Sarova Stanley Hotel, Nairobi

You stay at the Sarova Stanley in central Nairobi, where the city's business district meets its history. The hotel has two hundred and ten rooms with air conditioning, soundproofing, and blackout curtains. Some look over the atrium; others face the city. The rooftop pool is heated, and the fitness center has cross trainers, free weights, and treadmills.

Three restaurants serve: Thai Chi for Thai food, the Pool Deck for continental and Indian dishes, and the Thorn Tree Café under an acacia planted in 1959. The Exchange Bar keeps its wood-paneled walls from when it housed Nairobi's stock exchange in 1954. On Wednesdays, a jazz band plays there from seven to nine.

The concierge can arrange visits to Nairobi National Park, the Giraffe Centre, or the Karen Blixen Museum. The hotel is eighteen kilometers from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, connected by the Nairobi Expressway. Valets park the cars.

In 1902, Mayence Bent opened the original hotel on this corner. The current building went up after a fire in 1904. The lobby floor is original — one of thirty-four such surviving floors worldwide.