Locals call Santa Fe "the city different." What makes it so depends on where you're coming from and what you're searching for.
Take designer Tom Ford. Raised in Santa Fe, the man who made Gucci the hottest brand on the planet has reconnected with his roots by breaking ground on a hilltop sanctuary on the tony east side of town, courtesy of architect Tadao Ando. "Santa Fe is certainly different from when I grew up here," he says. "I believe Canyon Road was still dirt. But even though the roads have been paved, it's still an amazingly beautiful place. I'm drawn to the air, the space. I live in London and Los Angeles, but I dream about Santa Fe."
Small wonder his REM sleep is haunted: Santa Fe is pure confection, with cobalt-blue skies and a high-desert setting (7,000 feet above sea level) at the foot of the snow-capped Sangre de Cristo mountain range. Of course, the brash natural beauty enticed prehistoric nomads and Native American settlers in the first place. Then, in 1610 Spanish colonists established La Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asis, a mouthful of a name that soon was mercifully abbreviated. After Spanish rule ended in 1821, the creation of the Santa Fe Trail opened a gateway for American merchants and homesteaders--New Mexico became a state in 1912--followed by a colony of artists who were attracted to Santa Fe's spare charms. The area's most legendary aesthete, Georgia O'Keeffe, lives on through her namesake museum.
Modern-day Santa Fe is deeply connected to its past. A small downtown core encircles the Plaza, the original city square, where tourists search for treasures and trinkets in shops and galleries and from Native American vendors who display handmade jewelry and crafts along the portal of the Palace of the Governors. Narrow streets are lined with historic monuments to Church and state, as well as handsome, low-slung structures with thick adobe walls, ornate wood doors and windows, and heavy wood vigas, or beams. All in all, it's a pink-adobe Oz, and despite its sybaritic spas, stylish restaurants, relaxed hotels, and world-class art galleries and museums, Santa Fe is simply off the radar of the "where next?" crowd. And that's exactly what those who prefer to stay under the radar love about it most.
So trade in those Jimmy Choos for a pair of cowboyboots from Back at the Ranch boutique. There are more than 800 handcrafted versions from which to choose, in a kaleidoscope of colors (not to mention skins like kangaroo and stingray) and kicky motifs ranging from cowgirls to the Statue of Liberty. A stroll down Canyon Road illustrates just how vast and varied Santa Fe's offerings can be. This winding street, which follows an old Indian trail, is home to adobe buildings that date back as far as the 1750s. Nubby bits of straw poke out of the walls that, over time, sheltered farm animals, then an artists' colony, and now dozens of restaurants and stores, and close to 100 galleries.
Near the bottom of Canyon Road, Nathalie Kent runs an edgy pair of eponymous shops packed with couture, art, and home furnishings. A former Paris fashion-magazine editor who landed in Santa Fe in 1988, she'll set you straight on how not to look like a tourist. "The thing to do is mix it up--a little bit cowboy and Indian, a little bit modern," says Kent. Her personal style--black alligator boots, a combination of Hermes silver and Navajo turquoise bracelets, and a single braid that swishes below a $1,200 horsehair belt (handmade by inmates of a Montana prison)--straddles the fashion fence perfectly.
The best introduction to Santa Fe's colorful culture is a visit to Museum Hill. There, four institutions--the Museum of International Folk Art, the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art, the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture, and the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian--provide a comprehensive overview of the area's past. The Wheelwright was born in 1937 out of an unlikely partnership between a Boston blue blood and a Navajo medicine man. Downstairs, the Case Trading Post has antique display cabinets filled with pottery, woven baskets, and silver jewelry by longtime masters and up-and-coming artists.
Fast-forward 70 years or so. In 2005, Santa Fe was named America's first UNESCO City of Folk Art. A ten-minute walk from the Plaza will land you in the contemporary core, the historic Railyard District. "It's the most important venue in Santa Fe," says Marc Dorfman, director of external affairs for SITE Santa Fe, the nonprofit contemporary arts organization and gallery that anchors the neighborhood. "Canyon Road is our heritage. The Railyard represents the synergy of the 21st century."
SITE Santa Fe occupies a former Coors-Maloof beer warehouse that was transformed into an 18,000-square-foot exhibition space a decade ago by architect Richard Gluckman. Start there, then hit the slightly rough-and-tumble South Guadalupe Street. Some eclectic hot spots include TAI Gallery/Textile Arts, which specializes in Japanese bamboo artwork, and Casa Nova, which stocks old and new home furnishings from around the world. Don't miss Double Take at the Ranch--a mecca for everything vintage, from Magic Chef ovens to Prada bags and flouncy flamenco dresses. At the bedding and table-top outposts of Cielo, German-born Ursula Gebert outfits the second, third, and fourth homes of clients who arrive with their architects and designers in tow. "People are drawn to the lifestyle here," she says. "They come back and settle down."
Santa Fe's sometimes fiery cuisine is a draw, too. "Southwest ingredients like corn, chilies, beans, and squash make food here unique," says cookbook author and photographer Lois Ellen Frank, "and the altitude makes their flavors more intense." Dig into some of the best regional delicacies at Maria's New Mexican Kitchen (killer chiles rellenos topped with green-and-red "Christmas" sauce; some 100 tequilas) and Cafe Pasqual's, where you should sit at the communal table for the local buzz and generous helpings of griddle polenta with pork chorizo and grilled wild-salmon burritos.
At BALEEN, which is part of the Inn and Spa at Loretto, chef John Cox shows off local roots and national experience (he is aveteran of the Post Ranch Inn in Big Sur) with exquisite dishes like Alaskan halibut poached with Tahitian vanilla, and rack of lamb accompanied by cornbread pudding, tomato jam, and cilantro pesto. Tapas are on the menu at tiny La Boca--pork fennel sausage, tuna carpaccio, smoked paprika shrimp--which go down beautifully with Riojas by the glass. For ribsticking fare, head to the Railyard Restaurant and Saloon, whose sleek setting belies homestyle cooking: burgers, catfish po' boys, roasted chicken, and the like.
While Santa Feans tend to duck inside early on brisk winter nights, come summer, the action heats up under the stars at the Santa Fe Opera, an open-air arena with floating roof lines designed by New York architect James Stewart Polshek. (Get thee to a couturier: The opera's opening weekend, June 28 to July 1, kicks off with a glamorous black-tie ball.)
Or you can always commune with nature on a hike led by a Santa Fe Mountain Adventures guide on the Dale Ball Trails in the lower Sangre de Cristos, or drop your kimono at Ten Thousand Waves spa and settle down for a soak in a hillside hot tub.
Silver Coin margaritas at the bar of the historic La Posada de Santa Fe Resort & Spa can lead to an altogether different spiritual experience, especially if you spot the ghost of legendary socialite Julia Staab, whose portrait hangs in the hotel and who reportedly roams the halls of what was once her home.
The city different? Definitely. "I've lived in Europe for the past 20 years," says Tom Ford, "but if I had six months to live, I'd come back to Santa Fe."
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