Ruzizi Tented Lodge is a luxury facility along the banks of Lake Ihema Rwanda’s second largest lake. It is one of the 23 lakes of the country south of Akagera National Park fed by River Akagera. It’s the biggest lake in the conservation area covering approximately 90 square kilometers, the park is located in the north eastern province of Rwanda along the country’s boarder with Tanzania founded to protect the biggest wetland area, flora and fauna that live with in this ecosystem.
Ruzizi Tented Lodge was open in 2012 to welcome visitors that come to Akagera National Park it’s a beautiful eco-friendly lodge within the park best situated to explore the amazing landscapes of akagera, it has an excellent service, impressive cuisines both local and international ones, an incredible angelic setup best to stay while at the lodge a gentle relaxing ambiance in one of the most beautiful parks in Africa.
The main lodge is along the side of Lake Ihema with a reception, a calm bar, and an indoor room placed with art works and old photographs of the park, meals are served sometimes outside on a good weather day, it has perfect views of spotting hippos and watch stars in the night if you don’t get chance to see the hippos probably you will hear them, it has a fire place and lit with candles in the evenings.
The tents are separate from one another each of the nine with an en-suite bathroom, a dressing area, double queen size beds, a wooden carved table, shaded verandas containing campaign chairs, a tree trunk and a hammock hosting a maximum of 20 guests, extra beds can be fitted in the tents in case of another person or child above 15 years.
The lodge was constructed to fit its natural surroundings, during the process most of the natural setup was untampered giving a feeling of natural atmosphere. Most of its decorations were hand crafted by local men, the lodge employs its staff from the local community train them for better client experiences.
Many of Ruzizi Tented Lodge activities are game drives and boat safaris to lake ihema, there is chance to see the big five of the park, lions, elephants, Rhinos, leopard and the buffaloes. The re- introduction of rhinos to Akagera makes it a best destination to see the big game, impala, zebras, bush bucks are commonly seen. The mix of the rolling grass lands interspersed with broad-leafed acacia woodland has a variety of bird species like the red-faced barbet, sousas shrike, white collared olive back among other bird species.
The park is accessible all year round but best during the dry seasons of December to mid-February, June to mid-September animals tend to come out looking for food and concentrate around the water bodies hence easy to spot, however different seasons give the park rare sightings the wet season shows off the beauty of the park it’s all green with mushrooming new healthy plants animals are seen but it takes a lot more patience to have sightings.