A four star, three bedroom apartment on Winchester Gardens, Riverside Drive, in Greater Nairobi. It lists a full kitchen, laundry, parking and round the clock security. The deciding fact is the location: this is a residential address with a car, not a hotel you step out of into the centre.
01What it is
3BR Riverside Winchester lists as an apartment rather than a room: a kitchen with oven, microwave, refrigerator and toaster, plus a washing machine, iron and board, and housekeeping and laundry services behind it. There is air conditioning, a balcony, a terrace and a garden, and bathrooms with shower, bidet, hairdryer, toiletries and towels. The building adds 24 hour front desk and security, concierge, express check in, luggage storage, lifts, free wifi, free car parking, a business center, a fitness center, a playground, family rooms, non smoking rooms and wheelchair access. Pets are allowed. The list is thinner on dining and on the city: bars appear, and a golf course, but there is no restaurant named, and nothing about getting into the centre.
That list adds up to self contained family space rather than a hotel stay, and the verdict follows from the address. 3BR Riverside Winchester suits a family or a group who want a kitchen, a washing machine, parking and a playground, and who will drive everywhere. It does not suit anyone planning to walk to meetings, to shops or to dinner, and it does not suit a short city break built on being in the middle of things. The housekeeping, front desk and security are the hotel parts. Everything else is an apartment, with the quiet and the distance that come with one, so arrive with a car and you get the best of it.
02The supplier's photographs
0336 facilities the supplier lists
and 14 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 only if you have already settled how you will move around Greater Nairobi, because the apartment is the easy part and the location is the decision. 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 3BR Riverside Winchester?+
It stands on Winchester Gardens, off Riverside Drive, in Greater Nairobi. The site puts it 4.21 km from Kenyatta Avenue at Moi Avenue, which is 53 minutes on foot in a direct line, and 3.59 km from Biashara Street and City Market, which is the nearest of the ten quarters this site covers. Both are driving distances in practice.
What does the apartment actually include?+
A kitchen with oven, microwave, refrigerator and toaster, a washing machine, iron and board, air conditioning, a balcony, a terrace, a garden, and bathrooms with shower, bidet, hairdryer, toiletries and towels. The building adds free wifi, free car parking, a fitness center, a business center, a playground and 24 hour front desk and security. Pets are allowed.
Can I walk from the apartment into the centre?+
Plan on a car. The address is a residential stretch of Greater Nairobi, not the Central Business District, and the distances to Kenyatta Avenue and to Biashara Street and City Market are ones you would drive rather than cover on foot. Free parking is listed, so arriving with a vehicle is the straightforward arrangement.
How do I check availability and book?+
Book through app.impt.io. Most rooms here can be cancelled free, and the booking is confirmed there rather than by walking in. If you need to know what is open for your dates, that is the place to look: the property itself lists a 24 hour front desk, but availability is settled at the point of booking.
