Nairobi: Essential Travel Tips
Heads up: some links here are affiliate links. Book or buy through them and we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only point you to things we would actually use.
Safety note: Nairobi has a real, well-documented street-crime problem, mugging, carjacking, smash-and-grab at traffic lights, phone snatching, the old “Nairobbery” reputation is fair context, not exaggeration, plus a background terrorism risk. It’s also a heavily visited safari-gateway capital that millions of people pass through incident-free every year. Use Uber, Bolt, or Little rather than walking, especially after dark or through the CBD; keep car doors locked and windows up in traffic with nothing visible; stick to Westlands, Karen, Gigiri, Kilimani, or Lavington rather than the CBD at night, and avoid Eastleigh and Kibera, neither of which are tourist areas; and check your government’s current travel advisory before you go.
Here’s what actually matters before you land in Nairobi, past the generic “be aware of your surroundings” advice most guides stop at.
1. Apply for the eTA well ahead
Kenya replaced visa-on-arrival with a mandatory Electronic Travel Authorization for nearly all visitors, including US and UK citizens, since January 2024, this is still current in 2026. Apply online at etakenya.go.ke , standard processing runs around $30 and takes about 72 hours, apply several days before departure, not the week before your flight. Your passport needs at least 6 months’ validity beyond arrival.
2. Use ride-hailing, not street taxis or boda-bodas
Uber, Bolt, and Little are the default for visitors, affordable, trackable, and the standard recommendation over walking or hailing a taxi off the street. Matatus (shared minibuses) are cheap and characterful but carry real pickpocketing and overcrowding risk; boda-bodas (motorbike taxis) are the riskiest option, both for accidents and as a documented snatch-theft tactic, treat them as a locals-only choice.
3. Book the Sheldrick nursery before you land, not on arrival
The elephant nursery’s public visit is a single daily window, 11am to noon (except December 25th), booked directly through the Trust’s own site well ahead. Third-party tour platforms can’t get you in, and showing up without a confirmed slot gets you turned away.
4. M-PESA runs a lot of everyday commerce
Kenya’s mobile-money system is genuinely dominant for small transactions, markets, matatus, small vendors, even if it isn’t required for a standard hotel-and-tour visit, cards and cash cover hotels, restaurants, and malls fine. If a small vendor asks to “send it on M-PESA,” that’s why.
5. Don’t expect elephants inside Nairobi National Park
The park has no resident elephant population, its only wildlife corridor runs south into the Kitengela Conservation Area rather than through the park. You’ll still get lions, black rhino, leopard, buffalo, zebra, and giraffe, four of the Big Five.
6. Tip around 10%
At restaurants catering to tourists and expats, check the bill first, a service charge may already be included. Tipping is less standard at purely local spots but always appreciated. Safari guides and drivers are tipped separately and more substantially.
7. Use ATMs inside malls or bank branches
Not isolated street-front machines, and don’t flash cash, jewelry, or electronics openly. Keep photocopies or photos of your passport and eTA approval separate from the originals.
8. Budget real time for traffic
Nairobi’s traffic is notoriously heavy at peak hours. Build generous buffer time into any airport transfer or cross-town trip, especially given that a same-day connection from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to Wilson Airport for a safari flight is genuinely tight and traffic-dependent, an overnight in Nairobi first is the safer plan.
9. Malaria risk in the city itself is low
Nairobi’s high altitude (around 1,795m) means generally low malaria risk within the city, but safari destinations at lower altitude, the Maasai Mara, Amboseli, the coast, do carry real risk. Talk to a travel clinic about your full itinerary, not just the Nairobi days. A yellow fever certificate may be required depending on your routing.
Read more: our main Nairobi guide has the full sight-by-sight rundown, and the best places to stay guide covers which neighborhoods are the safest bases.