Two registers, both genuine — a gateway to the gorillas, and a gateway to the ocean.
One&Only's role in the SafariSeven® collection operates on two registers that should not be conflated. The Cape Town and Mauritius properties serve the Indian Ocean extension of a Southern Africa journey — places of exceptional hospitality and natural beauty that complete a broader itinerary. One&Only Gorilla's Nest in Rwanda is a different order of experience entirely: a gateway to the mountain gorilla encounter and to one of the most significant conservation stories in contemporary African wildlife. Both registers are genuine. Neither diminishes the other.
One&Only Gorilla's Nest sits at the edge of Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda's Virunga mountains — among the closest lodges to the gorilla families tracked daily for trekking. It brings One&Only's hospitality standards to what many guests describe as the most significant wildlife encounter of their lives.
Volcanoes National Park is one of five national parks in the Virunga mountains that protect the last remaining population of mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei). Daily treks depart with ranger guides to follow habituated gorilla families through the high-altitude rainforest — encounters that have a one-hour limit with the gorillas themselves, regulated by the permit system that funds the conservation work protecting them. One&Only Gorilla's Nest is positioned for optimal access to this experience, with the hospitality infrastructure — logistics, warm food and drink on return, expert briefing pre-trek — that a guest arriving for the first time needs.
The world's mountain gorilla population has recovered to approximately 1,063 individuals — split between the Virunga massif (around 604) and Uganda's Bwindi-Sarambwe ecosystem (around 459) — making it the only great ape population currently increasing in the wild. The recovery from a low of around 250 in the 1980s was driven in part by a permit-based tourism model that directed revenue to conservation and community programmes. A guest who treks in Volcanoes National Park participates directly in the mechanism that made this recovery possible.
In the 1980s and 1990s, mountain gorillas in the Virungas faced extinction pressure from habitat loss, poaching, and conflict. Tourism revenue, directed through permit fees to conservation management, anti-poaching, and community economic benefit, changed the calculus. Communities adjacent to the park found economic reason to protect, rather than compete with, the forest.
"The connection between gorilla permit revenue and gorilla population recovery is not approximate — it is the central mechanism."
One&Only Cape Town is located at the V&A Waterfront, with views across the harbour to Table Mountain. It is one of the most consistently well-operated urban hotels in South Africa — a property that combines One&Only's service excellence with a Cape Town location that provides direct access to the city's cultural and natural attractions. For guests beginning or ending a Southern Africa safari, it serves as an arrival and departure point with the hospitality standard that long-distance travel requires.
One&Only Le Saint Géran in Mauritius is the Indian Ocean extension for SafariSeven® itineraries that combine East Africa with an island conclusion. The Indian Ocean extension serves guests who want the contrast of tropical reef, open water, and a slower pace after the concentrated wildlife intensity of a Kenyan or Tanzanian safari. Mauritius provides that contrast in an island setting with one of the Indian Ocean's finest reef ecosystems and the One&Only standard of marine hospitality.
A SafariSeven® Travel Designer will sequence these across a Southern and East Africa itinerary suited to your timing and priorities.
20 rooms and villas at the edge of the park — among the closest lodges to the tracked gorilla families.
Explore Rwanda →One of South Africa's most consistently well-operated urban hotels, with views across the harbour to Table Mountain.
Explore South Africa →The Indian Ocean extension — tropical reef, open water, and a slower pace after the safari.
Explore the Indian Ocean →Mountain gorilla trekking involves joining a small group — a maximum of eight people — led by ranger guides through high-altitude rainforest to find a habituated gorilla family. Once located, the group spends one hour in close proximity to the gorillas, observing natural family behaviour. The walk can take between one hour and six depending on where the gorillas have moved overnight. Trekkers should be physically prepared for altitude (Volcanoes National Park sits above 2,500 metres), steep terrain, and equatorial rain. The encounter itself — gorillas carrying infants, silverbacks in repose, juveniles at play — is consistently described by guests as the most affecting wildlife experience of their lives.
The total wild mountain gorilla population is approximately 1,063 individuals, making them the only great ape population currently increasing in the wild. They live in two isolated habitats: the Virunga massif (around 604 individuals), which spans Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Uganda's Bwindi-Sarambwe ecosystem (around 459 individuals). The figures come from the most recent full censuses — the Virunga massif in 2015–16 and Bwindi-Sarambwe in 2018. The recovery from a low of roughly 250 in the 1980s is directly connected to the permit-based tourism model that directed conservation revenue to protection and community benefit.
One&Only Gorilla's Nest is a luxury lodge at the base of the Virunga volcanoes in Rwanda, positioned at the edge of Volcanoes National Park — one of the access points for mountain gorilla trekking. The lodge offers 20 rooms and villas in a forested setting, with the logistics management, expert briefing, and recovery comfort that a guest undertaking a high-altitude forest trek requires. It brings One&Only's full hospitality standard to what is, for many guests, the most significant wildlife encounter they will ever have.
Yes, and SafariSeven® Travel Designers regularly design itineraries that do. Rwanda is served directly from Nairobi, making it straightforward to combine a Kenyan safari — Masai Mara, Laikipia Plateau, Amboseli — with a Rwanda gorilla experience. Tanzania's Serengeti or Ngorongoro are slightly further by routing but entirely viable in an itinerary of ten days or more. The gorilla experience is usually best placed at the end of a safari, when a guest's wildlife eye has sharpened, rather than at the beginning. A SafariSeven® Travel Designer will build the routing around your available time.
One&Only Cape Town at the V&A Waterfront serves as a Cape Town anchor for Southern Africa itineraries that include Cape Town as an arrival point or extension. For guests flying in from international hubs before heading to the Kruger, the Sabi Sand, or Botswana, it provides a recovery night of the highest standard in a setting that introduces the scale and beauty of Table Mountain before the wilderness begins. As a post-safari conclusion, Cape Town provides access to the Cape Peninsula, the Cape Winelands, and the cultural richness of one of the Southern Hemisphere's finest cities.
Speak with a SafariSeven® Travel Designer to shape a private safari around One&Only, matched to your season, your pace, and the experience you are seeking.
