The Outspan Hotel lies on the fringes of the Aberdare National Park. To ‘outspan’ means to unyoke one’s weary oxen at the end of a day’s journey. Lord Baden Powell, who in 1920 was proclaimed Chief Scout of the world, recognised the tranquility and beauty of the Outspan and chose to ‘outspan’ at the hotel with his wife for the last three years of his life. Baden Powell’s grave faces towards the glistening snows of Mt Kenya and the walls of his cottage Paxtu are covered in memorabilia.
The 30 acre setting and two purpose-built conference rooms lend themselves to creative meetings and training sessions with numerous tempting leisure activities for when ‘school’s out’. There is tennis, squash, billiards, badmington, and adjacent to the hotel, a 9-hole golf course. For the less sports-minded, there is a daily display of traditional Kikuyu dancing, another 16 acres for nature walks along the Chania River, escorted bird walks, excursions to nearby tea and coffee farms and of course, morning and afternoon game drives in the Abedares Salient where Treetops is sited and where only specially licensed 4 wheel drive vehicles are permitted to enter. We’ll challenge anyone to say they’re bored!
Just 160 kms on a good road from Nairobi and 2 kms from Nyeri town center, the Outspan Hotel offers guests a range of accommodations - twin rooms, garden suites, or cottages. Since the hotel’s inception in 1927, the atmosphere has changed little.
The gardens are a riot of sculptured colour and the rooms, many with their own log fires, have been recently redecorated to retain the charm and comfort of an historical and well-established hotel. And many of our guarded recipes go back a year or two. Supplied with abundant dairy and fresh produce from nearby farms, our chefs lovingly create dishes. For a pampered but entertaining country holiday or a rewarding and enjoyable conference, we are proud to welcome you to Kenya’s traditional country hotel, The Outspan.