simons1

The only other suggestion I have would be to backtrack a bit and eat at The Hub in Karen. I would say it's about 3km away from Sheldrick Trust.

In fact although it looks the opposite direction it would probably work ok as then you can join the bypass at Ngong Rd junction and follow it all the way to Mombasa Rd.

whimsey21

expataus

Has anyone used a "VIP" service at Nairobi airport for arrivals or departures? Which one and what was your experience?

HighlanderICT

We are transitioning through NBO on our way from JFK to SEZ in March 2020. We have a layover of 11.5 hrs on the outbound journey (arriving 10:30am on a Saturday, departing 10:00pm same day). We are a family of 3 including one child (6) and another couple. We would like to look at booking a day tour in Nairobi - possibly the National Park, Elephant Orphanage, Giraffe Centre - but have some concerns as the government travel advisory websites for Canada, USA and UK all comment on the high crime rate and that there are documented incidents of tourist (mini?) buses being victim to robberies/hijacking .... Any advice or comments would be welcomed as the safety of our child is of paramount importance. We have seen various trips advertised with travel companies that would pick us up from airport, also there is Kenya Airlines' own trip which is a bit more expensive but perhaps worth the premium (?) Is it worth it ? or should we just grit our teeth and endure the half-day layover in the airport?

If we do stay in the airport, are there any tips for the lounges or suggestions for day hotels? I have read many poor reviews of the KQ lounges and not sure we would get in anyway as we are flying economy (?) or can we pay the $40 and get a day pass? If so is it worth it? Also, are they watching the clock for the 8 hour day pass or can that stretch longer ...... (our layover on the return leg is even longer !!).

offvoice

As a frequent traveler to NBO airport and living now in NBO, I'll try to answer your questions:

1. Can Nairobi be considered overall safe? Yes, especially during day time and if you're booking your trip with a reputable company (which may come at an additional cost). I'd recommend checking GetYourGuide or TripAdvisor and look for providers with enough reviews. Robberies and hijacking are usually in very remote areas of Kenya, and almost never in Nairobi, especially during day-time. Night time there have been occurrences of car-jacking, but never heard of it personally.

2. Touring during layover: may be a good idea, however, consider a. Transit visa @ $20/pax older than 16 years old, b. Elephant Orphanage unfortunately opens only for 1 hour every day, from 11 to 12. If you land @10:30am, it seems hard to be able to catch it. Giraffe Centre is really fun & worth a trip especially with children (but I still have some fun as a 30 something). National Park : You can fit a "light" tour in your schedule, but again with a recommandable company. Note March might be a bit wet. The park is literally next to the airport, however the main access is on its west side (airport is north-east side). You can consider Giraffe Center & late lunch in the city (restaurants like Nyama Mama in Westlands can be
very nice and feel not touristy).
3. Lounge option: you can pay $40 to access but only if there is one pax that is entitled to lounge access (IIRC). Shall you be granted access, the lounge is overall ok, not the best in the world, but IMHO one of the best you can find in Africa (talking about the Pride Lounge). No one is checking the 8 hours rule, but they may not grant you access until TOD-8 hours .

Happy to answer any question you may have.

HighlanderICT

Thank You offvoice . Appreciate the response. We do really want to make the best use of our time when we land and it seems a waste to sit in the airport for 12 hours when we could be doing something else that's far more interesting and exciting, provided it is safe. We had thought of booking the KQ Go Wild Safari direct from the airline website. At US$200 it is more pricey than the rest we have seen but does include all park entry fees and lunch as well as what sounds like expedited transit through the airport. Others come in at a little over $100 but then park entry fees and finding somewhere to eat probably pushes it up closer to the KQ level. We have time so I will take a good look at the other options too and compare them all as the KQ tour doesn't include the Giraffe Centre or the Elephant orphanage (which may not work for us anyway based on timing).

Keeping fingers crossed for the lounge on at least one of our legs. We have 11.5hrs on the outbound journey and nearly 18 hours on the return. Return journey is on a Sunday so no option to book the KQ tour (not listed on website for a Sunday). For the lounges the airline website says you just have to be a passenger on KQ or partner airline and doesn't mention anything about status (which we don't have), but if its busy I am sure they probably screen people out that way as rule #1 says access is subject to availability. A day hotel may make more sense if we can source one

Thanks again for the response. appreciate it. .

Dom Fly

Hi, I am traveling to Nairobi later this year with my family. Our return flight is at 11:25pm, we arrive into Wilson airport at 5pm. Rather than going straight to NBO and eating the airport which I have seen mixed reviews about. I was thinking we could stop off somewhere between the two airports for dinner. I have seen Ole Sereni come up as a good place to eat but was thinking it may be better to be closer to NBO in case of traffic. How long is the journey from Ole Sereni to NBO at around 7pm? Or what options are there closer to NBO Crown Plaza or Four Points maybe which have shuttles to the airport?

