Travel reviews by Ms K party from Herts

"A great place to relax after our long journey. It was very quiet and calm after previous experiences of staying in the middle of Nairobi.

Shame we didn't have more of a chance to enjoy it. Would definitely stay there again. Great breakfast before we set off too!"

"Lovely rooms in a great setting looking out onto the volcanoes. Great showers and lovely log fires which were lit and checked by the very attentive staff in the evenings. Very welcome after trekking! The central restaurant/bar was not open when we stayed, they are currently using one of the rooms as a makeshift restaurant, which was fine, although it lacked a little atmosphere. When the new facility is open in October, it is going to be fantastic. Staff were wonderful, very helpful and always smiling!

Our only negative comment would be the price of drinks, which came as a bit of a shock. Over $300 for 3 of us for 4 nights. We had soft drinks at lunchtime, a glass of wine/gin and tonic at night and plenty of water... One night we did have a bottle of wine, which I think we paid over the odds for having been told it would be $17.50. We understand that some drinks are imported, but this far outweighed what we paid elsewhere. Hopefully, once their new restaurant/bar is open, they will have menus and price lists on display to avoid future problems.

Overall all though, great place and you cannot fault the location. Close to the park HQ (15 mins)."

"Good place to relax after trekking for four days. Great location right on the beach and we had a lovely boat trip out and round the headland to the hot springs.

Breakfast on the first morning was laid out on the beach which was lovely! Buffet meals were fine, although the prawns from the a la carte menu served on the Sunday night were fantastic!! Staff were helpful and sevice was generally good."

"I last stayed here 3 years ago (and also at Milles Collines) when it was run by Novotel and it has definitely gone down hill since then. It is looking very tired and shabby.

Service is almost non-existent in the restaurant. When we went to get a sandwhich at lunchtime, we waited 15 mins before anyone could give us a menu and the drinks took another 30 mins and the food 30 mins after that. Dinner was a similar experience and breakfast, we helped ourselves...

The room (twin) was not in great condition (dirty), particularly the bathroom. We had no hot water so spoke to reception. They said they would send an engineer straightaway. After an hour and a half, no sign, so we went down to reception and were told someone would be up. By this point dirty brown hot water was gushing out of the basin tap and we couldn't turn it off! The guy showed up and turned the basin tap by turning the washer under the sink. After messing around with the shower for a while, he could not get it to work at all. There was no water pressure and the shower was dribbling cold water. He could not fix it until the next day. Reception said that they couldn't give us another room, so we made do with the cold dribbling shower! Luckily it was only one night!

William (our guide) spoke to the manager as we were checking out and he apologised for our problems, but it was a bit late by then!

I certainly would avoid this place if I was returning to Kigali. I understand that there are limited options and other places are being re-furbished currently, but this place really is not good now. Last time, my friend and I both preferred the Novotel to the Milles Collines as the service was much better! It is hard to believe it is the same place..."