Off the Tourist Grid in the Bahamas

Sara Mayti

Workers load cargo onto the Grand Master mail boat on Great Exuma.

Waves rolled through the night, pitching the ship from side to side. From the bridge deck, the white sand beaches of the Exumas glowed blue-white under the starlight, and the rising moon spread a thin layer of silver over the sea. A few miles north, toward our destination in Nassau, lightning flickered.

I was on a freighter heading through the Bahamas. The sweeping view couldn't have been more different from the one on deck: shrink-wrapped palettes cradled cinderblocks, baby diapers and bottled water obscured the bow; oiled two-by-eight planks concealed crates of produce, furniture and hardware stowed in the cargo hold. Amidships, a 70-foot crane was lashed to a steel boom crutch. Tucked away in private cabins behind the wheelhouse, two dozen passengers slept soundly.

The ship was one of 15 government-contracted mail boats that deliver provisions, passengers and a few adventurous tourists to the Out Islands, the hundreds of remote islands beyond the tourist and commercial centers of New Providence, Grand Bahama and Paradise Islands. My boat was one of three mail boats that I took on a six-day, 350-mile journey last spring to explore the Bahamas the way Bahamians do. I had vacationed in the islands several times before, usually cooped up in a resort with every amenity a guest could dream up, and I'd long wanted to get beyond the more touristed areas. Mail boats have been the primary means of interisland travel for locals for more than a century and seemed the perfect way to do it. There are no tour guides or lido deck, and the nighttime entertainment consists largely of gazing at a starry sky over the drone of a diesel engine. But for a shockingly cheap ticket (from $45), passengers can get a meal, a bed and one thing that eludes even the most dogged Caribbean traveler: immersion in authentic Bahamian culture.

Like any respectable seafarer, I kept a log. What follows is an account of the journey, which covers towns, bars and beaches largely uncharted by guidebooks.

Leg 1: Grand Master from George Town, Great Exuma, to Nassau, New Providence. 14 hours; 150 miles.

The Out Islands are made up of more than 700 islands, many of them belonging to particular archipelagos or chains. Each chain is served by its own mail boat system, and because I was vacationing with friends in the Exumas, I started my exploration there. A resident told me about a mail boat heading to Nassau, and I was soon onboard a ship listening to Capt. Lance Brozozog outline our loose itinerary: cross the Tropic of Cancer at sunset; bisect the 360-island Exuma archipelago through a 150-foot-wide channel at midnight; arrive in Nassau sometime after dawn. Mr. Brozozog knows the route well. Since he was a boy, the 41-year-old Bahamian has been loading the Grand Master with food, water, tools, scrap metal and every other provision that helps to keep the Exuma Islands operating.

My room, which was the size of a typical train sleeper compartment, was filled with some of those provisions: screen doors, crates of juice and a half-dozen packages addressed to recipients in Nassau — name and phone number only. There were three other berths in the room, but since the ship wasn't full I had it to myself.

After leaving my bags, I wandered on deck, where Mr. Brozozog chatted with passengers over the din of the big diesel engines rumbling to life. As the sun set he shared some of his own history, which included growing up on nearby Staniel Cay and the honor of captaining one of the most famous crossings in the Exumas: in 2006 he piloted (by remote control) the Black Pearl while Johnny Depp clung to the wheel during the filming of "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End."

He also threw in a recommendation, as did several other islanders onboard: go to the hotel at Junkanoo Beach; visit the food shacks on Potter's Cay in Nassau; avoid Paradise Island at all costs.

Our own meal — served on paper plates — was a Bahamian favorite: barbecued chicken with peas and rice. Afterward, I retired to my cabin for the night, but it soon became clear that, thanks to its location just over the engine room, it would be intolerably hot. At midnight I took the cushion off my bed and dragged it to the upper deck where I was rewarded with a cool breeze and a view of that stunning moonrise and a shooting star falling through the Big Dipper.

Leg 2: Port of Call: Nassau, New Providence. Four hours.

Porter Fox edits the literary travel journal Nowhere, in Brooklyn. His first book, "Deep: The Story of Skiing and the Future of Snow," will be published this fall.

