Mrs. KI-NRT and I also stayed at Sabyinyo over the X-Mas holidays, and we were even fortunate enough to connect with bhrubin and his friends while there. Great guys, all of them! bhrubin's report is already super comprehensive, so I'll just point out our experiences that may have different from his.
InterContinental Johannesburg O.R.Tambo Airport Hotel
We also stayed here, but after our trip to Sabyinyo (we visited Cape Town afterwards for the final leg of our journey.) This is one of the best airport hotels we've ever stayed in. Rooms are impeccably maintained and service is attentive and efficient. The restaurant (Quills) is well regarded - we only had breakfast there, but the spread was definitely top-notch. Thumbs up.
KGL->JNB RwandAir WB #100 (Business Class)
We flew in the opposite direction from bhrubin, and it appears that we experienced a much better hard product. It was one of their newer 737 planes, with business class offering a seat pitch of a whopping 51 inches. This is on par with some of the better short-haul business class products, and similar to Copa's newer interiors and Turkish Airlines' 737-900ER (which we took from IST to JRO earlier in the trip.) Here's a photo of RwandAir's 737-700NG business class product:
Toyota Land Cruiser
Our vehicle was brand new and offered a very comfortable ride. In fact, the moment we left Kigali Airport for Sabyinyo, my wife turned to me and commented on how smooth and supple the ride was. We also went through some really, really tough roads on the way to our Gorilla treks, but the Land Cruiser did a commendable job in softening the blows.
Still - bhrubin's experience suggests that Sabyinyo needs to do a better job of maintaining ALL of the vehicles in its fleet.
Sabyinyo GMs
Finlay and Wendy were friendly... during the times we actually saw them. While they weren't exactly AWOL, neither did they spend much time socializing beyond having superficial conversations with their guests.
Cottages
bhrubin clearly had a better view from his cottage. We were facing away from the main mountains.
Inside the cottage:
WiFi didn't work in our room, despite several efforts of the staff to fix the problem. Bummer.
Gorilla Treks
Mrs. KI-NRT is not the heartiest person out there, so she kept begging me to ask for the easiest treks possible. The first day was a cinch... a 30 minute drive to the starting point, followed by a flat, 20 minute walk through farmland and then a beautiful bamboo forest. I asked for an easy hike on the 2nd day as well, but it turned out to be much longer than expected, thanks to the Gorilla family moving far, far up the mountains during the time we started our trek. Regardless, it was definitely worth the trouble! Some photos below:
Here's a video that I took from the
. It's quite long - the interesting part starts at about the 9:55 mark where you'll see Gorilla children spazzing out somewhat
Hotel des Mille Collines
In addition to the Genocide Memorial, we paid a visit to "Hotel Rwanda." While the Hôtel des Mille Collines (now a Kempinski-owned property) looks nothing like the hotel in the movie, this is the real deal. We had lunch here - nothing great, but passable. It's worth a visit, if even just to get a sense of the place where Paul Rusesabagina sheltered Tutsi refugees during the genocide.