Review: Bisate Reserve, Rwanda

Once upon a time, in this tiny, landlocked country called Rwanda, there were no luxury hotels. Everyone was sad.  But this story has a happy ending. Bisate Lodge arrived in 2017, ushering in a new era where man and ape could coexist… in luxury. It rivalled that time a farmer said “that’ll do, pig,” as one of the great interspecies milestones.

But little ol’ Bisate wasn’t done. Not even close.  They added Kwanda, their day lodge, so you weren’t kicked out straight after your gorilla trek.  Then Bisate Reserve opened in 2024, on a nearby plot of land, barely walking distance away.  It pushed Wilderness even more upmarket.  And now, as of February 2026, The Sanctuary — a new spa, that looks like it was designed by someone who has an allergy to money and the only cure was to get rid of it as quickly as possible.

Bisate Reserve is about as good as it gets.  And I say that as someone who needed a tetanus jab mid-stay.

Getting there

Most of you will be coming from Kigali. It’s about 2–4 hours, depending on traffic. Call it 3. Or around 25 minutes by helicopter, which is obviously the correct answer.  I had been helicoptering around Rwanda on this trip, but from Magashi to Bisate I opted for a car. Occasionally, I do make sound economic decisions.

On paper, it’s a six-hour journey. Which sounds like the sort of thing that ends relationships. And I was travelling by myself.  In reality: completely fine. Weather-wise, I got everything.  Sun, biblical rain, calm, rain, confusion.  It’s March, the rainy season — this is on you if you’re surprised.  When it rains, it absolutely commits.

It took an hour to leave the park in a safari vehicle, then five hours on the road. The first 15 minutes are dreadful, the next 20 are tolerable, and then you’re on main roads and the rest is smooth. I went in expecting misery and came away unscathed.

The arrival was exactly as it should be. Warm welcome, food offered immediately, everything handled without fuss. Precisely what you want after six hours of deprivation.  Yes, living the life of luxury convinces you that you’ve just endured terrible times when food isn’t offered every 15 minutes.

Setting

Bisate Reserve sits up in the foothills of the Virunga Mountains, which sounds poetic until you realise it also means you’re at a lung capacity disadvantage the moment you arrive.  The altitude is no joke.  A short stroll has you pausing mid-sentence like you’ve just run a marathon while chain-smoking the entire way.

There is a massive reforestation project taking place in these parts, with Bisate on land that will soon become part of the park.  In a few years, this becomes dense forest.  In more years, it becomes proper gorilla territory.  At some point, you’ll be having breakfast and a gorilla will wander past, with a begging bowl, trying to get you to buy some merch.

Even so, right now, on a clear day, the view is exceptional.  You’re looking straight out towards the volcanoes.  The property manages to give you views in both directions.  From the main lodge and rooftop, you get a proper sense of space.  From the rooms, it’s straight towards a mountain whose name I forgot to note down.

Facilities

Here’s the problem with most gorilla lodges: you wake up early, trek, have an extraordinary experience… and by about 11:30 am you’re done.  And then what.  You go back to your room.  You sit.  You scroll.  You stare.  You pretend you’ll do something meaningful.  And then scroll some more. You consider having a second shower purely for entertainment. You reorganise your suitcase. Twice. You read up on the Manosphere.  You wonder what the fuck that’s all about.  But you’re bored.  You keep going.  36 hours later, you’re taking life advice from someone called “AlphaLion69”.  Suddenly, you’ve invested in three different cryptocurrencies, lost all your savings, your wife has left you, and you’re looking for rentals in abandoned warehouses, as that’s your life now, that’s all you can afford.

Bisate Reserve fixes that.  Between the main lodge, the grounds, and now The Sanctuary, this is one of the only places where you don’t feel like you’re killing time between treks.

So, what else does it offer? Well, let’s start with the most important discovery since antibiotics: WiFi.  First of all, this is the first Wilderness camp I’ve stayed in that has WiFi in the main area.  On the first day of the universe, WiFi was nowhere.  Then, Wilderness evolved.  We were suddenly mature enough to have internet in our rooms.  And now it’s bloody everywhere. No one has combusted.  Society continues. I’d come back from gorilla treks, start importing my images and could work on them in the lodge.  This felt like a breakthrough for humanity.  What a delight.  Speeds are great too, thanks to Starlink.

