2025 Guide to the Giraffe Center Nairobi, Kenya

One of the top things to do in Nairobi, Kenya is to visit the famous Giraffe Center, where you can get up close and personal with the Rothschild Giraffes that live on the grounds here. You could even kiss a giraffe if you wanted to! The Giraffe Centre, located just outside of Nairobi, Kenya, offers a unique opportunity to get up close and personal with one of Africa’s most iconic animals: the giraffe. Officially known as the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife Kenya (AFEW Kenya), the Giraffe Center Nairobi was established to protect the endangered Rothschild giraffe. I visited the Giraffe Center when I was in Nairobi and I’ll give you my insight on what it’s like to visit — let’s begin.

Giraffe Center in Nairobi Kenya – How to Get there

The Giraffe Center is about 40 minutes from Nairobi city center. You could take a taxi or an uber here, or hire a private driver for the day. This is a major tourist attraction in Nairobi and any driver should know how to get there.

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You can also tack this on to a safari package — just make sure to let your tour operator know that you’re interested in visiting the Giraffe Center in Nairobi and they will take care of the details, including transportation. I use SafariBookings.com to book safaris – after tons and tons of reserach, I found that’s the best way to book a safari.

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We had a private driver for the day. Earlier in the day, we did a morning game drive through Nairobi National Park. The Giraffe Center is located close by, so it’s easy to add this on after a game drive.

You could also combine this with a visit to the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage Wildlife Trust, but you do need advance reservations for that. I wrote more about it here if you’re interested in learning more.

Giraffe Center Nairobi – Fees and Admission

For a non-resident, you will pay 1,500 Kenyan Schillings to enter, which is roughly $11.45. You do not need advance reservations to visit but the park can get very crowded, especially on the weekends.

Visiting the Giraffe Center

Kenya is home to three species of giraffes: Reticulated, Rothschild and Masaai. At the Giraffe Center, you will only find the Rothschild. The Rothschild Giraffes are a subspecies of the giraffe and found only in East Africa.

Important note: This is not a zoo – it is a sanctuary! The giraffes are free to come and go as they please within the grounds. The giraffes are not forced to wander up to the boardwalks for food. I’ve never heard of NO giraffes coming up for food, but you might visit when only a few are there (this happened to us). It’s all up to the giraffes!

After paying admission, you will be given instructions on your encounters with the giraffes as well as a small bowl of food to feed them.

The giraffes are extremely friendly and come right up to the railings, waiting for food. They’ll even try to lick you! This is a very popular tourist attraction so if you come here during busy times (any time outside of early morning when they first open), you will be jostling with other tourists for time with the giraffes.

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You’ll definitely want to bring your camera, as this is a lot of fun. However, it was much more difficult to take a selfie or really any kind of photo with a giraffe than I thought it would be. There were so many people here. Everyone was doing the same thing — trying to get a good photo with these cute animals. Just expect there to be other people in your shot when trying to take these photos. Especially if for some reason, when you go, there aren’t a lot of giraffes that are coming up to the boardwalks — which was the case when we were there.

There were only 2 or 3 giraffes looking for food — it was a really hot day and I imagine the others were resting in the shade. So it was really tough to feed them, much less take photos, as everyone was gathering around the same 2 or 3 animals.

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It’s really fun to feed and interact with the giraffes, but they will try to lick you — they really want that food!

All in all, you probably won’t spend more than 20 minutes, maybe 30 minutes at most here but I could definitely see spending more time if the crowds weren’t so bad — you could really get some amazing photos here. It just wasn’t in the cards for us (plus we visited on a Saturday afternoon!). There is a small cafe and a gift shop on site. While purchases in the gift shop support the conservation efforts, I didn’t find anything all that interesting to buy.

Giraffe Manor

The famous Giraffe Manor is located here as well, where you can stay overnight and wake up to the giraffes as they pop in through the windows as you eat your breakfast. This is an extremely expensive place to stay (you’re looking at about $2,000 or more per night!) and it’s very difficult to score a reservation here — you must plan at least a year in advance. This looked really cool and if I would’ve been able to get a reservation here, my sister and I would’ve definitely stayed – a total bucket list experience IMO!

Giraffe Center – Final Thoughts

This was a fun experience but it’s extremely crowded so it kind of takes away some of the fun. I definitely suggest getting here early to avoid the crowds — you’ll get a much better experience and more of a chance to see more giraffes — remember, this isn’t a zoo and the giraffes will come and go as they please. This doesn’t take very long to visit, and there isn’t much else here to do, except feed the giraffes the small bowl of food. The crowds can get very frustrating and when we were here, people were really rude — pushing and shoving others out of the way just to take their photos or to give the giraffe food. However, I don’t see a lot of negative reviews about this place — and the conservation work that they do is amazing — we just had some bad luck during our visit! Hey, it happens when it comes to wildlife viewing!