Nairobi

Travel Advice for Senior: Nairobi

After a couple of weeks on safari in the bush, heading into the city was bittersweet. We longed for the daily ritual of game drives and seeing wildlife in their natural habitat that we had been experiencing, but Nairobi actually provided a nice transition.

Nairobi is a large city of nearly five million. It is the capital of Kenya and has the distinction of containing a national park in the city limits. Unfortunately, it also has one of the largest slums in Africa. Interesting though, even the corrugated tin slum homes have satellite dishes!

Our adventure started on our way from the airport when we asked our driver to take us somewhere to purchase a suitcase. We had only small soft side duffels filled with safari clothes and were getting ready to enter the next stage of our trip, which was ending in the Winelands by Cape Town (hence the extra suitcase!).

It ended up being a very interesting journey into some of the less frequented parts of town as our driver apparently didn’t know where to go to get a decent suitcase. However, after being instructed to keep ourselves away from the vehicle windows, we did see a bit of local life and some of the more unsavory parts of town. And no, we didn’t find a suitcase that day.

We did, however, safely arrive at the Tamarind Tree Hotel. The rooms were good and the pool very nice. The property, like most of the properties in Nairobi, were cordoned off with tall concrete security fences and with guards to monitor entry. A nice plus was that it was right around the corner from Carnivore, a restaurant that was on our list to try.

Carnivore’s focus is serving game similar the Brazilian equivalent in the US, only without the extended salad bar and appetizers. Carnivore is truly for meat lovers. There was a dizzying array of meat including crocodile, impala and zebra in addition to beef, chicken and pork that kept appearing at our table for us to try. The ambience was also intimate and pleasant on its own. Note that a guard did escort us back and forth to the hotel.

Back to Nairobi sights. First off was a drive to the Karen Blixen Home and Museum. Anyone remember the book and movie “Out of Africa”? She is the author of the book and upon whom the movie is based.

Second stop was the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Elephant Orphanage. Rescued elephant babies find a home here to be rehabilitated and returned to the wild later in their life. Many are abandoned or their mothers killed by poachers. It was huge fun watching the babies be fed from giant baby bottles. The caretakers, who obviously very much love the elephants, invite you to touch them sparingly and feed them provided grass.  Interestingly, elephants have rough hide and prickly hairs, not that fun to touch. It was a very informative stop and a very popular one. No one gets out of there without adopting an elephant!

Third stop was at the Giraffe Center. This center was created to educate Kenyan children on the importance of wildlife and to provide a sanctuary for several Rothschild Giraffes that had been endangered in the past but are now on their way back. The center provides hands-on experience in that you can feed the giraffes pellets from an elevated platform and if the guides like you and it’s not too crowded, you can embrace one while feeding it. What a wonderful experience.

We managed to accomplish all of this in basically one whole day. Exhausting to be sure, but very educational and a complete turnaround from the day prior searching for a suitcase in the less savory parts of town. There are many parts of Nairobi that we didn’t get the chance to see, but we did manage to have a great deal of fun in one day.   

Where we stayed: Tamarind Tree Hotel. Breakfast included. Nice accommodation.

How we got there: Flight from Masai Mara to Nairobi.This was part of a three-week private tour through Tanzania, Kenya and South Africa.

General Accessibility Information: Kenya is generally not considered very handicapped accessible, with limited wheelchair accessibility in most places. Some tour operators offer accessible tours and some high-end hotels are accessible. Nairobi National Park has barrier-free pathways for wheelchair users. Call in advance to verify and make specialty arrangements.See our sections on specialty apps and accessible travel for more on accessibility assistance.