nairobi- “The world’s only wildlife Capital”.
Best of Nairobi roadtrip itinerary. East Africa’s most cosmopolitan city, Nairobi is Kenya’s beating heart. And exciting, frenetic concrete jungle that counterpoints the natural beauty to be found elsewhere in the country.
If you’re interested in learning about Kenya’s culture and history. The city is home to a number of great stops including the extensive National Museum, and it’s also a great jumping off point for diving into the country’s varied culinary traditions. Nairobi also harbors a thrumming nightlife scene and an established cafe culture.
So believe it or not, the city has its own wildlife attractions. Including a fabulous national park on its doorstep and several reserves dedicated to the wellbeing of elephants, giraffes, rhinos and more. With so many activities woven into its urban web, Nairobi often comes as a pleasant surprise.
Best of Nairobi roadtrip itinerary
Best of Nairobi roadtrip itinerary – Bomas of Kenya
The talented resident artists at this cultural centre perform traditional dances and songs taken from the country’s various language groups. These including Arabic-influenced Swahili taarab music, Kalenjin warrior dances, Embu drumming and Kikuyu circumcision ceremonies. It’s touristy, of course, but still a spectacular afternoon out. The complex consists of a number of Bomas (villages), each constructed in the architectural style of Kenya’s major sub-groups.
The centre has such a high profile that the first meeting of the National Constitutional Conference was held here in 2003. Which producing the Bomas Draft of the new constitution.
It’s located at Langata, near the main gate of Nairobi National Park. Bus or matatu 125 and 126 run here from Nairobi train station (KSh80, 30 minutes). Get off at Magadi Rd, from where it’s about a 1km walk, clearly signposted on the right-hand side of the road. A taxi should cost KSh1500 to KSh2000. Note that if you bring a video camera there’s an extra admission charge.
Best of Nairobi roadtrip itinerary – David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust
Occupying a plot within Nairobi National Park, this nonprofit trust was established in 1977. That was shortly after the death of David Sheldrick, and who served as the antipoaching warden of Tsavo National Park. Together with his wife, Daphne, David pioneered techniques for raising orphaned black rhinos and elephants and reintroducing them into the wild. The trust retains close links with Tsavo for these and other projects. The centre is one of Nairobi’s most popular attractions, and deservedly so.
After entering at 11am, visitors are escorted to a small viewing area centred on a muddy watering hole. A few moments later, much like a sports team marching out onto the field. The animal handlers come in alongside a dozen or so baby elephants. For the first part of the viewing, the handlers bottle-feed the baby elephants – a heartwarming sight.
Once the little guys and girls have drunk their fill, they proceed to romp around like toddlers. The elephants seem to take joy in misbehaving in front of their masters. So don’t be surprised if a few break rank and start rubbing up against your leg! The baby elephants also use this designated time slot for their daily mud bath, which makes for some great photos. Thus you should keep your guard up, as they’ve been known to spray a tourist or two with a trunkful of mud.
While the elephants gambol, the keepers talk about the individual orphans and their stories. Explanations are also given about the broader picture of the orphans project and some of the other projects in which the trust is involved. There’s also the opportunity to ‘adopt’ one of the elephants. For those who do, there’s a chance to visit when your elephant returns to the stockades around 5pm every evening – advance bookings essential.
The trust is also home to a number of orphaned rhinos, many of which, like the baby elephants, mingle with wild herds in Nairobi National Park during the day. One exception is Maxwell, a blind rhino who lives in a large stockade for his protection.
To get here by bus or matatu, take 125 or 126 from Moi Ave and ask to be dropped off at the KWS central workshop on Magadi Rd (KSh80, 50 minutes). It’s about 1km from the workshop gate to the Sheldrick centre – it’s signposted and KWS staff can give you directions. Be advised that at this point you’ll be walking in the national park, which does contain predators, so stick to the paths. A taxi from the city centre should cost between KSh1500 and KSh2000.
nirobi national park
Top choice in Nairobi
Welcome to Kenya’s most accessible yet incongruous safari experience. Set on the city’s southern outskirts, Nairobi National Park (at 117 sq km, one of Africa’s smallest) has abundant wildlife that can, in places, be viewed against a backdrop of city skyscrapers and planes coming in to land – it’s one of the only national parks on earth bordering a capital city. Remarkably, the animals seem utterly unperturbed by it all.
