My Town: Santa Fe

This Month's Prize! Costa Rica The best response we receive between June 27, 2009, and Aug. 28, 2009, wins a 14-night trip for two to Costa Rica from Planeterra Foundation. Spend five days volunteering on a sea turtle conservation project and 10 days exploring. Prize includes flights, lodgings, transport, and some meals. Trip must be booked by May 31, 2010, and must be completed by Dec. 31, 2010. For more info: 800/465-5600, planeterra.org. How to enter: E-mail us at TrueStories@BudgetTravel.com or mail us at True Stories, Budget Travel, 530 Seventh Ave., New York, NY 10018. Estimated value: $4,500. Taxes are the responsibility of the winner. Nontransferable; nonnegotiable; blackout dates may apply. Contest open to residents of the 50 United States and its territories, except Arizona. Full guidelines: BudgetTravel.com/truestories. Trip Winner July/August's winner is Nadine Kosloski of Park Ridge, Ill. Her prize is a three-night all-inclusive trip to Los Cabos, Mexico, courtesy of Dreams Los Cabos Suites Golf Resort & Spa and Los Cabos Convention & Visitors Bureau. In the Bahamas, our family visited the Straw Market. The colorful displays weren't enough to interest our 3-year-old daughter, and she fell asleep on my husband's shoulder. I continued through the market with our older daughter. After a while, we turned a corner and were surprised to see my husband and daughter behind a table selling hats. The vendor had graciously offered her chair to my husband and then asked if he would watch her table while she went to the washroom. He agreed, and joined the other vendors in vying for the buyers' attention. The woman was gone for only 15 minutes, but my husband managed to sell two hats! Attack of the guinea pig At Pisac Market in Peru's Sacred Valley, a man was cooking something I couldn't quite see. Then I realized what was smoking over the fire—cuy, or guinea pig, a local favorite. The chef picked up a fresh-grilled cuy for our photo op. Before I could move, hot juices poured from my soon-to-be entrée onto my legs and feet, and click—the photo was snapped. Allison Koester, Seattle, Wash. Very slow on the uptake On a trip to Greece with my best friend, Effie, we visited relatives on her mom's side in a tiny village. The toilet was a hole in the ground. To flush, you rinsed the bowl by dumping a bucket of water in. A few days later, we left for her dad's family home. Their bathroom was also outside and I saw no way to flush the toilet, so I assumed it worked like the other one. Every day for a week, I would fill a bucket with water, heave it to the outhouse, and whoosh it down the drain. I noticed that when I would finish, Effie's family would look at me with bewildered expressions. Finally, the day before we left, her uncle pulled me aside and said, "You Americans make things so hard on yourselves—work, work, work." He took me into the bathroom and pointed up—there was a cord hanging from the ceiling to flush the loo. They hadn't told me because they wanted to see how long it would take me to catch on. Elizabeth Mary Hickey, Swampscott, Mass. Did he punch the friars? My husband and his twin brother have a game they've played since they were kids. It involves making a circle over your heart with your thumb and forefinger—whoever does it first gets to punch the other one. (Must be a guy thing!) The game is now played via photos from vaca­tions around the world. My brother-in-law and his wife went to Egypt last spring and sent us a picture of themselves doing the circle thing on camels with the pyramids in the background. Of course, my husband had to have a comeback, so when he and I visited Rome in May, he had three Franciscan friars do the circle thing in St. Peter's Basilica. His brother will have a hard time trumping this one. Michelle O'Nale, Palm Harbor, Fla. At least you got some exercise Before I headed to Scotland a couple of years ago, a colleague asked if I could bring him back some brown sauce from Chippy's. Thus began a daylong search for a restaurant called Chippy's. I walked into a fish-and-chips restaurant and saw some brown sauce, but I thought to myself, This isn't Chippy's. Defeated, I returned to the States and met with laughter. "A chippy, not Chippy's. It's slang for a fish-and-chips joint!" my friend said. Somehow, I had disregarded the "a." I had walked past six chippies, had eaten at one, and had even seen the brown sauce, but still came back empty-handed. Lola Akinmade, Owings Mills, Md. Newest item on the travel checklist: eye surgery After arriving at my Miami Beach hotel, I couldn't wait to enter the warm surf that I remembered from childhood. I swam into deep water and saw a neon-colored toy a few feet away. I grabbed it and was amazed to watch it slither onto my hand and arm. Then the stinging began. I thrashed to shore, and the lifeguard ran me up to the hotel's ice machine and stuck my arm in it. "First time I've seen someone grab a Portuguese man-of-war," he noted. Back home, I scheduled the corrective eye surgery I had long postponed. Elizabeth Morelli, Richmond, Va. If that's what a Thai