We didn't stay at Bisate, but did stay in Dec 2014 at Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge. Review (and details about our 2 gorilla treks):
http://www.flyertalk.com/hotel-revie...ge-rwanda-1683
Sabyinyo also had quite the steep hillside walk to reach the main lodge, let alone to reach the various cottages and suites.
If the stairs at Bisate to higher elevation villas are of any concern to you, trust me when I say that you definitely do not want to do a "difficult" gorilla trek! (All people staying at any and all lodges and camps meet at the same start point for all gorilla trekking.) The estimates are just that: estimates. Gorilla families can move quite a bit from the moment you are assigned one, so there are no guarantees!
Difficult means about up to 3 hrs each way trekking to reach your assigned family. We did moderate...and ended up trekking 3.5 hrs to reach our Susa A family. (It was another 2.5 hrs back down, making for an extremely tough day!) I don't recommend that to anyone. It was traumatizing...but still worth it once we got there. It was so tough that we almost considered not going the next day, despite already having bought the permits! (We did go the next day, but fortunately were assigned an easy trek for that.)
Moderate means about up to 2 hrs each way trekking to reach your assigned family.
Easy means about up to 1 hr each way trekking to reach your assigned family. That is still likely to be tougher than the climb to your cottage or villa at the lodge!
The higher you go up the mountain/volcano, the more beautiful it becomes. But also steeper and denser. Tougher trekking.
We also had organized and paid for permits (much cheaper) to do the golden monkey trekking for our 3rd day...but we cancelled that after our 2nd day of trekking. Instead, we spent the 3rd day relaxing at the Lodge and enjoying the beauty of the setting. Trust me: the treks can take a lot out of you. Of course, @
KI-NRT also were at the Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge at the same time, and they had much easier treks to reach the same families that we did. Lucky ********! So you never know.
We did spend time at the Genocide Museum in Kigali. Highly recommended. See review above.
On the other hand, had we not had the ridiculous 3.5 trek, we wouldn't have enjoyed this incredible scene on Christmas Day 2014 (that's me in the blue, moments after I stumbled directly onto the 650+ lb Silverback!):