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In Transit Blog: Calendar: Coming Events in Munich, Amsterdam, France, Virginia Beach

Hoffentlich Öffentlich, Munich The city of Munich has handed some of its public spaces to the Scandinavian artists Elmgreen and Dragset, above, who will curate several works through September. First up: Fourth Plinth Munich by Stephen Hall and Li Li Ren, a replica of the Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth that will sit in the Wittelsbacherplatz square in Munich. If you're lucky enough to be in the area March 12, you can take in a performance of "It's Never Too Late To Say Sorry," a work created by the curators that involves a vocalist shouting the title of the piece over a megaphone at noon. Don't worry, the engineers on lunch break from the nearby Siemens headquarters will be scratching their heads, too. (muenchen.de)

125 years of Concertgebouw Jubilee Concerts, Amsterdam Amid the many highlights of Amsterdam's crowded tourism calendar this year is the 125th anniversary of the creation of its concert hall. In celebration, the Concertgebouw is holding concerts each month that focus on a different decade of its musical history. On Feb. 4, the mezzo-soprano Christianne Stotijn will be performing a work to mark the decade starting in 1900. On March 1, the violinist Leonidas Kavakos will be accompanied by the pianist Enrico Pace in performing three Beethoven works that the concert's title suggests were traditional by the 1910s. Beforehand, stroll over to the Stedelijk Museum and check out a Braque or two from that era. (concertgebouw.nl/en/jubilee-concerts)

Soldes d'Hiver, France The nationwide sales period known as soldes (above) draws to a close Feb. 12, which gives you time to take advantage of the increasingly steep discounts at stores (and online). So if you couldn't make it to the recent couture shows in Paris, you can get a skirt for a 20th of the price at any number of boutiques in the Marais.

Winter Wildlife Boat Trip, Virginia Beach The Virginia Aquarium takes advantage of its oceanfront location by offering boat excursions to spot humpback whales, which are too big to inhabit its pavilions. The boat trips, which started Dec. 27 and typically run through mid-March, have had a high success rate so far. On 24 of the first 27 excursions whales were spotted, sometimes at close enough range so that one could smell their breath. (virginiaaquarium.com)

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Footsteps: Where a Poet’s Vision Lives on in India

Sami Siva for The New York Times

Students have class outdoors at the school Tagore started, now known as Visva-Bharati University.

Great writers often shape our impressions of a place. Steinbeck and Dust Bowl Oklahoma, for instance. Sometimes a writer might even define a place, as Hemingway did for 1920s Paris. Rarely, though, does a writer create a place. Yet that is what the Indian poet and Nobel Prize winner Rabindranath Tagore did with a town called Shantiniketan, or "Abode of Peace." Without Tagore's tireless efforts, the place, home to a renowned experimental school, would not exist.

For Indians, a trip to Shantiniketan, a three-hour train ride from Kolkata, is a cultural pilgrimage. It was for me, too, when I visited last July, in the height of the monsoon season. I had long been a Tagore fan, but this was also an opportunity to explore a side of India I had overlooked: its small towns. It was in places like Shantiniketan, with a population of some 10,000, that Tagore — along with his contemporary Mohandas K. Gandhi — believed India's greatness could be found.

As I boarded the train at Kolkata's riotous Howrah Station, there was no mistaking my destination, nor its famous resident. At the front of the antiquated car hung two photos of an elderly Tagore. With his long beard, dark eyes and black robe, the poet and polymath, who died in 1941, looked like a benevolent, aloof sage, an Indian Albus Dumbledore. At the rear of the car were two of his paintings, one a self-portrait, the other a veiled woman. Darkness infused them, as it does much of Tagore's artwork, unlike his poems, which are filled with rapturous descriptions of nature. As the train ambled through the countryside, Tagore's words echoed in my head. "Give us back that forest, take this city away," he pleaded in one poem.

The son of a Brahmin landlord, Tagore was born in Calcutta, as Kolkata was called back then, in 1861. He began writing poetry at age 8. In 1913, he became the first non-Westerner to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. The committee cited a collection of spiritual poems called "Gitanjali," or song offerings. The verses soar. "The traveler has to knock at every alien door to come to his own, and one has to wander through all the outer worlds to reach the innermost shrine at the end," reads one.