blessing does to you, we'll pass I was at a temple in Thailand with my Thai mother-in-law and my husband. My mother-in-law picked up some bottled water there. While she was in the temple, I drank one of the bottles. When she came out, she asked, "Where's my holy water?" So that's why all the locals had stared at me while I drank it! About two hours later, after a big Thai lunch, I started to feel queasy. I threw up every 20 minutes for the next six hours, and then my mother-in-law finally took me to the emergency room. After one magic pill, I was better. Guess I must have been very blessed by all that holy water! Jeanne McNamara, Zephyr Cove, Nev. You got set up! My husband and I celebrated our 10th anniversary on St. Kitts, where we found a tiny beach bar. A man there had a monkey on his shoulder, and I asked if I could hold it. I asked what the monkey's name was, and the man replied, "Spank." I said, "Spank the Monkey is so cute!" The bar erupted in laughter. I was clueless until my husband explained it. Oops—I get it now! Micah Humphries, Rossmoor, Calif. Terror loves company Three friends and I, after recovering from heart attacks, decided to get in shape and took up backpacking. We went to Grand Teton and, the very first evening, heard a noise and saw a black bear approaching our camp. He sat down a dangerous 30 yards away and just stared at us for a full five minutes before he moved out of our line of sight. When we finally crawled into our sleeping bags, my friends proceeded to remove their hearing aids, and I realized I was the only one who would be able to detect any further bear noises. Not OK. So I said loudly, "Did you hear that?!" They all sat up, put in their hearing aids, and began to listen. Now that I knew we could all hear, I rolled over and had a good night's sleep. Don Glendenin, Springfield, Ohio

Going Native Farmstays, villa rentals, mountain refuges. Six ways to immerse yourself in the real Italy. (Hint: If the owner of your rental room asks you to pretend you're a relative, just go with it.) See the slide show Cool Hunting 2009 We asked top hoteliers in London, Texas, New York, Buenos Aires, and Mexico City to tell us about the best new design discoveries in each destination. See the slide show Boston (Both Ways) Every big city has two versions: the one people call home, and the one people visit. A longtime Bostonian searches for common ground. See the slide show Picasso's Provence Long known as the home of Cézanne, the region is celebrating Picasso this summer with exhibits and a peek into his château. Live Well, Get Miles Secrets for scoring and redeeming more frequent-flier miles. Road Trip: National Parks Skip the crowds and follow these four itineraries to great lodges, restaurants, and adventures along the way. See the slide show Real Deals This month, all 32 exclusive packages are packed with even greater value. Ireland, Egypt, Italy, and more.

I can't remember the first time I was quacked at, but I remember how I felt: You've got to be kidding. I'd be walking somewhere in the city, and suddenly a giant amphibious bus full of people would materialize, quack loudly at me and my fellow Bostonians, and vanish. Soon enough I would learn that these were Duck Tours, shuttling tourists from one Boston landmark to another. And just as quickly, I'd learn to avoid going anywhere they went. Like a New Yorker who never sets foot in Times Square, I have long made a fetish of keeping clear of the stereotypical Boston—the Revolutionary War monuments, the walking trails, the souvenir-strewn streets around Fenway Park. Let the out-of-towners move through their Boston, I figure, and I'll stick to mine. After 15 years of living here, I still look at the tourists and wonder: What are they seeing—and what am I missing? And what are they missing? I decided there was only one way to find out. Paul Revere: closet Frenchman? If I'm going to play tourist in my hometown, I know where to start: The Paul Revere House. If you live in Boston, you would never, ever go there. It's in the middle of the Freedom Trail, the more than two-mile-long path that guides people through the most important Revolutionary War monuments while letting them skip everything else. Somehow it precisely evokes my fifth grade conception of creaky old Boston. The house today sits incongruously in its neighborhood, its three floors of spooky brown clapboard dwarfed by apartment buildings. Revere's house isn't crowded the day I visit, which is a good thing because it's absolutely tiny. It's also wildly off-square in every way, as though someone squeezed a normal house into a lozenge and set it down on tilted ground. I push the wooden door open and promptly find myself in a kitchen—a stone hearth with a bewildering array of iron implements for everything from toasting bread to ironing frilled cuffs. Unless you're a history buff, you won't care exactly which turned-wood chairs belonged to the Revere family and which are here just for show. The house is an imperfect museum of Paul Revere himself, whose wartime heroism was exaggerated and whose major role in the city