When you think of Kenya or Africa in general, one of the thoughts are often the animals. Maybe you are from a country with very different wildlife from there and you want to experience it. Maybe you are from Africa, but from the other coast, so your wildlife is entirely different from Kenya. If you want to experience the animal side of Kenya in the capital here is where you should go.
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Where to stay in Nairobi
Tribe hotel – Check availability here
Radisson Blu Hotel – Check availability here
Emara Ole-Sereni – Check availability here
Nairobi National Park
This one is obvious, but it is the only place in the world where a capital has a national park within the city. If you ever see a picture of a lion or a zebra with skyscrapers in the backround, then that picture is taken from Nairobi National Park. The railway that is heading towards Mombasa is also crossing through the park and there is a chance your driver will drive you under it. Compared to Maasai Mara there is a bigger population of rhinos here, so if you missed them while out at safari in the larger parks, you will have your chance for redemption while visiting Nairobi National Park.
There are options to go for morning game drives or evening ones, if you want a bit more time maybe a private tour would suit you. If you do talk with Uber drivers or other guides you do an activities with, most of them will suggest taking you themselves and the prices are never bad. So that is also an option. Just make sure to clarify if the price you settle on is including or excluding the park entrance fee for the driver. Book you tour here
The Giraffe Centre
This is a very popular stop, not only for tourists, but for school excursions as well. It can get crowded, but it is a very short stop unless you sit down in the cafe or go shopping for souvenirs at their shop. Though many tour groups through Get Your Guide will take you here, it is fully possible to go by yourself. A guide is not neeed for this place and the people working there will take great care of you and explain to you all about the Rothschild giraffes and how the centre came to be. If you want more information it is also a small information centre there with pictures and more detailed explanations.
Is it not very touristy? It is, specially since so many tour groups stop by here. But by going here you are supporting a species of giraffes that were about to go extinct and you are helping the centre. This is also why it is a popular place for schools to visit, to learn about these giraffes in particular and conservation.
Also, it is kind of fun to be able to feed the giraffes. If they don`t want to be fed, they can retreat themselves away from you.
Nairobi Elephant Nursery
Also a visit many would call touristy, but it is also very sad. Many of the elephants here were on the verge of dying at a very young age before they got saved and transferred to Nairobi. Here they get milk every 3 hours, every day until they grow up and is later returned to the wild.
Elephants has a good memory and will remember what happened to them for their whole life. Which makes this visit even sadder. While you are there you can adopt an elephant or donate, but this voluntarily.
The entrance fee is 20 USD and visitation is only at 11AM for one hour. Besides the entrance fee you also have to pay the Nairobi National Park fee which varies depending on where you are from. Therefore you might as well visit Nairobi National Park on the same day as the baby elephants.
When I visited they also had two rhinos and one zebra. One of the rhinos were not shown as it is permanently blind, but the other two came out together. The rhino, Titan, and the zebra, Naughty, was brought in together on the same day after losing their moms. The keepers decided to put them together for the night to hopefully let them find support in eachother, the intention was to seperate them afterwards. Titan and Naughty had other plans and have stayed together ever since.
Check out my TikTok on these two bestfriends together here.
Horse riding in Karura Forest
With or without horse riding experience it is possible to join this experience. Karura forest is located north in Nairobi and is not far from the city centre, if you stay around the Gigiri area you will be very close to the forest itself. There are a lot of offers on this at Get Your Guide, but it is also possible to contact the stable directly. I did personally not do this, but if I had had one more day this would have been on my itinerary.
Nairobi Safari Walk
Located at the edge of Nairobi National Park is the Nairobi Safari Walk. If you have time and there is an animal you have not seen yet, here is your chance. Here you will walk on a raised wooden boardwalk while exploring three different areas; savannah, wetlands and forest. The only reason I did not go here, was that I wanted to see the wild animals in the national parks.
Nairobi Mamba Village
Is a popular attraction for tourists and locals. I first heard about this place from my Uber driver and I will admit I was a bit interested. When looking at their website I also learned that their restaurant specialized in crocodile meat, which caught my attention. Sadly, the day I was planning to go it was closed. But if you ever find yourself in Nairobi and want to try a full dish with crocodile meat after visiting the crocodile farm, head to Mamba Village.
Snake Park
If you are planning to visit Nairobi National Museum, you will have a chance to visit the snake park. Even if there are snakes at the savannah or any other safari you will do, they are hard to spot and you will probably never see them. If you want to see them, this is a good opportunity.
City Market
Though this is on my place to go if you do not want to see animals. That is because it is supposed to be a market, but on the roof of the butcher and meat area you can find the Marabou Stork looking and waiting for scraps to fall so it can pick it up. This was the closest I got to them, but I saw some toursits being visited in Maasai Mara by the storks while eating lunch. My guide told me they were waiting for food to fall there as well, so it seems like they show up where food might fall on the ground for them to pick up.
If you want more animals they are just a short day trip away from Nairobi or possible a longer stay out at the savannah.
Planning your visit to Nairobi?
Experience a Nairobi without the Animals
Nairobi is the capital of Kenya and though it is very likely you are planning to do a safari or two while in Kenya, Nairobi offers plenty of experiences for you that does not include animals.
Where to Stay in Nairobi
There are many great places to stay while in Nairobi, there are certain areas I did not consider after looking into them, but I was still left with many. Get some ideas and inside into how I went about finding my stays in Nairobi.
