5 Things To Do in Nairobi

What do you do if you have a day in Nairobi e.g. waiting for your Intrepid safari tour to start….

Here’s a few things that I did or were suggested to me:

I easily arranged a car from my hotel (The Kivi Millimani Hotel) to go visit the giraffes. The cost for the car is around 4,000 KSh or $45-50. Entry to the giraffe centre was

Feeding pellets are given out by the rangers – these giraffes are used to human interaction – in fact one guy on my safari trip held the pellet in his mouth!! Eurghh giraffe kiss!

Hello!

Warthog resting after snaffling the left over pellets from the floor where the giraffes couldn’t reach them!

There’s a shop and a cafe at the centre too – you don’t need much time to visit here and feed the giraffes – you can easily combine with the next 2 activities as they are close by:

Now I didn’t get time to visit the elephant orphanage due to water issues in my hotel (there was none til 11am!). Visit the elephant orphanage in the morning as they aren’t open all day, if you adopt an elephant for an extra donation then I think they will open specially for you….

Normal cost is 500 KSh and you need to visit between 11am -12 when the babies get fed.

Famous for writing Out of Africa, which was made into a film, (I’ve neither read the book or seen the film – oops!), Karen Blixen’s house on the old coffee plantation in Karen (guess what, the area was named after her!) is now a museum.

For 1,400 KSh you get a personal guide around the house with description of her life and how they’ve restored it here, including obtaining some of the original furniture, with the help of the Danish government (she was a Danish citizen).

No pictures allowed inside so here is the outside of the house.

Views across the garden to the mountains where her lover was buried.

The old machinery for the coffee plantation – separating the bean from the fruit and drying it for transportation.

The lady herself on a game hunt.

I think I would have gotten more out of the visit if I knew her story beforehand. Find out more here.

There is a little shop at the house for souvenirs and also a coffee shop down the road to sample the local coffee.

Only a few km out from the centre of Nairobi is the National Park. Here you can do a safari walk and see some of the local animals. I didn’t do this due to time constraints – but it’s super close to the centre and worth a visit if you’re not actually going on safari (e.g. your’re just visiting Nairobi for a short while or transiting pre/post climbing Kilimanjaro).

The cost is $30.

Now this is a bit of a Nairobl institution – think of any animal you’d like to eat, including ostrich & crocodile and they will serve it up (not bush meat though!). It operates like a Brazilian BBQ restaurant where they come around with the meat on skewers or on the bone and slice it off at the table. When you are full you indicate this by taking down your table’s flag.

Ps Nairobi is also known as Nai-robbery so be careful with your valuables and belongings – our hotel wouldn’t recommend going anywhere without their taxis and I took my purse in my bra – similar to when in Quito!

Keep tuned to the blog to find out more about my Intrepid safari in the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater, including a dawn balloon safari!