was as an entrepreneur who made a fortune in metals after the revolution. (Also, surprise: He was half French! His father was Apollos Rivoire, who anglicized the name.) Yet as a little diorama of Boston's colonial history, the house is unparalleled. In the years after Paul Revere, it sheltered the waves of immigrants who transformed the city, and today it sits in the middle of an Italian neighborhood abutted by gleaming new condos—the setting itself a little diorama of Boston. The North End my way A block from Paul Revere's house is Hanover Street, the lively main drag running through the North End, a neighborhood full of Italian restaurants and pastry shops. Stop in for a cappuccino at the longtime fixture Caffé Vittoria and admire the collection of vintage espresso machines. Survey the assortment of cheese, artisanal salami and prosciutto, and aged balsamic vinegar at Salumeria Italiana on Richmond Street. If you want to eat where Bostonians eat, make your way to Carmen, a trattoria made cozy by brick walls lined with wine bottles and an embossed-tin ceiling. Alternately, cross Hanover Street, turn left toward Salem Street, and head to Neptune Oyster: Its white tiles and dark wood evoke an old-school seafood bar, and the menu merges the classic (shrimp cocktail) and the creative (shrimp gazpacho with baby fennel moustarda). America's oldest ballpark Not all of Boston's tourist attractions have centuries of history behind them. The baseball stadium is a relative newcomer, a wee 97 years old. What still amazes me every time I approach Fenway Park is how intimately it's tucked into the city: You're strolling through a Boston neighborhood and hey, whaddya know, one of the buildings just happens to be the oldest major-league ballpark in America. As easy as it is to stumble upon Fenway, it's not nearly as simple to gain entry. Every single game since 2003 has sold out. But there is another way to see the park: Fenway runs tours for $12. I buy a ticket and squeeze into a luxury suite on an off-season Saturday morning. A video tells the history of the stadium in photographs and newspaper headlines. We watch footage of Ted Williams's last at-bat here, in 1960; the ball sails over center field and into the bullpen and fixes him in baseball legend. I am pleased to notice that the video's narrator really is from Boston; beneath his polished voice are the city's lost-and-found r's—"pahk," and "ah-chi-tect." Afterward, we walk out into the seats and take pictures of each other in front of the Green Monster, Fenway's famously high left-field wall. The tour visits different spots in the park depending on when you go; the only truly off-limits area is the field's sacred grass. "I've been working here a year," says our tour guide, "and I've never even stepped on it." That might seem extreme, but then again, Fenway is such a shrine that fans build small models of it and wear them as hats. Seriously. Fenway my way If you have managed to score a pair of tickets to a game, the next challenge is food. My advice: Pick up an Italian sausage with peppers and onions from the sidewalk cart of the famed Sausage King, parked outside Gate E for many games. But if you haven't gotten tickets, all is not lost: Walk along the Lansdowne Street wall of the ballpark and look for The Bleacher Bar. It's a hopping sports pub actually built into the left-center-field wall—its ceiling is the underside of the stadium seats, and a garage-door-size window looks straight onto the field. A few blocks away, Eastern Standard Kitchen & Drinks offers a more stylish setting; the airy restaurant and lounge is best known for its craft cocktails like the whiskey smash and the Sazerac, served at a long marble-topped bar. Boston's first shopping mall I have been a tourist in Boston for a week before I steel myself for Faneuil Hall Marketplace, the Revolutionary-era mall at the heart of downtown. On some level I think of Faneuil Hall as the most bogus thing in Boston—a kind of colonial-brick flypaper that attracts school groups and visiting uncles so the rest of us can have the city to ourselves. The actual Historic Faneuil Hall is a real colonial meeting house, but if you see only the first-floor shops, it's easy to imagine that you've been sent to some kind of tourist hell of postcards, candy-by-weight, and a Ben Franklin impersonator with fake colonial buckles strapped to his shoes. I head outside, pull open the building's middle door, and ascend to an entirely different realm: a quiet, balconied meeting hall with portrait busts and a billboard-size painting of Daniel Webster. The hall was used by fist-pounding revolutionaries in the 1700s and still draws audiences—how many rooms in the world have hosted both George Washington and the Dalai Lama? Back outside, I plunge into the center of the beehive: Quincy Market, a long indoor passageway framed by classical columns and holding dozens of food stalls—a food court in fancy clothing. I buy a cup of surprisingly good clam chowder, climb the stairs in the building's rotunda, and just sit. Above me is a magnificent oval dome of cream and robin's