Tagore became an instant international celebrity, discussed in the salons of London and New York. Today, Tagore is not read much in the West, but in India, and particularly in West Bengal, his home state, he remains as popular — and revered — as ever. For Bengalis, Tagore is Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, Andy Warhol and Steven Sondheim — with a dash of Martin Luther King Jr. — rolled into one. Poet, artist, novelist, composer, essayist, educator, Tagore was India's Renaissance man. He was also a humanist, driven by a desire to change the world, which is what he intended to do in Shantiniketan. Upset with what he saw as an India that mooched off other cultures — "the eternal ragpickers of other people's dustbins," he said — he imagined a school modeled after the ancient Indian tapovans, or forest colonies, where young men meditated and engaged in other spiritual practices. His school would eschew rote learning and foster "an atmosphere of living aspiration."

Equipped with this vision — and unhappy with Calcutta's transformation from a place where "the days went by in leisurely fashion," to the churning, chaotic city that it is today — Tagore decamped in 1901 to a barren plain about 100 miles north of Calcutta. Tagore's father owned land there, and on one visit experienced a moment of unexpected bliss. He built a hut to mark the spot, but other than that and a few trees, the young Tagore found only "a vast open country."

Undaunted, he opened his school later that year, readily admitting that it was "the product of daring inexperience." There was a small library, lush gardens and a marble-floored prayer hall. It began as a primary school; only a few students attended at first, and one of those was his son. Living conditions were spartan. Students went barefoot and meals, which consisted of dal (lentils) and rice, were "comparable to jail diet," recalled Tagore, who believed that luxuries interfered with learning. "Those who own much have much to fear," he would say.

Eric Weiner, author of "Man Seeks God: My Flirtations With the Divine," is working on a book about the connection between place and genius.

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In Travel, We’re All Boomers Now

Big font. Easy-to-print pages. Luxury hotels that can be sorted by amenities like cooking lessons and connecting suites. If you find yourself enjoying the carefully planned features on Preferredfamily.com, you have the baby boomer generation to thank.

From new hotel Web sites to shorter cruises to smaller tours, the travel industry is redoubling its efforts this year to win the hearts and wallets of people between the ages of 49 and 67.

It's a generation that, given its size (about 26 percent of the population) and its collective wealth (it controls the lion's share of the country's disposable income), has been shaping the nation's travel choices for decades. Your lost summer backpacking through Europe? Thank the boomers who in the 1960s and '70s made shoestring student trips to Europe de rigueur. Your naughty romp at Club Med? It was the boomers who propelled the singles resort scene to its apotheosis in the 1970s. Your posh room at the Copacabana Palace in the 1990s? Fueled by boomers' appetite for luxury hotels.

Yet when the economy tanked in 2008, boomers began snapping their wallets shut and stowing their luggage in their closets instead of airplane bins, helping to send the travel industry into a tailspin. Now, five years later, with the economy showing signs of recovery and the first wave of boomers retiring, many travel companies have declared a New Year's resolution: seduce the boomer. (Again.)

Whether it's a yen for Wi-Fi in the Serengeti or a disdain for bus tours, boomers' latest needs, whims and aspirations are determining 2013's large and small vacation trends. Some are new. Others have been around but will become more prevalent. Having studied the predilections of people born between 1946 and 1964 as if they were a tribe recently discovered by anthropologists, travel companies are rolling out services designed to woo and recapture a generation of travelers.

Boomer or not, here's what all of us will be seeing more of in the months to come, and why.

Shorter Itineraries

Bon voyage lengthy cruises and tours. Boomers are the most likely of all age groups to say that they have lost money on investments and that their household finances have worsened since the recession, according to Pew Research. Among boomers ages 50 to 61, 6 in 10 said they might have to postpone retirement. That has tour companies — which for decades have offered lengthy trips for retirees with time on their hands — making sweeping changes.

"Speaking from a boomer who feels like I'm going to be working until I'm 70," said JoAnn Bell, vice president of programming for Road Scholar, a nonprofit organization that leads educational tours around the world, "we're very conscious of the fact that so many more people are still working."

To cater to boomers postponing retirement, Road Scholar has shortened the length of some tours. While the organization has international trips that can be 21 days or longer, "we have more and more programs that are 7 to 10 days," Ms. Bell said. For instance, a traditional program is Road Scholar's "Survey of France: Paris, Provence, the Wine Regions and more" — an 18-night tour. A new program for boomers? The seven-night "Allure of France: Paris and Normandy."

