Scouting Report: Havelock, New Zealand

THE TRAVELER Andrew Zimmern, host of Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern, a Travel Channel series devoted to exploring local cuisines that keeps Zimmern globe trotting for about 30 weeks each year. THE PLACE When your specialty is bizarre food, your travels take you well beyond the world's slick capitals and posh restaurants. It's the off-the-beaten-path spots that hold the most promise for Zimmern. One of his recent favorites is the Westman Islands, off the south coast of Iceland. "Most people who go to Iceland stay in Reykjavík, and if they leave, it's to do a one-day excursion somewhere north of the city," he says. So naturally, when he set out to shoot a recent TV episode, Zimmern took his crew south. "I wanted to connect with the real Iceland," he says. When he landed on Heimaey, the only inhabited island in the wild volcanic archipelago, the first thing Zimmern noticed was the locals. "They look like they just stepped off a Norse boat!" he says. In fact, the 15 islands are named not for the Norse settlers but for the Irish they enslaved; the Norse referred to the Irish as Vestmenn, or Westmen. Heimaey's roughly 5,000 inhabitants are still mostly a mix of Norse and Celtic descendants. The principal industry is commercial fishing, and the wharf is lined with unassuming seafood restaurants. "They're packed during lunch and dinner," Zimmern says. "I'd walk down the row and pick a different one for each meal." The just-caught fish—cold-water species like cod and halibut—are usually prepared in a traditional European style, sautéed in brown butter. "In the States, cod gets kind of a bad rap," says Zimmern. "But here, it's the most pristine, beautiful, flaky white fish." Ever the adventurous traveler, Zimmern explored the islands by hitching rides with local fishermen. If a professional operation is more your speed, go with Viking Tours. The 90-minute ride circles Heimaey, yielding picture-perfect vistas of rugged sheer cliffs, with killer whales splashing offshore, plus a healthy population of puffins. Venture inside Klettshellur, a sea cave formed by crashing waves; a crew member will likely play a tune or two on a saxophone to demonstrate the dramatic acoustics. For a live music blowout, accompanied by bonfires, plan your visit for August's annual rollicking Westman Islands Festival. THE DETAILS It's a 20-minute flight from Reykjavík, but weather-related cancellations are common, icelandair.is, from $80 round trip. The more reliable ferry takes about three hours. It travels through open sea, so the ride can be rough, eimskip.com, one-way ticket from $21. Viking Tours, 011-354/4-88-4884, boattours.is, $38; Hótel Mamma Guesthouse, Vestmannabraut 25, 011-354/481-2900, from $125. One caveat: the recent eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano has dropped some ash on the islands, so this may not be the year to go. Your turn! Have you discovered a place like these while traveling? Share your stories by posting a comment at the bottom of page 1: Binn, Switzerland.

THE TRAVELER Greg Witt, operator of a hiking guide service, Alpenwild. He first tackled the Alps as an 18-year-old backpacker and continues to spend two months in Switzerland every summer. THE PLACE After decades of canvassing the Swiss countryside (he started leading hikes in 1986), Witt still gets excited about returning to Binn, in a small, secluded Alpine valley at the base of zigzagging peaks sporting countless shades of green. Local residents uphold a pact made more than 50 years ago to resist the kind of overdevelopment that's added posh ski resorts and multilane highways to much of southwestern Switzerland. "Even today, the 16th-century stone bridge leading into the village of Binn bears the load of goats and hikers, not cars and buses," says Witt. Binn's gravel lanes pick their way among sun-burnished timber houses, small farming plots, and the tiny parish church of St.-Michel. The valley's lone hotel, the Ofenhorn, looms large over Binn. Restored in 2002, the rooms' original strip flooring, period furniture, and floral art nouveau wallpaper hearken back to the late 19th century, when a young Winston Churchill slept there. Beyond the hotel doors are epic mountain trails. One of Witt's favorites leads to the hamlet of Imfeld and the Restaurant Imfeld, a timber chalet at 4,983 feet with a terrace overlooking a stream and the Alps. Hikers can break for fresh trout and Valais air-dried beef—a regional specialty prepared by rubbing salt and herbs into raw beef and then drying it in a barn for at least six weeks. The trail continues on to the Binntal Hut near the Italian border. "Without ever having to show your passport, you can loop beautiful Alpine lakes and still return to Binn for dinner," says Witt. THE DETAILS Swiss National Railways and the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn provide train service to Valais and the upper Rhône Valley town of Fiesch; from there, PostBus Switzerland serves the village of Binn. Hotel Ofenhorn, ofenhorn.ch, doubles from $108, includes breakfast; Restaurant Imfeld, 011-41/27-971-4596, entrées from $9; Binntal Hut, sac-cas.ch, nonmember lodging from $25. Your Turn! Have you discovered a place like these while traveling? Share your stories by posting a comment below.

