48 hours in Nairobi

NAIROBI (Reuters Life!) - Got 48 hours to explore Nairobi, one of Africa's most vibrant cities? Reuters correspondents with local knowledge give tips on how to make the best of a short stay.

Tourism has taken a dive in Kenya since the East African nation erupted into violence following a disputed presidential election at the end of December.

But now that a political deal has been done and calm has returned to the streets, visitors are beginning to reappear, like desert flowers after rain.

FRIDAY

7 p.m. Take a cold drink as the sun goes down at the Norfolk Hotel, one of Nairobi's oldest and most atmospheric. Once the haunt of colonial worthies and big game hunters heading out on safari, its famous guests over the past 100 years have included Winston Churchill and former U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt. The garden courtyard is a cool, calm contrast to the buzz of the city. 

9 p.m. Take a taxi to the Havana Bar in the Westlands district, offering cocktail tastings on a Friday evening. It's a haunt of expats and Kenyans, with a hint of the Caribbean. Even at the height of efforts to resolve the country's political crisis, a senior government minister was seen rubbing shoulders with drinkers at the bar. 

SATURDAY

10 a.m. Visit one of the city's eccentric gems, the Railway Museum. Tells the story of how East Africa was opened up by the line between Mombasa on the coast and Uganda. Called the "Lunatic line" by its critics, it was not easy to build, as large numbers of Indian railway workers kept being eaten by lions, a setback immortalized in J. H. Patterson's 1907 book "The Man-eaters of Tsavo". You can see the carriage where a British official was eaten by the lion he had come to shoot. There is also a special seat that was mounted on the front of locomotives so that famous guests, such as Teddy Roosevelt, could view -- or by some accounts shoot -- game as the train passed along.

Midday. The Savanna coffee shop on Loita Street in the center of town is typical of many smart new places that have opened up to meet the tastes of a burgeoning Kenyan middle class. The club sandwiches are good, and Anglo-nostalgics should try the fish and chips.

2 p.m. Drive out to Karen, one of Nairobi's lushest suburbs. Named after Karen Blixen, author of "Out of Africa" (written under the nom de plume Isak Dinesen) and whose home is now a museum. It's a small stone house with a mahogany-paneled interior that is nicely evocative of the life of the author whose life and loves were portrayed in the film of her book. Costumes worn by stars Meryl Streep and Robert Redford hang in the bedrooms and there is a fine picture of the glamorous Blixen looking very pleased with herself having just shot a hyena.

4 p.m. Just down the road is the Giraffe Center, run by the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife. There you can climb onto a viewing platform and feed by hand, or even kiss, Betty and other giraffes living there. "It wasn't as bad as I anticipated," said American tourist Leon Canerot from Santa Cruz, California, after kissing one of the giraffes. Wardens give lectures explaining, among other things, that the otherwise docile giraffe can kill a lion with a kick of its front leg.

7 p.m. Have a drink at Gipsy, a lively bar in the Westlands district. Tusker beer, a local favorite, slips down extremely well at this point.

8 p.m. Cross the main road. If you survive, eat at Fogo Gaucho, a Brazilian restaurant that is not suitable for vegetarians. Grilled meat is brought to your table by waiters carrying long swords. They keep on coming until you signal them to stop by displaying a little red sign on your table. All this is accompanied by an indefatigable electric guitarist whose "Hotel California" would leave the Eagles wondering what they had wrought.

SUNDAY

11 a.m. Take the road to Naivasha, scene of some of the worst tribal clashes after the election but now calm again. The road that drops down into the Great Rift Valley offers a spectacular view of an ancient land that has given up the bones the ancestors of modern humans.

Try a hippo safari on Lake Naivasha. A big population of the powerful beasts lives in the freshwater lake, lurking in the shallows with the tops of their heads out of the water, like the nuclear submarines of the animal world.

The Lake Naivasha Country Club has beautiful gardens that lead down to the lake and a restaurant that serves a robust chicken and chips for lunch to set you up for the return to Nairobi.

6 p.m. Dinner at Haandi, one of Nairobi's best Indian restaurants will round off the weekend. It's north Indian cooking and the garlic nan bread is delicious. There are also Haandis in Kampala and London.