Giraffe Manor

Built in 1932 and modelled on a Scottish hunting lodge, Giraffe Manor is the oldest of The Safari Collection's properties and its best known. Giraffes have roamed its lawns since the 1970s, when Jock and Betty Leslie-Melville adopted an orphaned Nubian giraffe called Daisy. Tanya and Mikey Carr-Hartley bought the manor in April 2009.

There are twelve rooms sleeping up to twenty-nine guests: ten Superior Rooms and two Superior Family Suites, each of the latter with two en-suite bedrooms. Six of the rooms are in the Garden Manor, built in 2011 and directly adjacent to the original house, and six are in the Historic Manor. The Garden Manor rooms can be booked by anyone. The Historic Manor rooms are reserved for guests who are also staying at one of the group's bush properties for a minimum of two nights.

The giraffes visit morning and afternoon and are the reason most guests come, though the manor is also a comfortable, unhurried Nairobi base with acacia-shaded grounds, an ivy-covered facade and the AFEW Giraffe Centre next door. Rates are fully inclusive of arrival and departure transfers, transport around Karen and Langata, all meals, house wines, beers, spirits and soft drinks, laundry, wireless internet, entrance to the Giraffe Centre, Orchid House dining, access to The Retreat during check-in and check-out hours, boules, croquet and VAT.

Check-in and check-out times are strictly enforced. The manor has no reception area or restaurant for guests to wait in; it is still very much a family home. Specific breakfast tables cannot be reserved in advance, and are assigned by the management team on the day.