I was in Virunga this summer and it was quite special and I would absolutely recommend it over Rwanda if you're willing to accept a bit of a more difficult process and journey.
I went on four gorilla treks and on average was with only one other tourist. In Rwanda, you'll usually be in a group of eight. This is significant as great viewing angles can be in short supply.
Other reasons to go:
-You get a behind the scenes view of the park - I got to see a demo of their ivory/poacher sniffing dogs, got to see the gorilla rehab center (and to meet Andre Baume, who was featured in the movie!), and lots of interaction with the rangers
-The gorilla permit fee is $400 instead of $750 in Rwanda ($600 in Uganda, admittedly this value is diminished if you stay in the expensive park lodging, whereas in Rwanda cheap places are possible)
-Trekking Mount Nyiragongo (active volcano) is really, really cool
-As soon as you cross the border, you are constantly in the hands of Virunga vehicles/lodging/guards (a Virunga car picks you up at the border post and an armed guard is inside)
I did my trekking in Uganda. It is $350 if you go during the right time of year. My group had 8 people, but I did not find the viewing angles limited. The only limitation with a bigger group is that you may be affected is someone is not physically capable of trekking to a remote spot. The gorillas are not in plain view, the scouts will tell you where they are.
"you are constantly in the hands of Virunga vehicles/lodging/guards"
I simply do not want to travel that way. :) Reminds me of being in South Africa. Very safe, provided you stay within your compound with high walls and electric fencing! The behind the scenes does sound amazing.
Angles - yeah, usually not so bad, but being alone or only with 1 other person is very special
Security - fair
$350 at right time of the year - by right time, you mean "bad"/rainy time when they offer discounts (May/Nov I believe) :) - I have had excellent experiences in the rain, but I'm not sure that I'd recommend a first timer go for that $350 rate
I met others who went gorilla trekking in Rwanda and told me the family they tracked was over a dozen. Amazing. Mine was about 7-8, but luckily I saw all the attractions (silverback, babies). I went at the end of November and had great weather until the very end.
Just getting to the camp was an adventure. Traveling in many parts of Africa is not easy. Learned a lot of the local language while riding in the front cab of a truck. I need to go back.
what are some of your main competitors? i know tableratings was big in the past but then got blocked out by pokerstars (and apparently now ftp as well).
hhdealer.com, hhmailer.com, handhq.com are the major competitors. After Black Friday there are lots of small localized (especially Eastern Europe) competitors. Poker Table Ratings also provide search, and we built something to do that too (PokerCloud) but ended up selling the tech and domain.
Its an interesting world though where only us, table ratings, and mailer actually do mining (as far as I know) and we sell at wholesale prices to some of the other resellers. And then of course there are lots of people who buy hands and without our consent resell them through forums, web sites etc and that is an ongoing battle. We all have interesting ways of marking our hands so we can track them back to users and ban them.
