Nairobi airport 5 hour layover
 

We are going to Zambia oct 10th, and will return on oct 21st. Returning from Lusaka, we'll get to Nairobi at 16.30 pm and our connection to Amsterdam will only be at 22.10pm. This is more than 5 hours at Nairobi airport and I wonder what we could do to kill the time. Any suggestions are welcome, perhaps a good restaurant, it's friday evening. Can I leave the airport without a visa? Hope someone has a fun idea. Are taxi's safe in the evening? How long does a taxiride take to get to a decent restaurant? I suppose must be back at the airport by 2030 pm. Thanks a lot.

sorry for double post.

If you leave the airport, I believe you'll need a visa, which I think is US$50 (that's what it was when last I was in Kenya in 2003), so it will be expensive to leave.

If you do, you may want to have dinner at Carnivore, a touristy restaurant, but almost all visitors to Nairobi have one meal there (that may be an exaggeration, but its very popular). It serves a lot of the antelopes you saw on safari.

With only 5 hours though, and with the price of the visa, I'd stay at the airport. They generally want you back 2 hours before departure, so you won't have much time.

Also, I was scheduled to fly NBO to Amsterdam in 2003, and I was bumped since they sent a smaller plane and I had to overnight at the Intercontinental and fly out the next day. If you have boarding passes you should be OK, but I wouldn't leave the airport without them.

So, I think my advice would be to bring a book and wait it out at the airport.

I believe you'll need a visa unless you hold a passport from one the visa exempt countries -

http://www.kenyaembassy.com/content/...;id=1099030158

But you should qualify for a transit visa which is $20. You can check at the visa counter on arrival.

A taxi from NBO to downtown takes about 20-30 minutes. I don't have any restaurant recommendations to give, sorry.

Getting back by 20:30 should be fine if you're already checked-in for your AMS flight. You'll need to go through a security check upon re-entering the terminal, passport control, and a secondary security check at the gate.

If it's $ 20 I will do it but not for $50.

We just returned from our Safari adventure and had that same lay over in Nairobi. We bit the bullet and just stayed at the airport...unfortunetely the shops are all basicaly the same. We did spend alot of time in the foodcourt after gate 14 and watched TV and munched on stuff. People watching also helped to pass the time.

Alejandra,
Here is the site for the airport. There are a few things to do.
http://www.kenyaairports.co.ke/index.php

If you stay at the airport make sure you walk all the way down to the end where the coffee shop is - it serves decent food and pretty good coffee. I think that is what jancarol meant by the foodcourt but maybe not I wasn't in there very long. One nice thing is you can pay in US and get US change.

We had a 7 hour lay-over. There is !!!!!!extremely!!!!!!!Limited seating!!!! The shops are all the same kind of duty-free that you see everywhere. Bring a good book. See if you can get in on the airport lounges. There are several spots where prefered customers of several airlines can go to relax. Buy/take/write your postcards. There are only I think two good spots to eat, and the best is past gate 14 as mentioned above. There is an internet place that sells time - 15 minutes is $2.00 us. Good Luck!

Not a great airport to spend 5 (6?)hours...but you could possibly have the Carnivore Experience in that time.

The coffee shop at the airport is very nice (well the coffee is nice, and a shop to the side sells samosas) I'm sure you can get a transit visa!

Beware of the taxi fare to Carnivore... I reckon no more than 4000 Ksh, and negotiate that rate with the driver (return trip, he'll wait for you, and don't pay in advance!) Again I can give you the number for a good, relable taxi driver in Nairobi. Just email me.

Thanks for all the tips. We did buy a transit visa $ 20,= each and took a taxi ride around Nairobi, 50 dollars. ended up at Carnivore which in my opinion is a cool place, but the food overrated, the meats were just ok but didnt matter, we enjoyed the whole entourage. And surely better than satying at the airport!!