A two-bedroom apartment on Riverside Drive, listed at four star, with a full kitchen and a pool. The one thing that decides it is the car: it sits well back from the quarter, and you want your own transport for the centre.
01What it is
2 BDR At The Magnolia Riverside Drive is an apartment rather than a hotel room, and the list follows that. You get two bedrooms, a kitchen with an oven, microwave and refrigerator, a washing machine, iron and board, and a bathroom with shower, WC and bidet. There is air conditioning, a fan, a desk and a safe, plus a balcony and a garden, so there is somewhere to sit outside your own rooms. The building runs 24 hour security, free car parking, free wifi and an outdoor pool with a picnic area. The list is thinner on service: laundry is offered but you are mostly looking after yourself, and the desk is not a concierge in the ordinary hotel sense.
For a family or a pair staying a week or more, 2 BDR At The Magnolia Riverside Drive makes more sense than a room, because you can cook, wash and unpack properly. The pool and garden give you somewhere to spend a slow afternoon without leaving the compound, and the parking is the practical centre of the whole proposition. What it is not is a base for walking into town. The quarter is a daytime one, and the halls shut in the late afternoon and the streets empty with them, so an evening out means a car. Suits self-catering stays with your own transport. Does not suit anyone who wants the centre on foot.
02The supplier's photographs
0336 facilities the supplier lists
and 1 more on the supplier's own record. Facilities are the supplier's list, not a check made on the ground.
04Standing outside the ten quarters
Before you book, be clear about where these hotels are. They sit well outside the centre, in the inner suburbs, and they are not in any of the ten quarters this site covers. Biashara Street and City Market is only the nearest of those quarters, which is not the same as being in it. You are in the wider city here, and every trip into the Central Business District is a journey in and out.
The market quarter itself is narrow, shaded, and the only part of the centre where the shops are still one-family wide. The oldest retail streets in the city: Biashara for cloth and haberdashery, Muindi Mbingu for flowers, and the 1930s City Market hall behind them for produce, curios and a fish counter. Jamia Mosque's three silver domes close the block. It is best for kikoi and kitenge cloth, curios without the tour-bus markup, and an hour of architecture. After dark it is a daytime quarter: the halls shut in the late afternoon and the streets empty with them. It lies 0.63 km from Kenyatta Avenue at Moi Avenue, which is 8 minutes on foot in a direct line.
Read the nearest quarter, Biashara Street and City Market05Booking it
Book this one early if you want the two-bedroom layout for a longer stay, since apartments of this size in the area turn over slowly. Most rooms here can be cancelled free, and you book them through app.impt.io. Every confirmed booking removes one tonne of CO2, at no extra cost to you. Five percent of what you pay comes back as IMPT credit, out of the hotel commission rather than added to your bill.
Facts on this page come from the booking supplier's record: star class, address, photographs and facility list. Guest scores come from verified stays. Nobody from this site has stayed here; the quarter copy around it is this site's own.
06Questions
Where exactly is 2 BDR At The Magnolia Riverside Drive?+
It is on Riverside Drive in Nairobi, in the Greater Nairobi area. It stands 4.61 km from Kenyatta Avenue at Moi Avenue, which is 58 minutes on foot in a direct line. That is a straight-line figure, not a route, so treat the car as the realistic way in.
Does the apartment have a kitchen?+
Yes. The listing includes a kitchen with an oven, microwave and refrigerator, plus a washing machine, iron and board. That is the main difference between this and a hotel room, and it is what makes a longer stay here workable rather than expensive.
Is parking available, and do I need a car?+
Free car parking is listed, along with 24 hour security. A car helps: the property is 3.98 km from Biashara Street and City Market, which is the nearest of the ten quarters this site covers, and the centre is a daytime quarter whose streets empty in the late afternoon.
How do I check availability for specific dates?+
Use the booking link on this page to put in your dates and see what the two-bedroom apartment has open. The free cancellation term applies to most rooms, so you can hold dates while you arrange transport into the centre.
