Nairobi
Kenya
A national park inside the city limits, and lions with a skyline behind them
Photo by Amani Nation on Unsplash
Photos by Grace Nandi, Kenny Murgor and Terry Granger on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of Kenya
June to October (the long dry season), January to February
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 200mm in Apr
Where it is
1.29°S, 36.82°E Open in Google Maps
Things to do
A week easily- Do a dawn game drive in Nairobi National Park, where rhino and lion are seen against the skyline; the entry fee is paid by card or M-Pesa, never in cash
- Book the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust’s elephant orphans online before you come — the public visit is one hour a day, late morning, and fills
- Feed the Rothschild giraffes at the Giraffe Centre in Lang’ata, then go on to the Karen Blixen Museum nearby
- Budget your day around the traffic, not the distance: ten kilometres can take an hour at rush hour, so do one side of town per day
- Spend an afternoon at the National Museum for the human-origins gallery, which is the reason to go
- Shop at the Maasai Market, which moves around the city by day of the week, and haggle
Nairobi travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget Kenya
Mid-rangeForex bureaux in the malls give better rates than the banks and far better than the airport. Bring clean, recent dollar or euro notes; old or torn ones are refused. Kenya pays by M-Pesa, the phone money system, and a visitor SIM from Safaricom at the airport makes taxis, cafés and small shops far easier. National park fees are cashless — online through eCitizen, by card or by M-Pesa.
ATMs & cards
Equity, KCB, Standard Chartered and Absa machines inside the malls — Westgate, Sarit, The Junction, Yaya — are the ones to use. Withdraw in daylight, and not from a street machine in the CBD. Kenyan banks charge their own fee on top of yours, so take out more, less often.
Avoid these
- street machines in the CBD
- airport arrivals machines, which give a poor rate
- withdrawing after dark
Use these instead
- Equity
- KCB
- Standard Chartered
- Absa — inside the malls
Banks charge their own fee on top of yours, so take out more, less often, and decline the conversion offer. M-Pesa covers most small payments once you have a local SIM.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of Kenya
Stay alertStreet crime is the issue, not violence against visitors: phones snatched through open car windows in traffic, bags taken on busy pavements, and muggings when walking after dark. The answer is simple and everyone local follows it — take an Uber or Bolt at night, keep the car window up with the phone out of sight, and do not walk the CBD after the offices empty. Nairobi sits at 1,795 metres: nights are cool, and the sun is stronger than the temperature suggests. The UK FCDO advises against travel to parts of north-eastern Kenya near the Somali border, not to Nairobi.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (9 areas)
Worth more attention
- Nairobi Central Business District — after dark, when the offices empty — take a car rather than walking even short distances
- Phones and bags visible at an open car window in slow traffic, which is the commonest theft visitors meet
- Walking anywhere after dark, including short distances between a restaurant and a hotel
- Unofficial taxis and anyone offering a ride outside the airport — book through an app or the hotel
- Ngong Hills — go with a group or a ranger from the gate rather than alone
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa Kenya visa rules
Travel authorisation requiredup to 90 days$30 plus processing
Kenya replaced its visa with an Electronic Travel Authorisation that every visitor needs, including nationalities that were previously visa-free. Apply at least three days ahead.
Other passports
Travel authorisation requiredup to 90 days$30 plus processing
The ETA applies to nearly every nationality.
How to get it: Apply at etakenya.go.ke with a passport scan, a photo, and your accommodation and return flight details. Only that domain is official.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Before you fly: travel authorisation
Kenya eTARequired
At least 72 hours before you fly.
Have these in front of you before you start:
- passport
- a passport photo
- flight number
- the full address of your first night
- your onward or return flight date
Use the official link above. Sites that charge a "service fee" to submit one of these for you are not the government, and they want the same passport details the real form does.
