Nairobi Excursions
If staying with the city or its environs or passing the are a lot to do to pass time as you wait to connect to your flight onwards. The city tour includes the walk through the city centre starting with the city market to the Kenyatta International Conference Centre and the law courts and ending with the railway museum. A visit to the Maasai Market to buy souvenirs from the local craftsmen is recommended though you need to check where the market is located on the that day of the week.
Overnight trips to Amboseli, Tsavo East, Tsavo East, Aberdares, Olpejeta can be organized as well as day trips to Lake Naivasha, Lake Bogoria and Lake Nakuru for game drives and bird watching with the Lake region and the forests being the best spots for bird watching.
Places of interest in and around Nairobi:
Kenyatta International Conference Centre
The best place to get that far ranging view over the sprawling, congested metropolis that is Nairobi. From the saucer-shaped top of the conference center’s round viewing tower and depending on smog and fog, you might be able to see as far as the slums and the national park.
National Railway Museum
Here visitors can learn more about the history of Kenya’s railways and the Kenya/Uganda railway. It also houses some of the engines and rolling stock from the country’s colonial period.
Nairobi Museum
The largest museum in the country and it also houses the snake park within its premises. Here the visitors can learn about Nairobi, its history and culture. The museum was founded in 1910.
Nairobi National Park
Just outside Nairobi it is home to large herds of zebra, wildebeest, buffalo, giraffe, lion, cheetah, hippo, and over 400 species of birds. Good for half day and full day game drives. You can also visit the Nairobi Safari Walk, the Nairobi Animal Orphanage and educational centre to make people aware of wildlife and habitat conservation.
Daphne Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage
On the edge of Nairobi National park where orphaned baby elephants are brought to be taken care of until they are old enough to be released back into the wild and open to the public during feeding time 11am-12pm.
Giraffe Centre
(1hr) The Centre breeds the endangered Rothschild Giraffe and has conservation/education programmes for Kenyan children. It also has many warthogs and leopard tortoise. You can get close enough to feed and touch the giraffe.
US Embassy Memorial Site
The memorial site for the 212 people who lost their life on the 1998 bomb blast of the former US Embassy building located on the junction of Haile Selassie and Moi Avenue, reducing it to rubble.
The Bomas of Kenya
Portrays Kenya’s culture. Visitors can see exhibits of traditional Kenyan homes, artifacts, dances, music, and song.
The Mamba village
To see crocodiles during feeding time from 4pm and enjoy Nyama choma ‘roasted meat’ at leisure.
Karen Blixen Museum
Which was the home for Karen Blixen the Danish writer famous for her book Out of Africa which has been preserved as it was since it was built in 1912.
Kiambethu Tea Farm
A beautiful tea farm, about 40 minutes away from the city centre of Nairobi. The farmhouse is set within beautiful gardens surrounded by acres of tea and indigenous forest – home to the colobus monkey and plenty of other wildlife.
UN office at Nairobi
Sitting between the Karura Forest and the US Embassy, it houses international organizations such as the UN Environmental Programme, UN-HABITAT and is the basis of all UN operations in Africa. Africa’s first completely carbon- and water-neutral building was opened here in 2011. Guided tours allow visitors to see the major buildings and gifts from member states and walk along a nearby nature trail, while learning about the history and work of the UN.
Uhuru Gardens
located along Langata Road it was built in remembrance of the struggle for independence, which Kenya was granted in 1963. The monument is a 9 ft high triumphal column supporting a pair of clasped hands and the dove of peace, high over a statue of freedom fighter raising the flag. The monument is surround by fountains and lush-landscaped gardens.
Karura Forest
is the largest of three main gazette forest in Nairobi. The others are Ngong Forest and Oloolua Forest. One of the best forest parks to walk, run, ride, picnic in the city center. It is relative safe, well-marked and a very nice place to relax and enjoy nature. The River Cafe is a good place to rest from walk.
Kitengela Glass
This is imaginative place, beautiful art objects are made of recycled glass and exhibited in a lovely garden, in a shop different types of glassware are on sale. Guided presentations take place every 30 minutes.
The Anti-Gravity Hill (Kituluni Hill)
One of the strangest natural phenomena along the Kenyan Rift Valley is the point that the native Kamba mysteriously call “anti-gravity.” Young men gesticulate on the street to demonstrate the “miracle” to visitors for a small fee. They put a plastic bottle filled with water on the asphalt, which apparently rolls uphill. If you ask them if they gave the bottle a nudge, they empty the contents onto the street. The water flows slowly uphill. Those blindly taking a few steps would swear they are going downhill but the way undoubtedly goes up.
Kereita Forest zip line
Near Kiambu along the Nairobi-Nakuru highway is East-Africa’s longest zip line tour, offering over 2.4km of flight across the lush forest.
