More about hotels in Musange
Musange is the Nyamagabe gateway to Nyungwe Forest – not the gorilla-trekking Musanze
Musange is a small sector in Rwanda's Nyamagabe District, Southern Province – easy to confuse with Musanze, the well-known Volcanoes National Park gateway city in Rwanda's north where mountain gorilla trekking begins. They're different places despite the near-identical name. Musange sits on the eastern edge of Nyungwe Forest National Park, one of Africa's oldest rainforests, and is the base most travellers use for chimpanzee trekking and East Africa's first canopy walkway – not gorillas.
What Musange/Nyungwe is known for
Nyungwe's Kitabi entrance, right by Musange, is the departure point for chimpanzee treks (permits around US$100pp) and the 1km-long, 70m-high canopy walkway (from around US$40pp for international visitors) – both bookable through the Rwanda Development Board or a licensed operator. The forest is also one of East Africa's best birding sites, with 300-plus recorded species and 13 primate species, including large troops of black-and-white colobus monkeys.
Where to stay near Musange
- Nyungwe Nziza Ecolodge (Kitabi) – sits right where the tarmac road ends and the rainforest begins, near the Kitabi Tea Factory; semi-traditional rooms and deluxe tents put you a short walk from the park's Kitabi reception centre.
- Kitabi Ecocenter – perched on Mount Kitabi about 2km from Nyungwe's eastern entrance, with panoramic valley views and easy access to the canopy walk and chimp-trekking trailheads.
- Golden Monkey Hotel (Nyamagabe town) – a 31-room mid-range base in central Nyamagabe, about 50 minutes' drive from the park – useful if you'd rather have a town base with a restaurant and bar than stay right at the forest edge.
Book ahead – rooms at both forest-edge properties sell out quickly around peak trekking season (June–September and December–February).
Ready to plan your Nyungwe trip?
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