An adults only three star lodge on Old Mombasa Rd in Greater Nairobi, well outside the centre. It is a bed for the night before an early start on the eastern road, and it suits drivers and people with business on that road. If you want to walk out to dinner in the centre, it does not suit you.
01What it is
Sawa Sawa Lodge Adults Only lists the practical things an out of centre stay depends on. There is free car parking on site, free wifi, a 24 hour front desk, luggage storage and multilingual staff, so someone is awake and can talk to you whenever you arrive. Dry cleaning is available for longer stays, and there is a smoking area and wheelchair accessible access. The list is thin on the things that would make you linger: no restaurant or bar is named, no gym, no airport transfer, and nothing for children, which follows from the adults only label.
For a night or two either side of a run out along the eastern road, Sawa Sawa Lodge Adults Only does the job it is set up to do. You drive in, park, sleep, and leave. Guests without a car are the ones who should think hardest, because the lodge sits well out in Greater Nairobi and there is no shuttle in the list. It suits drivers, contractors and people working on the eastern side. It does not suit anyone who wants the museums, offices and hotel bars of the centre within walking distance.
02The supplier's photographs
038 facilities the supplier lists
Facilities are the supplier's list, not a check made on the ground.
04Standing outside the ten quarters
These hotels are not in Muthurwa and the east markets, and they are not in any of the ten quarters of the centre this site covers. They sit a long way out, in the wider city, and Muthurwa and the east markets is only the nearest of the ten. That is the whole point of the distinction: you are sleeping outside the grid, and you will be travelling in and out for anything in the CBD.
The quarter itself is the eastern edge of the grid: wholesale produce, bus termini, before dawn. Trucks, handcarts and the entire city’s vegetables changing hands at 5am. It is the wholesale edge, where Muthurwa’s market and the country bus termini push up against the railway land, and it feeds the rest of the grid. Best for an early-morning market walk with someone who knows it. After dark it is closed, dark and not a place to be, and mornings are the only sensible time. Muthurwa sits 1.23 km from Kenyatta Avenue at Moi Avenue, which is 16 minutes on foot in a direct line, and that figure describes the quarter, not your journey from these hotels.
Read the nearest quarter, Muthurwa and the east markets05Booking it
Book Sawa Sawa Lodge Adults Only once you know your dates on the eastern road, because the useful rooms here are the ones closest to that schedule. 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 Sawa Sawa Lodge Adults Only?+
It is on Old Mombasa Rd in Greater Nairobi, outside the centre that this site covers. It is 10.58 km from Kenyatta Avenue at Moi Avenue, which is 133 minutes on foot in a direct line. Plan on a vehicle rather than a walk.
What facilities does the lodge list?+
Free wifi, free car parking, a 24 hour front desk, luggage storage, multilingual staff, dry cleaning, a smoking area and wheelchair accessible access. No restaurant or bar is listed, so sort out food before you arrive or ask the front desk when you check in.
What is the area around the lodge like?+
The street there handles trucks, handcarts and the entire city's vegetables changing hands at 5am, and after dark it is closed, dark and not a place to be, with mornings only in practice. Treat it as a base for early starts, not for an evening out.
How do I check availability at Sawa Sawa Lodge Adults Only?+
Use app.impt.io to compare dates and room types, since it shows what is open for the nights you want. It is an adults only property, so say so up front if you had assumed otherwise. Free cancellation applies to most rooms.
