Chimpanzee Lodge

A disappointment This hotel is not true to pictures. There were no mosquito nets and the beds were not 4 poster ones. In fact, one of our rooms had mismatched beds altogether. The beds are on the floor and the mattresses are like cement slabs. The construction of this place seemed hurried and lacked polish. This hotel is SO not worth $200/night! The only things that we enjoyed here were the friendly staff and good breakfast, but even these did not make up for this place’s 2-star quality.

We occupied two rooms in the Lodge for two nights. The Lodge looks impressive from the outside and has a lovely view. There were a number of maintenance issues in the rooms. The telephone in the room did not work. There was no Internet available during our stay. A staff member kindly made his computer with Internet available for us to do our return flight check in. The toilet seat was broken. Initially we had no hot water, the geyser was only switched on after we complained about the hot water. The rooms shower water flooded the rooms. There was no rail or hangers in the cupboard to hang clothes. No bedside lamps or chairs in the room. Only one deck chair on the patio. The constant Truck noise kept us awake at night as the rooms are very close to the road. The food did not meet our minimum expectations. The staff was friendly and assisted where they could. We will not recommend this Lodge.

We were exploring Rwanda, and following the line of Lake Kivu to the south. We wanted to stop off at the Nyungwe National Park, as we had visited previous national parks en route. Chimpanzee Lodge is located near to the park itself. Whilst sitting outside, the views were amazing, and we did manage to spot some monkeys in the trees closeby. The staff were very friendly and helpful. The food was delicious too. The staff bring hot water bottles in the evening to warm the bed, even though these are not needed. Neat touch though. If you want to go Chimpanzee Trekking, you need to book ahead well in advance. We chose to do the Canopy Walkway instead, and this was breath-taking in terms of its experience and of the views themselves. The hotel organised this for us. Chimpanzee Lodge has clearly been impacted by the Covid pandemic, and general maintenance has fallen behind; this is in evidence. There are a couple of issues that need to be attended too: The first is road noise as the main road is very close, and the large HGV lorries pass there all the time. This makes sleeping at night a challenge. The second is more alarming. When we sat outside, in the evening, instead of in the restaurant itself; to enjoy the views, and a glass of wine, we saw a number of rats running along the pipes above us which is totally unacceptable, given the room rate being charged. This issue needs to be attended forthwith.

We had a great 3 nights‘ stay at Chimpanzee Lodge. When planning our self drive vacation in Rwanda we had some difficulties finding accommodation around Nyungwe Forest NP as there seemed to be only very expensive high-end resorts or very low budget options. Chimpanzee lodge proved to be a very fitting place to stay in the medium price range. As others have commented, there are some things to improve upon (eg providing bedside lamps, noise cancelling from the traffic of the nearby main road and neighboring rooms) but we found these issues to be minor. The room was very clean and most importantly, everybody working there was exceptionally friendly. Also, we liked the food a lot (breakfast and dinner, vegetarian options available). One suggestion for improvement would be to speed up breakfast a little - despite pre-ordering the night before it took a lot of time in the morning (considering that one has booked activities in the National Park one has to get to on time). Overall, we can definitely recommend this place to stay near Nyungwe!