This pleasant old hostel offers accommodation to Mgahinga National park Visitors. This is one of the oldest lodging facilities established in the 1950 by a gorilla enthusiast Walter Baumgartel and formed the first hub of gorilla tracking activities in the Virungas. When you stay at the Kisoro Travellers Rest Hotel, you enter history. It is one of the oldest lodges in Uganda, boosting on an impressive list of guests. The hostel hosted eminent personages including George Schaller and Dian Fossey. It was taken over the by the Ugandan government during the Idi Amin era. In the late 1990s after opening gorilla tourism in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and Mgahinga National Park it was restored.

It is situated outside Kisoro and offers a quiet setting with an amazing view on the Virunga volcanoes. In the sixties the famous American ‘gorilla-woman’ Dian Fossey visited Travellers Rest many times to do paperwork, to relax or to meet people. Fossey said about the hotel: “It was my second home.” The hotel was renovated in 2002 and it is managed by Gorilla Tours, one of the local tour operators based in Uganda.

Enjoy Your Stay

It offers a cozy stay for tourists, who come to see the endangered mountain gorillas in the Mgahinga National Park. It offers accommodation in 10 rooms; 8 Single & Twin Rooms and 2 Double Suites.

The hotel was built in a colonial style, and entirely renovated in 1999. It has a comfortable ambiance with twelve rooms. As soon as you enter, the ibis welcomes you with its typical sound. The beautiful surrounding garden is the home of many birds. Sitting on the terrace you can smell the sweet perfume of the honeysuckle. In the evenings, when it gets cold, visitors can warm themselves at the fireplace, outside or in the lounge.

From far away the huge cones of the Virunga volcanoes dominate the landscape and beckon you as you approach. The surrounding landscape is of a astonishing beauty, one can not even imagine. There, in the extreme southwestern corner of Uganda, on the borders with the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, the Hotel Travellers Rest lies under the towering volcanoes. These mountains offer spectacular views on the Rift Valley and the emerald-green Lake Mutanda in the distance.

Lots of Things to Do

From the hotel there are lots of activities for visitors to undertake. Travelers Rest provides bikes to discover the nearby surroundings, You may visit the nearly Lake Mutanda, you can walk to the local market in Kisoro on Mondays and Thursdays, or you can climb one of the volcanoes. And of course you can go and track the mountain gorilla. The Mgahinga Gorilla National Park is only 14 kms from the Travellers Rest Hotel

The hotel has hot water and it is a pleasant place to stay while exploring the Mgahinga Gorilla National Park. Adventures that can be arranged from the lodge include cultural village walks, mountain biking and nature walks.