suite. All client accommodation rooms have at least one private veranda, a sitting room with fireplace, bedroom, dressing room and a large modern bathroom. The family suite has an extra bedroom and bathroom.

The lodge is constructed of local stone, finished with an ochre-coloured plaster. Terracotta tiled roofs give a stylish contemporary Rwandese flavour. All guest rooms have large windows to make best use of the wonderful views. Double thickness walls maintain the warmth from the fireplaces when it is cold outside, and keep the rooms cool in the warmer weather during the day. The lush gardens have been extensively landscaped.

Information

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Highlights

  • Excellent quality lodge, great as a base for visiting the gorillas.
  • Close to the trail heads and park HQ
  • Good food and drink
  • Fantastic staff and customer service

Situation

Adjacent to the Parc National des Volcans, in north-western Rwanda, about 3 kms from the main entrance to the Park. It is about 2 hours drive on good roads from Kigali.

Activities

Gorilla trekking; visiting local community projects; birdwatching; genocide memorials; beautiful lakes in the region.

Facilities

Bar, restaurant, shop, laundry, room service.

Child policy

Children are welcome at the lodge, though children under 15 years are not allowed to visit the gorillas.

Pricing guidelines for Rwanda

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We hope the following will give you a rough idea of costs. These are quoted per person based on twin share for two people, without international flights but including internal flights. We’ve used good standard accommodation throughout. There are nearly always ways to spend more money than we’ve suggested (!), but these prices show a good and realistic range for each type of trip.

International flights will add from about £600 to £800 depending on the season and route (unless the airlines have special offers). Rwanda combines well with Uganda or the East African coast. Please note that gorillas permits add on US$500 per visit, rising to US$750 for permits sold after 1st June 2012 for 2012 treks and for all 2013 treks. We charge these to you at the time of booking. 

For each accommodation on this website you will find an indication of the price. The bands are based on the price per person per night at peak season and are represented by the following values for this country:
£

  £50 to £100

££

  £100 to £200

£££

  £200 to £300

££££

  £300 to £500

£££££

  Over £500

For a specific personal quote based on any tailor made itinerary you have in mind, please contact us and we’ll be happy to help you.

  • Example tripPrice per person
  • 1 week primate safariFrom about £3500 +

Tribes Advisor

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The first thing you notice about this lodge is that the access from the car park is great training for the mountain treks!  They greet you with walking sticks and then race up the steps with your bags on their heads while you gap and puff your way up to be resusitated at the top with a welcome cool drink!!  Seriously though, the lodge is in a very hilly setting and the rooms are quiet spread out, some being quite a walk from the main area.  Whilst it's price tag presents it as a top luxury lodge, I felt that the room itself (certainly the one I had) was very dated and shabby.  The bed covers looked like something out of a budget lodge and the bathroom had more than a few cracks and breaks on the walls, floors and even the loo seat!  The fireplace is lovely and very necessary as it was really cold at night.  There is a huge walk in wardrobe and dressing area which is very useful, but the bedroom area feels a bit stark and not very cosy. Having said that, some of the other rooms were much cosier and had better views too, I was in room 5 and it was surrounded by trees and bushes, I didn't have a view of anything! The water was also cold in my shower when I returned from a trek which was a bit of a pain, I did report this and they were looking into it. The food was fantastic but I would say that having a full on sit down three course lunch at about 2-3pm then the same again for dinner at 7pm is a bit much!  The staff were lovely and did a fantastic job of cleaning our boots after trekking, they whisked them off and cleaned them while we were having lunch and they were better than new!  This is the only lodge that provides gaiters and walking poles to their guests.

I took a walk down the road and got to know a few of the locals, meeting them in their gardens and along the streets.  We got the impression this was a strange thing to do as most visitors never leave the lodge other than in a car .... it's a shame as it's fascinating to see how people live and farm in this remote rural area.  The highlight for me was being taken by a toddler into a house and garden to show us the pigs!  The man living in the house asked us to take a photograph of all his family and send it to him as he clearly thought it was as unusual as we did, a lovely cultural interaction.

Julie Croucher, Africa Sales Manager, stayed here December 2010.

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