egg blue; sunlight streams through the oculus in the middle. Why have I never noticed this before? The area is ringed by chain stores, but there are some local curiosities as well. Across the street, the large outdoor food bazaar known as the Haymarket puts on its chaotic show every Friday and Saturday. And then, of course, there is Durgin-Park. The restaurant, established in 1826, is famous for its rude waitresses, but I feel like I can detect real warmth in the way mine clangs the silverware down on the red-and-white-checked tablecloth. The food is thick and old-fashioned—the baked beans are sweet enough to be dessert, and the actual dessert is Indian pudding, an oddball dish of warm, molasses-flavored cornmeal with a scoop of ice cream. I wouldn't want to eat here every day, or even every month, but it's fun to be reminded of what "Boston" used to mean to cooks. Shopping Boston my way Though it has entertainment value, I would never send relatives to do any shopping in or around Faneuil Hall. To shop where Boston shops, head to the city's commercial center: Copley Square, flanked by Trinity Church and the Boston Public Library. Then walk up Newbury Street to see local landmarks like Newbury Comics, art galleries selling portraits of Boston's founding families, and designer boutiques alongside consignment shops. Or cross Boston Public Garden to Charles Street for an eclectic mix of shops like Good, which stocks home accessories and handmade jewelry and glassware, and Period Furniture Hardware, where you can dress up your old colonial with hard-to-find antique-style trimmings. The world's oldest warship Toward the far end of the Freedom Trail—and I do mean far; it takes me 20 minutes to walk across the bridge to Charlestown—the 211-year-old black hulk of the USS Constitution rises out of the water. This is the world's oldest warship still afloat, a three-masted frigate that has survived wars and Barbary pirates. When I get there, though, the first thing I think is: Old Ironsides is broken. The deck is covered with a temporary roof, and the ship's towering masts, normally 200 feet high, look like they've been snapped off. It turns out that the deck is being re-floored—a fact of life for any old ship. In normal times, the Constitution can still sail, and it's staffed with an active-duty Navy crew. I join a tour given by Tony Barnardo, a petty officer whose last deployment was on a carrier in the Persian Gulf. Tony clearly regards this ship as part of the same Navy he serves in—he speaks in the first person about its achievements. "We fired a broadside," he says of the Constitution's role in an 1812 battle. "We basically destroyed the HMS Guerriere in 35 minutes." It takes nearly that long for our whole tour group to squeeze down the narrow, steep stairwell to the lower decks, where a strange world opens up. The life of a sailor, 200 years ago, was incredibly constrained: You lived amid ropes and iron and gunpowder, and slept four hours at a time in a hammock. You ate bread so hard that you needed to soak it in soup first. You could be as young as 8. Boston is a port town but no longer a Navy one, so it's interesting to imagine a city whose marketplaces and theaters were flush with sailors. If you read the Boston papers, you know that history isn't just trivia here, either: News recently emerged that the bodies of British soldiers may have been located under the backyards of several family homes just a few hundred yards away from the ship. Boston history my way There are two worthwhile museums near the ship—a Navy exhibit on the Constitution's pier and a separate museum about the ship itself. Equally worthy is the rest of Charlestown, a charming, gaslit neighborhood of 19th-century town houses that's home to the Bunker Hill Monument. Stop for a burger at Warren Tavern, over 225 years old and one of the first buildings to go up in the rebuilding of Charlestown after the British burned it. Learning to quack My personal boycott of the Boston Duck Tours ends on a brisk, sunny Saturday morning when I climb into a huge red amphibious vehicle called the Tub of the Hub and surrender to the idea that I will ride noisily around my hometown yelling "quack!" at totally blameless pedestrians who will look at me and think, What a loser. You've probably seen something like a duck tour—a land-and-water excursion where a bus loads up with about 30 people and, at some point in the itinerary, drives straight into the water and floats. The vehicle I'm on was built in the 1940s to carry freight for amphibious attacks like D-day. "You can't beat tootling around in a World War II military vehicle," says Lance Cheung, a visitor from Texas who has done this before. "You get more stares than if you were in a Lamborghini." I notice a guy on the sidewalk wearing a motley assortment of sports jerseys—a Red Sox shirt over a Bruins jersey over green Celtics pants. Only in Boston, I think to myself, at which point he clambers up the steps and introduces himself as Mike, our tour guide. It takes about 90 seconds for me to realize that Mike was born to do this job. Before