THE TRAVELER Christian Pucher, development director for Six Senses Resorts & Spas, a Bangkok–based hotelier known for its high-end eco-resorts in pristine locales. Pucher leaves home every other week to identify sites for future properties in remote parts of Asia and the Middle East. THE PLACE Few places evoke paradise like the mythical Shangri-La, the mountainous valley depicted in James Hilton's 1933 novel, Lost Horizon. And that's just what Pucher found when he encountered the northwestern area of China's Yunnan province, which borders Tibet and was renamed Shangri-La in 2001 for its natural beauty. The Swiss native is no novice when it comes to mountains, but the snowcapped peaks, Alpine lakes, and deep gorges of the Tibetan Plateau were unlike anything he'd ever imagined. "I was in absolute awe," he says. "Mountains of up to 22,000 feet would rise and drop into valleys of 6,000 feet or more. The roads crossed some of the most beautiful landscapes I had ever seen. It created a very serene and peaceful feeling." Pucher spent hours perched on a rock gazing at the landscape and drinking po cha: a traditional Tibetan brew made from yak butter and tea leaves that's a natural remedy for altitude sickness. "It's not too tasty, but the humor, hospitality, and smiles of the local Tibetans more than made up for it," he recalls. The entry point for most visitors to Shangri-La is the rapidly modernizing tourist town of Zhongdian, an hour's flight from the provincial capital of Kunming (in turn, a three-hour flight southwest from Shanghai). Pucher advises staying put for two days for altitude adjustment—a good time to fuel up on lean, succulent yak steak at Arro Khampa Restaurant, housed in a two-story historic building in the city's old town district. Pay your respects at Zhongdian's majestic 300-plus-year-old Songzanlin monastery, home to hundreds of red-robed monks. When you're ready to head into the countryside, Songtsam Hotel, a 22-room boutique property next door to the monastery, can arrange a jeep and driver to take you along the old caravan route toward Lhasa, Tibet, which is dotted with small villages and centuries-old Buddhist temples that hug the mountains. "The changes in scenery, vegetation, and even climate several times within a day's drive are absolutely incredible," says Pucher. THE DETAILS China Eastern operates flights daily between Kunming and Zhongdian's Diqing Airport, flychinaeastern.com, from $140 one way; Arro Khampa Restaurant, Pijiangpo 28, 011-86/887-822-6442, yak steak $7; Songtsam Hotel, songtsam.com, doubles from $97; jeep tours about $90 per day; Khampa Caravan, day tours from $60 per person (for groups of two), khampacaravan.com. Your turn! Have you discovered a place like these while traveling? Share your stories by posting a comment at the bottom of page 1: Binn, Switzerland.

THE TRAVELER Marcella Echavarría, founder of SURevolution. The New York–based company connects indigenous artisan communities to fashion houses such as Donna Karan, Tory Burch, and Ralph Lauren. In the past six months, Echavarría has traveled to Cambodia, China, Botswana, Peru, Ecuador, and her native Colombia. THE PLACE Echavarría doesn't bother to make distinctions between work and pleasure, or business and personal—she weaves them all together. "It's like a tapestry," she explains—one that threads from one corner of the globe to the other and ties together people who knit while tending goat herds and fashion designers whose items retail at high-end department stores. The work keeps Echavarría on the road 60 percent of the time, visiting local communities and writing for South American travel and U.S. magazines. "An article can lead to a new product and the other way around," she says. For at least 10 days every year, when she needs a break, Echavarría retreats to Playa Koralia, a laid-back resort named after the beach on which it's set on Colombia's Caribbean coast. There's nothing in the world she's seen like it. "Playa Koralia is the only place where you can walk on a tropical beach and see snow-peaked mountains so close," says Echavarría. Scattered between palm trees, the 19 thatched bungalows encourage a no-Internet, no-newspapers, unplugged approach. You'll quickly come to appreciate other distractions—namely sea views from porch side hammocks, howler monkeys, iguanas, white eagles, natural whirlpools in the nearby rivers, and a full-service spa. (You might also spot a Colombian celebrity; singer Shakira has been known to check in from time to time.) The white-sand beaches and hiking trails of Tayrona National Park are only a 15-minute drive away. But even here, Echavarría can't resist giving her travels a greater purpose. She uses the resort as a base for visiting with the Wayúu, a matriarchal, nomadic indigenous society of weavers who live a couple hours' drive away in the Guajira Peninsula, where desert sand dunes melt into turquoise waters. "You could stay overnight, but you'd have to have the soul of an anthropologist," says Echavarría. (Visitors sleep in hammocks in a Wayúu host's maloca, a palm-thatched one-room home without running water.) The intense contrasts of the Wayúu people's surroundings—blindingly white beaches against a shockingly blue ocean—influence the bright color schemes of their mochilas, woven circular bags. "I remember thinking to myself, How is it that people spend thousands and thousands of dollars on a Louis Vuitton bag but don't recognize the value and beauty of these woven textiles?" Thanks to Echavarría, now they do. THE DETAILS Playa Koralia, koralia.com, from $95 per person, including meals. The resort offers private transportation for $45 each way between Santa Marta (where there's a national airport) and Playa Koralia (about an hour's drive). Your turn! Have you discovered a place like these while traveling? Share your stories by posting a comment at the bottom of page 1: Binn, Switzerland.