With working boomers in mind, Road Scholar has also changed the days of the week that its tours begin and end. Its domestic programs used to begin on Sunday and conclude on Friday; now it's scheduling programs that begin Thursday or Friday and end on Monday. For international trips, the company originally planned its 10-day programs with midweek flights because they are less expensive than weekend flights — but the schedule was not ideal for most working people. Now trips depart Friday or Thursday night and return on Sunday.

Cruise lines are also adjusting their schedules. Crystal Cruises, known for its cruises of 10 days or longer, has increased the number of shorter itineraries it is offering in 2013, making almost half of its cruises 10 days or less. Last year, only three of Crystal's European cruises were shorter than 10 days. In 2013, 22 of its cruises in Europe are 10 days or less. Its Crystal Getaways, 5- to 11-day itineraries that it set up last year, have been so successful among time-strapped working boomers that this year the company is introducing 26 new segments for Europe.

Exotic Locations, Modern Amenities

Boomers continue to be intrepid explorers, even as many express a desire for creature comforts.

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Q&A: Going Abroad? How the State Department Can Help

Here's some perspective on how drastically our travel habits have changed in recent years: In 1989, seven million Americans had passports, according to the State Department. Today 113 million do. Gone, too, are days when Americans stuck almost exclusively to the London-Paris-Rome circuit, said Brenda S. Sprague, the State Department's deputy assistant secretary for passport services. "That gives them the potential to get in more trouble," she said. "But now they're better able to keep in touch with us, and we with them." Below are edited excerpts from a conversation with Ms. Sprague on what help the State Department can offer you abroad.  

Brenda S. Sprague, the State Department's deputy assistant secretary for passport services.

Connect With Us on Twitter

Follow @nytimestravel for tips, features and photography from all over the globe.

Q. Say you're thinking of going to a country off the tourism grid. What's your first step?

A. Determine whether it's a good time to go. Look at the country-specific information on travel.state.gov. For every country, it gives you assessments of its stability, crime, road conditions and tourism infrastructure as well information on visa requirements and embassies. We issue travel warnings for countries that have serious, ongoing problems like terrorist attacks or very high crime. Travel alerts are issued for short-term situations, like "there's an H1N1 flu outbreak here," or "a hurricane is expected here." They're very objective assessments of possible risks for U.S. travelers. Take all of it to heart.

We also have links for specific groups like older travelers, L.G.B.T. Americans, students, disabled travelers. And be honest about your own abilities. For the novice traveler, with no knowledge of the language or contacts, I would not suggest biking across the Sahara.

Q. You've deliberated and decided to go. Now what should you do?

A. Register for Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) on our Web site. You tell us who you are, where you're going and how to get in touch with you. And that's how we send you security or emergency messages, which could range from "there will be a demonstration from here to there; avoid that part of town," or, if things have the potential for turning violent, "you might want to get the hell out, and this is the fastest way to do it." We also post these messages on our Web site, app, Twitter feed and on individual embassy Web sites.

Even when a situation deteriorates, as in Egypt during the Arab Spring, commercial travel goes on for a long time. And if it does break down, we'll arrange charter travel to get U.S. citizens out, but you'll have to pay for that.

Q. Say you're going to a place like London. Is it necessary to register with the embassy there?

A. Yes, because situations change quickly. If you were in Britain the day the subways were bombed a few years ago, you'd be interested in knowing what that meant for you.

And often the emergency that arises is particular to you, like a family member dying or falling sick. Your family may be intimidated by the language barrier, or the person who had your contact abroad is the one who's sick. If you register, we know how to get in touch with you.

Q. What if you get sick abroad?

A. Before your trip, get travel insurance that provides coverage for medical emergencies. (Also see: Should You Buy Travel Insurance?) You're not covered by your host country's medical programs, nor are you covered by Medicare. Sometimes your health insurance in the U.S. will compensate you after the fact, but hospitals abroad want money upfront, and costs can be exorbitant. Under special circumstances, we can give you a loan for an evacuation flight, but you'll have to repay it. A medevac can easily reach $100,000.

Q. A mundane but common problem: What should you do if you lose your passport?

A. Get yourself to an embassy or consulate. They're the only places where you can get a replacement passport that's good for one year.