For a four-room property, the main lodge isn’t massive, as you might expect.  And it doesn’t need to be.  The overwhelming takeaway is just how good everything looks. The layout mirrors the rooms in that everything flows without ever feeling open-plan, but it is.  Fireplaces act as natural dividers, separating dining from living, and then into the welcome/lounge area near the boot room — where you get fully kitted out for trekking like you’re about to summit Everest. It leans heavily into stone, wood, and these hanging lights that somehow manage to feel both rustic and expensive.  I loved it.

There are six dining tables.  Which, given there are four rooms, feels generous.  Two are tucked into corners in a more sofa-style setup.  Besides them sits the wine cellar, lighting the room up at night.

The bar sits beside the main lounge and spills out into a small garden area, which then leads up to the rooftop terrace — the so-called Eagle’s Nest for the 360-degree views.  The clever bit is that the property works in both directions — you’re never fighting for the “one good view”.

Out back, there’s a firepit, which comes into its own once the temperature drops — which it does, quickly.  The dining area also has heaters, very much needed once the sun decides it’s done for the day.

Hot water takes its time. Not a little time — an extraordinary amount of time — both in the room and at The Sanctuary.  And there was a regular power cut on my final evening, where it felt like someone took the advice of “have you tried turning it on and off again?” repeatedly, a bit too rigorously. Neither changes the overall experience. But, as always, nothing gets a free pass.

A short distance away sits the Kwanda day lodge, intended for late departures on trekking days and early arrivals, but it ends up feeling like a proper extension of the main property.  There’s a pizza oven, a large boutique, and plenty of space for dining, along with a lounge area centred around a fireplace that makes it somewhere you’d happily linger rather than pass through.  It also sits right beside The Sanctuary and their vegetable garden, with outdoor seating looking over it, giving it that same slightly over-delivered feel as the rest of the property — like they built far more than they needed, and then just decided to keep going.

You can have all the facilities in the world, but if a lodge feels rushed or busy or ill-conceived, it’s not a pleasant place to spend time at.  Bisate Reserve gets it right.

Spa & Gym

This is a mighty, mighty impressive spa.  The best I’ve ever seen in a safari lodge?  Probably.  The gym, certainly not though, but it’s nice to have.  It’s so good, so impressive, so over-the-top, I wrote an entire separate article about it.  This spa makes absolutely no financial sense.  And I love it for that.

It’s huge.  Genuinely huge.  For a property that, combined with Bisate, serves just 10 rooms.  Reception areas larger than most safari spas.  Water features everywhere.  Indoor and outdoor spaces seamlessly connected.  Heated pool, sauna, steam room, plunge.  Fire pits surrounded by loungers.  Amazing treatment rooms.  Relaxation rooms.  Changing rooms galore.

This place is so absurd, that it has a welcome room for the foot ritual, along with a place you choose your oil/fragrance.  I dunno if they plan on building some mega Las Vegas style resort nearby, cos otherwise when it’s less than $100 for an hour massage, I suspect it will take them the next 500 years to pay for this place.  I used to feel Singita lived in fantasy land with money, but seems like it’s caught on.

The whole place is designed for you to spend an entire afternoon doing absolutely nothing.  And doing it well.  The sun sets onto the hydro area, which somehow makes it even better amongst the glowing, warm light.  Someone just put a bullet in my head and bury me there.

The treatment was excellent, delivered in a stunning room by someone that truly knows what they’re doing.  They even delivered my favourite water, and pre-filled in most of the consultation form, which no one ever does.  And rather than “how is the pressure”, which I feel obliged to always respond “perfect!” Even if it feels like I’m being tortured by the Princess Bride machine, here she asked “can I apply more pressure?  Or less”.  The music did cut out during my treatment which made me realise why they play music in the first place.  Otherwise it’s just two strangers breathing.  Which is what my wife describes love making to me.

