We’ve done your research for you! Read on for our best picks of Nairobi’s many attractions – for both locals and travellers to check out.
THE RIFT VALLEY
NAIROBI JAVA HOUSE
Looking for somewhere to have a casual business meeting, or just a great place to stop for a bite to eat while off on your adventures? You can’t go wrong with the home of Kenya’s finest roasted coffee. Serving breakfast, lunch and dinner, Nairobi Java House is a great place to do some people watching while you have some well-deserved down time between adventures.
KAREN BLIXEN MUSEUM
All it takes is a 10km drive out of Nairobi to experience this piece of preserved history. The museum is the former home of the acclaimed Danish author of “Out of Africa”, and has been kept in the exact condition she left it in as a tribute to a different time in Kenya. You can even see the lantern she would leave on the porch to let her lover, Denis Finch Hatton, know she was home.
GIRAFFE MANOR
A more uniquely African experience you probably won’t have! At the Giraffe Manor, giraffes roam the grounds freely,
every now and then popping their heads in through doors and windows for a quick hello with guests.
CARNIVORE RESTAURANT
You can’t visit Nairobi and not try out the famed nyamachoma (braaied meat) of Carnivore. The restaurant was voted one of the top 50 restaurants in the world by UK magazine two years running, and although recent stricter laws have taken exotic meats such as zebra, hartebeest and kudu off the menu, you can still try out some pretty unusual offerings.
NAIROBI NATIONAL PARK
The only national park in the world that borders a capital city, a visit to the Nairobi National Park with ensure views of nature tinged with civilization like you will get nowhere else.
NATIONAL MUSEUM
Along with a healthy amount of cultural and natural history exhibits, the National Museum is also home to a life-sized fibreglass model of Ahmed, the massive elephant who became a symbol of Kenya at the height of the 1980s poaching crisis, in the inner courtyard next to the museum’s shop.
DAVID SHELDRICK WILDLIFE TRUST
This is the most successful elephant orphan rescue and rehabilitation program in the world. To date, DSWT has successfully hand-reared more than 150 baby orphaned baby elephants, and continues to actively work against poaching of both elephants and rhinos.
Have you visited any of these attractions, or have another to add? Leave a comment and let us know!