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Check In: A Boutique Retreat in Beijing’s 798 Art District

Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan

A Superior Room with photos of Chinese opera above the bed.

Rooms start at 850 renminbi (about $140, at 6 renminbi to the dollar), plus service charge.

Basics

This 30-room boutique hotel, which was the Yi House Hotel until the Grace Hotels Group bought it and reopened it in late 2011, embodies both eccentric and luxe well. Colorful abstract paintings and embroidered carpets fill the walls of its otherwise minimalist lobby alongside a bright green sofa and gray crushed-velvet chairs. The artiness gets more sedate as you approach your room: the hallways of the upper floors are dedicated to lush photos from films like "In the Mood for Love."

Location

The hotel is in the 798 Art District, home to a lively Beijing cultural scene that took root in an area of decommissioned military factory buildings in the 1990s. Now filled with galleries, cafes, little boutiques and craft shops, the neighborhood, with its Bauhaus-style buildings, has been likened to SoHo in New York.

The Room

Rooms range from the small Artist Studio (with a single bed) to a large Grace Suite. The Superior Room (the basic room for two people) was striking: it held a big gray crushed-velvet sofa and bright green night stands, a desk and closets (complete with Chinese-style latches). A basket overflowing with fresh strawberries was a nice touch, although it made my husband and me wish we still had the glasses of Champagne that we were offered at check-in. We also appreciated the iPod docking station, turndown service (complete with lovely chocolates), stacks of local art magazines and the view of the hotel's serene courtyard.

The Bathroom

Spacious enough for two large sinks and chic, done in black and white with lime green and orange accents. Ba Yan Ka La, a trendy Chinese brand of natural skin-care products, did the toiletries, which included an unusual goji berry soap. The bathtub and a hand-held shower, though, were not intended for taller people. Showering was trying for my husband, taller than six feet.

Amenities

Grace has a restaurant, Yi House, which offers Asian and Mediterranean dishes, and Bar 798. The Grace Group's concierge service lets you make various arrangements ahead of time — from picking your pillows (you can actually choose a traditional Chinese pillow that's filled with hard buckwheat husks) to ordering up a cot. The hotel also has a gym.

Breakfast

Breakfast, free with the room and served in Yi House, presented a mind-boggling set of choices. In addition to coffee and tea, our beverage options included Champagne, mango or chocolate smoothies and a number of juices that we could order infused with rosemary or ginger. We also had our pick of fresh fruit, cheeses and cold cuts, pastries and cereals before even getting to the entrees, which were divided into Asian (congee, century eggs, pork dumplings) and "hot" (eggs Benedict, omelets, oatmeal) selections. My husband's caramelized banana pancake was outstanding; my egg white and sausage fried rice was a little bland.

Bottom Line

A comfortable and stylish option that feels light years away from the hustle and bustle of gritty, touristy Beijing.

Grace Beijing, Jiuxianqiao Lu, 2 Hao Yuan, 798 Yishu Qu, 706 Hou Jie 1 Hao; (86-10) 6436-1818; gracebeijing.com.

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Bites : Eating Among Locals on a Venetian Island

If beautiful Murano glass is a strong draw to the Venetian Lagoon island, camera-snapping groups clogging the canals, and the cookie-cutter restaurants hoping to sell them a pizza along the way, can have the opposite effect. But thanks to a culinary newcomer, there's a reason to return. Opened last April by Giovanna Arcangeli — a Murano native who planned events at the legendary Harry's Bar for a decade and knows a thing or two about preserving a cultured calm in the midst of a touristy enclave — Acquastanca is a refuge from all that. "We wanted to create a place where guests would be able to relax and enjoy good food in a warm, quiet atmosphere with locals," Ms. Arcangeli said.

Marco Ferro/Acquastanca, Venice

A meringue dessert at Acquastanca.

During a recent lunchtime visit, local businessmen taking a stand-up break at the bar were sipping Soave from the Veneto and snacking on cichetti, Venetian snacks like crispy prawns and octopus salad; a group of Venetians and a fashionable Italian mother and her teenage daughter occupied the few wood tables by the canal. Housed in a former bakery, the restaurant is stylish but not overdone: with wood beam ceilings, brick walls and resin floors, the setting is intimate but modern.