the first traffic light has changed, he has trained the entire bus to quack loudly together on cue. (Yes, me too.) He shepherds traffic around the bus and brakes regularly so people onboard can get pictures—all while unleashing a tidal wave of history and sports lore. He flags the sites of America's oldest restaurant (the Union Oyster House, where in 1796, future French king Louis-Philippe lived in exile on the second floor) and oldest continually operating hotel (the Parker House, which has hosted nearly every U.S. president since Ulysses S. Grant). By the time the thing circles beneath a highway ramp and finally plunges into the Charles River, I find myself mentally enumerating the people I would recommend this to. We float down the Charles between Boston and Cambridge, gazing at a panorama of the Back Bay that most visitors never see from the water. As much as I hate to admit it, it takes a man dressed in full Boston sports team regalia to help me see the city in a way I've never seen it before. Anyone who spends an hour listening to Mike talk, or an afternoon walking the Freedom Trail, or just a moment taking in the architecture of Quincy Market, will actually get Boston in some important way. The city is a lot more than the campy, fake-shoe-buckles version of its past, but that part is inseparable from what it is now: a lively and idiosyncratic American city woven from the convoluted streets and dense neighborhoods of a little colonial outpost. OPERATORS Boston Duck Tours 617/267-3825, bostonducktours.com, $30, kids 3–11 $20, under 3 $6 FOOD Caffé Vittoria 290-296 Hanover St., 617/227-7606, vittoriacafe.com Salumeria Italiana 151 Richmond St., 617/523-8743, salumeriaitaliana.com Carmen 33 North Sq., 617/742-6421, carmenboston.com, entrées from $19 Neptune Oyster 63 Salem St., 617/742-3474, neptuneoyster.com, entrées from $24 Sausage King Outside Gate E on Lansdowne St. Durgin-Park 340 Faneuil Hall Marketplace, 617/227-2038, durgin-park.com, entrées from $11 Warren Tavern 2 Pleasant St., Charlestown, 617/241-8142, warrentavern.com, burgers from $8 ACTIVITIES The Paul Revere House 19 North Sq., 617/523-2338, paulreverehouse.org, $3.50, kids $1 Fenway Park 4 Yawkey Way, 877/733-7699, redsox.com, tickets from $12, tours $12, kids $10 Historic Faneuil Hall Faneuil Hall Sq., 617/242-5690, cityofboston.gov, free USS Constitution 1 Constitution Rd., 617/242-5670, ussconstitution.navy.mil, free Bunker Hill Monument Monument Sq., Charlestown, 617/242-5641, nps.gov/bost, free SHOPPING Haymarket North, Blackstone, and Hanover Sts., Fridays and Saturdays dawn to dusk Newbury Comics 332 Newbury St., 617/236-4930, newburycomics.com Good 88 Charles St., 866/426-4663, shopatgood.com Period Furniture Hardware 123 Charles St., 617/227-0758, pfhco.com NIGHTLIFE The Bleacher Bar 82A Lansdowne St., 617/262-2424, bleacherbarboston.com Eastern Standard Kitchen & Drinks 528 Commonwealth Ave., 617/532-9100, easternstandardboston.com

LONDON Eclecticism and energy have always set this city apart. And now more than ever, the capital is abuzz, with a resurgent art scene fed by a worldly, diverse population that pays respect to the past while vibrantly moving forward. This year, for instance, the Serpentine Gallery's annual pavilion in Kensington Gardens is by noted Japanese firm SANAA (architects of the New Museum in New York). Stir in two major exhibitions—"Telling Tales" at the Victoria and Albert and "Super Contemporary" at the Design Museum—and you've got a compelling cultural itinerary. Designer spotlight Rabih Hage, architect and art dealer Lebanese-born Hage studied architecture in Paris in the early '90s before moving to London, where he opened his own studio and a gallery that showcases emerging artists. Hage's projects tell stories—he mixes eras, materials, and styles and isn't afraid of chipping, flaking, or unfinished surfaces. Top project Near King's Cross station, the nine-room Rough Luxe Hotel inhabits a Georgian town house in which auction finds like chrome light fixtures from the art deco Savoy hotel are paired with modern photography. History is written on the walls: Blotches of plaster show through patches of uncovered 19th-century wallpaper, while elsewhere the bare plaster bears the ghostly pattern of wallpaper that once covered it. Added throughout are rich touches like Italian mosaic tiles and Louis XIV-style headboards. On the horizon A growing network of Rough Luxe-branded hotels, restaurants, and shops that demonstrate Hage's old-meets-new philosophy. He's already expanded with such properties as the artful Cape Heritage Hotel in Cape Town, South Africa. His London favorites Bibendum Restaurant Hage loves the structure housing the Bibendum, the century-old Michelin House, originally built by the tire company as its London headquarters. Current co-owner Terence Conran kept details like stained-glass windows decorated with the Michelin Man, while adding curvy armchairs and a bright color palette to the light-flooded space. The adjoining oyster bar and café has salads, sandwiches, and 12 house wines by the glass. Brick Lane Formerly a haven