Built on Upper Hill, at the edge where the city meets the highlands.

Aurelia Grand opened its doors in Nairobi's Upper Hill district with a simple premise: a hotel should feel like the city it stands in. The marble in the lobby is Kenyan; the art on every floor is by East African painters and sculptors; the produce on the menu travels from Laikipia and the Rift Valley, not from a freight container.

Two hundred and sixty-nine rooms and suites are arranged around a central atrium that catches the equatorial light through the day. Above them, an infinity pool looks toward the Ngong Hills, and below, three restaurants and a 500-seat ballroom keep the ground floor in motion from six in the morning until well past midnight.

We are independently owned and operated, which means the person who greets you at check-in is often the same person who will remember your coffee order a year later.