A long established five star on Harry Thuku Road, close enough to the commercial centre to work from. The deciding factor is what you need in the evening: it keeps its own restaurants, bars and spa running, while the quarter around Biashara Street and City Market does not.
01What it is
Fairmont The Norfolk is a five star property on Harry Thuku Road. The list is heavy and conventional: air conditioning, free wifi, a desk, a safe and a minibar in the room, with a bath, a shower, bathrobe, slippers and toiletries. Beyond the room there is a fitness centre, gymnasium, sauna, steam room, massage and spa, an outdoor pool with a pool bar, a garden and a terrace, restaurants, bars, breakfast, lunch and dinner. It also carries the working equipment: business centre, concierge, currency exchange, car rental, shuttle service, valet parking, free car parking, laundry and dry cleaning, babysitting, family rooms and wheelchair access. The sports listing is the thin part: a golf course is named and nothing says where it is.
For a stay in the centre of Nairobi, Fairmont The Norfolk is the version where almost nothing has to be arranged elsewhere. You can eat, meet, swim, train and change money inside the property, which matters because the area around it is a daytime quarter where the halls shut in the late afternoon and the streets empty with them. It suits people on business, people who want a full service base close to the commercial centre, and anyone who would rather not go out after dark. It does not suit anyone who wants to step out of the door in the evening into bars and restaurants, because that is not what this part of the city offers.
02The supplier's photographs
0336 facilities the supplier lists
and 41 more on the supplier's own record. Facilities are the supplier's list, not a check made on the ground.
04Standing in Biashara Street and City Market
These hotels sit in Biashara Street and City Market, the market quarter, narrow, shaded, and the only part of the centre where the shops are still one-family wide. This is 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. The quarter sits 0.63 km from Kenyatta Avenue at Moi Avenue, which is 8 minutes on foot in a direct line.
This is a daytime quarter. The halls shut in the late afternoon and the streets empty with them, so plan on being elsewhere for the evening and for a ride back. It suits anyone who wants cloth, flowers, market produce and old city fabric on the doorstep, and it does not suit anyone who wants company after dark or a hotel bar to fall into.
Read the whole of Biashara Street and City Market05Booking it
If you want the full service version of the central business district, book Fairmont The Norfolk directly and confirm the details you rely on before you arrive. 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 is Fairmont The Norfolk?+
It is on Harry Thuku Road in Nairobi, 1.05 km from Kenyatta Avenue at Moi Avenue, which is 14 minutes on foot in a direct line, and 0.5 km from the centre of Biashara Street and City Market. That places it within the business district rather than out in the suburbs.
What does the hotel have on site?+
Rooms with air conditioning, wifi, a desk, a safe and a minibar, plus bath, shower, bathrobe and slippers. There is a fitness centre, gymnasium, sauna, steam room, spa, massage, an outdoor pool with a pool bar, a garden, a terrace, restaurants, bars and a business centre.
What is the area around Biashara Street and City Market like?+
It is narrow, shaded, and the only part of the centre where the shops are still one-family wide. It is a daytime quarter: the halls shut in the late afternoon and the streets empty with them. Staying here means the hotel, not the surrounding streets, is where your evening happens.
What does the guest score mean?+
Fairmont The Norfolk holds 4.6 out of 5 from 3197 reviews. That is a strong, widely tested result rather than a handful of opinions, and it fits a full service five star where the recurring theme is the range of facilities on the property itself.
