The Kiambethu Tea Farm is located in Limuru, which is a pleasant 70 minute drive from the outskirts of the city. As you pass through various small towns, the tour gives you a glimpse of Kenyan rural life, and the tea plantations when you enter the highlands.

Your host is Fiona, who is a 3rd generation Kenyan - her family is one of the pioneers in tea farming, as well as the founder of the Limuru Girls School, across from the tea farm, and she has many stories to tell of the early colonial days.

Situated at 7,200 ft., Kiambethu was bought and farmed by AB McDonell in 1910. He was the first person to grow, make and sell tea commercially in Kenya - now one of Kenya’s biggest exports. Five generations have lived on the farm and it is currently run by his granddaughter Fiona Vernon. The farm house is set within beautiful gardens surrounded by acres of tea and indigenous forest - home to the Colobus monkey and plenty of other wildlife.

A lovely lunch and afternoon tea are included with a tour of the grounds and surrounding forest, during which you are treated to the vast views of seemingly endless tea fields while your guide enlightens you about the area’s tea production. As you pass the workers, you may notice some of the delicate techniques that are used in the practice of proper tea cultivation, such as the removal of the top two leaves and bud.