Hostel Traveler

Milimani Backpackers
Nairobi, Kenya
St Hellen Lane Off Langata Road, Karen.

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    Overall User Rating:  1.5

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 Value for Money  1.6
 Rooms  1.8
 Cleanliness  2.2
 Location  1.6
 Security & Safety  1.8
 Service & Staff  1.7
 Food / Dining  2.1
 Total  1.5

"Not Good at All"

User Rating:  1.0
Reviewer:   Kelly W. of manchester, United Kingdom
Reviewed:   November 17, 2012  (see hostel reviews from Bedbreakfasttraveler.com)
Traveled:   August 2012     Type:   Large Group
1 2 3 4 5
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Comments  (English):
This place sucks! Myself and four of my five friends ended up with bedbugs. The staff and owner showed no sympathy. She wouldn't even give us a discount on our room. They were happy to try to sell us more of there overpriced tours though. When things are fine they act nice but when something goes wrong and its their fault they become heartless and greedy.

"Rotten"

User Rating:  1.0
Reviewer:   Josh C. of Newark, United States
Reviewed:   July 19, 2012  (see hostel reviews from Instantworldbooking.com)
Traveled:   July 2012     Type:   Other
1 2 3 4 5
 Value for Money
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Comments  (English):
Unfortunately Milimani/Nairobi Backpackers has left a bad taste in my mouth that won't be gone any time soon. While I was staying here I and another guy had stuff stolen including an IPOD, and some money. We are almost certain it was some non guests who came in to use the restaurant but were wandering around. The owner had no sympathy saying we should have used the lockers which surprise, surprise had to be rented from her. The icing on the cake was one night at dinner we saw the chef drop food on the ground and put it right back in the pot.

"DO NOT RECOMMEND"

User Rating:  1.0
Reviewer:   Ken S. of Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Reviewed:   March 11, 2012  (see hostel reviews from Africainstantbooking.com)
Traveled:   March 2011     Type:   Single
1 2 3 4 5
 Value for Money
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 Cleanliness
 Location
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Comments  (English):
i can say this was one of the worst hostels i stayed in in Africa. the owner is a very selfish lady who is basically just intent on getting as much money from guests as possible. when i was there one of the dogs they keep bit someone and they had to go to the hospital. they had to fight hard to get any compensation. i got a bad feeling from the moment i arrived.
User Rating:  1.0
Reviewer:   Ken S. of ekshaw, Canada
Reviewed:   March 11, 2012  (see hostel reviews from Hosteltraveler.com)
Traveled:   January 2011     Type:   Single
1 2 3 4 5
 Value for Money
 Rooms
 Cleanliness
 Location
 Security & Safety
 Service & Staff
 Food / Dining

"awful"

User Rating:  1.0
Reviewer:   Josh B. of wisconsin, United States
Reviewed:   February 10, 2012  (see hostel reviews from Hosteltraveler.com)
Traveled:   June 2011     Type:   Other
1 2 3 4 5
 Value for Money
 Rooms
 Cleanliness
 Location
 Security & Safety
 Service & Staff
 Food / Dining
Comments  (English):
Milimani backpackers is a terrible place. everything is very overpriced, especially the safaris. the main objective of this place is to get your money. also, the rooms were not very clean, my friend had bites every morning which we suspect were from bedbugs.

"awful"

User Rating:  1.0
Reviewer:   Josh B. of Wisconsin, United States
Reviewed:   February 10, 2012  (see hostel reviews from Instantworldbooking.com)
Traveled:   June 2011     Type:   Other
1 2 3 4 5
 Value for Money
 Rooms
 Cleanliness
 Location
 Security & Safety
 Service & Staff
 Food / Dining
Comments  (English):
this is a terrible place. everything is very overpriced, especially the safaris. the main objective of this place is to get your money. also, the rooms were not very clean, my friend had bites every morning which we suspect were from bedbugs.

"Bad Experience"

User Rating:  1.5
Reviewer:   Chris A. of Calgary, Canada
Reviewed:   August 3, 2011  (see hostel reviews from Got-beds.com)
Traveled:   February 2011     Type:   Single
1 2 3 4 5
 Value for Money
 Rooms
 Cleanliness
 Location
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Comments  (English):
I would like to warn people about Milimani Backpackers. As a hostel it is fine enough but I had a really negative experience with them. They have an area in the back corner next to the wall where people can camp. One evening I was lying down in my tent when a big thunderstorm came. The thunder was really close so I got out and went inside the hostel. Less than five minutes later I came back to check if water was getting in and I found my tent was covered in bricks. The wall had fallen on it. If I had been inside I would have died or been very seriously hurt.

My tent was destroyed and when I checked my new video camera I found the screen had been cracked. I found out later this was the 3rd time the wall had fallen and once before it had hit a tent but they still let people camp there.

I assumed Patricia, the owner, would replace or fix my tent and camera without any problem, just happy I was alive. But to my surprise she refused to pay a cent. After a heated argument they finally agreed to look for estimates. That was the beginning of a long fight to get some compensation. The played all kinds of games with me. They lied, they didn’t return my calls/messages/emails and they stalled me hoping I would give up. For awhile I stayed at the backpacker waiting for them and they refused to let me stay for free. In the end I finally got some cash four months later but only because I was so persistent. As for my tent they reluctantly gave me the cheapest old tent they had. It was useless against rain.

