1. If you have dollars, Euros or any major currency, you should make sure you bring 100 euro / dollar bills. In East Africa, you get a better rate for 50 / 100 bills than for 10/20 bills. (EAC)
2. Do not bring travel checks. There are probably only one or two places in Nairobi where you can exchange the travel checks. If you go against my advice, go to Hilton hotel and look for the Forex Bureau that is located next to the hotel.  Also bear in mind that you will also get a crappy rate losing about 10 dollars for every 100 dollars travel check. (EAC)
3. If you don’t have a Visa credit card you need to look for Barclays bank branches. They accept other major international credit cards including Master card. (Kenya and Tanzania)
4. Do not smoke in public because it is illegal. There are designated smoking areas throughout the city. If you smoke in public, policemen might come to you and try to exhort money of you. The actual fine is about 1000 shillings (18 dollars) but I have met tourists who have paid as much as 7000 shillings when they were caught smoking because they did not know the law or because they were threaten to be taken to prison. This, in fact, is illegal anyway, but let’s just say that policemen are quite good at scaring the shit out of uninformed tourists. So if you want to smoke, do it in your hotel room, in various restaurants or pubs where smoking is allowed or in the designated smoking areas.
5. It is better to take a cab after 7 o’clock at night if you decide to go out. I generally don’t do it, but I am familiar with the city and know how to be very cautious. But you should be on the safe side with this. (EAC)
6. Night life in Nairobi is pretty intense. There are a lot of discos and bars open till late. On Fridays and Saturdays most of these discos are open all night. A good number of such night clubs are located along Moi Avenue: the Jazz Bar, the Samba Bar plus many other clubs whose name I never knew. Just follow the noise and try to have fun.
7. I know there are adventurous travels among you who want to have a feeling of the city and experience different facets of the city life, including the less touristic places like the slums. Do not go to Kibera or any other slum in the city. It is extremely dangerous. And bear in mind that this warning comes from a guy who’s been to some of the most unsafe parts of Africa such as Sudan, DR Congo and Northern Uganda. So forget about the slums unless you personally know social workers or other community leaders that work over there.
8. Watch out for fake policemen or other types of fake officials. Crooks in Nairobi have a disturbingly steep learning curve and they go after tourists like Henry the VIII after a piece of chicken.  (EAC)
9. I know this sounds like a pointless piece of advice but I assure you I have seen, met and heard of so many naïve tourists doing it that I simply have to list this warning. Do not allow anyone to assist you with your credit card and do not give your PIN to anyone. Don’t do anything you would not do it Chicago, London, Paris or Barcelona. There are so many solicitors in the city, it is not even funny!!! (EAC)
10. Do not simply exchange money at the first Forex Bureau of Bureau of Change you see. There are perhaps more than 50 money exchange offices just in the city center, all with different rates. Personally, I found that the best rate I can get for exchanging my money is on Muindi Nbingu Street fairly close to the City Market. (Muindi Nbingu and Biashara street)
11. This is a piece of advice that I can bet you lunch that no one else has ever given to you. Personally, I save money and trouble when I come to Africa by sending money to myself with Money Gram or Western Union. The Money Gram exchange rate is better than any local rate I can get; this way I don’t have to pay bank fees with are on average higher than the ones practiced by local banks; and I don’t have to carry a lot of money with me before getting to Africa. So what I normally do is estimating how many days I will spend in an African country, what cities I will visit and then I send money to myself. I keep the tracking code and then I go to a local Money Gram or Western Union office and claim my money. From the United States if you send less than 1000 dollars to yourself, you end up paying a fee of only US$9.99. So you might want to consider this. I normally send various 500 dollars checks to myself on different tracking numbers so I don’t have to carry too much money at one time. (EAC)
12. Do not pay for city tours. The Nairobi city center is quite small. Get a map of city, read the other posts about Nairobi on this website and decide on what you want to see. The city is quite easily accessible by foot and it’s much more rewarding when you discover a tourist site on your own! (EAC)
13. This is another piece of advice that you might think it’s funky. Do not get a prostitute in this city (I mean don’t get one anywhere, but even less in this city.) The World Health Organization claims that more than 70% of the prostitutes here are HIV positive. Not a reassuring percentage so find other ways to have fun, ok? Also, on the same note, most bars are in fact full of prostitutes or prostitutes in disguise and if a girl randomly asks you to buy her a drink she will be a prostitute 90% of the times. So do not buy drinks to any random girls unless you want to be harassed and followed by those girls. Trust me, I did it a couple of times myself and it really took a long time to get rid of the girls.
14. Get a good breakfast at one of the local restaurants. Most of them have a cheap breakfast offer (only 100-120 shillings) which includes 2 fried eggs, toast, sausage, tomatoes and tea / coffee. Throw in a fruit and a soda for 30-50 more shillings. My all time favorite local restaurant is called Gawa Dishes and is located on Moi Avenue 30 meters away from Meridian hotel (Moi Avenue and Muranga Road). The above mentioned breakfast costs 100 shillings (US$1.20). I also love the Spanish omelet (50 shillings) which I combine it with a local kebab (45 shillings) and a coffee (which comes in for free.)   Perfect way to start the day.
