Nairobi National Museum, KICC Viewpoint and Kenyan Food

North and east of Uhuru Park, Nairobi's urban core brings together world-famous palaeoanthropology, bold post-independence architecture, rolling street art and the best food and coffee scene in East Africa.

Nairobi National Museum, the KICC Helipad and Railway Museum

• Nairobi National Museum (Museum Hill): a ten-minute walk or Expressway hop from Westlands, Kenya's flagship museum is essential for its Cradle of Humankind gallery, curated around the hominid fossil discoveries of the Leakey family in the Turkana Basin and Olduvai Gorge (including casts of the 1.5-million-year-old Homo erectus skeleton known as Turkana Boy). Do not miss the vast Birds of East Africa gallery, the full-scale cast of Ahmet (the legendary bull elephant placed under presidential protection by Jomo Kenyatta), Joy Adamson's botanical watercolours and the adjacent botanical trail and Snake Park.
• Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) Helipad and August 7th Memorial Park: in the central business district, take the lift up the 1973 terracotta-coloured cylinder of the KICC to its 28th-floor open-air rooftop helipad for a sweeping 360-degree view from the city towers straight across into Nairobi National Park. Nearby, the Nairobi Railway Museum displays historic steam locomotives from the 1899 Lunatic Express line, including the carriage involved in the man-eating lion incident at Kima.
• Matatu street art and Maasai Markets: everywhere you look on Nairobi's avenues, privately run minibuses (matatus) rumble past wrapped in custom graffiti murals depicting hip-hop icons, athletes and proverbs. For beadwork, shuka blankets and soapstone carvings, visit the rotating open-air Maasai Market (held on different days at venues such as Village Market, Junction Mall, Capital Centre and the High Court car park).

What and where to eat in Nairobi

From open-air butcheries-cum-grills to leafy garden bistros in Westlands, Kilimani and Karen, look for five Kenyan staples:

• Nyama Choma with Ugali, Sukuma Wiki and Kachumbari: Kenya's national social meal of goat (mbuzi) or beef slow-roasted over hardwood charcoal until crisp on the outside, carved tableside on a wooden board with a pinch of coarse salt and served with firm white maize meal (ugali), sautéed collard greens (sukuma wiki) and fresh tomato, red onion, chilli and coriander salsa (kachumbari).
• Mukimo and Githeri: Kikuyu highland comfort food of mashed potatoes, green maize, pumpkin leaves and beans.
• Swahili Pilau, Biryani and Mahamri: cardamom- and cinnamon-spiced coastal rice dishes and puffy coconut-milk triangles fried golden brown for breakfast.
• Kenyan AA Coffee and Chai Tangawizi: bright, blackcurrant-noted single-estate Kenyan filter coffee at speciality roasters, or sweet milky Kenyan tea simmered with freshly grated ginger (tangawizi).