Hotel Rwanda

The front entrance as not seen in the film "Hotel Rwanda."

The now famous pool areas.

The bar where there is live music on Friday nights.

             The most famous building in Rwanda is the Hotel des Mille Collines, better known to Americans as Hotel Rwanda.  The hotel is located in the center of Kigali, complete with a nice bar, pool, restaurant, and conference rooms.  The recently renovated hotel is a popular place to stay now thanks in large part to the movie.

            Hotel des Mille Collines is famous for being a shelter for thousands of Tutsis and Hutu sympathizers during the 1994 genocide.  The hotel manager, Paul Rusesabagina, bribed Hutu militias with money and alcohol until the refugees were able to flee under the safety of the UN.  Due to his heroic actions, thousands of Rwandans were saved from certain death. 

            The hotel is famous because of the critically acclaimed film “Hotel Rwanda” starring Don Cheadle.  However, the film was shot in South Africa and the hotel in the movie is not the actual hotel.  The films “Shake Hands With the Devil” and “Sometimes In April,” both about the 1994 genocide, shot on location in Rwanda and show the actual Mille Collines.

            Mille Collines is French for “A Thousand Hills.”  The hotel derives its name from the common phrase used to describe Rwanda, the “land of a thousand hills” because Rwanda’s entire landscape is tropical mountains.