Travel tipsHealth & emergencies all of Kenya
LimitedRequired to enter
- Yellow fever certificate if arriving from a country where yellow fever is present — including via a long layover in one
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Hepatitis A
- Typhoid
- Tetanus up to date
- Malaria prophylaxis — the Mara is a malaria area, though Nairobi itself is not
- Rabies for longer stays
- Cholera for extended rural stays
Getting treated
Nairobi has the best hospitals in East Africa and they are genuinely good. In the Mara you are hours from any of them by road, so camps rely on the AMREF Flying Doctors air ambulance — check whether your camp holds cover, and whether your insurance does.
Malaria prophylaxis is strongly advised for the Mara. Do not drink the tap water. Altitude in Nairobi (1,795m) is mild but noticeable on the first day.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
GoodNyama choma — goat or beef grilled and eaten with kachumbari and ugali — is the meal Nairobi actually eats, in a local joint rather than at the tourist version. Chapati and beans for lunch, mandazi with tea in the morning, and Ethiopian and Indian food that is as good as anywhere in East Africa. Drink bottled or filtered water.
Travel tipsNightlife
A big, sociable and late city evening: rooftop bars, live bands and clubs that run until morning at the weekend, concentrated in a few areas you reach by car.
- Westlands — most of the bars and clubs, within a few streets
- Kilimani — restaurants and bars, a little calmer
- K1 Klubhouse — the open-air club in Parklands, and its weekend flea market
- Karen — garden restaurants and an earlier, quieter evening
Closing: Late — Westlands goes on until dawn on Fridays and Saturdays.
Take an app taxi between every stop, including short ones, and have the driver wait while you get inside.
Getting around
Workable- UberWorks here
- BoltWorks here
- LittleWorks here
- inDriveWorks here
Little the Kenyan one
- From the airport
- JKIA to central Nairobi KSh 1,500–2,500
- Against a taxi
- Much cheaper than a hotel car and the standard way to move in Nairobi.
A boda-boda motorbike is faster and cheaper and is also how most road injuries here happen.
Time zone and your working day
Africa/Nairobi — 7 hours ahead of you
1 hour of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — 09:00–10:00 your time, 16:00–17:00 theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 02:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 02:00–10:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
eSIM
A data eSIM for Kenya, installed before you fly and working the moment you land:
Works here
Works hereRevolut No local plan
Must-see
Travel tipsNearby day trips
Travel tipsSay a few words
Swahili
- HelloHabariha-BA-ree
- PleaseTafadhalita-fa-DHA-lee
- Thank youAsantea-SAN-teh
- Yes / NoNdiyo / Hapanan-DEE-yo / ha-PA-na
4 more phrases
- Excuse meSamahanisa-ma-HA-nee
- How much is it?Bei gani?bay GA-nee
- The bill, pleaseBili tafadhaliBEE-lee
- No problemHakuna matataha-KOO-na ma-TA-ta
Jambo is the tourist greeting; habari is what locals actually say to each other. Using it changes how you are received.
Travel tipsReligion
Christian majority
Around 85% Christian with a Muslim minority concentrated on the coast, and traditional belief practised alongside. Sunday services are long and central.
Travel tipsDo's and don'ts
Do
- Greet before anything else, and shake hands — asking a question without greeting first is rude
- Use the right hand for giving and receiving
- Ask, and expect to pay, before photographing Maasai people or their homes
- Learn jambo and asante; a little Swahili is warmly received
Don't
- Do not photograph government buildings, police or military installations
- Do not display cash or expensive equipment in Nairobi streets
- Do not haggle aggressively at a Maasai market — the margins are the community income
- Do not leave the vehicle on safari unless the guide says it is safe
Where to stay in Nairobi
No Holistay rentals in Nairobi yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Nairobi on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Jomo Kenyatta, Nairobi NBO
45 minfrom the airport· 12 km as the crow flies
45 min to Westlands, under 30 on the Expressway when it is clear.
Also worth pricing: Wilson, Nairobi WIL — most safari flights, to the Mara and Amboseli among others, leave from here rather than from Jomo Kenyatta.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
