The Giraffe Centre was founded in 1979 by Jock and Betty Leslie-Melville to save the endangered Rothschild’s giraffe, a subspecies that had dwindled to fewer than 130 in the wild. From an initial pair raised on their Langata farm, the project has now successfully released over 500 Rothschilds back into protected Kenyan habitats. Today the Centre is run by the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife (AFEW) and serves both as a breeding sanctuary and an educational facility for Kenyan schoolchildren and international visitors. Its most famous feature is the raised wooden feeding platform that brings you level with the giraffes’ heads. You can offer specially formulated food pellets, and the giraffes’ long blue tongues curl around your hand to take them. Adventurous guests get the famous ‘giraffe kiss’ by holding a pellet between their lips. A self-guided 1.5 km forest trail through the adjacent Gogo River Bird Sanctuary takes 20 minutes and reveals warthogs, bushbucks, and over 180 bird species. A small museum and an excellent gift shop fund ongoing conservation. The center is a 5-minute drive from the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and the Karen Blixen Museum; together, they form the classic Nairobi ‘Karen circuit’ day.