Ideal Haven Westlands is a four star apartment block on Ojijo Road in west Nairobi, with kitchens, parking and a garden. It suits people staying a while who have their own transport. The centre it names as its area, Biashara Street and City Market, is a daytime quarter, and at 1.29 km from the centre of Biashara Street and City Market it is not a walk you will want to do twice a day.
01What it is
Ideal Haven Westlands lists apartments rather than rooms, and the room list reflects that: kitchen, kitchenette, microwave, oven, refrigerator and toaster, so you can cook rather than eat out. There is free wifi, a desk, a safe, a TV, iron and board, hairdryer, towels and toiletries, a shower and a WC, some with a bidet, plus carpeted floors and slippers. The building adds a 24 hour front desk with express check in, housekeeping, laundry service and cleaning, free car parking, a garden, a terrace and a picnic area, a playground for children, family rooms and non smoking rooms, with a smoking area set aside. Breakfast is listed, but there is no restaurant and no bar: the food side of the list stops at breakfast and the kitchen equipment. The playground, picnic area and garden are outdoor space in a city where that is not automatic, and the parking is the genuinely useful item for this location.
What that adds up to at Ideal Haven Westlands is a self contained stay on the western side of the city, aimed at people who are in Nairobi for more than a night or two and who will have a car, whether hired or arranged. Families with children get the space and the outdoor area, and the free parking means you are not negotiating with the street every time you come back. It does not suit anyone who wants to be inside the centre on foot. The quarter it names as its area, Biashara Street and City Market, is a daytime quarter: the halls shut in the late afternoon and the streets empty with them, so evenings there are for the hotel grounds or a ride elsewhere. The listed facilities are broad but shallow on service: no restaurant, no bar, no gym, no airport transfer, no guest score on file, so you are judging it on the apartment and the parking, nothing more.
02The supplier's photographs
0336 facilities the supplier lists
and 8 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
Book this one direct if you need the parking and the kitchen, because those are what the property is actually selling, and confirm the apartment type before you pay. 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 Ideal Haven Westlands?+
It is on Ojijo Road in west Nairobi, off the centre rather than in it. The site puts it at 1.76 km from Kenyatta Avenue at Moi Avenue, which is 22 minutes on foot in a direct line. That line crosses busy roads, so most people staying here drive or take a ride into the centre.
Does Ideal Haven Westlands have parking and a kitchen?+
Yes to both, and they are the two things the property lists most clearly. Free car parking comes with the building, and the apartments list a kitchen or kitchenette with a microwave, oven, refrigerator and toaster, so you can cook instead of eating out every night. Breakfast is also listed.
Can I walk into Biashara Street and City Market from the hotel?+
It is 1.29 km from the centre of Biashara Street and City Market, so it is walkable in theory. The catch is what you find at the other end: the quarter is a daytime one, the halls shut in the late afternoon and the streets empty with them. Do the trip in the morning and come back before the light goes.
How do I check availability at Ideal Haven Westlands?+
Use the booking link on this page, which goes through app.impt.io. Pick your dates and apartment type there, and the confirmation comes back to you directly. Most rooms can be cancelled free, so it is worth checking the terms on the specific apartment before you commit to a longer stay.
