Wilderness Safaris has opened Bisate Lodge in Rwanda.The lodge is next to Volcanoes National Park on a 42-hectare site, with views towards the Karisimbi, Bisoke and Mikeno volcanoes.

The lodge is close to Kinigi, the Volcanoes National Park headquarters, making it convenient for guests’ morning gorilla treks.

With only six luxurious forest villas, the real generosity of Bisate in the Rwandan context is the amount of private and exclusive space that surrounds the lodge, sheltering it in a rare natural landscape brimming with Albertine Rift biodiversity and beauty,” said Wilderness Safaris COO, Grant Woodrow.

Each villa has a bedroom, reception area and bathroom with a central fireplace and a private deck.

As a Wilderness Safaris Premier Camp, the overall design concept for the lodge is based on the principle that ‘purpose is the new luxury’, with the whole Bisate experience based around commerce, community, culture and conservation.

“Since 2009 we have contemplated how our ecotourism model could contribute to the conservation of the Virunga Massif ecosystem and an iconic endangered species like the mountain gorilla. When we made the decision to invest in Rwanda, the last thing we intended to do was just to build a boutique lodge and sell gorilla treks,” said Woodrow. “We wanted to ensure that our brand of responsible ecotourism made a real difference to both rural Rwandan people and biodiversity conservation. As such, we hope that Bisate will exceed our guests’ expectations and that together we will be able to make a dramatic and far-reaching impact on not just a critically endangered species like the mountain gorilla, but also the entire ecosystem of the Virunga Massif and the rural people living adjacent to it.”