Room

There are only four rooms. All identical. Rooms 1 and 2 can connect. I was in room 4 — the furthest away — which I will now declare the best purely because it required the most effort to reach.  The only real downside is the distance. It’s a long enough walk that you feel it, especially at altitude, and it comes with the added bonus of those awkward, silent walks with the night porter where neither of you quite knows how to end the interaction.

First things first: gorgeous.

Secondly: still gorgeous.

Thirdly: yes, even more gorgeous than Kwitonda.  I’ll give Kwitonda the edge on location, but the view here is better.

Everything leans into this curved, organic theme — walls, ceilings, the bath, the shower — nothing is straight, everything flows. It’s technically open plan, but cleverly designed enough that it doesn’t feel like it. Spaces are woven together rather than just left exposed. I was here alone, so it worked perfectly. Would I annoy Lucie if she were here, waking up stupidly early while the living room sits right next to the bedroom? We shall never know.

The rooms are spacious without feeling excessive. Everything has been thought through to a level that’s far beyond what a couple needs, but without tipping into ridiculous, wasted-space territory. You could comfortably have a lovers’ tiff here and not see each other for hours. You could also bring in a mediator, and they’d have their space too. What I’m saying is: ideal honeymoon setup.

There are a few facts about the local wildlife dotted around the room, heavy on the gorillas, unsurprisingly.  Light switches are logical and easy once you’ve used them once, although there’s no proper master control beyond the bed, and there is one rogue lamp that insists on being manually turned off.  This also exists in Magashi, so I can only assume it’s a deliberate design decision to annoy you, cos life otherwise would be too good.

The attention to detail is why these rooms work.  Yes, the design is amazing, with things like chandeliers made from leaves, but the practical aspect and comfort is where it excels.

You come in via a small entrance area with a cloakroom, then into a pantry space with a proper kitchenette and full-size fridge.  It’s a genuinely useful feature — if you want something delivered without being disturbed, it goes here.

A huge, circular, chimney-like structure that feels more like an installation than a shower.  One of the best I’ve seen.  The bath faces straight out towards the mountains, which is exactly what you want.

A terrace that runs almost the full length of the room, with a hot tub, dining table, two chairs, loungers, and something just short of full sunbeds.  If the weather behaves, you won’t leave.

The room just makes life easy.  Motion sensors guide you to the bathroom at night, the kitchenette means you don’t need to leave unless you want to, and everything is designed to make being there feel effortless.  The views, the hot tub, the terrace.  It’s so comfortable.  And if you do want to head back to the lodge, you can.  There’s no wildlife risk here, so you’re not being escorted around like you’re on a military exercise.  The only risk is your legs, lunges, and mental health with those awkward porter silence walks after dark.

Service

At their best, the service here is superb.

They really went to town with getting the preferences right.  Immediately, handed a drink straight from my stay list on arrival.  Good effort, guys.  Then when I get to the room, they’ve taken care of everything.  I do love a good cordial and they didn’t have any in Rwanda, so they made some for me.  The nicest presentation of cordials I’ve ever seen – three different types, with fruits presented in front of them to show what they are

The lodge managers are just lovely.  The whole team has that same tone.  Everyone is kind and constantly looking to make things easier.

You come back to your room and there are pastries waiting.  Laundry is turned around quickly without you ever thinking about it.  A note appears telling you about the gorilla family you trekked with.  You return from a hike and a hot chocolate is already there, as if it had been pre-approved by your body before you even knew you wanted it.

Drinks just appear.  Preferences are remembered.  You’re not asking for things, they’re just happening.  It’s a level of service that feels effortless, even though it clearly isn’t.

Everything is so well curated.  Even the goodbye gifts.  In 99% of cases, I leave these behind without a second thought.  Here, I took everything.  

But

I’ll group my two “WTF” moments together, because they both came from the same person.

First, getting ready for the gorilla trek.  This is not the moment to be improvising.  Gaiters weren’t put on until the guide pointed it out.  A poncho, which had already been mentioned, was somehow forgotten.  These are basics.

And then, of course, there’s my injury, thank you for asking.  I either sustained it during hand-to-hand combat with a silverback…or by tripping over a rock next to the car at the end of the trek.  We may never know.  Someone call Mulder and Scully.