15. Whereas this has not been such a problem as in the past years, I advise you not to take pictures in front of the government buildings in the city. Policemen might stop you and ask you to either delete the picture or even try to confiscate your camera. This whole picture-free policy followed the 1998 bomb attacks on the American Embassy in the city. Officials believed that the bombers posed as tourists and took pictures of the embassy from different angles. So they now forbid anyone to take pictures of the government buildings. It’s kind of a narrow-minded policy simply because you can take pictures of these buildings from any hotels neighboring any of these buildings but, you know, it’s the law. Personally, I took pictures in front of all these buildings because some of them are quite beautiful and old. But I always looked for policemen and took the pictures very fast and then left the place while hiding my camera. So it’s up to you if you want to risk having an argument with a policeman or not. Just for your information, at the Parliament you might be able to ask the guards to take 1-2 pictures in front of the building if you promise them that you will be in the photo and not simply trying to take pictures of the building.
16. Always settle the taxi fare before the beginning of the ride otherwise you will end up paying a ridiculous amount of money. There are no meters so if you’re a foreigner you will pay more, no matter what. Never pay more than 400 shillings for a ride inside the city. (EAC) Outside the city center, if you go to the Carnivore Restaurant or the Simba Saloon (which are located in the same complex) do not pay more than 600 shillings for one ride and take the driver’s phone number for later. If you go to the Nairobi National Park, The Safari Walk Tour, the Elephant Orphanage, The Langata Giraffe Center, and the Bomas of Kenya, all located within the same area, you should pay about 700-800 shillings. Alternatively, you can always ride a matatu (local mini-buses) that will take you to any of these attractions for only 50 shillings from opposite the Uhuru Park (Carnivore and the National Park & all are located in the same area, more or less).
17. If you’re really on tight budget you might want to know that there are buses going to and from the airport, making Nairobi the only African capital I have ever visited (of a total of 25) where you can actually use public transportation to reach the airport. The price is only 50 shillings per person. A taxi ride usually costs 1200 shillings. Speaking of taxies, if you want to take one, never pay more than 1200 shillings. This has been the same rate for a ride to the airport for the last three years and there are no signs that it will go up. If you’re a foreigner, taxi drivers will generally ask for more but they will settle for 1200. But if you want to take a bus, all you have to do is get from your hotel / hostel to the National Archives or the Hilton Hotel (located one opposite to another). Taxi drivers should know both places. The buses will be aligned just next to the National Archives. You simply cannot miss them. Once you arrive there, look for the bus that says airport on it, get on board and save 1150 shillings. Buses run from early morning until 6-7 o’clock in the evening. During the weekends the last bus leaves the city center at 5.30.
18. It goes without saying that if you are on a tight budget you will most likely not rent a car in Nairobi. At the same time, even if you can afford renting one, be advised that you should not rent a car unless you’re only planning on staying in the city. In Nairobi, getting stopped by over-demanding cops looking for bribes is no longer “business as usual.” But if you leave the city, I can almost guarantee that you will be stopped, harassed, delayed and persuaded to pay a small bribe. If you have a problem with that, which I assume you do, don’t rent a car. Moreover, given the price of gas, you should not rent a car anyway. It’s simply not worth it. (EAC)
19. I find it best to avoid talking to random people who offer services such as guided tours, safaris, or other travel options. In Nairobi, people demanding your attention are even more common than in other parts of Africa. This has to do with the stiff competition between travel agencies: too many offers, not so many tourists, especially after the 2008 post-election violence. So if you’re wandering around the city center you will most likely be stopped by random people offering you various services. Talk to them only if you are really interested in their offers. Alternatively, if you are interested in doing a safari or any trip whatsoever, go to different agencies. Every agency has different prices which are not fixed. It’s all based on how much they feel they can rip you off. Last year, in Maasai Mara a small scandal started because of this. Since I’ve been to Kenya many times I knew exactly what a fair price for three days in Maasai Mara was. At the time, that was a total of 180 dollars. When we were chilling around a fire, someone brought the problem of costs up. We discovered that only three of us paid 180 dollars. The others six paid between 210 and 330 for exactly the same excursion. You can imagine how pissed off the other people were. The point is, even with safari tours the prices are negotiable. You’re in Africa. Act accordingly! (EAC)
20. If you’re in Nairobi for a longer period of time, let’s say more than one week, start looking for restaurant promotions. Various franchises have their weekly offers which change seasonally. Generally, that means you can buy two products for the price of one. Once you get to Nairobi, walk around the city center and look for pizza, ice-cream, breakfast or diner offers. You actually save a lot of money if you are able to find seven offers, one for every day you’re in Nairobi. Pizza Inn offers one extra free pizza with your purchase every Friday. Others do the same with other food items. And there are absolutely no hidden costs. So bear that in mind and save more money.

***EAC – if you see the symbol EAC at the end of some of the 20 recommendations listed in this post, the same rules apply to all the other countries that are a part of the East African Community (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi.)

Be Sociable, Share!

•