Caterina Nason, the chef and Ms. Arcangeli's sister-in-law, focuses on simple preparations of seafood, appropriate for a lagoon restaurant. Highlights include a buttery and perfectly briny spaghetti alle vongole; crispy orata (sea bream), baked in the oven with potatoes; baccalà with polenta; and tagliolini with squid.

One of Ms. Nason's strengths is her house-made desserts, so save room for daily selections like lemon meringue cake, tiramisù and coffee coviglia (a coffee semifreddo). And there's a wine list with a nice selection culled mainly from the nearby regions of Veneto, Friuli and Trentino Alto Adige.

Acquastanca serves as a sort of hideaway for groups like that table of Venetians — not too fancy but with good, local food, where you can stop in from breakfast to dinner for an espresso or a full meal. It has been a successful undertaking mostly because it's a homegrown but sophisticated vision in a city that often feels overpackaged. And if you want to really fit in, ask for an ombra — a little sip of white wine that comes from the old Venetian custom of selling white wine from vendors with little carts in the ombra, or shade, to keep it cool. 

Acquastanca, Fondamenta Manin 48, Murano, Venice; (39-041) 319-5125. An average meal for two, without drinks or tip, is about 30 euros (about $39, at $1.29 to the euro).

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36 Hours in Innsbruck, Austria

Dominic Ebenbichler for The New York Times

Innsbruck as seen from Seegrube mountain.

The Alps might be for skiing, but the self-styled "capital" of the Austrian Alps, Innsbruck, lives for just about everything après —  eating, drinking, shopping and partying. Despite its founding as the capital of the Tyrol in the Middle Ages, the city on the Inn River maintains a consistently youthful attitude, thanks in part to 30,000 university students in a population of just 120,000 residents, while a new interest in world-class modern architecture by the likes of David Chipperfield, Dominique Perrault and Zaha Hadid is starting to compete for attention with the Renaissance-era buildings and labyrinthine lanes of Old Town. By all means, enjoy the nearby slopes, like those at the Stubai Glacier. But don't be surprised if the lifts you enjoy most are the ones that take you to the city's many rooftop bars, upscale restaurants and dance clubs that go all night.

FRIDAY

4 p.m.
1. Kaffeeklatsch Contest

Locals love to argue over which is Innsbruck's best konditorei, or pastry cafe, with many picking the more-modern Valier (Maximilianstrasse 27; www.konditorei-innsbruck.at), just south of the city center, while hard-liners swear by the storied Munding (Kiebachgasse 16, at Mundingplatz; munding.at) in Old Town, which claims to have served its pie-like apple strudels and sugary stollen since 1803. Pick either one, grab a table and enjoy the afternoon kaffeeklatsch hour like a regular. Then move on to the other and order a second round of cake and coffee, just to make sure.

5 p.m.
2. Local Brews

With its crisp grüner veltliners, fruity gelber muskatellers and steely rieslings, Austria's enviable wine culture steals much of the attention that might otherwise go to the country's growing —  but largely overlooked —  craft beer scene. In Innsbruck, the top-rated bar in Conrad Seidl's 2012 Austrian beer guidebook is Cafe Sowieso (Kapuzinergasse 8; 43-650 553-0506), a gritty, romper-room-like student pub with four to six unusual brews on draft and about 40 bottles, including rarities like Gerhard Forstner's excellent Styrian Ale, a hoppy amber brew from Austria's Steiermark region (4.60 euros, or about $6 at $1.29 to the euro). No, your beer-loving friends back home have never heard of it.

8 p.m.
3. Meal With a View

Though the centrally situated, glass-covered Rathausgalerien seems to be nothing more than a flashy shopping mall, in-the-know epicures come for the top-level restaurant, Lichtblick (Maria-Theresien-Strasse 18; restaurant-lichtblick.at): an open, light-filled space with commanding views of the city from atop the seventh floor of a tower on Maria-Theresien-Strasse. Can you see all the way to the Alto Adige, just across the border? The cooking certainly seems to leap from Austria to Italy: earthy parsnips in a foam soup paired with fresh tuna fillets, or tender salt-marsh lamb accompanied by hearty polenta in tomato sauce and rich goat cheese. Dinner for two without wine: 100 euros.

