Volcanoes Safaris is one of the defining specialist lodge companies of East African great-ape tourism. Founded in Uganda by Praveen Moman in 1997, the company helped rebuild gorilla tourism in Uganda and Rwanda after years of regional instability and today operates five hand-built luxury lodges focused on mountain gorillas, chimpanzees, conservation and the cultures of the Great Lakes region.
The Brand
Volcanoes Safaris is deliberately concentrated rather than geographically broad. Its five current lodges are Virunga Lodge in Rwanda and Bwindi Lodge, Mount Gahinga Lodge, Kyambura Gorge Lodge and Kibale Lodge in Uganda. Three are positioned around mountain-gorilla tracking; Kyambura and Kibale focus strongly on chimpanzees. The collection is therefore not a conventional safari network covering many ecosystems and species. Its identity is unusually specific: the Albertine Rift, great apes, local communities and the long-term recovery of tourism landscapes in Uganda and Rwanda.
Praveen Moman
Praveen Moman is the founder and principal author of the company. His family history in Uganda reaches back to 1927, when his great-uncle Churanji Lal Phakey moved from Punjab to Uganda. Moman himself first walked in the Mgahinga area with his father in 1966. In 1997 he returned to Mgahinga and pitched the tent that became the beginning of Mount Gahinga Lodge and Volcanoes Safaris. The founder story is therefore rooted in personal memory, regional displacement and return rather than in an external investor discovering a safari market.
1997 - The First Tent
The timing was difficult. Uganda's tourism infrastructure was still recovering and neighbouring Rwanda was only three years beyond the genocide. The decision to build in the borderlands of Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo required a long-term view of regional tourism. This origin explains why Volcanoes Safaris treats conservation, community livelihoods and political recovery as inseparable from the lodge business.
1999 - Bwindi
A simple camp opened at Bwindi in 1999. By 2025 Bwindi Lodge was celebrating 25 years and had evolved into a ten-banda luxury gorilla lodge overlooking Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, with personal butler service. Bwindi is one of the clearest examples of the company's evolution from pioneering basic safari infrastructure toward highly refined small-lodge hospitality without abandoning the original conservation purpose.
2000 - Rwanda
In 2000 Volcanoes Safaris began taking guests from Mount Gahinga to track gorillas in Rwanda's Parc National des Volcans and opened an office in Kigali. This was an early step in the revival of international gorilla tourism in post-genocide Rwanda.
2003-2004 - Virunga
Volcanoes Safaris helped kick-start gorilla tourism in Rwanda through the Volcanoes BLCF Partnership Project in 2003. Virunga Lodge followed in 2004 and was, according to the company's official history, the first lodge built by an international lodge company in Rwanda after the war. Virunga's hilltop setting overlooking lakes and volcanoes turned the lodge itself into part of the destination rather than merely a base for gorilla permits.
2005 - Great Ape Commitment
In 2005 Volcanoes Safaris became a signatory of the UN Kinshasa Declaration on Saving the Great Apes, formalising the company's conservation orientation within a wider international framework.
2009 - Partnership Trust
The Volcanoes Safaris Partnership Trust was established in 2009 as a non-profit organisation creating long-term, self-sustaining projects intended to improve local livelihoods and promote great-ape conservation. This institutional separation matters: community and conservation work has its own platform rather than existing only as lodge-level guest programming.
2011 - Kyambura Gorge Lodge
Kyambura Gorge Lodge opened in Uganda in 2011 as part of a wider ecotourism partnership intended to help protect the threatened chimpanzees of Kyambura Gorge. The lodge broadened Volcanoes beyond gorilla tourism and linked accommodation directly with a landscape-scale chimpanzee conservation project.
2018 - Gahinga Batwa Village
In 2018 the Partnership Trust created the Gahinga Batwa Village near Mount Gahinga Lodge, providing a permanent home for more than 120 Batwa people displaced when Mgahinga National Park was gazetted in 1991. The project illustrates one of the hardest issues in conservation tourism: protected areas can preserve wildlife while imposing severe costs on communities that historically used the land.
2019 - Kyambura Gorge Ecotourism Project
The Kyambura Gorge Ecotourism Project launched in 2019 as a connected set of community and conservation initiatives designed to safeguard chimpanzees, reduce human-wildlife conflict and increase local income.
2021 - Jane Goodall Institute
In 2021 the Partnership Trust announced a long-term partnership with the Jane Goodall Institute Uganda, working with the Uganda Wildlife Authority around the threatened chimpanzee population and communities of the Kyambura landscape.
2022 - Albertine Apes Alliance
During the company's 25th-anniversary year, Volcanoes Safaris hosted a retreat of conservationists at Mount Gahinga Lodge. The meeting led to the creation of the Albertine Apes Alliance to encourage collective action around responsible ecotourism, habitat, health and community livelihoods.
2024 - Kibale Lodge
Kibale Lodge opened on 1 July 2024 in Uganda, becoming the fifth lodge and the collection's second major chimpanzee-focused property. Its opening completed a more balanced great-ape circuit: three gorilla lodges and two chimpanzee lodges across Uganda and Rwanda.
