About Us

Welcome to Mikeno lodge, Virunga National Park’s first lodge built with natural local materials by local hands.

The most readily available building material in the volcanoes region is, of course, lava. When planning the lodge, it was the obvious choice for constructing a solid bungalow made from natural local materials. And how does one build with lava? Workers hand-carve rectangle bricks from large heavy stones, and carry the stones on their head to the building site. It is labor intensive but works surprisingly well and fast.

The next choice for a natural building material is thatch for the roofs, but not any thatch. Expert thatch-roofers chose the highest quality grass collected from the plains near Rwindi within Virunga National Park. The tightly packed, expertly crafted thatch roofs are a barrier to rain and cold, and naturally water repellent.
The third material, beautiful mahogany wood, is one of the strongest available, perfect for windows, doors and decks, all produced and crafted locally.

Mikeno Lodge opens its doors to visitors who wish to uncover the delights of all that Virunga National Park has to offer. We look forward to meeting you and sharing in your discoveries of this unique Park.