for immigrant Jews, this thriving street in East London now hosts a Bangladeshi community. Brick Lane is known for its curry shops and, more recently, an influx of artists. On Sundays, it erupts into a flea market where you can pick up anything from handmade jewelry to a mango lassi. "You won't be disappointed," promises Hage. John Sandoe Books Ltd. Every surface in this Regency-era building is covered with books—almost 25,000 of them, including an impressive selection on design. Hage likes the old-fashioned service; the staff gives recommendations and can point you in the direction of out-of-print classics like Allure by Diana Vreeland. Fans include Manolo Blahnik and decorator Rita Konig. ADDRESS BOOK Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2009 Kensington Gardens, serpentinegallery.org, free "Telling Tales" at the Victoria and Albert Museum Cromwell Rd., 011-44/207-942-2000, vam.ac.uk, free "Super Contemporary" at the Design Museum 28 Shad Thames, 011-44/870-833-9955, designmuseum.org, tickets $12.50 Rabih Hage Ltd. 69-71 Sloane Ave., 011-44/207-823-8288, rabih-hage.com Rough Luxe Hotel 1 Birkenhead St., 011-44/207-837-5338, roughluxe.co.uk, from $230 Bibendum Restaurant 81 Fulham Rd., 011-44/207-589-1480, bibendum.co.uk, sandwiches from $5.25, entrées from $22 Brick Lane Between Swanfield St. and Whitechapel High St., East End, sundayupmarket.co.uk for market info John Sandoe Books Ltd. 10 Blacklands Terrace, 011-44/207-589-9473, johnsandoe.com TEXAS Rethink your assumptions of Lone Star style: For a region that prides itself on an over-the-top approach—from toast to shoulder pads—Texas is a haven for idiosyncratic design. Worthy attractions dot the state. Outside Amarillo, an American icon is turned on its head at Cadillac Ranch, where 10 Caddies are buried backseat-deep in the sand. The small desert town of Marfa draws thousands of pilgrims each year, who flock to the center of art that the famous minimalist Donald Judd began forming in the late '70s. Whether it's the cluster of culture presented by Houston's Museum District or the all-star architecture on display in downtown Dallas (I. M. Pei's Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, Renzo Piano's Nasher Sculpture Center), Texas's take on design is as expansive as its borders. Designer spotlight Liz Lambert, former Manhattan district attorney turned hotelier Born to a West Texas ranching family, Lambert is the visionary behind Bunkhouse Management, a hotel development team that has defined its own breezy brand of cool. Lambert's aesthetic pulls the beauty of the outdoors in—and combines it with a sense of play. Top projects The 40-room bungalow-style Hotel San José, a spare oasis that matches Austin's funky sensibility; the glamorously high-end 14-room Hotel Saint Cecilia, which reopened in 2008; and two characterful Jo's coffee shops (Bertoia stools, vintage signage). On the horizon A redesign of the swank Belmont Hotel in Dallas, and this summer, Lambert plans to open the El Cosmico compound in Marfa, where guests can choose from yurts, tents, and six vintage Airstream trailers. Her Texas favorites The Menil Collection, Houston "This place feels like the house of an uncle who has traveled the world throughout his life and collected random beautiful objects along the way," says Lambert. The museum, founded in Houston by philanthropists John and Dominique de Menil, has a mix of antiquities, minimalist works, and African art. "I am always so inspired by what I see in there." Marburger Farm Antique Show, Round Top "Twice a year I head about an hour and a half outside Austin to the small town of Round Top—population 77—for one of the biggest antiques markets in the country," says Lambert. Vendors set up their booths in barns and fields that stretch for miles, and you can find anything from French stone gargoyles to Turkish rugs to taxidermy. "They also sell the best fried chicken on a stick you've ever had." Balmorhea State Park, Toyahvale "Growing up in West Texas, I spent a lot of time at the artesian spring pool at Balmorhea," says Lambert. Apache Indians once frequented the oasis to water their horses, and the bathhouses, adobe cabins, and huge, one-and-three-quarter-acre pool were built in the 1930s as part of a New Deal public works project. "The architecture is beautiful in its stark, utilitarian simplicity. Look for the cottonwood trees—that's how you can always find water in the Texas desert. It's a really magical place." ADDRESS BOOK Cadillac Ranch Interstate 40, between Arnot and Hope Rds., Amarillo, antfarm.org Houston Museum District houstonmuseumdistrict.org The Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center 2301 Flora St., Dallas, meyersonsymphonycenter.com Nasher Sculpture Center 2001 Flora St., Dallas, nashersculpturecenter.org, tickets $10 Hotel San José 1316 S. Congress Ave., Austin, 512/852-2350, sanjosehotel.com, from $95 Jo's 242 W. 2nd St., Austin, 512/469-9003; 1300 S. Congress Ave., 512/444-3800, joscoffee.com The Menil Collection 1515 Sul Ross St., Houston, 713/525-9400, menil.org, free El Cosmico Marfa, 512/852-2331, elcosmico.com