There are few cities on the continent as fit for walking as Santa Fe. The city is set up for placid perambulation, interwoven with miles of winding streets lined by assorted adobe abodes – shops, restaurants, art galleries and the like.
The Santa Fe Convention and Visitors Bureau lays out some lovely walking tours that will do wonders for both body and soul.
Start with a Coffee Lover’s Tour on foot, sort of a caffeinated pub-crawl. Flying Star Café is a great place to begin. Located at 500 Market St., the melded smells of pastries and good coffee point the path. This is a hub of sorts for the city’s Railyard District. Take your caffeine in the form of tea? The Teahouse, at 821 Canyon Road, offers in excess of 100 kids. Complement that hot tea with a warm scone adorned by clotted cream. If you’re in search of the place artists, writers hang out then Downtown Subscription, at 376 Garcia St., is it. The coffee is fine, and – as the name implies – it offers a healthy selection of magazines.
Properly caffeinated, embark on a Literary Landmark Tour. Some bonafide heavyweights lived and worked at one time in Santa Fe, people such as novelist Willa Cather, playwright Mary Austin, poet Witter Bynner and novelist D.H. Lawrence. Start your tour at the Palace of Governors, the oldest extant public building in the country. After a stop at The Plaza is La Fonda, a former Harvey Housed which – back in the day –housed Cather. It’s where she was spurred by the Muse to pen Death Comes for the Archbishop.
A few blocks away is 342 Buena Vista St., once home to Bynner. The place is now the Inn of the Turquoise Bear, and the innkeepers have kept the house largely as the poet left it.
Santa Fe is a place for the mind and the spirit. There’s no better way to exercise both than to walk the town.
(Image: prayitno)
