Bucket List / Experience Goals
Have Breakfast With Giraffes At Giraffe Manor
Still to do
Sit down to breakfast as a giraffe pushes its head through the window to steal your toast.
The adventure
Breakfast starts normally enough: coffee, eggs, a dining room in an old ivy-covered manor. Then a long neck appears at the window, a head the size of a suitcase leans in over the table, and a long, dark tongue reaches for the pellets left out for exactly this moment.
The giraffes at Giraffe Manor are Rothschild's giraffes, one of the rarer subspecies, and the house is linked to the Giraffe Centre next door, which has bred them for conservation since the 1970s. They wander the grounds freely, appear at bedroom windows in the morning and turn up again at afternoon tea. It's one of the most photographed hotels in Africa, and it's very hard not to laugh out loud.
Why it’s epic
- Giraffes visiting the dining room windows at breakfast.
- Endangered Rothschild's giraffes, bred for conservation.
- The Giraffe Centre next door.
What it is
A 1930s manor house in the Nairobi suburbs whose resident herd of endangered Rothschild's giraffes push their heads through the windows at breakfast.
How to do it
Book directly with the hotel, usually many months ahead. Stays often include meals and a visit to the Giraffe Centre next door.
Top tip
If the manor is full, the neighbouring Giraffe Centre lets you feed the same herd from a raised platform for a fraction of the price.
Need to know
- Rooms are very limited and often booked up a year ahead.
- It's in the Nairobi suburbs, so it pairs well with the start or end of a safari.
- Nairobi National Park is a short drive away.
Plan this trip
- Rough cost
- £5,000 or more per person, including flights from the UK
- Time needed
- A night or two
- Best time to go
- All year
- Fly into
- NBO airport
One of Kenya's most exclusive small hotels.
Make it happen
Why it’s on my list
Not done yet. If you’ve done it and have tips, tell me about it.
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