Top 10 Tourist Attractions in Nairobi
Kenya’s capital Nairobi is one of the fastest growing cities in Africa. Nairobi is Kenya’s biggest city both geographically and population.
Within the city exists numerous tourism attraction sites that you may not be aware of. Somehow you pass nearby while going to work or just walking within the city or some you may have just chosen to ignore.
The most important characteristic of a tourist attraction is that it is “consumed” at the destination, rather than at the tourist home. Within the city exists tourist attraction of some kind, such as a beach destination, indigenous pyramids, a concert, nature reserve or a special sports event.
Here are top 10 tourist attractions in Nairobi
1. Nairobi National Park
Nairobi National Park is a haven for wildlife and only seven kilometers from the skyscrapers of Nairobi’s city center. The park is also a rhino sanctuary, which protects more than 50 of these critically endangered creatures.
In addition to the rhinos, you can see lions, gazelles, buffaloes, warthogs, cheetahs, zebras, giraffes, and ostriches, and more than 400 species of birds have been recorded in the wetlands. Nairobi National Park is also a famous ivory burning site.
2.David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust
This orphan-elephant rescue and rehabilitation program is a must-see for animal lovers. Daphne Sheldrick founded the project in 1977 in memory of her late husband David, a former warden at Tsavo East National Park. The center cares for young abandoned elephants and rhinos and works to release the animals back into the wild. You can commune with these lovable creatures as they frolic in the mud and drink from giant baby bottles. Best of all, your entrance fee helps support the project’s conservation efforts.
3.Giraffe Centre
On the edge of Nairobi National Park, visitors can come face to face with endangered Rothschild’s giraffes. This non-profit center lies on the grounds of the plush guesthouse and its main mission is to provide conservation education for children. The visitor center displays information about these graceful creatures, and a raised platform allows you to feed them at eye level with specially prepared pellets. This is one of the most popular things to do from Nairobi, especially with children – photo ops with wet, gray giraffe tongues slurping little faces are priceless.After communing with these long-lashed beauties, you can enjoy a 1.5-kilometer self-guided forest walk in the adjacent nature reserve.
4.Karen Blixen Museum
One of Nairobi’s top tourist attractions, the Karen Blixen Museum, at the foot of the Ngong Hills, is the former home of the famous namesake Out of Africa author. Karen Blixen, also known by her pen name, Isak Dinesen, lived in the house from 1917 to 1931, where she ran a coffee plantation. Today, you can tour the well-preserved colonial farmhouse, a kitchen in a separate building, a coffee-drying plant in the woodland, and an agricultural college on the grounds. Furniture that belonged to Karen Blixen and her husband is on display, as well as photographs and books owned by Karen and her lover, Denys Finch Hatton.
5.Nairobi National Museum
The National Museum in Nairobi is an educational way to spend a few hours on a city stopover. The museum displays diverse cultural and natural history exhibits including more than 900 stuffed birds and mammals, fossils from Lake Turkana, ethnic displays from various Kenyan tribal groups, and exhibits of local art. In the Geology Gallery, you can explore an impressive collection of rocks and minerals and learn about tectonic plates and the life cycle of a volcano. The Hominid Vault contains a collection of prehistoric bones and fossils, including the preserved fossil of an elephant.
6.Bomas of Kenya
Bomas of Kenya is a living museum celebrating the colorful tribes of Kenya. This is a great place to learn about the lifestyle, art, music, crafts, and culture of each tribe. The complex encompasses a recreated traditional village with homesteads or bomas, each one reflecting the culture of a major ethnic group. Every afternoon, a team performs traditional dances and songs in the large theater.
7.Kazuri Beads Factory Tour
The Kazuri Beads Factory is a great place to shop and help out disadvantaged local women at the same time. Kazuri means “small and beautiful” in Swahili, and these shiny, brightly-colored beads surely fit the bill. Join a free factory tour and see how local women, including many single mothers, make the beads and other pottery items from scratch. After the tour, you can purchase some to take with you, knowing you are purchasing from a World Fair Trade Organization member.
8.Kenyatta International Conference Centre
Voted as the best tourist conference destination 2019, the distinctive cylindrical Kenya International Conference Centre (KICC) is an internationally acclaimed venue for conferences, meetings, and exhibitions. Though not the tallest building in Kenya, it dominates the skyline with a 28-story tower overlooking a large amphitheater
9.Railway Museum
The Railway Museum in Nairobi celebrates the rich history of the railroad in Kenya and its impact on the nation’s development. Among the museum’s fascinating collections are train and ship models, photographs from the original construction of the Uganda Railway, railway magazines, maps and drawings, and a silver service set used on overnight trains to Mombasa.
10.Ngong Hills
These beautiful pointed green hills resemble the back of a fist facing the sky. They are a popular place to visit close to Nairobi and provide a welcome respite from the city heat. The hills are the peaks of a ridge overlooking the Great Rift Valley, and many white settlers established their farms here in the early colonial days.
Do you have any news or article you would like us to publish? Kindly reach us via outreach@t4d.co.ke or howtodoafrica@gmail.com.