Anyway, I get back to the lodge, need patching up and there’s no gloves, and I wait, and wait, and decide to go to my room and ask them to let me know the moment they get the gloves….and no one does.  Kinda useful when someone is bleeding.

I then needed to get bandaged up and discover my tetanus jab was out of date, so had one of those too.  Which, remarkably, a doctor came to my room and did it for free.  All inclusive really is wonderful.  You Americans that can’t get health insurance, just come to Rwanda.

So there’s a slight disconnect.  They’re exceptional at the thoughtful, intuitive side of service, the part you feel.  Slightly less consistent on the practical fundamentals, the part that, ideally, just works.

But the highs here are very high.  And they’re what you remember.  Unless you’re me.

Food

Perhaps if I had not come from the excellent Magashi Peninsula, I may have a different opinion here.  But, my overall view was: good, rarely great. Basically, you’re not coming here for the food.  But you’re also not suffering through it.

I’m sure the streets of Kigali were awash with the news that you don’t have to choose your meals the second you arrive.  You can decide at dinner, like a normal person.  This shouldn’t feel revolutionary, but for Wilderness, it is.  But there is an air of familiarity to it, with the Classic Wilderness structure: two starters, three mains, one dessert (plus fruit and cheese pretending to count).

Breakfast is done via a trolley alongside a small à la carte menu.  The cart comes loaded with fruit, yoghurt, juices, bread, pastries, cheese, avocado, tomato — the usual suspects — and then a few cooked options if you want something more substantial.  It’s very similar to their other Rwanda properties, but the chef clearly has enough freedom to tweak things.  The fruit changes, the compote shifts, pastries rotate, while the core structure stays the same.

They’ll also offer you a takeaway lunch for trekking.  I never take it.  I don’t have the feeding schedule of a toddler and can survive a few hours without a snack.

One thing I did like: every meal comes with a different bread and accompaniment — not just butter, but something actually thought through to match the dish..

There were some hits: lamb curry, final dinner (chicken consommé, tilapia risotto, sweet potato bread that must have had narcotics in it, it was so addictive).  Some misses: pastries (excluding that bread) and desserts are largely forgettable.

I wouldn’t complain about it, but nor would I rejoice it.

Activities

Let’s not overcomplicate this.  You’re here for gorillas.  And they deliver. I did two treks: a private and a shared one.

I had one baby gorilla repeatedly come up to me, grab my hand, pull at my clothes, and generally molest me.  Which is either magical, or this three-year-old was already starting a life of petty crime and was after my wallet.

I also witnessed gorillas mating.  It lasted about 20 seconds.  My wife should be so lucky.

Beyond that, I really wanted to spend more time on the activities and tell you all about it, but The Sanctuary was calling my name.  Sometimes, I have to really sacrifice myself to truly understand a property.

I still managed to do a golden monkey trek, plus I planted another tree (Lucie and I planted one back at Bisate in 2018).  Boring, you say?  Well, screw you.  Walking through their vast stretch of land and seeing quotes about trees, it’s really beautiful.

Kids Friendly

Children over 6 are welcome. Younger than that, you’ll need a full buyout.

The Good

• Food

The Bad

• The food is good, when it could be great

The Luxurious

• Rooms
• Spa
• Setting
• Gorillas
• Service
• Facilities

Conclusion

What.  A.  Lodge.

I came here to visit when staying at Singita Kataza House.  I loved it.  Hence why I decided to come and stay.  When you add it all up — the rooms, the setting, the lodge, the spa — this is about as good a safari lodge as exists.

And yes, it is better than Singita Kwitonda.  I’ll say it.  It’s also about 50% more expensive. Up to you to decide if that matters, but simply being able to do an extra gorilla trek on your final day might be enough to sway that and suddenly price parity is about right.

Thing with most lodges is I tend to do game drive, go back to room.  Here, I hang around in the main area, cos it’s just so homely and so peaceful.  People come and check in on me, but don’t loiter.  It makes the whole experience so much nicer.  And that’s usually the sign they’ve got it exactly right.

I was sad to be leaving, but happy that I know y’all going to book and everyone will live happily ever after.  Especially me and my new gorilla family.