What to pack for Nairobi by season: altitude, long rains and cold nights
Open suitcase with fleece, rain shell and sunhat packed for Nairobi's seasons
At 1,795 metres with an 11-degree daily swing, Nairobi asks for four packing lists rather than one — and about KSh4,000 of local shopping will fix whatever you get wrong.
The constant: altitude, sun and an 11-degree swing
Whatever month you come, two things are always true. Nairobi sits just under 1,800 metres, so the ultraviolet index at midday runs high enough to burn pale skin in under half an hour even under thin cloud — bring a hat with a brim and a high-factor sunscreen, because imported sunscreen in Nairobi supermarkets costs KSh1,500-2,800 for a small bottle. And the temperature falls hard after sunset, which is between 6.30pm and 6.50pm year-round because the equator does not do long evenings. Every day here needs a layer you can add at six o’clock.
Altitude also affects your body. Expect to sleep badly the first night, drink more water than usual, and feel a flight of stairs in a way you would not at sea level. If you are running or hiking in the first 48 hours, halve your ambitions. Bring a refillable bottle — hotel water is filtered and most properties refill for free — plus rehydration sachets, which cost about KSh50 each in any pharmacy but are worth having on arrival. Skip the altitude tablets; 1,795 metres does not require them.
January and February: hot, dry, dusty
This is the hottest window, with highs of 26-28°C, cloudless mornings and a brown, dusty edge to everything by the end of February. Pack thin cotton and linen rather than synthetics, sunglasses that actually block glare, and a scarf or buff for open-vehicle game drives, because the murram dust in the national park at this time of year gets into everything. Closed shoes beat sandals for the park and for Nairobi pavements generally, which are uneven and, in the CBD, genuinely hazardous after dark.
Do not be fooled into leaving warm layers at home. February nights still drop to 13-14°C, and a rooftop bar in Westlands at 9pm is cool enough to want sleeves. Bring one light jumper and one wind layer. If you are combining with the coast or a Rift Valley lodge, this is also the month where a swimsuit is genuinely useful in Nairobi, because unheated hotel pools reach a pleasant temperature in February in a way they simply do not in July. Add eye drops if you wear contact lenses; the dust is relentless.
The long rains, March to May: the hardest list to get right
April is the wettest month, commonly 180-220mm over fifteen-plus wet days, and the pattern matters more than the total: mornings are frequently bright, then a heavy convective storm arrives between 4pm and 7pm and stops within an hour or two. So you do not need full waterproofs for the day — you need to be equipped for a 90-minute window. A packable rain shell with a hood beats an umbrella, because the storms come with wind that turns umbrellas inside out on Kenyatta Avenue within seconds.
Footwear is where visitors suffer. Pavements pond, kerbs vanish, and unpaved shortcuts in residential areas like Kileleshwa and parts of Karen turn to slick red mud. Bring shoes with real grip that you do not mind ruining, plus one dry pair for evenings. Add a dry bag or a plastic sleeve for a camera and laptop, and quick-drying trousers rather than jeans, which take two days to dry in a Nairobi hotel room. And plan your day around the storms: outdoors before two, indoors after four.
June to August: the cold list people never believe
This is where packing goes most wrong. Nairobi's cool season delivers highs of 21-22°C, nights of 10-12°C, and grey overcast that can hold from breakfast to mid-afternoon. There is no heating in essentially any hotel room in the city, so what you wear indoors after dark matters as much as what you wear outside. Bring a proper fleece or wool jumper, long trousers, socks, a jacket for evenings and, if you feel the cold, thermal leggings for sleeping. A hot-water bottle is a legitimate item to pack for a July stay.
Leave the swimsuit at the bottom of the bag. Unheated pools sit at 18-20°C under that cloud deck and you will not get in. What you will use is a small torch, because the mornings are dim and power cuts are more noticeable in a grey month; a windproof layer for the Ngong Hills ridge, which is exposed and 200 metres higher than the city; and sunglasses anyway, because when the cloud breaks at 3pm the equatorial sun is exactly as strong as it was in February.
