Tag: Musanze /Rwanda/
altitude: 1,850 m/6,070 ft
estimated population: 90,000
If you are visiting Volcanoes National Park and prefer more affordable urban environments, Musanze (formerly known as Ruhengeri) should be your choice. This is the capital city of the Gorilla Highlands region, a tidy town surrounded by volcanoes and blessed with a remarkable cave system.
It offers accommodation solutions for all budgets, good eating, pleasant coffee shops and plentiful banks. Kinigi village (northwest of the town, 12km/7.5mi) features the park HQ, and many more lodges.
Our Stories:
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Jenna’s Traveling Roots: Why We Made Our Home in the Virungas
Some very special people are choosing to live in Musanze, Rwanda … This is the second instalment in the Why We Made Our Home in the Virungas series, a story about Jenna’s Traveling Roots. (Click here for the first video, Lan’s cute take on his school called Virunga Valley Academy.) You may also like: Were…
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We Have a Musanze Job Opportunity For You!
Job Title: Part-Time Gorilla Highlands Office StaffLocation: Musanze, RwandaEngagement Starts: 4 August 2025Job Interviews: 2 AugustApplication Deadline: 30 July Are you a Rwandan aged 18 or above who is eager to join one of the biggest global businesses — the travel industry? Do you care about the nature and cultures of the Gorilla Highlands region…
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Virunga Valley Academy: Why We Made Our Home in the Virungas
We could be based anywhere in the Gorilla Highlands region, but our choice is Musanze under the Virungas. The reason is very simple: it isn’t easy to get quality education in rural Africa, and here in the north of Rwanda we have found a remarkable international school. We’ve invited our little Lan to tell you…
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How to Get Out of Musanze Caves with Photos You’ll Treasure
It’s always nice to be surprised, to come across something unexpected. A field of wildflowers on your game drive, perhaps. Or a cave system when you think you are in Musanze merely to hike the Virungas and see gorillas? It’s a nice way to spend 2.5 hours with an expert local guide, and you don’t…
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Happy 2025 — with Tom in Musanze!
It used to be our tradition to ring in the new year on Tom’s island in the middle of Uganda’s Lake Bunyonyi. Yesterday, however, we brought Tom Karemire to Rwanda instead. Fulfilling his wish to visit our home in Musanze was a delight and added something fresh to our celebrations. Alongside the usual New Year’s…
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Unpacking the Region, Illuminating the World
Quarterly newsletter for Gorilla Highlands lovers The Morrises are our most recent guests — an American family living in Moshi, Tanzania, where Wade teaches at the United World College East Africa. These colleges bring students from different countries together to promote peace and sustainability (much like the Illumineers pitched at the end of this newsletter).…
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Welcome to Our Home
Do you even know where we live?! This June we moved into a house in Musanze’s Kizungu area. It’s a spacious place that blends family life with the demands of Gorilla Highlands Experts work. The building has five rooms, a large kitchen, and an even bigger living and dining area, its walls decorated with images captured by Marcus…
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Judges From Dubai Decide … Beetroot for the Win!
Brigitte Ishimwe and Justine Mukandayisenga have emerged as the champions of the 2024 cohort of GHE Youth Spaces! Their Beet-Nourish Creation business most impressed our judges from Omnicom Media Group (MENA) — in the photo they are posing with the company CEO, Elda Choucair. You might notice that Elda’s attire is a bit unusual for…
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Shattered Expectations
Anjni and Kalpa’s expectations were shattered within 24 hours. Rwanda greeted them with a neat airport, helpful and friendly officials, smooth roads, cleanliness, and no hassle whatsoever. Even people’s traditional attire wasn’t far from their own Indian heritage! The sisters live in Australia and America but they were born in Kenya, and they thought Rwanda would resemble their motherland much more…
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