LaBella Lodge

We first met Jamila, the owner of LaBella Lodge in Gisenyi Rwanda, at the RDB offices in Gisenyi, when we were looking for a place to park our expedition truck. It took her only 20 minutes to come over so as to generously escort us from the office to her own piece of Paradise.

We were planning to stay there only for 1-2 nights and ended up leaving the spot 5 days later.

The lodge is situated just at the water front of the lake.

The garden at the lodge seems to have been designed and maintained by the best landscapers of the world.

Within the lodge there are 5 cabins and a restaurant as well as a piece of land available for camping.

Hot showers with running water are available at the cabins and electricity is provided throughout the day. It turns out that Jamila is a brilliant cook.

The restaurant is designed in a western mode and the menu is diverse.

We had a great lunch and breakfast with Jamila.

But above all it is about the generosity of Jamila. She is willing to help wherever she can, and proves to be highly competent.

This way, we had the pleasure to enjoy two of the activities available in the area.

Other Hotels in this Area

The first was joining the local fishermen at night going with their traditional boats into the lake.

This has been an unforgettable experience which has been arranged by Jamila and Salim. The latter is coordinating the fishing activity.

The other great experience was hiring motorcycles and going up the Congo Nile trek. We went all the way to Kibuye which necessitated 8 hours of a drive.

We would highly recommend this but in a significantly shorter form. Those 5 days with Jamila have been a climax of our stay in the pearl of Africa, Rwanda.