October to December: short rains, evening storms only
The short rains are far friendlier than the long ones. November is the wettest of them at roughly 130-170mm, but the storms are concentrated in the late afternoon and evening and the mornings are bright, warm and green. Pack for February with a rain shell added: thin layers, a hat, sunglasses, plus something dry to change into if you are out at 6pm. Highs run 23-26°C, nights 14-15°C. This is the season where an ordinary compact umbrella works, because the storms are less windy than April's.
Two extras. Mosquitoes are noticeably worse in the weeks after rain, even in Nairobi where the altitude keeps malaria risk low — a repellent with DEET, about KSh600-1,200 locally, earns its place. And if you are heading down to Naivasha, Nakuru or the Rift, throw in a light long-sleeved shirt for dusk on the lakeshore, where the mosquito situation is a different order of magnitude and the risk profile is not Nairobi's. Ask a travel clinic about prophylaxis for lowland add-ons, not for Nairobi itself.
If you are adding a safari or a highland trip
Safari kit is season-agnostic in one respect and completely seasonal in another. Always: neutral colours rather than bright white or black, a brimmed hat, binoculars — 8x42 is the sensible spec and there is nowhere in Nairobi to hire decent ones — a dust-proof camera bag, and a warm layer for the 6am game drive, when an open vehicle at 60km/h feels ten degrees colder than the thermometer says. From June to September add a fleece and gloves for Mara and Amboseli mornings; from March to May add the same waterproofs you brought for Nairobi.
Going higher changes things again. Nanyuki and Nyeri sit around 1,950-2,000 metres and drop close to single figures after dark from June to August, so a fireplace room and a proper jacket are not optional. Mount Kenya trekking in the dry windows of January to February and August to September needs a full mountain kit list that has nothing to do with your Nairobi packing. Naivasha and Nakuru, on the Rift floor, are warmer and brighter than Nairobi in the cool season — one less layer, one more litre of water.
What to leave at home and buy here instead
Do not pack bulk toiletries, cheap rainwear or a spare fleece. Toi Market off Ngong Road sells second-hand fleeces and jackets for KSh300-1,000 and is a genuinely good browse; a street vendor on Kenyatta Avenue or Moi Avenue will sell you an umbrella for KSh400-1,000 the moment it clouds over; Sarit in Westlands, Yaya on Argwings Kodhek and The Junction on Ngong Road all have supermarkets and pharmacies for anything forgotten. A kikoi from the rotating craft markets, around KSh800-1,500, doubles as a scarf, a picnic blanket and a game-drive layer.
Do bring things that are expensive or hard to find: prescription medication with a copy of the prescription, contact lens solution, quality sunscreen, a universal adaptor for the UK-style three-pin type G sockets on 240 volts, and a power bank because outages happen. Bring some cash in small notes for markets and matatus, and set up mobile money on arrival — a local SIM from a Safaricom or Airtel shop with ID costs around KSh100-500 with data bundles from KSh500, and it is how you will pay for almost everything outside hotels.
Before you book
What people ask before booking Nairobi.
A packable shell is worth its space in any month. Even in the dry January to February window a stray afternoon storm happens, and June to August brings grey drizzle rather than downpours. What you can skip year-round is waterproof trousers and full hiking rain gear unless you are trekking on Mount Kenya.
No. A fleece plus a light jacket handles the coldest nights, which reach about 10°C in July. What matters more is that hotel rooms have no heating, so pack sleepwear, socks and an indoor layer. A hot-water bottle, or one requested from your hotel, does more than a heavy coat would.
One pair of closed, grippy trainers or light walking shoes for everything, plus something dry for evenings. Nairobi pavements are uneven and pond badly from March to May, and park and forest tracks are murram dust or red mud depending on the month. Sandals are fine only around a hotel pool.
