The Retreat by Heaven
CEDARBERG RATING
Luxury
Overview
The Retreat is a 12-room luxury boutique hotel located on a tree-lined street close to the centre of Kigali. Plus it's only 20 minutes from the airport. It is Kigali’s luxury eco-friendly resort and features solar electricity, organic toiletries, locally-crafted furniture from a Tanzanian sustainable teak farm. Other welcome facilities include a yoga and meditation room, spa, large heated saltwater swimming pool with Jacuzzi as well as an open-air fitness centre.
There are 3 Deluxe rooms and 9 Superior suites, all decorated in a simple yet warm contemporary style. Each has bamboo wood floors and sustainable teak furniture. The deluxe bedrooms (40 m²) have a sitting are, furnished patio outside and a stylish bathroom with rainfall shower. The Superior suites (60 m²) are larger with a furnished front balcony as well as a private back deck with outside shower. The luxurious bathroom has indoor rain shower and double vanity. (One suite only also has a bath.)
All rooms feature air-conditioning, plasma TV, safe, desk with phone, complimentary wifi, mini-bar, tea & coffee making facilities, luxury linen and pillow menu. They are also wheelchair accessible.
Dining at the Retreat
Here you have a choice of 2 restaurants, one on site and a sister restaurant next door. Fusion Restaurant, with its Swahili-inspired pool bar, offers delicious farm-to-table international cuisine. Fusion takes its culinary traditions from Italy, Mauritius and Morocco, and makes them its own. From here you can enjoy a stunning vista over the city. Next door is Heaven, one of Kigali’s top restaurants, which is reached through the Retreat’s “Stairway to Heaven”! It focuses on innovative modern Rwandan & pan-African cuisine using the freshest of local ingredients.
Interesting Half & Full day Tours
The Retreat also offers innovative, curated cultural experiences and activities in and around Kigali. These include a morning city tour, fashion tour, art & culture tour, local life walking tour, culinary tour and even a coffee masterclass tour. Plus full day tours range from a visit to Nyamata genocide side with a reconciliation experience, rural life tour and coffee farm tour.
At A Glance
Good Food & Wine
Swimming pool
Private Plunge Pool
Restaurants
Spa
Wifi on premises
In Pictures
The Retreat by Heaven on the map
Rooms
Deluxe King Room
Room size 40 m²
This room features:
1 King bed
Furnished patio
Internet - Free WiFi
Entertainment - Plasma TV with premium channels
Food & Drink - Refrigerator, minibar, coffee/tea maker, complimentary unlimited purified water and 24-hour room service
Sleep - Pillowtop bed, Organic UK Naturalmat mattress, British linens, a duvet, a pillow menu, and turndown service
Bathroom - Private bathroom, rainfall showerhead, organic amenities (shampoo, conditioner, body lotion), single Duravit sink, teak wood vanity
Practical - Safe, desk, and phone, wheelchair accessible
Comfort - Air conditioning and daily housekeeping
Accessibility - Wheelchair accessible
Adjoining - 2 rooms adjoining (beds cannot be setup as Twin)
Non-Smoking
Superior King Suite
Room size 60 m²
This room features:
1 King Bed (Emperor King size - 2 meter x 2 meter)
(4 rooms can be configured as Twin)
Furnished front balcony & private back deck
Layout - Separate sitting area
Internet - Free WiFi
Entertainment - Plasma TV with premium channels
Food & Drink - Refrigerator, minibar, coffee/tea maker, complimentary unlimited purified water and 24-hour room service
Sleep - Pillowtop bed, Organic UK Naturalmat mattresses, British linens, a duvet, a pillow menu, and turndown service
Bathroom - Private bathroom with indoor and outdoor rain showers, organic amenities (shampoos, conditioner, body lotion), double Duravit sink, teak wood vanity
(2 rooms have a bathtub and showers)
Practical - Safe, desk, and phone
Comfort - Air conditioning and daily housekeeping
Non-Smoking
Luxury Pool Villa
In summer of 2021, we will open 8 brand new luxurious villas at The Retreat, each featuring a private saltwater heated plunge pool, and bedrooms with full living areas and a total of nearly 120 square meters of indoor and outdoor private living space.
The Retreat in Kigali – staff review
The Retreat is probably my first choice in terms of Kigali Hotels. As it has a little bit more character and life compared to the larger branded hotels such as the Serena or Marriott. It offers good-sized contemporary rooms with a minimalist feel to them. In the Superior rooms, there’s a lovely stylish bathroom with an indoor shower which leads out into the outdoor shower. This in turn leads out to a small courtyard garden with comfy chairs. All very charming and non-corporate!
The Retreat has Fusion restaurant as well as an attractive pool bar which opens out onto the pool terrace. I liked the food - tasty and well-presented. But it was rather pricey for what you got. But perhaps I am spoilt by the choices in Cape Town? However the setting is very charming with views down over the city lights. But I felt that they could have made more of this with a more interesting table decor (It was very plain). However I did like the fact that you could choose to eat at Fusion or at Heaven, which is the siste restaurant next door. It serves modern Rwandan dishes.
Talking of Heaven, you can also stay at the Heaven Residences which are on the other side of Heaven restaurant. These are more modest in price and style but still very pleasant with the same proximity to the two restaurants, with a very short walk to either.
