More Info

Safaris and lodges

The Headquarters and Central Booking Office for our safari and lodge operations is in Kampala, Uganda. We also have our own office in Kigali, Rwanda to organise safaris in Rwanda, the only international company to do so. We have a fleet of over 20 vehicles and a team of highly experienced guides, considered to be the best in the region. We are the only company to have built our own exclusive ecolodges near all three mountain gorilla parks - Mount Gahinga Lodge, in the shadow of the volcanoes at Mgahinga, Bwindi Lodge, facing the primeval forest of Bwindi and Virunga Lodge, near Parc National des Volcans in Rwanda. We have started to build a lodge at Kyambura Gorge near Queen Elizabeth National Park in western Uganda, next to a threatened community of chimpanzees. All our properties are as eco-friendly as practicable and built in a culturally appropriate way. As part of Volcanoes’ empowerment program we ensure that the management of its safari and lodge operations is completely in the hands of African staff, many of whose families have survived conflict.

Rwanda and eco-tourism partnerships

Volcanoes was the first international upmarket safari company to start taking clients to see gorillas in Rwanda in 2000, as the country settled down after a decade of conflict. Our Kigali office opened in 2001 and we started to build Virunga lodge in 2002, the first phase of which opened in 2004. No other international tourism company was prepared to take such risks at this time. This early investment on the ground by Volcanoes is a hallmark of our pioneering work in and around the mountain gorilla parks. In turn it has led to confidence in the area growing and helped open it up to the world. Volcanoes also designed and implemented the VS-BLCF eco-tourism partnership supported by the British government from 2003 to 2007. It brought together a group of diverse partners - the Rwandese gorilla park authorities (ORTPN), the local hotel private sector, international conservation NGOs and local communities.

The Congo Basin

In conjunction with Park authorities, conservation organisations, governments and donors we are now studying actively how other great ape sites can be opened up in other countries of the Congo Basin.