Tours in Nairobi

Look out from the edge of Nairobi National Park and you get the strangest view in East Africa: giraffes grazing on open grassland with tall city buildings standing behind them. Nowhere else makes the point so quickly. This is a working capital with a wild landscape right at its edge, and you can be in the grass within a short drive of the airport.

That closeness is why a layover here is worth more than a coffee in the terminal. In the park you can look for giraffe, lion, buffalo and rhino from a vehicle, and the pace is slow and watchful. Nearby, at the Giraffe Centre, you stand on a raised platform and hold out a pellet while a long grey tongue comes for it. It sounds like a gimmick until it happens to you. The elephant orphanage is a quieter stop, where young elephants come in to be fed and the keepers talk about what it takes to bring them back to the wild.

Away from the animals, the city has a gentler side. Karura Forest is a green, shaded place of trails and waterfalls, where Nairobians go to run, cycle or just get out from under the traffic. The markets and craft centres are the place for carvings, beadwork and printed fabrics, and a little bargaining is part of the fun. If the day is long enough, a high vantage point gives you the skyline in one sweep.

Nairobi is also a city of famous names we do not yet cover with a tour, such as the Karen Blixen Museum, the Nairobi National Museum, the Kazuri bead workshop and the Maasai Market. If one of them is on your list, ask. A local guide can build a day around it.