UNUSUAL HOTEL #3: Kenya's Amazing Giraffe Manor

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A manor of fact

Giraffe Manor in the Lang'ata suburb of Nairobi, Kenya is famous for much more than their highly trained and friendly staff, breathtaking surroundings and amazing cuisine. What keeps this hotel at its peak is the 20 feet tall locals who frequently pops in, whether out of curiosity or to mingle with the guest. Travelers all over the globe make The Giraffe Manor part of their Kenya safari holiday – the only place in the world where you can enjoy the company of a herd of endangered Rothschild's giraffe while feasting on a superb meal. What makes the experience even more memorable is that visitors are encourage to engage with the giraffes by touching, feeding and photographing them. Besides the dinner table they also like to pop in through the front door or your bedroom window.

The Rothschild Giraffe is among the most endangered giraffe subspecies with only a few hundred members in the wild. In comparison to other species of giraffe, The Rothschild Giraffe is paler in colour, have less jagged orange-brown patches and has no markings on the lower leg. The hotel itself was originally a hunting lodge built on a giraffe sanctuary by Sir David Duncan in 1932 and was turned into a hotel by new owners Betty and Jock Leslie-Melville in 1983.

The Leslie-Melvilles realised that their estate may be the only habitat left for The Rothschild Giraffe due to a compulsory purchase by the Kenyan government of an 18,000-acre (73 km2) privately owned ranch, resulting in the land being sub-divided into smallholdings, and the giraffes being slaughtered. Since then the Manor, in conjunction with Woburn Safari Park in Bedfordshire, England, has run a breeding programme to reintroduce the Rothschild giraffe into the wild and expanding the gene pool. Today Giraffe Manor is also home to many characters including warthogs, bushbuck, dik dik and more than 180 species of birds and has a striking view of the Ngong hills. For more information visit www.giraffemanor.com.