Smothers Garden is a three star hotel off United Nations Avenue in Greater Nairobi, with gardens, a bar, a restaurant and free parking. The one thing that decides it is the car: if you have one, this works, and if you do not, the address does not.
01What it is
Smothers Garden is a three star property on Daisy Drive, off United Nations Avenue in Greater Nairobi, out past the central quarters this site covers. The listed facilities are the practical kind: a 24 hour front desk, free wifi, free car parking, a safe, luggage storage, laundry and dry cleaning, newspapers, and a smoking area, with breakfast and a restaurant and bar or lounge on site. There is a garden and a library, and babysitting can be arranged, against a surcharge. The list is thin on anything beyond the basics: no gym, no pool, no airport transfer, and the working parts are what you are paying for.
For someone staying at Smothers Garden, the shape of the day matters more than the room. It sits in Greater Nairobi rather than in the centre, 5.86 km from Ngara and the Globe, which is the nearest of the ten quarters this site covers, and the street there is a flyover, a roundabout, and a market that starts before the light does. After dark it is a transport edge rather than an evening one, and the advice is to cross it by car. So: Smothers Garden suits a driver who wants parking, a garden and a quiet base outside the middle. It does not suit anyone planning to walk to meetings or to spend the evening in the centre, and it does not suit a stay without a car.
02The supplier's photographs
0317 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 Ngara and the Globe, and they are not in any of the ten quarters this site covers. They sit well outside the centre, in the inner suburbs. Of those ten quarters, Ngara and the Globe is only the nearest, and it is still a separate place: the northern edge of the grid, where the city loosens and the roads north begin. The quarter sits 0.81 km from Kenyatta Avenue at Moi Avenue, which is 11 minutes on foot in a direct line, and that is the quarter's own measure, not a walk from your door.
Treat the location as the wider city. Anything you want in the CBD means travelling in and out, and after dark this is a transport edge rather than an evening one, so cross it by car. The Globe Cinema roundabout is the CBD's northern hinge and the fruit market beside it opens at four in the morning, which makes the quarter best for early markets, and the walk up to the National Museum, if you are already there. Museum Hill is the next rise beyond. You are not.
Read the nearest quarter, Ngara and the Globe05Booking it
Book Smothers Garden if the parking, the garden and the quiet matter more to you than walking distance to the centre. 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 Smothers Garden?+
It is on Daisy Drive, off United Nations Avenue, in Greater Nairobi. The centre is not on your doorstep. It is 6.61 km from Kenyatta Avenue at Moi Avenue, which is 83 minutes on foot in a direct line, so treat it as a base you reach and leave by car.
What does the hotel have on site?+
A 24 hour front desk, free wifi, free car parking, a restaurant, a bar or lounge, breakfast, a garden, a library, a safe, luggage storage, laundry and dry cleaning, newspapers, a smoking area, and babysitting against a surcharge. There is no pool, gym or airport transfer.
Can I get into the centre without a car?+
You can, but the address works against you. It is 5.86 km from Ngara and the Globe, which is the nearest of the ten quarters this site covers. The street there is a flyover, a roundabout, and a market that starts before the light does, and after dark it is a transport edge rather than an evening one. Cross it by car.
What does the guest score mean?+
It is 4.8 out of 5 from 6 reviews. That is a strong figure from a very small sample, so read it as a handful of satisfied recent guests rather than a settled pattern. Six reviews cannot tell you much about a hotel either way.
