Gisakura Guest House

Dinner was tasty, though expensive at $8, and breakfast was pretty sad. The WiFi barely worked, and staff could be hard to find at times. My room smelled a bit strange, the bed sagged, and there was a hole in my mosquito net. The bathroom was shared, and the shower wasn't always warm. For what you get, the price just doesn't add up.

We chose Gisakura Guest House because it's one of the few affordable places around, and there were some real positives: welcoming staff, good food at reasonable prices, and a convenient base for tours. I was there with four friends, and we had an entire wing, with locks on our room doors and the main entrance. Still, there were several times we found people inside that locked wing without being told. It was also unclear whether cleaning staff had entered our rooms. When we were leaving, one friend and I discovered that money was missing from our belongings, around $300 altogether. We had locked doors and bags, but still couldn't fully control access to our rooms and things. No solution was reached. Without that incident, I would have called this the perfect place to stay. I wish I didn't have to write this, but if you stay here, please be careful.

I had an unpleasant stay. They charged me $20 to pitch my tent, with no breakfast included. Since I was cycling across the Nyungwe rainforest the next day, I needed a decent packed lunch. Instead, they left out the hard-boiled eggs and gave me just three half sandwiches with cheese and onion.

The hotel made me feel comfortable and safe deep in the jungle, and its prices were among the few reasonable ones I'd found in Rwanda. It was a great base right beside the Ranger/guide station for arranging a Chimpanzee hike, with a clean restaurant and helpful staff. I wish I'd stayed longer. I was there a year and a half ago. I can't believe so many people skip this park. It was one of my most amazing experiences, an apparently endless stretch of jungle, like FernGully. Even the bus ride there was worth it. The area is extremely isolated, about an hour and a half from a volatile region of DRC, so take care. That's not about the hotel. A park official I met tried to rip me off, but I was never in danger, and we still had a great day together. Gotta love Africa!