Parklands
Nairobi's South Asian quarter: temples, dosa counters, hospitals and cheap solid hotels, three kilometres from the CBD.
Shopfronts and apartment blocks along Third Parklands Avenue in Nairobi
Why people stay in Parklands
Parklands is where Nairobi's Gujarati, Punjabi, Ismaili and Jain communities have lived and traded for a century, and it still smells like it — cardamom, frying bhajia, incense from the temples on Limuru Road. It runs from Museum Hill roundabout out along 1st to 6th Parklands Avenue and Ojijo Road towards Highridge and Westlands. It is denser and scruffier than the leafy western suburbs, with far better food per shilling than anywhere else in the city. If you eat vegetarian, this is the single best base in Kenya.
The centre of gravity is Diamond Plaza and Diamond Plaza II off 4th Parklands Avenue: a car park ringed by a food court where you queue at counters for pani puri, dosa, kulfi and Nairobi-style chilli chicken. Two people eat properly for KSh1,200 to KSh1,800. Around it sit fabric shops, phone repair kiosks, gold dealers and travel agents selling Dubai flights. Weekends are chaotic and parking is a blood sport. Come on a Tuesday evening if you want the food without the elbows.
Two of Nairobi's best hospitals — Aga Khan University Hospital on 3rd Parklands Avenue and M.P. Shah on Parklands Road — mean a steady flow of medical travellers from across East Africa, and that shapes the hotels. There are lots of them, they are functional rather than pretty, and they are cheap: KSh4,000 to KSh9,000 buys a clean en-suite room with breakfast, and KSh12,000 to KSh18,000 gets you a genuine four-star. Serviced apartments for families with a patient in hospital are a whole local industry here.
At nine at night Parklands is half asleep in the residential streets and busy on the commercial ones — supermarkets open, chemists open, boda stages loud. It is not a nightlife district; Westlands is fifteen minutes on foot from Highridge and that is where people go. Skip Parklands if you want quiet greenery or a pool with a view. Take it if you want to eat exceptionally well, be near the museum and City Park, and pay two-thirds of Westlands prices for a comparable room.
Book on or just off 3rd and 4th Parklands Avenue: you are within walking distance of Diamond Plaza, the Aga Khan hospital and a matatu into town, and the buildings are newer than the Ojijo Road end. Highridge, at the Westlands edge, is the compromise pick if you want Parklands prices with Westlands bars a fifteen-minute walk away. Expect KSh4,000 to KSh9,000 for a decent mid-range room with breakfast, KSh12,000 to KSh18,000 for the better properties with pools. Avoid rooms facing Limuru Road or Forest Road — both carry heavy traffic from 06:00 — and avoid the cheapest guesthouses clustered right at the Ngara boundary, which are noisy and mostly cater to trade rather than travellers. Confirm your hotel has its own parking; kerbside parking here is a daily argument.
Things to do in Parklands
Off 4th Parklands Avenue. Order in stages: pani puri from one counter, a masala dosa from another, kulfi to finish. Most counters open 11:00 to 22:00 and are busiest 19:00 to 21:00 at weekends. Cash is faster than card. Budget KSh600 to KSh900 a head for a full sprawling meal.
Entrance off Limuru Road, ten minutes on foot from 3rd Parklands Avenue. Indigenous forest remnant with Sykes monkeys that will take your snack, the Murumbi Peace Memorial and Boyd Nairobi's oldest planted avenues. Entry is nominal. The hawkers market at the Limuru Road gate sells baskets and sisal bags for well under Maasai Market prices — haggle to about half.
Museum Hill, at the southern edge of Parklands across the river valley, about a fifteen-minute walk down Museum Hill Road. The human origins gallery with the Turkana finds is the reason to come. Non-resident entry is around KSh1,500 including the Snake Park; allow two to three hours and go before 11:00.
Forest Road, on the Parklands side. Club cricket most weekends in season and the occasional international; you can usually watch from the boundary for a small fee or a guest sign-in. Beer and samosas at club prices, roughly KSh300 for a Tusker. It is the most relaxed sporting afternoon in Nairobi.