2025 - Kyambura Discovery Center
On 1 March 2025 the Jane Goodall Institute and Uganda Wildlife Authority officially opened the Kyambura Discovery Center at Kyambura Gorge Lodge, adding interpretation, conservation education and scientific context to the guest and community ecosystem.
Five Lodges, One Specialism
Virunga Lodge · Rwanda The Rwandan flagship and one of the region's pioneering post-conflict gorilla lodges, known for panoramic volcano and lake views. Bwindi Lodge · Uganda Ten hand-built bandas overlooking Bwindi forest, directly tied to the history of Uganda's gorilla-tourism revival. Mount Gahinga Lodge · Uganda The geographical and emotional origin of Volcanoes Safaris, serving Mgahinga and the Virunga volcano landscape. Kyambura Gorge Lodge · Uganda A chimpanzee and conservation-focused lodge connected with the Kyambura Gorge Ecotourism Project. Kibale Lodge · Uganda Opened in 2024 for chimpanzee tourism near Kibale Forest and quickly recognised by international hotel and travel publications.
Hand-built Luxury
Volcanoes Safaris describes its five properties as hand-built luxury lodges. The phrase is useful: the architecture is intended to feel crafted, small-scale and connected with regional materials and cultures rather than globally standardized.
Great Apes as The Master Product
Mountain gorillas and chimpanzees are not interchangeable with conventional game-drive wildlife. Encounters are permit-controlled, physically demanding, limited in time and dependent on protected forest ecosystems. This creates a hospitality model in which the lodge must support anticipation before the trek, recovery afterward and interpretation throughout the stay.
Conservation Economics
Moman's stated philosophy is that endangered species must become part of the economic mainstream if conservation is to succeed. Controlled tourism should create tangible long-term benefits for communities that live beside protected habitats. The argument is pragmatic: local people need a stake in the survival of gorillas, chimpanzees and forests if conservation restrictions are to remain socially sustainable.
Staff Empowerment
The current official About page states that Volcanoes employs more than 300 staff from Rwanda, Uganda, the DRC and Burundi and places unusual emphasis on developing local staff at all levels of management. This matters because the cultural interpretation of the Great Lakes region should not be outsourced entirely to international management.
Culture
The brand explicitly includes the culture, history and hospitality traditions of the Great Lakes region in its guest proposition. Great-ape tourism is therefore framed within a human landscape rather than presented as wildlife existing without communities.
Service
Service is small-lodge, personal and highly itinerary-aware. At Bwindi, current official material explicitly notes personal butler service. Across the collection, guiding, lodge teams, trekking logistics and recovery after activities form one continuous guest experience.
Inclusions
Current 2026 international lodge rates are highly inclusive: accommodation, meals, soft drinks, premium alcoholic beverages, selected wines and spirits, laundry, lodge activities and massages are included under the published terms. Gorilla and chimpanzee permits and transport require itinerary-specific confirmation.
Who it is Not For
Volcanoes Safaris is not a broad Big Five safari circuit or a resort collection. Guests come primarily for great apes, forests, conservation and Great Lakes culture. Trekking can be strenuous and wildlife encounters are controlled by park authorities rather than by hotel schedules.
Competitive Landscape
Singita Singita operates at greater geographic and ultra-luxury scale with major conservation landholdings. Volcanoes is narrower and more specifically authored around gorillas, chimpanzees and the Albertine Rift. Wilderness Wilderness has a much larger multi-country safari network. Volcanoes offers a more concentrated founder-led Great Lakes specialism. African Bush Camps African Bush Camps is guide-led and founder-led across Zimbabwe, Botswana and Zambia. Volcanoes is geographically smaller but historically more specialised in great-ape ecotourism. Great Plains Conservation Both integrate conservation and founder narrative. Great Plains is classic safari and photographic-conservation led; Volcanoes is forest, ape and community-economics led. andBeyond andBeyond has much broader safari and touring scale. Volcanoes competes through specialisation, small lodge count and long-standing regional conservation partnerships. KEY PEOPLE founded & leads — Praveen Moman — 1997– — priority candidate for LHL-P family / historical Uganda connection — Kuldip Rai Moman and Churanji Lal Phakey — contextual layer conservation partnerships — Jane Goodall Institute · Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund · Gorilla Doctors · Conservation Through Public Health — institutional layer
Booking With LVXVRY
Volcanoes Safaris is independent and no proprietary points-and-tiers loyalty programme is identified. LVXVRY should verify lodge availability, trekking permits, road / air transfers, community fees and the exact inclusions for the chosen safari before confirmation. The current published international rates are unusually inclusive, but great-ape permits and complex multi-lodge logistics make itinerary design more important than a simple room reservation. Current special offers can also materially change the value of multi-lodge combinations. LVXVRY — lvxvry.ca
Editorial Note
LHL records Volcanoes Safaris as founded in Uganda by Praveen Moman in 1997 and operating five current lodges across Uganda and Rwanda as of 22 August 2026. Kibale Lodge opened on 1 July 2024. The Volcanoes Safaris Partnership Trust was established in 2009. Ownership classification: founder-led / independent. Loyalty programme: None identified.