Discover The Best Places To Visit in Mombasa VS Nairobi
If you hadn’t known by now, I’m a beach lover so it wasn’t hard to make the decision between staying in Nairobi and Mombasa. Honestly, it was harder to choose between Mombasa and Watamu, and Mombasa or Malindi. But my heart was set on Mombasa, not because of the beaches, but because of the vibes I had heard about. I also decided to throw in a 2 night visit to the capital Nairobi.
Kenya tourism is rapidly growing so try and visit while it’s still a gem currently being explored. Kenya Airways, Air France and Ethiopian airlines were all stopping at Nairobi, and there were no direct flights (that we could find) at the time. We decided to spend 8 days in Mombasa, and the last two days in Nairobi, and this was the best decision, simply because Mombasa was magical for me.
Mombasa is a step back in time, and I’m glad I had 8 days to explore which unfortunately, still wasn’t enough!
During our stay in Mombasa, Check out: The Top Places We Visited!
We visited Mombasa Beach. This was not our favourite, but Bamburi and Nyali beach were not far away. We spent the day touring the city which included a visit to the Mombasa Elephant Tusks, Fort Jesus, Old Town Market and so much more. We passed by many other tourist hotspots like the Temple.
We went shopping in Nyali shopping plaza, where my mother treated herself to a new hairdo.
We ate at Java House restaurant, played basketball (not me) at a local park. The park was filled with Monkeys, so it would be a nice visit for the kids. We spent the following day at a different shopping centre – Nyali City Mall, where we picked up some gifts and souvenirs, and even skin care products to take home.
We had a swahili lunch at Mama Siti Cafe (which wasn’t our favourite) but still hit the hunger spot!
We explored the spice market at Old Town, which was also like a step back in time.
We went on a full day Safari and waterfall with Martin which was the highlight of our holiday, before having a quiet Christmas day and heading to Nairobi on Boxing day.
We finally arrived in Nairobi on boxing day afternoon. It was cold. A lot colder than Mombasa, and I was immediately unimpressed! It quickly became dark, so there wasn’t a lot of time to explore that day. We woke up early the next morning, and set off for breakfast and to explore the whole city. We had a fantastic day.
We wanted our day to be special, as we only really had one full day to explore. I’m a big foodie of course, so I looked for ‘food near me‘, as I wanted to start the following day to start with breakfast! We booked an Uber to take us to Nairobi city. Our first stop was supposed to be the Maasai Market, but we needed to eat. So we asked our driver to recommend to us some good places to eat, and he recommended CJ’S. The perfect choice.
The perfect place to dine!
Upon arriving at CJ’s, we were most certainly impressed. The decor was 10/10,Ambience was 10:10,Price was 9/10 Food was 8/10 – but overall the place was fantastic! Our full meal came with a hot drink and a cold drink, and was very cost effective. Check out some of the dishes we went for! The Chicken and waffles dish was our favourite, it was scrumptious, filling and visually appealing. But my Mum’s dish won again! She went for the salmon and egg breakfast which came with avocado and a complete fruit salad! Two drinks were also included. Mine was standard, but I couldn’t resist ordering pancakes. I love pancakes!
After brunch, of course our next stop was The Maasai Market. We picked up a few gifts for family and friends, and explored the whole market. We made our way around the city and came to The Kenyatta Convention Center. There was a price to take professional photos, but I didn’t want to find out or spend any additional money, so I just used my mobile phone instead – (which was perfectly fine to do.)
We passed the Governor’s Office, the Nairobi Library, which unfortunately was closed. After exploring the city, we felt the vibe was completely different to Mombasa, something we really didn’t expect to be such a noticeable difference. We then took an Uber to Garden City Mall to do some window shopping.
There were many places to eat and shop. We had an awesome day exploring this city, but I’m sure you can guess which one took the trophy! Mombasa won the title.
Mombasa was magical! I hope you take the leap and visit the kids! Don’t forget to subscribe and check back for our upcoming post Top Things to do in Nairobi!
With Love,
Siobhan Patrina
