1 destination · 10 things to do

Kenya

Nairobi is the only capital city in the world with lions, rhinos and giraffes grazing on its doorstep. Nairobi National Park, gazetted in 1946 as Kenya’s first national park, begins about ten kilometres from the city centre, and on a morning game drive you can photograph black rhinos with the skyline behind them. Inside the park, the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust raises orphaned baby elephants and opens its nursery to visitors for one hour each day; a short drive away, the Giraffe Centre lets you feed endangered Rothschild giraffes from a raised platform, and the Karen Blixen Museum preserves the farmhouse of the author of Out of Africa at the foot of the Ngong Hills. In town, the Nairobi National Museum tells the story of Kenya from the first humans to independence, and Karura Forest offers shaded trails and a waterfall in the middle of the suburbs. Nairobi is also the gateway to Kenya’s great safaris: the Maasai Mara, Amboseli beneath Kilimanjaro, Lake Nakuru and Lake Naivasha with Hell’s Gate are all reachable as day trips or short tours. This guide shows you what to book ahead, how to get around, how many days to give it and where to stay, from a 1904 landmark hotel to a design hotel in Westlands.