What Nairobi costs
Nairobi is a cheap city with expensive gates: the room, the Uber and the nyama choma are small change, while national park entry and the safari that starts from here are why Kenya costs what it costs.
- Lean
- about €50 a day per person in the city
- Comfortable
- about €120 a day per person
- Smallest
- Food and transport
In Nairobi one national park ticket costs as much as a night in a Westlands hotel, and that is the whole arithmetic of the city: rooms, transport and food are cheap, park gates are not. What is paid from here — the safari per day, with €173 Mara entry in season — is the line that decides the whole Kenya budget.
The figures below are per person out of season, in euros so nobody chases exchange rates, with park entries in dollars as they are charged. Everything is a range; hotels in August and around Christmas go up by a third.
Where the money actually goes
At the gates. Nairobi National Park is €69 plus a five percent fee per foreigner, through eCitizen; a vehicle with guide for the morning another fifty to a hundred dollars per vehicle; the Sheldrick orphanage a donation of €17; the museum and the Giraffe Centre are small. One day with the park and Langata comes to a hundred to a hundred and fifty dollars a head, more than all the rooms, Ubers and dinners of two days together.
The safari per day: the arithmetic that decides
- Mara entry — €86 per person per day from January to June, €173 from July to December; entry is not shared with anyone in the vehicle, which is why the date changes the bill more than the accommodation does.
- Everything else — a group camping safari USD 200–300 per person per day all in, a lodge 400–800; a flight instead of the drive from €173 each way. Three full bills for three days are on the Mara budget page.
Where you save without losing anything
On the season above all: the same group safari in February costs a third less than in August, because Mara entry is half and the camps are not full. On the room in the city — a Kilimani hostel for twenty euros has what a hundred-euro hotel has, except the pool. On Ubers instead of taxis from the hotel forecourt. You do not economise on the vehicle and guide for the park: with a bad guide the whole entry fee buys zebras.
The same comparison for 143 places: hostel, hotel, getting into town and a day pass. Travel costs →
Before you go
Short answers to what people ask most before setting out.
What does a day in Nairobi cost?
About €50 a head with a hostel, Ubers and street food, about €120 with a Westlands hotel, restaurants and one day in the national park. The park with a vehicle is USD 100–150 a head and that is the line that makes the difference.
What does a safari from Nairobi cost?
A group camping safari USD 200–300 per person per day all in, a lodge 400–800. Mara entry is €86 a day from January to June and €173 from July to December — the same group safari in February costs a third less than in August.
Do you need cash in Kenya?
Shillings for the city — market, matatu, tips — from a cash machine; dollars or a card for the parks through eCitizen, which takes no cash. Dollars from the 2013 series or newer; bureaux and lodges refuse older ones.
Ready for Nairobi?
Where to next
Nairobi in 2 days
→The national park at six in the morning and Langata in the afternoon on day one, the museum and the centre on…
Masai Mara · 108 km
→The Kenyan end of the Serengeti ecosystem, with one of the highest lion densities in Africa — and an entry fee that doubles from July to December, though the herds leave in October
How well does Nairobi suit you?
→Six questions: a score for this place and others like it.
Front row for the next trip
Leave your email and we'll let you know when a new destination or story goes up.