If our flight is at 11:25pm what time should we aim to get to the airport as I have read about enhanced security checks, we are traveling in J so have lounge access (Turkish Airways which I have read is nothing special).

Thanks

stimpy

Just scroll up to post #299 for my advice.

Dom Fly

Thanks but I think we will be traveling to the airport at around 730/8 as the flight is at 1135pm so traffic situation may be different no? Also, Carnivore does look good but I heavy meal of meat prior to a night flight doesn't sound very appealing we have 3 days in Nairobi prior to our safari so I think we may check it out one night then.

stimpy

Personally I prefer to arrive one hour before the flight without bags to check, or maybe 90 minutes before with bags to check. The lines are much easier then. But yes if you are on Mombasa road at 8pm there will be traffic. You can actually see this for yourself with Google maps. Check it at 8pm Nairobi time with the day of the week you travel and it will show you the current traffic. But also maybe make sure that there is no public holiday or big match/event at the stadium as that will affect traffic quite a bit.

tobitronics

Hi guys,

Is it possible to go through immigrations from the airside gate/transit area? I'm flying KQ on an international connection. (I guess therefore T1A)

Asking this as I will have a long connection at NBO (16h), I want to quickly hop into the lounge and then go to immigrations to spend the day in the city.

Thanks!

stimpy

Normally you are free to walk from the airplane into the airport and go straight to the lounge, or proceed to immigration. It is possible that for some gates they have something special setup to funnel people straight to immigration, but I've never seen such a thing at NBO.

Note that you may have to pay for a transit visa if you want to go into town.

tobitronics

I got the transit visa already. So if I understand correctly NBO has a similar layout as most European airports (AMS, CPH) with respect to leaving the transit area to immigrations?

stimpy

No, it is not at all the same as Euro airports. It is all open.

HighlanderICT

Replying to my own questions above, and maybe something noted by others, in case it helps now that we have been and experienced it for ourselves.

[point to note - Some may think we were irresponsible to fly at this time, and the truth is we agonised about going or cancelling. However, given that we departed for NBO/SEZ before the global pandemic was declared and both Kenya and Seychelles had zero cases at the time - and US/Canada had very low numbers too - we decided to proceed as planned but be very careful. It was only after we arrived that things got exponentially worse in Europe and North America yet stayed relatively low in Africa]

ok, so onto the comments .....

• Transiting from one international flight (JFK-NBO) to another (NBO-SEZ) was easy. No need to pick up bags or spend a long time waiting at customs. Separate security line to go through for connections and then you were right back in the departure terminal.
• On our outbound journey we had 11+ hours in NBO. There were 5 of us and none of us had status but were able to pay US$40 per adult (US$20 for child) to gain access to Pride lounge. No issue gaining access and they did not seem to care that we would be there for 11 hours instead of the stated max of 8. It is possible that this was because the airport was quieter as the Coronavirus cancellations were starting to kick-in but they seemed pretty nonplussed by it all. Only thing they said we had to do ourselves was keep an eye on departures as the would not call us in the same way as they would for status customers.
• KQ lounge has showers but in these times it may be better to have a towel in your own luggage rather than use the towel service. Washrooms looked clean and were constantly monitored/kept clean by staff.
• Food was basic, nothing fancy and definitely nothing to write home about. It fed us for the day and thats about it. We arrived when the breakfast choices were still there and they changed that up around 12pm to lunch options that remained for the rest of day. They had a few beers, spirits, wine etc to keep the grown ups happy and juices for the kids!
• Sleep area was comfortable but it took several attempts to get in as it was full. felt refreshed after a couple of hours napping.
• All in all - we agreed that with our 11+ hour layover it was value for money. However, for a short layover without status (ie. paying) we would not have been happy.

On our return leg it was a little crazy as the restrictions had started to bite and Kenya had restricted foreigners from coming in. We had our transit visa for our safari but because of the restrictions and the fact that our original flight got cancelled anyway and we were put on a flight 14 hours later we were unable to use it for multiple reasons. Our layover was only 2.5 hours this time so we just waited in the departure lounge and did not use the Pride lounge. It took a long time to get into the departure lounge as it was the one at the very end which is enclosed and has its own security. Surprisingly the flight to JFK was quite full so we were crammed into this small space (so much for social distancing). Observations from the return leg ....

• Under normal circumstances we would have used our transit visas to enter Kenya. We paid US$21 direct from the government website and it was delivered electronically almost instantly. Print out and keep in your passport and avoid paying additional fees from brokers and/or at the airport (if available). We saw many websites offering it for up to $50 but go straight to government one to get it.
• We were screened for Coronavirus in Nairobi and Seychelles on both the outbound and return journeys. NBO had the thermometer 'guns' and thermal imaging camera to detect fever as did SEZ. However we were not screened in YYZ, LGA or JFK on either leg of our journey. That was pretty lax of the US and Canadian authorities.