10:30 p.m.
4. After-Dinner Stops

Just how lazy are you? For an easy finish to the night, walk 20 feet from Lichtblick's door to 360° (Maria-Theresien-Strasse 18; 360-grad.at), a stylish, circular, glass salon overlooking the entire city. Finish up with a local wine, like the house white cuvée, produced for the bar by the Hiedler winery in Kamptal (32 euros per bottle). Then set out for the city's best cocktails around the corner at the 5th Floor, another rooftop bar, this time inside the Penz hotel (Adolf-Pichler-Platz 3; the-penz.com). Sample one of the 100 rare whiskeys (like the Wemyss Honey Pot, one of just 299 bottles produced) or try a picker-upper with a twist, like the all-German gin and tonic, made with Monkey 47 gin from the Black Forest and Thomas Henry tonic from Berlin (cocktails, about 11 euros).

SATURDAY

10 a.m.
5. Pottery's High Point

Austria's influence on the global studio ceramics movement includes both the Wiener Werkstätte and the great Vienna-trained (but London-based) potter Lucie Rie. The high point for quality earthenware in Innsbruck is the 20-year-old Töpferstudio Kathrein (Viaduktbogen 1; toepferstudio.at), nestled in the arch of a railway viaduct on Viaduktbogen, where Hansjörg Kathrein makes and sells stylish but very functional hand-thrown cups, bowls, plates and pitchers. (Cups, about 8 euros; pitchers, up to 60 euros.)

1 p.m.
6. Sweet Empire

The imperial-era home of the Sacher torte now boasts a small empire of its own: beyond the original Hotel Sacher in Vienna, there are related branches in Graz, Salzburg and here in the Old Town, whose Cafe Sacher (Rennweg 1; sacher.com/en-cafe-innsbruck.htm) reopened after a major refurbishment in 2011. Though most visitors come here for the cake, the kitchen's savory fare —  from classic tafelspitz to contemporary cuisine —  is not to be missed. Ornate fin-de-siècle-style décor and princely service create an Old World setting that counterbalances the very modern dishes of the chef Florian Prelog, like pickled char with sweet apple ricotta and spicy horseradish. Lunch for two without wine: 70 euros.

3 p.m.
7. Multifaceted

Pretend to contemplate the art while secretly shopping for shiny baubles at the Swarovski (Herzog-Friedrich-Strasse 39; innsbruck.swarovski.com) crystal shop, which reopened after a major renovation in mid-2011. Produced just a half-hour outside town, the crystals decorate the ground floor's exhibition of stiletto heels from eight different designers, as well as a huge multimedia installation, "Im Facettenreich," by Thomas Feuerstein. The shopping-cum-gawking continues upstairs, where crystals light up with synchronized music in a darkened wunderkammer, or chamber of wonders, and you can brace yourself with sparkling wine (5.60 euros) at the stylish bar before pulling out the plastic for Christopher Kane's glistening black crystal bracelet (250 euros).

4 p.m.
8. Tyrolean Style

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Check In: A Boutique Retreat in Beijing’s 798 Art District

Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan

A Superior Room with photos of Chinese opera above the bed.

Rooms start at 850 renminbi (about $140, at 6 renminbi to the dollar), plus service charge.

Basics

This 30-room boutique hotel, which was the Yi House Hotel until the Grace Hotels Group bought it and reopened it in late 2011, embodies both eccentric and luxe well. Colorful abstract paintings and embroidered carpets fill the walls of its otherwise minimalist lobby alongside a bright green sofa and gray crushed-velvet chairs. The artiness gets more sedate as you approach your room: the hallways of the upper floors are dedicated to lush photos from films like "In the Mood for Love."

Location

The hotel is in the 798 Art District, home to a lively Beijing cultural scene that took root in an area of decommissioned military factory buildings in the 1990s. Now filled with galleries, cafes, little boutiques and craft shops, the neighborhood, with its Bauhaus-style buildings, has been likened to SoHo in New York.

The Room

Rooms range from the small Artist Studio (with a single bed) to a large Grace Suite. The Superior Room (the basic room for two people) was striking: it held a big gray crushed-velvet sofa and bright green night stands, a desk and closets (complete with Chinese-style latches). A basket overflowing with fresh strawberries was a nice touch, although it made my husband and me wish we still had the glasses of Champagne that we were offered at check-in. We also appreciated the iPod docking station, turndown service (complete with lovely chocolates), stacks of local art magazines and the view of the hotel's serene courtyard.

