The Kika Des Suites is a four star address on Muthangari Drive, out in Greater Nairobi rather than in the centre itself. What decides it is the car: free parking and a drive in make it workable, and anyone planning to walk to the city's business quarter should look elsewhere.
01What it is
The Kika Des Suites is a four star property, and its list groups into the practical rather than the memorable. On the desk side: a 24 hour front desk, concierge, business center, luggage storage and lifts. On the housekeeping side: cleaning, laundry service and dry cleaning service. Free wifi runs through the building. Outside there is an outdoor pool, a spa, a smoking area, and parking that is free. The list is thin on food and drink: no restaurant or bar is named, so you should not assume a meal on site, and the spa and pool are the only leisure items given.
What that adds up to depends on how you use Nairobi. The Kika Des Suites sits 5.24 km from Kenyatta Avenue at Moi Avenue, which is 66 minutes on foot in a direct line, so the centre is a deliberate trip rather than a step out of the door. That suits people with a car and business in the wider city, and it does not suit anyone who wants to walk out into the quarter in the evening. The area is a daytime quarter: the halls shut in the late afternoon and the streets empty with them.
02The supplier's photographs
0315 facilities the supplier lists
Facilities are the supplier's list, not a check made on the ground.
04Standing outside the ten quarters
Before you book, be clear about where these hotels are. They sit well outside the centre, in the inner suburbs, and they are not in any of the ten quarters this site covers. Biashara Street and City Market is only the nearest of those quarters, which is not the same as being in it. You are in the wider city here, and every trip into the Central Business District is a journey in and out.
The market quarter itself is narrow, shaded, and the only part of the centre where the shops are still one-family wide. 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. After dark it is a daytime quarter: the halls shut in the late afternoon and the streets empty with them. It lies 0.63 km from Kenyatta Avenue at Moi Avenue, which is 8 minutes on foot in a direct line.
Read the nearest quarter, Biashara Street and City Market05Booking it
Book this one if the pool, the spa and the free parking are the point of your stay rather than a walkable location, and book it knowing the centre is a drive away. 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 The Kika Des Suites?+
It is on Muthangari Drive in Greater Nairobi, outside the central business district. The site lists it 4.63 km from Biashara Street and City Market, the nearest of the ten quarters this site covers. That means a car or a ride for anyone whose day is in the centre.
What facilities does The Kika Des Suites list?+
A 24 hour front desk, concierge, business center, laundry and dry cleaning, lifts, luggage storage and free wifi. Outside there is an outdoor pool, a spa, a smoking area and free parking. No restaurant or bar is listed, so do not count on eating in.
Can you walk from The Kika Des Suites to central Nairobi?+
It is 5.24 km from Kenyatta Avenue at Moi Avenue, which is 66 minutes on foot in a direct line. That is a long walk each way, and the quarter is a daytime one, so most people here treat the centre as a drive rather than a walk.
What does the guest score for The Kika Des Suites mean?+
It scores 4.6 out of 5 from 3199 reviews. That is a large body of feedback rather than a handful of opinions, and it puts the property high among places to stay in Greater Nairobi, though it says nothing about how close you are to the centre.
