Karen Blixen Museum
From 1917 to 1931 the Danish writer Karen Blixen ran a coffee farm from this stone farmhouse at the foot of the Ngong Hills. Her memoir Out of Africa later became an Oscar-winning film, and the Karen Blixen Museum is now one of the best-loved cultural Kenya tourist attractions.
Blixen came to Kenya in 1914 with her husband, Baron Bror von Blixen-Finecke, and later ran the farm on her own after their divorce. The high altitude was poorly suited to coffee, and when prices collapsed during the Great Depression she was forced to sell and return to Denmark. Writing as Isak Dinesen, she published Out of Africa in 1937, and the 1985 film adaptation starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford brought the house worldwide fame. It opened as a museum the following year.
Why visit the Karen Blixen Museum?
Built in 1912, the house has been restored with period furniture, some of it Blixen's own. Guides from the National Museums of Kenya recount her farming struggles, her friendship with Denys Finch Hatton and colonial life in the 1920s.
The visit offers an insight into the life of European settlers in colonial Kenya, but also into Blixen's relationships with the Kikuyu and Maasai people who worked on and around the farm, whom she wrote about with affection. Finch Hatton, the big-game hunter and pilot she loved, died in a plane crash in 1931 and is buried in the Ngong Hills, not far from the farm.
Getting there and around
The museum is on Karen Road, in the suburb named after her, about 10 kilometres south-west of central Nairobi. Allow an hour.
Taxis and ride-hailing apps are the simplest way to get there, and the museum is easily combined with other attractions in Karen and Lang'ata. Tours of the house leave regularly throughout the day.
Highlights not to miss
- The farmhouse: Rooms furnished as in the 1920s, including her dining room and study.
- Guided tour: Included in the ticket, with stories drawn from her letters and books.
- Gardens: Lawns looking towards the Ngong Hills, the view she described so lovingly.
- Coffee machinery: Relics of the old plantation, including an early coffee dryer.
Practical tips
Combine it with the Giraffe Centre, a few minutes away, for an easy half-day – the Giraffe Center and Karen Blixen Museum tour does just that.
Photography may be restricted inside the house, so check with the guide. A small gift shop sells books, crafts and copies of Out of Africa.
Best time to visit
Open daily; the gardens are at their greenest after the rains.
Mornings tend to be quieter, and on clear days the outline of the Ngong Hills is at its sharpest.
Accommodation and food
Karen's colonial-era houses now host guesthouses and garden restaurants.
A restaurant in the former farm manager's house nearby serves meals in the gardens, continuing the area's relaxed, colonial-era charm.
How does it compare to other Kenya tourist attractions?
A literary counterpoint to wildlife sights such as the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust; the Sheldrick, Giraffe Center and Karen Blixen Museum tour brings the three Karen classics together.
It is one of the few places in Nairobi that tells the story of the colonial period through a single, well-documented life.
In summary
Fans of Out of Africa will find the farmhouse much as Blixen described it – a quiet, evocative hour.
