My brother and I spent 3 days in Magashi Camp in August and it was truly amazing. I've had the good fortune of being able to visit 35 countries in the past few years and stay at a wide array of very high end properties. If I had to pick one place that was my overall favorite, it would be Magashi. This was my first trip to Africa so I can't directly compare to another safari lodge, but this place was so amazing I'm almost afraid to go somewhere else for fear of being disappointed. The experience here would be hard to beat. The camp sits on a lake surrounded by land that that is dedicated to the exclusive use of the camp. There is nobody around but you and your fellow camp guests. There were only 4 other people there during our stay. The lake is beautiful and you could not ask for a more peaceful place. We saw all of the big 5 animals within a couple days. The weather during our stay perfect, not exceeding around 80 degrees F in the day and cooling off to low 60s / high 50s at night.
Aside from the unbeatable location, our guide Adrian was the best thing going for this camp. He is just an encyclopedia of knowledge and we really enjoyed the time he spent with us on a daily basis. He is phenomenal at his job and generally an awesome person to talk with.
Food was another strong point for Magashi. There were not a lot of food choices at each meal, but the food they had was delicious. We didn't need more choices because everything we got was excellent. I've never come back home from a trip and I missed the food so much. The food at several of the high end hotels we stayed at in Rwanda seemed different to me compared to the food from high end restaurants in the rest of the world. Everything was just so fresh and wholesome, while tasting really good. Portion sizes were just right (not like in the USA where you'll be fat if you eat your whole plate). Everything just tasted better in Rwanda. I think this is because everything comes from local markets and farms. The agricultural system in Rwanda is not very developed and in some ways that is a good thing. There are no factory farms here. If you get the chance, visit a local market. The grocery buying situation outside Kigali is like how the USA was 150 years ago, which in some ways is a good thing if freshness and food quality are important to you.
There were a few things which could be impoved upon, but I don't hold this against the camp given it had only been open a month or two when we came, and they were actively fixing things when we were there. The biggest issue was hot water. Nobody told us the hot water supply was very limited. On day 1, the hot water ran out after my brother finished his shower and I was freezing cold when my turn came. Not cool for a $1,500 a night camp. On day 2 and 3 there was a ~2 min supply of hot water. If this was a normal problem here I'd knock several stars off this review, however camp staff explained they are working on solving this problem. They use solar heat and apparently the system doesn't work well on gloomy days. The environmentally conscious approach to hot water is nice, but it's just not acceptable to run out of hot water at this price point at the nicest safari camp in the country. There needs to be a backup system in place if the sun doesn't come out. It sounds like this is actively being addressed though, maybe it's fixed already. The second issue is the swimming pool. The water is dark brown and looks like you will get a disease if you swim in it. This should not be the case. I've designed off grid water filtration systems in the past and it's not that difficult to filter the water clear. The pool should be clear and chlorinated like a normal swimming pool. The same goes for the tap water. It is brown colored. This is not that hard to fix. The camp should invest in a treatment system to run all the well water through particulate filters, followed by carbon filters, and finally a UV filter to kill pathogens. If this was was done properly, the the tap water would be perfectly safe to drink. These systems are not super expensive or uncommon in off grid applications. I think for this caliber of camp it's not acceptable to have brown running water. The final area for improvement is the shuttle from Kigali. The vans are super uncomfortable. I would have arranged another form of transport if I knew ahead of time about these vans. It's a very long drive and the seats and legroom are terrible. It would be hard to find a worse van (no model sold in the North American market is this bad). If given an option between horrible van or paying more for a Range Rover, I'd take the Range Rover any day. That or any other luxury vehicle. Actually almost any a non luxury vehicle would be better than those vans. This would not be an issue for those taking a helicopter, but if you do that, you miss out on a quite a bit that you get to see from the road.
Lastly, please remember this is a camp. You are in a tent and there may be some bugs (we only had one small spider in room and some ants). It may get a little warm in the day and cool at night (beds is very warm and comfy though). That is all part of the experience though and shouldn't scare you off. The experience is closer to that of staying in a 5 star hotel than that of camping, but just be aware that it still a "tented camp".
All in all, coming here was one of the highlights of my life. I look forward to visiting again with my wife, hopefully soon.
