NAIROBI

Nairobi is Kenya's capital and biggest city, and therefore a largely unavoidable stop-over on any Kenyan safari. This is where most Kenyan safaris either start or end, when you are met at the airport by your guide or transfer driver, who will then navigate you through Nairobi's sometimes mad roads to take you to your hotel.

Nairobi founded in 1899 by British engineers who were building a railway line to link the coastal town of Mombasa to the interior. When they got to the area that is now Nairobi, they encountered a swamp and the edge of Great Rift Valley which they did not have the technology to traverse at the time. The railway line stalled and the town was born out of the offices of the railway headquarters.

Getting there
An important thing to know is that Nairobi has two airports, Jomo Kenyatta Airport which serves the international flights, and Wilson Airport which serves all the domestic safari flights. Getting between the two can take a while due to the traffic which is why a night before or after your safari is often advisable.

Activities
Despite it being the usual busy African city, it does have some interesting excursions to do for stopovers, most of them located in the tranquil Karen & Langata districts. It is said that the district of Karen was named after the Danish writer Karen Blixen who lived here and who's house has been turned into a museum, now being one of the attractions here.

Then there is the giraffe sanctuary, which is home to a group of rare Rothschild giraffes that you can interact with and feed. There are even raised platforms that take you up to giraffe eye-level, which is fantastic.

You will also find the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage, which adopts and raises orphaned baby elephants before reintroducing them into the wild. You can adopt an elephant here to support the project and if you do so and you happen to be in the city for an afternoon as well, you will be allowed to go back for free and see how the carers take the little giants to bed - a very unique thing to experience.

Nairobi is also home to a national park, containing lions, leopards, rhinos, giraffes, impalas, wildebeest, zebra and more. There are lodges inside Nairobi National Park, meaning it is possible to start your safari when you arrive in the city. It isn't the prettiest and definitely the most authentic park, but definitely unique, with Nairobi's skyline in the background.

where to stay...

From our visits to Nairobi, we have first-hand knowledge of the hotels and below you can find the ones we most commonly use. Those hotels include mainly our favourites sorted from low-key to deluxe, which are usually smaller hotels with very personalised service, but also some bigger places, if they are the best or only option available.
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