Belmont Hotel 901 Fort Worth Ave., Dallas, 214/393-2300, belmontdallas.com, from $109 Marburger Farm Antique Show 2248 S. Hwy. 237, Round Top, 713/622-0300, roundtop-marburger.com, next show begins Sept. 29, tickets $10 Balmorhea State Park 9207 Hwy. 17 S., Toyahvale, 432/375-2370, tpwd.state.tx.us, tickets $7 NEW YORK CITY Design is woven into the daily fabric of New York. Its layout is largely based on an easy-to-understand grid; perhaps no other city in the world has a topography so user-friendly, navigable, and distinct. The city's relationship with design is intrinsic and fully about embracing both the high and the low. At SoHo design shop Moss, Alessi teapots are elevated to the level of a museum exhibition. Meanwhile, all around town, cast-off Eames chairs and funky 1970s lamps are reincarnated at the Housing Works and City Opera thrift stores—some of the most reliable troves. The key thing to understand is this: You don't need a Manhattan address to take advantage of this bounty—you just need to know where to look. Designer spotlight Alex Calderwood, music impresario and partner in the Ace Hotel Group In 1999, using the skills he honed as the head of record label Sweet Mother, Calderwood and friends launched the Ace Hotel Group, combining two BT-friendly goals: stylishness and affordability. The first site was a renovated Seattle flophouse, and today their vision is a proven success, with Ace Hotel locations in four cities, including a new outpost in Manhattan's Flatiron neighborhood. Each property reflects a sense of place—green woolen blankets in Seattle; cowskin rugs in Palm Springs, Calif.; garment racks used as closets in New York—while a cool practicality threads them together. Top projects The Ace Seattle flagship made a hot commodity of $99 rooms that don't skimp on visual appeal; branches in Portland, Ore., and Palm Springs expanded on that formula. Last February, Ace New York transformed the turn-of-the-century Hotel Breslin into a contemporary refuge, with ebonized wood, shiny subway tiles, and retro-looking Smeg fridges. This fall, the Breslin, a restaurant run by the owners of the downtown gastropub Spotted Pig will open off the lobby. His NYC favorites Project No. 8 In the newly booming area where Chinatown meets the Lower East Side, this 2-year-old boutique stocks clothing, accessories, drawing tools, and a random assortment of items from around the world. "It's one of those unique places that you have to go and discover to understand," says Calderwood, who recently reached out to Project No. 8's owners to open a second store—called No. 8a—on the ground floor of Ace New York later this year. The Smile A "young, independent spirit" attracted Calderwood to the wood-paneled café, which opened this past spring in the garden level of a 19th-century NoHo town house. Co-owner Carlos Quirarte, formerly of Earnest Sewn jeans, has covered the honey-colored shelves with the kind of gear he loves—everything from soaps to knitting needles to teas. Kiosk At this tiny second-story, gallery-like shop downtown, owner Alisa Grifo displays each utilitarian piece—like rubber stamps of President Obama's smiling face or simple birch-and-pine baskets from Finland—with a witty description. "It's all so cleverly curated," Calderwood says. ADDRESS BOOK Moss 150 Greene St., 212/204-7100, mossonline.com Housing Works Thrift Shops housingworks.org for locations City Opera Thrift Shop 222 E. 23rd St., 212/684-5344, nycopera.com Ace Hotel New York 20 W. 29th St., 212/679-2222, acehotel.com, from $169 The Breslin Bar & Dining Room 16 W. 29th St., 212/679-2222, thebreslin.com, entrées from $20 Project No. 8 138 Division St., 212/925-5599, projectno8.com The Smile 26 Bond St., thesmilenyc.com Kiosk 95 Spring St., 212/226-8601, kioskkiosk.com BUENOS AIRES In the aftermath of Argentina's 2001 financial crash, a storm of factors—expensive imports, a culture of craft—caused design to blossom throughout the country. Now aided by an influx of expats, it continues to flourish in Buenos Aires: Browse shops like Tienda Puro Diseño, an outpost of furniture and accessories by up-and-comers, or take a street-art tour with Graffitimundo. At day's end you'll deserve a meal at Tegui, a restaurant with updated Argentine cuisine where the strict black-and-white design makes for an art deco effect. Designer spotlight Patricia O'Shea and Tom Rixton, a PR executive and a music producer turned hoteliers When they opened Home Hotel in 2005, O'Shea, a B.A. native, and Rixton, a Brit, were blazing a trail with one of the city's first boutique hotels. The entrepreneurs are lifelong collectors (mid-century modern furniture, vintage wallpapers), and the interiors they create are eclectic reflections of those passions. Top project Home Hotel uses glass and cement throughout the airy 20-room property. Severe lines are softened by the couple's own floral wallpapers, and there's a pool and garden on-site. On the horizon The recession has stalled plans for a countryside or beach branch, but in the meantime, they've unveiled two loft-style rooms with kitchens. Their Buenos