A four star one bedroom in Westlands, in Greater Nairobi, with an indoor pool, a gym and parking on site. It suits someone staying in Nairobi for work who wants a self contained flat with a kitchen and a balcony, and it does not suit anyone coming for a quick look at the centre, because the quarter this site covers is not on the doorstep.
01What it is
Urban Lifestyle 1BR in Westlands Heated Pool Gym Workspace & Parking is a four star one bedroom flat at Elite Residence on Westlands Road, and the list is the list of a serviced flat rather than a hotel: a kitchen and kitchenette with an oven, microwave and refrigerator, a washing machine, an iron and board, towels, a hairdryer and a safe. There is a desk and free wifi for work, a television for the evening, a balcony, a garden and a terrace for air. The building runs to taller guest facilities: an indoor pool and a swimming pool, a gym in the name, lifts, luggage storage and free car parking. The thin spots are worth naming. The list stops short of a restaurant, a bar and a reception that keeps the door through the night, so meals and most of the evening are yours to arrange.
Urban Lifestyle 1BR in Westlands Heated Pool Gym Workspace & Parking is built for a stay measured in weeks rather than nights, which is where the kitchen, the washing machine and the desk earn their place. The pool and the gym cover the hours outside work, and the parking covers a car. Westlands Road is in Greater Nairobi rather than in the quarter this site covers, and the address is 1.55 km from Biashara Street and City Market, which is the nearest of the ten quarters this site covers; it is 2.08 km from Kenyatta Avenue at Moi Avenue, which is 26 minutes on foot in a direct line. The landscape the name promises is real: this address sits on the Westlands ridge rather than in the flats of the centre. Take it if you have business in Westlands, Parklands or the offices along Waiyaki Way and want a flat with a kitchen. Leave it if your days are in the centre and you want to walk out of a lobby into it.
02The supplier's photographs
0329 facilities the supplier lists
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 flat once you know your working address, because the case for Westlands rests on being close to Westlands and not on being close 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 exactly is Urban Lifestyle 1BR in Westlands, and how do I get into the centre from there?+
It is at Elite Residence on Westlands Road, in Greater Nairobi. It is 2.08 km from Kenyatta Avenue at Moi Avenue, which is 26 minutes on foot in a direct line, and 1.55 km from Biashara Street and City Market, which is the nearest of the ten quarters this site covers. Plan to reach the centre by car or by taxi rather than on foot.
What is in the flat itself, as opposed to the building?+
The one bedroom comes with a kitchen and kitchenette, an oven, a microwave, a refrigerator, a washing machine, an iron and board, towels, a hairdryer and a safe. There is a desk, free wifi and a television. A balcony, a garden and a terrace give you somewhere to sit outside the room.
What does the building have beyond the room?+
An indoor pool and a swimming pool, a gym, lifts, luggage storage, free car parking, free wifi, non smoking rooms, a smoke detector and first aid. The listed facilities do not include a restaurant or a bar, so expect to eat out or cook in the flat rather than order from a hotel kitchen.
Is Urban Lifestyle 1BR in Westlands a good base for a short city break?+
It is better suited to a working stay than to a short break. The centre is a car or taxi ride away, and Westlands is the point of the address. If your days are in the central business district and you want to walk to them, this flat is in the wrong place for you.
