Karen Blixen Museum

The Karen Blixen Museum, located in Nairobi, Kenya, was once the home of Danish author Karen Blixen, best known for her memoir ‘Out of Africa.’ Built in 1912, the house offers insights into Blixen’s life and the colonial era in Kenya. Visitors can tour the house, view original furnishings, and enjoy the surrounding gardens with views of the Ngong Hills. The museum also features a nature trail and a gift shop offering related souvenirs.

Planning your visit

The Karen Blixen Museum is the farmhouse the Danish author lived in from 1917, at the foot of the Ngong Hills outside Nairobi, and the setting of Out of Africa. Built in 1912 and opened as a museum in 1986, it keeps original furnishings in place, so the rooms read as a preserved home rather than a display. The gardens, nature trail and hill views are a substantial part of the visit, and the colonial-era coffee farming history is inseparable from the house itself.

The museum sits in Nairobi's Karen suburb alongside several other visitor sites, so most bookable options are combined half-day tours rather than standalone entry. The most common pairings are the Giraffe Centre and the elephant orphanage, both nearby. Others add the Bomas of Kenya cultural village, a working tea farm, a Ngong Hills zipline with lunch, or the museum's gallery and archives for a closer look at Blixen's papers. Guided tours with hotel pickup handle the drive out from central Nairobi. See current options below.