The park has acquired the nickname ‘Kifaru Ark’, a testament to its success as a rhinoceros (kifaru in Kiswahili) sanctuary. The park is home to the world’s densest concentration of black rhinos (more than 50), though even the park’s strong antipoaching measures couldn’t prevent poachers from killing one of the rhinos in August 2013 and then again in January 2014. They were the first such attacks in six years, and reflect the current sky-high Asian black-market price for rhino horn.
Lions and hyenas are also commonly sighted within the park; rangers at the entrance usually have updates on lion movements. You’ll need a bit of patience and a lot of luck to spot the park’s resident cheetahs and leopards. Other regularly spotted species include gazelles, warthogs, zebras, giraffes, ostriches and buffaloes.
The park’s wetland areas sustain approximately 400 bird species, which is more than in the whole of the UK.
Matatus (minibuses) 125 and 126 (KSh50, 30 to 45 minutes) pass by the main park entrance from the train station. You can also go by private vehicle. Nairobi tour companies offer half-day safaris (from US$75 per person).
Apart from the main entrance, which lies 7km from the city centre, there are other gates on Magadi Rd and the Athi River gate; the latter is handy if you’re continuing on to Mombasa, Amboseli or the Tanzanian border. The roads in the park are passable with 2WDs, but travelling in a 4WD is never a bad idea, especially if the rains have been heavy.
Unless you already have your own vehicle, the cheapest way to see the park is on the shuttle, a big Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) bus that leaves the main gate at 2pm on Sunday for a 2½-hour tour. You need to book in person at the main gate by 1.30pm, but do call ahead if you want to do the tour, as times can change.
hippo pool point
Inside of Nairobi National Park There is the best place to see concentration of hippos.
national museum
Top choice in Nairobi
Kenya’s wonderful National Museum, housed in an imposing building amid lush, leafy grounds just outside the centre, has a good range of cultural and natural-history exhibits. Aside from the exhibits, check out the life-size fibreglass model of pachyderm celebrity Ahmed, the massive elephant that became a symbol of Kenya at the height of the 1980s poaching crisis. He was placed under 24-hour guard by President Jomo Kenyatta; he’s in the inner courtyard next to the shop.
The museum’s permanent collection is entered via the Hall of Kenya, with some ethnological exhibits such as the extraordinary Kalenjin cloak made from the skins of Sykes Monkeys and a mosaic map of Kenya made from the country’s butterflies. But this is a mere prelude. In a room off this hall is the Birds of East Africa exhibit, a huge gallery of at least 900 stuffed specimens. In an adjacent room is the Great Hall of Mammals, with dozens of stuffed specimens. Off the mammals room is the Cradle of Humankind exhibition, the highlight of which is the Hominid Skull Room – an extraordinary collection of skulls that describes itself as ‘the single most important collection of early human fossils in the world’.
Upstairs, the Historia Ya Kenya display is an engaging journey through Kenyan and East African history. Well presented and well documented, it offers a refreshingly Kenyan counterpoint to colonial historiographies. Also on the 1st floor, the Cycles of Life room is rich in ethnological artefacts from Kenya’s various tribes and ethnic groups, while at the time of writing there was also an exhibition (which may become permanent) of Joy Adamson’s paintings covering Kenya’s tribes.
If you’re keen to really get under the skin of the collection (or the adjoining Snake Park), consider a tour with one of the volunteer guides who linger close to the entrance of both the National Museum and the Snake Park. Tours are available in English, French and possibly other languages. There’s no charge for guide services, but a tip is appropriate.
Karen Blixen’s House & Museum
Top choice in Nairobi
If you loved Out of Africa, you’ll love this museum in the farmhouse where author Karen Blixen lived between 1914 and 1931. She left after a series of personal tragedies, but the lovely colonial house has been preserved as a museum. Set in expansive gardens, the museum is an interesting place to wander around, but the movie was actually shot at a nearby location, so don’t be surprised if things don’t look entirely as you expect!
Guides (nonmandatory but useful) are included in the admission fee, but they do expect a tip.
The museum is about 2km from Langata Rd. The easiest way to get here by public transport is by matatu 24 via Kenyatta Ave, which passes right by the entrance. A taxi from the city centre should cost KSh1500 to KSh2000.
Giraffe centre
Top choice in Nairobi
This centre, which protects the highly endangered Rothschild’s giraffe, combines serious conservation with enjoyable activities. You can observe, hand-feed or even kiss one of the giraffes from a raised wooden structure, which is quite an experience. You may also spot warthogs snuffling about in the mud, and there’s an interesting self-guided forest walk through the adjacent Gogo River Bird Sanctuary.
