Silverback Lodge officially relaunched on 3 March 2026 — World Wildlife Day — after a complete rebuild: 12 rooms by HesseKleinloog Studio on a ridge above Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, five minutes’ walk from the Buhoma gorilla-trekking trailhead. Full-board rates from US$2,100.
Half of all the mountain gorillas left on Earth live in one forest: Bwindi, a UNESCO-listed rainforest in southwestern Uganda so dense its official name includes the word Impenetrable. The Buhoma sector is where trekking began here, and the lodge standing above its trailhead has just been reborn. Silverback Lodge — soft-opened in 2025, officially relaunched on World Wildlife Day 2026 — has been entirely rebuilt by Marasa Africa, and the design signature is the detail that made me look twice: HesseKleinloog, the Johannesburg studio behind Singita Kataza House and Rwanda’s Kwitonda Lodge, shaped the architecture and interiors.
Silverback Lodge: Key Facts
- Relaunched: 3 March 2026 (World Wildlife Day), after a 2025 soft opening and a ground-up rebuild
- Location: a forested ridge in the Buhoma sector of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, southwestern Uganda — about five minutes’ walk from the trekking trailhead; the lodge states arrival by scheduled flight from Entebbe to the nearby Kihihi Airstrip plus a road transfer, by road through Uganda’s highlands, or by helicopter direct to the lodge
- Keys: 12 guest rooms, each with a private terrace over the rainforest canopy
- Design: HesseKleinloog Studio — contemporary African architectural language, local artisans, and a deliberately light environmental footprint
- The forest: roughly 321 km² of UNESCO World Heritage rainforest holding nearly half the world’s mountain gorillas — recent surveys count 459 in Bwindi — plus forest elephants, L’Hoest’s monkeys and 350-plus bird species, 14 found nowhere else
- Wellness: Wellnest, a nature-led spa built around post-trek recovery, with local botanicals and a bath overlooking the forest
- Dining: locally inspired menus, candlelit dinners under the stars, communal spaces designed for quiet
- The owners: Marasa Africa, the safari arm of East Africa’s Madhvani Group — a four-generation heritage, with Silverback the first project in a portfolio-wide reimagining
- Rates: from US$2,100 per room per night full board in low season, from US$3,360 in high season — gorilla permits, park fees, activities and spa excluded
Why the Trailhead Matters More Than the Thread Count
Gorilla trekking runs on a brutal morning logic: briefings start early at the park gate, and the families you’re assigned can mean anything from a forty-minute walk to a six-hour climb through vegetation that earns the forest its name. A lodge five minutes from the Buhoma trailhead means you wake in the ecosystem you’re about to enter — no dawn drive, no transfers eating your energy before the trek does. Add Wellnest’s entire premise being post-trek recovery — the forest-view bath is aimed at exactly the moment your legs surrender — and the lodge’s design brief reads as an answer to the trek itself. “Conservation has to be lived, not just spoken about,” is how founder Tanya Madhvani frames the rebuild, and the permit system she’s operating within is the rare tourism model where that’s structurally true: capped visitors, ranger-led groups, revenue flowing to protection and community programmes.
The East African Lodge Renaissance
Silverback lands in the middle of a generational refresh of East African safari hospitality — the same wave carrying Singita’s December debut in the Okavango, and now reaching Uganda, long the value alternative to Rwanda’s $1,500 permits. I know this category from the ground: my Kenya safari reviews rank in Google’s top five for four separate searches, and Ol Malo in Laikipia — another family-run lodge measured in generations rather than fiscal quarters — taught me that ownership continuity is the single best predictor of how a safari stay feels. The Madhvani family’s four generations in East Africa is the same signal at conglomerate scale.
Tip: the gorilla permit is the real booking, not the room — Uganda’s permits at US$800 per person are limited to eight visitors per habituated family per day and sell out months ahead in high season. Secure permits first, then build the lodge stay around the dates you’re granted.
How to Book
Full-board rates run from US$2,100 (low season) to US$3,360 (high season) per room for two, excluding permits and park fees; book via silverbacklodge.com or a safari specialist, who will typically bundle the permits. The lodge also sells its own Gorilla Trekking Safari package — three nights and four days from US$5,350 per person sharing (US$6,700 solo), valid 1 June to 31 August 2026, with the gorilla permits, the scheduled Entebbe–Kihihi flights and an Entebbe overnight included. Trek packages and transfers can be compared ahead: Bwindi gorilla trekking packages.
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This preview is based on official announcements — I haven’t stayed yet. Read more about how I review or visit my Work With Me page.