Aires favorites Graffiti galleries "An urban art scene rivaling New York's or Berlin's has sprung up," says Rixton. "Loveyou, Turbo, and L'Inc are galleries devoted to it, where you can buy a beautiful screen print for something like 30 dollars." Hermanos Estebecorena "This men's store is owned by fashion and industrial designers," says Rixton. "They use good materials, and the clothes are amazing." Rixton swears by the socks and underwear made with breathable panels—"the best in the world"—and recently purchased a snowboarding jacket that folds into a bag. Nobrand Traditional Argentine objects and iconography are given a new face at Nobrand. "They reimagine these classic items in a totally modern way," says O'Shea. Here, the gaucho espadrilles known as alpargatas gain a printed cow motif, while the updated visage of Che Guevara is emblazoned on T-shirts in graphic, minimalist strokes. ADDRESS BOOK Tienda Puro Diseño Gorriti 5953, 011-54/11-4776-8037, purodiseno.com.ar Graffitimundo 011-54/9-11-3309-7462, graffitimundo.com, tours from $20 Tegui Costa Rica 5852, 011-54/11-5291-3333, tegui.com.ar, entrées from $19, three courses for $43 Home Hotel Honduras 5860, 011-54/11-4778-1008, homebuenosaires.com, from $122 Loveyou Paraguay 5335, 011-54/11-4774-1170, loveyouweb.com.ar Turbo Galería Costa Rica 5827, 011-54/11-4776-8762, turbogaleria.com Casa L'Inc Amenabar 93, 011-54/11-4776-2348, l-inc.com.ar Hermanos Estebecorena El Salvador 5960, 011-54/11-4772-2145, hermanosestebecorena.com Nobrand Gorriti 5876, 011-54/11-4776-7288, nobrand.com.ar MEXICO CITY The city is modernist at its core, in the 1960s-era Zona Rosa. It's also colonial. And beaux arts. And a wild hybrid called Colonial Californiano, a mission-revival style that owes more to Hollywood than to Cortés. It's huge, it's sceney, it's noisy, it's cutting-edge. Get the picture? Mexico City isn't any one thing—it's way more than the sum of its parts. At the Museo de Arte Popular in Centro Histórico, you can look at displays of folk art—carved Oaxacan figurines and papier-mâché skeletons for Day of the Dead. Meanwhile, the boutique Naco Miscelánea, in trendy Condesa, sells kitsch raised to the rank of fashion, such as T-shirts printed to look like a mariachi suit. There's something for everyone, and after recent setbacks, it's more accessible than ever. Designer spotlight Carlos Couturier, managing partner at Grupo Habita, a Mexico City-based boutique hotel group Couturier and his partners, the Micha brothers—Rafael, Moisés, and Jaime—burst onto the hotel scene in 2000 when they opened Mexico City's Hotel Habita, a 36-room lodge built in a gutted 1950s apartment building that was enclosed with a box of sandblasted aquamarine glass. Travelers (and fashion photographers) flocked. Top projects Each hotel in their growing stable is authentically Mexican in its own way. Playa del Carmen's Hotel Básico is a paean to industrial design, with exposed plumbing and hot tubs made from old water tanks on the roof; Puebla's La Purificadora was built in a soaring 19th-century water purification plant, with bits of the original signage left intact. The newest, Mexico City's Distrito Capital, has a black-and-white lobby and furniture by Carl Hansen. The common drivers of all of them are public spaces with active bar and restaurant scenes designed to make visitors feel like locals. On the horizon This year, the group is opening two hotels in Acapulco, including a renovation of the iconic 1950s Hotel Boca Chica. And a New York hotel by Enrique Norten, planned for 2011, will take things international. His Mexico City favorites Casa Luis Barragán According to Couturier, no visit is complete without seeing the private house of the iconic architect. "It's the perfect example of a balanced space and displays the best of Mexico: an amazing use of materials, volume, and natural light. It's as colorful as Mexico itself but in a refined and elegant way." Kurimanzutto gallery "Every exhibition the gallery produces is a source of inspiration," says Couturier. "It has a top selection of the best contemporary Mexican artists. Some of my new favorites are Carlos Amorales, Dr. Lakra, Jonathan Hernández, and Miguel Calderón—all are young and have a great future." La Lagunilla The city's huge Sunday flea market is a grab bag of anything and everything you can think of: plastic robots, clay masks, tacos. "It has all sorts of items from all sorts of times and sources, and qualifies as one of the best in the world," says Couturier. ADDRESS BOOK Museo de Arte Popular Revillagigedo 11, Centro Histórico, 011-52/55-5510-2201, map.df.gob.mx, tickets $3 Naco Miscelánea Yautepec 126-B, Condesa, 011-52/55-5286-1343, usanaco.com Distrito Capital Juan Salvador Agraz 37, Santa Fé, 011-52/55-5257-1300, hoteldistritocapital.com, from $130 Casa Luis Barragán General Francisco Ramírez 14, Daniel Garza, 011-52/55-5515-4908, casaluisbarragan.org, tickets $9 Kurimanzutto Gobernador Rafael Rebollar, San Miguel Chapultepec, 011-52/55-5256-2408, kurimanzutto.com La Lagunilla República de Honduras, between República de Chile and Allende, Centro