This is one of Kenya’s good-news conservation stories. In 1979 Jock Leslie-Melville (the Kenyan grandson of a Scottish earl) and his wife, Betty, began raising a baby giraffe in their Langata home. At the time, when their African Fund for Endangered Wildlife (AFEW) was just getting off the ground, there were no more than 120 Rothschild’s giraffes (which differ from other giraffe subspecies in that there is no patterning below the knee) in the wild. The Rothschild’s giraffe had been pushed to the brink of extinction by severe habitat loss in western Kenya.
Today the population numbers more than 300, and the centre has successfully released these charismatic creatures into Lake Nakuru National Park (home to around 45 giraffes), Mwea National Reserve, Ruma National Park and Nasalot National Reserve.
To get here from central Nairobi by public transport, take matatu 24 via Kenyatta Ave to the Hardy shops and walk from there. Alternatively, take matatu 26 to Magadi Rd, and walk through from Mukoma Rd. A taxi from the city centre should cost around KSh1500
Nairobi safari walk
Just outside the main entrance to Nairobi National Park, off Langata Rd, this safari walk is a sort of zoo-meets-nature-boardwalk, with lots of birds as well as other wildlife, including a pygmy hippo, a bongo, an albino zebra and a white rhino, as well as primates and big cats. Children in particular love the chance to get closer to the animals than they’re likely to be able to do in a national park.
Kazuri Beads & Pottery Centre
Top choice in Nairobi
An interesting diversion in Karen, this craft centre was started by an English expat in 1975 as a place where single mothers could learn a marketable skill and achieve self-sufficiency. From humble beginnings, the workforce has grown to over 100. A free tour takes you into the various factory buildings, where you can observe the process from the moulding of raw clay to the glazing of the finished products.
There’s also a gift shop with fixed prices.
nairobi -restaurants
Find top dishes and amazing places to dine within the city of Africa
Carnivore
Top choice in Nairobi
love it or hate it, Carnivore serves up Kenya’s most famous nyama choma (barbecued meat) – it’s been an icon for tourists, expats and wealthier locals for over 25 years. At the entrance is a huge barbecue pit laden with real swords of beef, pork, lamb, chicken and farmed game meats such as crocodile and ostrich. It’s a memorable night out.
UK magazine Restaurant named Carnivore one of the 50 best restaurants in the world in 2002 and 2003, when you could dine here on exotic game meats. Its legend seemed assured. In recent years, however, strict new hunting laws mean that zebra, hartebeest, kudu and the like are now off the menu, and you have to be content with camel, ostrich and crocodile in addition to more standard offerings. You also get soup, salads and sauces to go with the meats.
The experience works on a simple all-you-can-eat basis: as long as the paper flag on your table is flying, beautifully attired waiters will keep bringing the meat, which is carved right at the table. If you’re in need of a breather, you can tip the flag over temporarily before eventually admitting defeat.
At lunchtime you can get to Carnivore by matatu 126 from the city centre – the turn-off is signposted just past Wilson Airport, and from the stop it’s a 1km walk. At night it’s best to hire a taxi, which should cost about KSh1000 each way, depending on your bargaining skills.
Talisman
Top choice in Nairobi
This classy cafe-bar-restaurant remains fashionable with the Karen in-crowd and it rivals any of Kenya’s top eateries for imaginative international food. The comfortable lounge-like rooms mix modern African and European styles, while the courtyard provides some welcome air. Classics such as feta and coriander samosas and twice-cooked pork belly perk up the palate no end.
Roadhouse Grill
Top choice in Nairobi
Out beyond Milimani in the west, Roadhouse Grill is widely touted by locals as the best place for nyama choma (barbecued meat). The meat (choose the goat) is prepared just as it should be: medium rare and perfectly tender. Order a side of ugali (a maize or cassava-flour staple) and some kachumbari (tomato-and-onion salsa), and you’re halfway towards being Kenyan.
It’s a wonderful place at any time, but it’s perfect for the after-nightclub munchies just before dawn. There are other branches around town.
nairobi accommodation
Find the best hotels and places to spend the night waiting for the journey
Giraffe Manor
Top choice in Nairobi
Built in 1932 in typical English style, this elegant manor is situated on 56 hectares, much of which is given over to the adjacent Giraffe Centre. As a result, you may find a Rothschild’s giraffe peering through your bedroom window first thing in the morning. Yet the real appeal here is that you’re treated as a personal guest of the owners.
You can use their chauffeur, sample their wines and dine in lavish excess. Literary buffs should ask for the Karen Blixen room, decked out with furniture the famous author gave the owners when she left Africa for the last time. Otherwise the rooms sport a classic safari look, with dark woods, Persian carpets and four-poster beds.