The Bathroom

Spacious enough for two large sinks and chic, done in black and white with lime green and orange accents. Ba Yan Ka La, a trendy Chinese brand of natural skin-care products, did the toiletries, which included an unusual goji berry soap. The bathtub and a hand-held shower, though, were not intended for taller people. Showering was trying for my husband, taller than six feet.

Amenities

Grace has a restaurant, Yi House, which offers Asian and Mediterranean dishes, and Bar 798. The Grace Group's concierge service lets you make various arrangements ahead of time — from picking your pillows (you can actually choose a traditional Chinese pillow that's filled with hard buckwheat husks) to ordering up a cot. The hotel also has a gym.

Breakfast

Breakfast, free with the room and served in Yi House, presented a mind-boggling set of choices. In addition to coffee and tea, our beverage options included Champagne, mango or chocolate smoothies and a number of juices that we could order infused with rosemary or ginger. We also had our pick of fresh fruit, cheeses and cold cuts, pastries and cereals before even getting to the entrees, which were divided into Asian (congee, century eggs, pork dumplings) and "hot" (eggs Benedict, omelets, oatmeal) selections. My husband's caramelized banana pancake was outstanding; my egg white and sausage fried rice was a little bland.

Bottom Line

A comfortable and stylish option that feels light years away from the hustle and bustle of gritty, touristy Beijing.

Grace Beijing, Jiuxianqiao Lu, 2 Hao Yuan, 798 Yishu Qu, 706 Hou Jie 1 Hao; (86-10) 6436-1818; gracebeijing.com.

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Bites : Eating Among Locals on a Venetian Island

If beautiful Murano glass is a strong draw to the Venetian Lagoon island, camera-snapping groups clogging the canals, and the cookie-cutter restaurants hoping to sell them a pizza along the way, can have the opposite effect. But thanks to a culinary newcomer, there's a reason to return. Opened last April by Giovanna Arcangeli — a Murano native who planned events at the legendary Harry's Bar for a decade and knows a thing or two about preserving a cultured calm in the midst of a touristy enclave — Acquastanca is a refuge from all that. "We wanted to create a place where guests would be able to relax and enjoy good food in a warm, quiet atmosphere with locals," Ms. Arcangeli said.

Marco Ferro/Acquastanca, Venice

A meringue dessert at Acquastanca.

During a recent lunchtime visit, local businessmen taking a stand-up break at the bar were sipping Soave from the Veneto and snacking on cichetti, Venetian snacks like crispy prawns and octopus salad; a group of Venetians and a fashionable Italian mother and her teenage daughter occupied the few wood tables by the canal. Housed in a former bakery, the restaurant is stylish but not overdone: with wood beam ceilings, brick walls and resin floors, the setting is intimate but modern.

Caterina Nason, the chef and Ms. Arcangeli's sister-in-law, focuses on simple preparations of seafood, appropriate for a lagoon restaurant. Highlights include a buttery and perfectly briny spaghetti alle vongole; crispy orata (sea bream), baked in the oven with potatoes; baccalà with polenta; and tagliolini with squid.

One of Ms. Nason's strengths is her house-made desserts, so save room for daily selections like lemon meringue cake, tiramisù and coffee coviglia (a coffee semifreddo). And there's a wine list with a nice selection culled mainly from the nearby regions of Veneto, Friuli and Trentino Alto Adige.

Acquastanca serves as a sort of hideaway for groups like that table of Venetians — not too fancy but with good, local food, where you can stop in from breakfast to dinner for an espresso or a full meal. It has been a successful undertaking mostly because it's a homegrown but sophisticated vision in a city that often feels overpackaged. And if you want to really fit in, ask for an ombra — a little sip of white wine that comes from the old Venetian custom of selling white wine from vendors with little carts in the ombra, or shade, to keep it cool. 

Acquastanca, Fondamenta Manin 48, Murano, Venice; (39-041) 319-5125. An average meal for two, without drinks or tip, is about 30 euros (about $39, at $1.29 to the euro).

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