A 3 star Westlands hotel with a full leisure list: outdoor pool, spa, sauna, steam room, fitness centre and yoga. The deciding fact is that it sits in Greater Nairobi, not in the centre, so you will want a car or a shuttle for anything in the CBD.
01What it is
Jacaranda Nairobi Hotel lists a lot. Rooms carry bathrobes, slippers, a minibar, a safe, a desk, an iron and board, a hairdryer and toiletries, with non smoking rooms available and a cot on request. The property itself runs an outdoor pool with a pool bar, a spa, a sauna, a steam room, a fitness centre, yoga, massage, a garden, a terrace and a lounge, plus restaurants, bars, a beauty salon and a business centre. Breakfast in room, laundry, dry cleaning, currency exchange, car rental, luggage storage and free parking are all listed. Where the list thins is the Shuttle service, which is named but not described, and the ordinary room details: a fan and a TV, nothing richer.
What that adds up to is a hotel built around the property rather than the street. Jacaranda Nairobi Hotel has enough on site, pool, spa, sauna, gym, food, that you can spend an evening here without going anywhere, and free parking matters in a city where you are otherwise dependent on rides. It suits business travellers and drivers who want space and facilities and do not mind being outside the centre. It does not suit anyone intending to walk the CBD, and the quarter nearest it is a daytime one: the halls shut in the late afternoon and the streets empty with them.
02The supplier's photographs
0336 facilities the supplier lists
and 28 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
These hotels sit outside the ten quarters of the centre this site covers. Biashara Street and City Market is only the nearest of the ten, and it is where you would be heading, not where you are sleeping. Take that as the shape of your stay: you are in the wider city, just outside the ten quarters, on the edge of the centre, and anything in the CBD means travelling in and out rather than stepping out of a lobby.
The quarter itself is the market one, 0.63 km from Kenyatta Avenue at Moi Avenue, which is 8 minutes on foot in a direct line. 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. The streets are narrow, shaded, and the only part of the centre where the shops are still one-family wide. It suits kikoi and kitenge cloth, curios without the tour-bus markup, and an hour of architecture. It is a daytime quarter: the halls shut in the late afternoon and the streets empty with them, so plan the return before that.
Read the nearest quarter, Biashara Street and City Market05Booking it
Book this one if the pool, spa and parking matter more to you than a CBD address. 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 Jacaranda Nairobi Hotel?+
It sits on Woodvale Grove in Westlands, in Greater Nairobi, rather than in the CBD itself. It is 2.54 km from Biashara Street and City Market, which is the nearest of the ten quarters this site covers. The Central Business District is a separate trip from the door.
What does the hotel actually have on site?+
An outdoor pool with a pool bar, a spa, a sauna, a steam room, a fitness centre, yoga, massage, a garden, a terrace, a lounge, restaurants, bars, a beauty salon and a business centre. Rooms include bathrobes, slippers, a minibar, a safe, a desk, an iron and board and toiletries, with non smoking rooms and free parking.
Do I need a car to get into the centre?+
It is 3.09 km from Kenyatta Avenue at Moi Avenue, which is 39 minutes on foot in a direct line, so walking is a real option in daylight but not a short one. Car rental, a shuttle service and free parking are listed. The streets empty after dark.
What does a guest score of 4.3 out of 5 mean here?+
It is the average of 2305 reviews, so it reflects a large and consistent body of stays rather than a handful. Read it as solid rather than exceptional for a 3 star property. It tells you most people got what they expected, not that the hotel is faultless.