Sarova Stanley Hotel
Top choice in Nairobi
ANairobi classic. The original Stanley Hotel was established in 1902 – past guests include Ernest Hemingway, Clark Gable, Ava Gardner and Gregory Peck. The latest version boasts large and luxurious rooms and a timeless lobby characterised by plush green leather banquettes, opulent chandeliers and lots of dark-wood trimmings. Rates drop slightly from Friday to Sunday.
A highlight is the Thorn Tree Café, which inspired the name of Lonely Planet’s online community. Rates vary considerably with the seasons and availability, and are generally cheaper at weekends.
Wildebeest Eco Camp
Top choice in Nairobi
This fabulous place is arguably Nairobi’s outstanding budget option. The atmosphere is relaxed yet switched on, and the accommodation is spotless and great value, however much you’re paying. The deluxe garden tents are as good as those at many exclusive safari places – for a fraction of the price, although the absence of mosquito nets is an issue. A great Nairobi base.
There’s an on-site restaurant serving breakfast, light lunches and buffet dinners on a lovely elevated terrace.
Norfolk Hotel
Top choice in Nairobi
Built in 1904 but overhauled many times since, Nairobi’s oldest hotel was the place to stay in colonial times. It remains the traditional starting point for elite safaris, and Lord Delamere Terrace is still Nairobi’s most famous meeting place. The hotel’s leafy grounds give it an almost rustic feel, although the recently renovated rooms have lost some of that classic Norfolk look.
Boma Nairobi
Top choice in Nairobi
Owned by the Red Cross, this smart hotel is popular with NGOs and businesspeople alike for its quiet location – equally handy for (if not especially close to) the centre, Nairobi National Park and the airport – its excellent and well-equipped, large and colourful rooms, and professional service. Its neighbouring property, Boma Inn, has altogether simpler rooms (US$130).
Tribe
Nairobi
Tribe, with its modern rooms, suites and split-level lofts, is full of colour and flair. It’s handily adjacent to the Village Market shopping centre, and guests have access to complimentary wifi, an outdoor pool, gym and tranquil spa. There’s a rooftop bar, flame-grill restaurant and Suite 101 (in the lobby) has pastries and coffee).
Nairobi Serena Hotel
Nairobi
This member of the top-notch Serena chain has a fine sense of individuality, with its international-class facilities displaying a touch of safari style. Of particular note is the on-site Maisha health spa. Opt for one of the amazing garden suites, where you can take advantage of your own private patio, complete with minipergola.
As the hotel is right opposite Uhuru Park, avoid walking anywhere from here at night.
Lotos Inn & Suites
Nairobi
Despite the bizarre spelling of its name (the hotel logo is a lotus), this fantastic addition to Nairobi’s hotel scene offers spacious, great-value and super-comfortable rooms within easy walking distance of Westlands’ dining and nightlife. There’s a great breakfast buffet in the top-floor restaurant and friendly staff. The only negative is the lack of mosquito nets or suitable prophylaxis – bring your own.
Ole Sereni Hotel
Nairobi
Ole Sereni is as close as Nairobi comes to having an airport hotel (it’s 12km from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport), and some rooms (small but stylish) overlook Nairobi National Park. The terrific restaurant has a terrace overlooking the park and there are shops, bars, a swimming pool, and a real buzz when things get busy. The professional service is another plus.
Fairview Hotel
Nairobi
An excellent choice that puts many of the more prestigious and pricier places in town to shame. The Fairview is nicely removed from the central hubbub and defined by its winding paths and greenery-filled grounds. It all creates a refined atmosphere, especially around the charming courtyard restaurant.
Meridian Court Hotel
Nairobi
The elaborate lobby here is rather more prepossessing than the rooms, but it’s hardly worth complaining when you’re essentially getting a suite for the price of a standard room. There’s no great luxury involved, and some of the furnishings have seen better days, but the pool, bar and restaurants make it terrific value in this price range.
The superior rooms are rarely worth the extra cost.
Khweza Bed & Breakfast
Nairobi
This good-value option is more functional than charming, but it offers clean, colourfully painted rooms with wrought-iron furnishings and mosquito nets in a central location between the city centre and Westlands.
Nairobi-places to shop
Find the best places to shop in Nairobi
Souk
Top choice in Nairobi
Some of Kenya’s more creative artists, photographers, leatherworkers and other high-quality artisans and artists have come together under one roof – the result is one of Kenya’s most discerning shopping experiences. It shares premises with the equally excellent Tin Roof Cafe.
