Nyungwe Top View Hill Hotel is beautifully placed on a high elevated ground in Nyungwe Forest National Park. The park is home to 13 species of primates and is straddling along its southern corner with Burundi hence some of its parts are within the other country. The park is one of the few remaining tropical rain forests of East Africa. It is popular for chimpanzees, a primate type known to be man’s closets relative. They are characterized by the loud charter sound they make while in the forest, social, intelligent and are known to have the ability to use tools.
The lodge lies in Nyungwe Forest National Park located a few kilometers away from the Gisakura Tea Estate. It is a favorite country relaxation point with best accommodation. The lodge offers magnificent sightings of the park and tea plantations. It was opened in 2011 to give the best services to tourists that come to Rwanda at Nyungwe National Park. Covering an area of about 1020 square kilometers, the ecosystem ranges from bamboo, grassland, swamps, and bogs. It is one of the oldest and largest areas protecting the last remaining patches of the African montane forest and hosting over 300 species of birds and 75 mammal species. Within the park there are swamps with distinctive vegetation.
Nyungwe Top View Hill Hotel offers luxurious facilities overlooking the beautiful forest canopy. The upper canopy forest can reach up to 70 meters’ high. These facilities include a gym, swimming pool, WiFi access, a 24-hour front desk that can arrange shuttle services on request, barbeque facilities, meeting and banquet facilities are available on site, a well-stocked bar, a restaurant with an open terrace best for relaxing in the evening offering a variety of African, continental and Indian dishes.
The 12 red brick cottages are arranged in two rows each having a bedroom, small lounge area at the front, ceramic floors, chairs, a coffee table and a fire place although furniture is different in every cottage fitted with double, single or triple beds with traditional Rwanda ‘imigorigo’ art work on the wall an en-suite bathroom and a lot of toiletries provided.
Nyungwe Top View Hill Hotel gives the best views of the national park, surrounding tea plantations, Kahuzi Beiga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lake Kivu, the volcanoes, and Idjiwi island right at the top of the hill on a clear day. Guests can learn about the Rwandan culture from the neighbouring tribes like the Banda village. It is a cultural destination accessible via a mountain road or downhill hike at the end of the canopy walk it offers tasting of local food, nature hikes, basket weaving, tasting the village banana bear for adventurous tourists, witness a wedding ceremony done in the local way, learn of the traditional medicine. The hotel hosts music evenings with performances from local artists.
Key activities while at the hotel include canopy walk, primate trekking, hiking through various trails through the forest (karamba trail, Muzimu trail, Ngabwe trail, Kamiranzovu trail), treks to waterfalls and birding, the forest hosts 75 different kinds of mammal species such as the golden cats, duikers, bushbuck, hyrax, clawless otter, genet, civet, mongoose ,primates of 13 species have been recorded here including the owl-faced monkey, vervet monkey, grey checked mangabey, dents monkey, l,hoest monkey, red-tailed monkey. It is home to over 300 species of birds 17 of which are endemic to Nyungwe Forest like the ross’s turaco, bar-tailed trogon, blue headed sunbird.