Nairobi City Guide - Sightseeing

The city centre is compact and quite small, although sprawling outlying suburbs greatly enlarge it. At the heart of the city is a triangle of roads, bisected by Kenyatta Avenue and Moi Avenue, along which are the main shops, offices and businesses.

The commercial and political heart of the city is in the southwest, around City Square. Here government buildings and banks mix with hotels and upmarket shops.

To the south is Memorial Park, on the site of the bombed US Embassy and Cooperative Bank building, where more than 200 Kenyans died in 1998.

To the north of Kenyatta Avenue is a densely populated district of shops, markets and hotels, including the Norfolk Hotel, Nairobi's oldest building.

East of Moi Avenue lies the poorer inner city district centred on River Road. This notorious area is home to the city's cheapest restaurants and hotels as well as most of the main bus and matatu stations. The main train station lies to the south.

There is no official tourist office in Nairobi. For information try the local newspapers, The Standard and Nation, or the free monthly publication Going Out. Alternatively, the Thorn Tree Café at the Stanley Hotel, the Iqbal and the Fairview Hotel all have useful notice boards for travellers. Maps are available from bookshops, whilst the Survey of Kenya Public Map Office is on the Thika Road and will sell you survey maps and plans of the game parks.