A four star hotel on Lower Hill Road with a pool, a spa and a gym, close to Uhuru Park and Central Park. The list is broad rather than deep. It suits you if you want to swim and eat on site; if you want the middle of the business district at the door, look closer in.
01What it is
Hillpark Hotel is a four star property on Lower Hill Road, and the listed facilities are heavy on resort infrastructure: an outdoor pool with a pool bar, a spa, a sauna and a steam room, a fitness centre, plus aerobics, yoga and archery. There are bars, restaurants, a lounge, a night club and a banquet room, along with a business centre, a concierge, currency exchange and free wifi throughout. Rooms come with a bath, bathrobe, minibar, safe, desk and TV. The list is thin on the practical detail you would need to plan a day: no specific restaurant names, no room categories and no indication of which of the fitness and wellness facilities are included rather than charged separately.
What that adds up to at Hillpark Hotel is a place to stay put. You can swim, eat, drink and book a massage without leaving the grounds, and the front desk runs around the clock. The trade off is distance. It sits 1.8 km from Kenyatta Avenue at Moi Avenue, which is 23 minutes on foot in a direct line, so you are walking or taking a car into the business district rather than stepping into it. It suits travellers who want leisure facilities on site and do not mind the last stretch into town. It does not suit anyone who needs the Central Business District at the door.
02The supplier's photographs
0336 facilities the supplier lists
and 36 more on the supplier's own record. Facilities are the supplier's list, not a check made on the ground.
04Standing in Uhuru Park and Central Park
These hotels sit at the green edge of the grid, in Uhuru Park and Central Park, two connected parks along Uhuru Highway that give the CBD its lungs and its best photograph. The quarter itself is 1.06 km from Kenyatta Avenue at Moi Avenue, which is 14 minutes on foot in a direct line. What you get here is grass, a lake, and the towers standing straight up behind it: the boating lake, a skyline view, and Freedom Corner at the Uhuru Park end, where the pro-democracy protests of the 1990s were held. It is best for late-afternoon light on the skyline and the only proper walk in the centre.
After dark everything changes. The parks close at dusk, and nobody should be in them after dark. That makes this a daytime quarter, and the halls shut in the late afternoon. Suits anyone who wants green space and a straight walk into the offices, and anyone content to move by car once the light goes. It does not suit a night out on foot, and it does not suit anyone who wants the bars and streets around them after dark.
Read the whole of Uhuru Park and Central Park05Booking it
Book Hillpark Hotel if you want the pool and the spa on site and are content to travel the last stretch into the business district. 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 Hillpark Hotel?+
It is on Lower Hill Road in Nairobi, 1.8 km from Kenyatta Avenue at Moi Avenue, which is 23 minutes on foot in a direct line. It is 1.06 km from the centre of Uhuru Park and Central Park, so the parks are the nearest open space.
What facilities does Hillpark Hotel have?+
The list runs to an outdoor pool with a pool bar, a spa, sauna, steam room, fitness centre, yoga, aerobics, archery, restaurants, bars, a night club, a business centre, free wifi, free parking, a 24 hour front desk and family rooms. Room service, laundry and dry cleaning are listed as well.
Can you walk into the centre from the hotel?+
Yes, but it is a walk rather than a step: the hotel is 1.8 km from Kenyatta Avenue at Moi Avenue, which is 23 minutes on foot in a direct line. A car is easier, especially later in the day, and the hotel lists a shuttle service and car rental.
Is the guest score good?+
It scores 4.3 out of 5 from 2099 reviews, which is a solid four star result rather than a flawless one. Read it as a large body of guests finding the hotel broadly as advertised, with the usual spread of opinions about rooms, food and service.
