United States
Santa Fe
Adobe walls glow amber at sunset while piñon smoke drifts through the plaza.
Piñon smoke curls from adobe chimneys as the sun drops and the city's earth-coloured walls shift from gold to copper to rose. Under the portal of the Palace of the Governors, Native American jewellers fold away their turquoise as the plaza empties, the way evenings have closed here for four centuries.
Santa Fe, founded in 1610, is the oldest state capital in the United States, and the Palace of the Governors on its plaza is held to be the country's oldest continuously occupied public building. The historic centre's building code keeps every facade to adobe and Territorial style, so the earth-toned unity is law rather than theming. Canyon Road packs a hundred-odd galleries into one walkable mile, from pre-Columbian antiquities to living Pueblo artists, and the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum holds the largest collection of her work anywhere. The city stands at the meeting point of Pueblo, Spanish colonial and Anglo histories at seven thousand feet, where thin air sharpens every colour and the smell of roasting green chile owns the autumn.
Couple
Walk Canyon Road's galleries hand in hand, eat by kiva fireplace light and let a city built at walking pace slow the two of you to match.
Solo
The gallery mile, the dry mountain light and four centuries of hosting artists make this a city where travelling alone reads as artistic intent.
- Founded in 1610, Santa Fe is the oldest state capital in the country, its plaza anchored by the oldest continuously occupied public building.
- The historic centre's building code holds every facade to adobe and Territorial style, so the earthen skyline is law, not theming.
- Canyon Road strings a hundred-odd galleries along one walkable mile, from antiquities to living Pueblo artists.
- Autumn belongs to roasting green chile, and the choice of red, green or both, called Christmas, is the state's daily question.
Red chile enchiladas at The Shed, the Carswell family's kitchen half a block off the Plaza since 1953.
Chile ordered Christmas, half red and half green, the state's own answer to an impossible choice.
Lavenham
England
Crooked medieval timber frames leaning at angles that defy both gravity and planning law.
Paju
South Korea
At Imjingak the bridge stops mid-river, and the ribbons on the fence face north.
Russell
New Zealand
New Zealand's first capital — once damned by missionaries as the Pacific's hell-hole.
Assos
Turkey
A temple of Athena perches on volcanic rock above the Aegean, Lesbos shimmering on the horizon.
Sitka
United States
Totem poles and Russian onion domes facing each other across a harbour where humpbacks surface.
Painted Hills
United States
Striped hills of ochre, gold and black, painted by 35 million years of changing climate.
Atchafalaya Basin
United States
America's largest river swamp: mile after mile of cypress, alligator and Cajun silence.
Key West
United States
Roosters crossing the street while Mallory Square gathers to applaud the sunset.