For this I would have to say do not stay at Milimani Backpackers.
I would recommend to stay at…

New Kenya Lodge (River Rd and Latema Rd)
-right in the center (close to cheap internet, Milimani charges 4X the price)
-lots of travellers
-cheaper
-actual hot showers (Milimani’s are hardly warm)
-offer cheaper safaris than Milimani and just as good

If you aren’t comfortable staying in the center then I would recommend
Upper Hill Backpackers (a bit far from town but very nice) or the Hostelling International Backpacker (near to Milimani)

"Bad Experience"

User Rating:  1.8
Reviewer:   Chris A. of Calgary, Canada
Reviewed:   August 3, 2011  (see hostel reviews from Instantworldbooking.com)
Traveled:   February 2011     Type:   Single
1 2 3 4 5
 Value for Money
 Rooms
 Cleanliness
 Location
 Security & Safety
 Service & Staff
 Food / Dining
Comments  (English):
I would like to warn people about Milimani Backpackers. As a hostel it is fine enough but I had a really negative experience with them. They have an area in the back corner next to the wall where people can camp. One evening I was lying down in my tent when a big thunderstorm came. The thunder was really close so I got out and went inside the hostel. Less than five minutes later I came back to check if water was getting in and I found my tent was covered in bricks. The wall had fallen on it. If I had been inside I would have died or been very seriously hurt.

My tent was destroyed and when I checked my new video camera I found the screen had been cracked. I found out later this was the 3rd time the wall had fallen and once before it had hit a tent but they still let people camp there.

I assumed Patricia, the owner, would replace or fix my tent and camera without any problem, just happy I was alive. But to my surprise she refused to pay a cent. After a heated argument they finally agreed to look for estimates. That was the beginning of a long fight to get some compensation. The played all kinds of games with me. They lied, they didn’t return my calls/messages/emails and they stalled me hoping I would give up. For awhile I stayed at the backpacker waiting for them and they refused to let me stay for free. In the end I finally got some cash four months later but only because I was so persistent. As for my tent they reluctantly gave me the cheapest old tent they had. It was useless against rain.

For this I would have to say do not stay at Milimani Backpackers.
I would recommend to stay at…

New Kenya Lodge (River Rd and Latema Rd)
-right in the center (close to cheap internet, Milimani charges 4X the price)
-lots of travellers
-cheaper
-actual hot showers (Milimani’s are hardly warm)
-offer cheaper safaris than Milimani and just as good

If you aren’t comfortable staying in the center then I would recommend
Upper Hill Backpackers (a bit far from town but very nice) or the Hostelling International Backpacker (near to Milimani)

"Milimani Bacpackers and safari center, nairobi -AVOID"

User Rating:  1.4
Reviewer:   Csilla D. of Palaiseau, France
Reviewed:   August 15, 2009  (see hostel reviews from Instantworldbooking.com)
Traveled:   August 2009     Type:   Other
1 2 3 4 5
 Value for Money
 Rooms
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 Location
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Comments  (English):
Our family (2 adults and 4 children aged between 6 and 17)spent 1 month in Kenya this summer , stayed on and off at Milimani Backpackers and Safari Center in Nairobi during our trip,we spent 9 days altogether at their place and did a safari with them. It's true that on arrival we were welcomed warmly but the description you can read on their website is supposedly the one that corresponds to the placebefore it had been sold to them by the previous owners.There are too many tents and the place is crowded , noisy. We had some very negative experiences concerning the prices: complete lack of transparency, plenty of inconsistencies and in the end dishonesty made our last 3 days in Nairobi VERY STRESSFUL AND UNPLEASANT.
To start with, they hadn't told us that we couldn't pay by credit card , only cash. For a family of 6 to travel with several thousand euros in a country where you're constantly told not to carry cash was of course impossible, therefore , in the emergency we had to call our French bank to transfer 1900 euros to their local ,account... , except that they were unable to give us the international references of it . We finally managed to get some information from their bank mananger with which our bank in France finally succeeded in finding the IBAN number which is necessary for the transfer- this in itself cost us quite a lot in phone calls and faxes to France.When it came to the final payment we realised that they used underestimated transfer rates when it came to converting euros to Kenyan shillings (they refused to show us the recepit of how much money they had received for the 1900 Euros we had transferred). However, when it came to converting US dollars to shillings (since safari prices are given in US dollars) they used an inflated rate for the WHOLE sum on the pretext that game park fees are converted at that rate (park fees by the way represented less then half of the total sum charged)- our 15 and 17 year old children were billed at adult rates (even though the game parks charge child rates until the age of 18); they billed us 3 entries to Maasai Mara even though we could only enter twice as the minivan they had provided broke down...I won't list all the other costs they added wrongfully such as double counting meals, or charging us for things we had not hired... When the owner, Patricia, realised in the end that she was actually owing us money despite having inflated the costs she ecame hysterical, and told our Kenya friends (who had had to intervene in all these discussions) that she would refuse "'not to win" against these Mzungus (= white people) .After several hours of tense negotiations with our kenyan friends and under threats from calling the police (or her friends from the police?) we finally paid her a supplementary 18000 Ksh so we could leave.

"Great time"

User Rating:  4.4
Reviewer:   V V. of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Reviewed:   June 16, 2009  (see hostel reviews from Instantworldbooking.com)
Traveled:   June 2009     Type:   Single
1 2 3 4 5
 Value for Money
 Rooms
 Cleanliness
 Location
 Security & Safety
 Service & Staff
 Food / Dining
Comments  (English):
Had a good time, well kept place, very helpful and smiling staff and nice travellers stopping by

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