Well with us travelling and not spending a whole lot of time in each country we decided to just use local transportation while in Nairobi and in the other countries we visit.

So before we arrived in Nairobi I decided to research on the best way of moving around.

They have what is considered the cheapest ride which is the Matatu ( its a 8-12 passenger van that everyone going towards the same direction will get on and can get off when they reach their destination so like a shared ride). Now I have not tried riding that one yet because in my home country Ghana we have it also and its called Trotro, and I have being on them before so not so much of an excitement to get on while in Nairobi. And also they drive recklessly. So all the best if you decide to try it out.

The next one that is very new to me is called Border Border and basically its a bike rider. its very very reasonable and with the traffic in Nairobi it actually is a fun and nice ride for short distance. They charge around KSH 100 ( $1) for most short distance trips. And they give you helmet and a reflector to put on…. I like that because it gets me to my destination faster….

Then there is Easy Taxi, its an app that you can download and you request for a ride. ( I think they can do better with the App) But I used it for a while and still uses it on and off. prices are minimum of $3 for all short distance. But the drivers seem never to be available when you need them. And I end up cancelling a lot of my taxi ride that I request. and also even though the easy Taxi tariff is on the app the drivers still try to negotiate because after the trip you pay them directly. with us not having our own car going to short distance and paying $3 all the time can add up so the border border is our best option without the kids.

The other option is just a regular Taxi that is not registered with easy Taxi. But their prices are almost the same, but with regular taxi you can negotiate with the driver. So what I do is that I check the tariff on easy Taxi then when I pick the regular taxi I am able to negotiate to a reasonable price.

Then the more fancy option which we usually will take  when Marcus and I are on a date night because the cars are much nicer and the drivers are more knowledgeable. its UBer Taxi. We used UBer a lot while in Cape Town but In Kenya we realized its time to find a cheaper route. And with Uber we had to use a credit card which was also being charged international fee. so for a trip that cost us $3 now will have to charge another fee for international usage of the credit card. And we wanted to use our debit card but Uber does not allow debit card usage. So that’s why we only use UBer for our date nights just to have a more romantic evening in a nicer ride…

Now If you are coming to Nairobi, one advice I will give you is make sure from the airport Change your cash, buy a new phone chip ( its like $5 or less) and load your cash onto MPESA. That will save you some stress because in Nairobi everyone from the road side coconut seller to the high end hotels all accepts MPESA. It’s like having your money saved on your phone. its safe and very reliable money exchange services

Happy Border Border In Nairobi