INZU Lodge

Lake Kivu fills the view from every tent at Ikinyarwanda, its water often flat as glass at dawn and streaked gold by dusk. The lodge sits above the shore near Gisenyi, in Rwanda's Western Province, close enough to the Bralirwa brewery to walk. Six safari tents make up the sleeping quarters, each with a double bed and two singles under mosquito netting, wired for electricity but plumbed with dry toilets that use no water at all. Showers and toilets are shared, a short walk from each tent. It is a simple stay, not a soft one.

Marie-Noëlle DeVito opened the lodge in March 2012, after a volunteer posting in Rwanda left her wanting to build something rooted in the village around it. That thread runs through the place still: Christmas food baskets for local families, school fees for children in the nearby umudugudu of Rurembo, dinners cooked and eaten in a Rwandan household nearby. The restaurant turns out grilled meals and wood-fired pizza, ordered a day ahead so the dough has time to rise. From the shore, guides arrange kayak trips along the coastline, visits to hot springs a few kilometres off, and hikes up Rubona hill, where the Nyiragongo volcano shows itself on a clear day. Check-in runs from 2pm.