Virunga Hotel is set in the central business district of Musanze town which offers guests an easy way for walking around town, shops and other amenities that Rwandan’s top tourist destination offers.
The central location of Virunga Hotel provides a strategic link to major attractions for tourists or travellers to this region endowed with natural wonders. It is only about 25 minutes’ drive to the Volcanoes National Park, home of the famous Mountain Gorillas, crater lakes in Burera or the famous caves to mention a few.
Known for excellent services in an immaculate facility, the 3-Star hotel offers a modern restaurant with various dishes and a continental breakfast, bar and conference facilities.
Balthazar Nshimiyimana, Founder of Virunga Hotel and Virunga Express, a transport agency notes that the company is popularly known for great services. He emphasises that they try to offer the best and always aim to improve.
Nshimiyimana revealed that he started the transportation business in 2001 which mostly worked in the northern and north-eastern parts of Rwanda before it rolled to other parts of the country. At the time there were few transport agencies and the hospitality sector lacked many services in the country.
With few public transport cars people would be stranded in one place and fail to get to their destinations which would necessitate lodging facilities that were also lacking. This presented a business idea to Nshimiyimana to build a hotel.
In 2008, Virunga Hotel was completed and it opened with all services for a three-star hotel. As more services were demanded Virunga continued to expand and aims to upgrade and acquire more stars as more amenities are added.
The hotel provides accommodation with a terrace, a modern restaurant, bar, a business centre, a shared lounge, secure parking to guests and you can access free Wi-Fi while at the facility with a 24-hour front desk services.
There are a total of 65 self-contained modern rooms fully equipped with Satellite TV, Internet access, a fridge for the guest’s refreshment with some room include a seating area while others offer a view of Virunga mountains that the hotel is named after.
The hotel offers a rich experience to guests who are treated to the highest quality service that make many yearn to come back.
The business and conference centre operates facilities for meetings, events, and special occasions like corporate gatherings, workshops, weddings, and parties among others. The hotel has conference halls with different capacities up from 100, 80, 60, 20 and 15 persons. A conference hall of 500 individuals’ capacity will soon be added to its portfolio.
Virunga Group has been at the centre of development in Musanze District as well as the region in general. Apart from contributing to the local economy, the company has created jobs and is involved in social corporate responsibilities to support vulnerable people, for instance last year it paid for 100 individual’s health insurance.
The company employed over 50 workers before Covid-19 paralysed the tourism sector and the Virunga Express which also offers carrier services employees over 60 workers across its destinations.
Virunga Express has perfected the transportation business with its two-decade experience providing excellent services. The company operates different routes, major among these are Kigali – Musanze – Rubavu, Kigali – Gicumbi and plans to expand will first be focused on Musanze – Burera.
The same routes operated by the transport agency also operate the carrier services and the company has offices in every destination it operates.