The stretch of shops along 3rd Parklands Avenue towards Highridge sells sari silks, tailoring by the metre and 22-carat gold at daily rates. Tailors will run up a shirt in two days for KSh1,500 to KSh3,000 plus cloth. Ask for a written quote before cutting, and expect to pay half up front.
Several Hindu, Jain and Sikh places of worship sit within a kilometre of one another along and just off Limuru Road. Most welcome respectful visitors outside prayer times — cover shoulders and knees, remove shoes, ask before photographing. Sikh gurdwaras serve langar to anyone who turns up; arrive around midday on a Sunday.
What to see
Hotels near Parklands
No hotels are listed in Parklands yet. The nearest ones are on the region page.
Every hotel we cover in Parklands
- Capital Sapphire Line 1 Bed By Yourhost 2★ · 5/5
- JW Marriott Hotel Nairobi 5★ · 4.8/5
- Hyatt Regency Nairobi Westlands 5★ · 4.7/5
- Pan Pacific Serviced Suites Nairobi 5★ · 4.6/5
- The Ivory Hotel 3★ · 4.6/5
- Golden Tulip Westlands Nairobi 4★ · 4.4/5
- The Concord Hotel And Suites 4★ · 4.4/5
- Sentrim Boulevard Hotel 4★ · 4.2/5
- Hennessis Hotel 3★ · 4.2/5
- Red Ruby Hotel 3★ · 4.2/5
- Sky Hotel Nairobi 3★ · 4.2/5
- Cloud Hotel & Suites 4★ · 4.1/5
- Decale Jewel Stone Hotel 3★ · 4.1/5
- Sirona Get Away 3★ · 4.1/5
- Bermuda Garden Hotel 3★ · 4/5
- Parklands Villa Hotel 3★ · 3.9/5
- Impala Hotel 3★ · 3.8/5
- Mooreland Hotel Nairobi 3★ · 3.8/5
- Parklands Shade Hotel 3★ · 3.7/5
- Sirona Hotel 2★ · 3/5
- Elite Residence 1BR Apartment 5★
- Taarifa Suites by Dunhill Serviced Apartments 5★
- Villa Rosa Kempinski 5★
- 1bedroom Apartment near Aga Khan hospital & Gigiri 4★
Getting around Parklands
From JKIA it is about 25 km through Mombasa Road, the expressway and Uhuru Highway — KSh2,000 to KSh3,000 by app taxi, 45 to 80 minutes. From the CBD, matatus marked for Parklands and Highridge leave from the Odeon and Koja stages on Tom Mboya Street for KSh50 to KSh80 and take 12 to 25 minutes depending on the Museum Hill crawl. Inside Parklands everything within the 1st to 6th Avenue grid is walkable in under twenty minutes, though pavements vanish on Ojijo Road. Boda bodas cost KSh100 to KSh250 locally. Westlands and Sarit Centre are a 15-minute walk from Highridge or KSh300 by taxi.
Questions about Parklands
It is the obvious one. Dozens of hotels and serviced apartments on 2nd, 3rd and 4th Parklands Avenue sit within a ten-minute walk of the hospital gate, and many quote reduced weekly rates for families of patients — ask, because it is rarely advertised online. Pharmacies and laundries operate late. Expect KSh4,000 to KSh9,000 a night for a comfortable room with breakfast.
More than anywhere else in East Africa. The Diamond Plaza counters, the Gujarati snack shops on 4th Parklands Avenue and several full restaurants serve pure vegetarian food, and a number will cook Jain — no onion, no garlic, no root vegetables — if you say so when ordering. A thali runs KSh600 to KSh1,200. Sunday lunch is the busiest service of the week.
The commercial streets stay busy and lit until around 22:00 and are broadly fine. The quieter residential side roads off Ojijo Road and towards Ngara are not places to wander alone after dark, and phone snatching from motorbikes is the common problem. Take a taxi for anything after 21:30 rather than walk; it will cost KSh250 to KSh400 within the area.
Yes, from the Highridge end it is roughly 1.5 km along 3rd Parklands Avenue to Sarit Centre, about 15 to 20 minutes, and the pavement holds most of the way. From the Museum Hill end it is closer to 3 km and less pleasant. Do the walk in daylight and take a KSh300 taxi coming back after dinner.
