By staying at the two-year-old Hotel STRAF as John Malkovich did, you’ll not only enjoy designer Vincenzo De Cotiis’s first hotel venture, a 64-room property awash in the trademark muted shades of his Haute clothing line, but you’ll also secure access to STRAF’s hip lounge, where raw-boned interiors are dressed up with colorful abstract art and silk-screened works. Visit straf.it on the Web.

Gaining entry into the luxe bar and restaurant at the 58-room Bulgari Hotel, rightly renowned for its manicured gardens, isn’t as simple. Even regulars and hotel guests, of which there hasn’t been a shortage since the hotel opened a few years ago, require reservations — sometimes weeks in advance. Go to bulgarihotels.com for more info.

Across town, Milanese fashion icon Carla Sozzani has turned a former warehouse into a chic lifestyle complex. At the heart of the locale are three rooms, which both model Eva Herzigova and photographer David LaChapelle favor. Appropriately called 3Rooms, it features one of the city’s best contemporary art galleries and a hip outdoor cafe, bar, and restaurant. Go to 3rooms-10corsocomo.com for a closer look.

For something more laidback but equally stylish, head for the luxe trappings of the Four Seasons Hotel’s bar, IL Foyer. The nocturnal scene is more traditional (it is, after all, located in a 15th-century convent) but is nonetheless lively. For additional info, visit fourseasons.com/milan.

— by FARHAD HEYDARI

Today, the edgy east-of-Hollywood enclave is the dwelling choice of struggling and up-and-coming actors, musicians, and young movie execs who are attracted to a vibrant art scene and exciting nightlife. On August 26 and 27, Sunset Boulevard is blocked off for the 26th annual Sunset Junction Street Fair, featuring concert stages, food booths, carnival rides, and a parade. Music is the highlight; this year’s artists include Isaac Hayes, Nona Hendryx, Dave Alvin, The Cramps, and Hank Williams III. A comfortable pair of hipster shoes and iconic — or perhaps ironic — Mickey T-shirt are recommended. For more details and info, go online to sunsetjunction.org.

Constructed in 1750 as side-by-side Georgian townhomes on fashionable St. Stephen’s Green, the Shelbourne has operated as a hotel since 1824. The hotel appears in James Joyce’s Ulysses, and its guestbook reads like a political and literary “Who’s Who,” with names including the Dalai Lama, Princess Grace, William Thackeray, and John F. Kennedy. The Irish Constitution was drafted at the Shelbourne, and one of only two copies is displayed in the hotel’s aptly named Constitution Room, where the document was signed.

The 265 guestrooms, including the Princess Grace Suite (the best in the house), will be entirely new. But the public areas will be “as they were originally designed to be,” Doyle says. Ceilings that were lowered in the 1950s will soar to original heights, revealing elaborate cornices. Gold leaf on chandeliers will gleam, a turn-of-the-century elevator will be removed to better showcase the 17th-century sweeping stairway, and the landmark Horse Shoe Bar will remain tiny, dark, and windowless, just as its loyal patrons remember it. “This is a ‘champagne-and-Guinness’ bar,” Doyle says. “And it’s in the hearts and minds of many a Dubliner.”

The Shelbourne is located at 27 Stephen’s Green and is scheduled to reopen in time for the Ryder Cup, September 22 to 24. For info or to make a reservation, call (011.353) 1.663.4500. — by MARYANN HAMMERS

Proof opened in April in the new 21C Museum Hotel. The eatery is the latest venture from New York’s famed Myriad Restaurant Group, owners of some of the nation’s most renowned establishments, including New York’s Nobu, Montrachet, and Tribeca Grill, as well as San Francisco’s Rubicon.

The Proof on Main menu features regional American food with a Tuscan spin, such as braised Kentucky pork shank (pictured), a local version of ossobuco and polenta. In support of local sustainable farming, Proof works with micro-growers and artisanal food producers from the Ohio River Valley. And at the bar, bourbon and other rare domestic whiskeys are featured prominently.

The restaurant is part of the 91-room hotel-cum-museum, the creation of husband-and-wife team Steve Wilson and Laura Lee Brown, leading collectors of contemporary art who showcase their own collection and works of local artists in the hotel’s vast lobby. The property bridges history, combining modern touches like flat-screen TVs and wireless Internet with the venerable structure itself, which combines four late-18th-century buildings.

Proof was realized when one of the Myriad Restaurant Group’s partners saw similarities between the renaissance on Louisville’s Main Street and the one in New York’s Soho and Tribeca neighborhoods. (After the Big Apple, the Kentucky town boasts the nation’s second-largest collection of cast-iron buildings.) The result of the artistic rebirth is a hip restoration of some of Louisville’s most historic buildings. The fashionable boutique hotel features what could well become the city’s top restaurant. Proof on Main is at 702 W. Main St. For more, visit 21cmuseumhotel.com.

— by DEAN BLAINE

Web-site customers will enjoy a feature that allows searches for art works according to major categories (paintings, photos, ceramics, etc.) and sub-genres (abstract, still life, and so forth), as well as artist, location, and gallery. What’s more, visitors are able to rate pieces and write reviews. To peruse the catalog or learn how to submit a work, visit boundlessgallery.com.

It’s hard to understand what sets this sublimely simple treat so far apart from the competition (far enough so that readers of Zagat’s survey perennially vote it best in the country). What few know is that S&S; is the ultimate mail-order indulgence: It can be stored for months, thawed, and refrozen and still tastes great. Plus it’s an easy-to-serve dessert that will wow guests. For decades, the sole distributor has been a mom-and-pop operation, taking orders only by phone. The two-pound cake sells for $36, and the five-pounder for $48. Prices for both include shipping. To order, call 800.8CAKENY.




Independent Joe    New York
Like most coffee drinkers, Xtine Hanson believes that caffeine culture is culture of the best sort. During a 2004 trip to the Big Apple, the 31-year-old artist and California resident was surprised to find lower Manhattan’s legendary coffeehouses being displaced by Starbucks. Rather than cry into her steamed milk, Hanson launched an interactive art project/free Web site to help independent-minded latte lovers find alternatives to the franchise coffee shops.

Delocator.net lists java cafes across the U.S. according to zip code. Roughly 6,000 visitors log on monthly to uncover funky local establishments capable of indulging their cravings. Encouraged by the site’s success (the New York Times and USA Today have paid notice), Hanson will soon unveil a cell-phone version of Delocator and add listings for independent bookstores and film houses.

Adams himself initiated these free photography walks in the 1940s. “The walks offer a nice interaction with someone who knows about photography and the park,” says gallery curator Glenn Crosby. “Ansel would be very pleased.” Sign-ups begin three days in advance, and the slots fill quickly. For more information on the walks, go to yosemitepark.com.

After gaining popularity in Costa Rica, zip-line tours are now offering travelers an aerial view of nature in places like Hawaii, Alaska, Colorado, and Texas. Costa Rica’s zip lines inspired Amy and David Beilharz to open Cypress Valley Canopy Tours last summer near Austin, Texas. It features six lines running between 100-foot cypress trees (cypressvalleycanopytours.com).

“A lot of people escape by being in nature, and many like a thrilling adventure,” says Amy Beilharz. “This lets them to do both….It’s an adrenaline rush, but you do it in a peaceful and beautiful environment up in the trees and immersed in greenery.”

Be on the lookout for black bears, bald eagles, and moose in Ketchikan, Alaska — in the new wilderness tours offered by Alaska Canopy Adventures and Southeast Exposure. Alaska Canopy opened a zip tour in Juneau this past May. Visit southeastexposure.com and alaskacanopyadventures.com for more.

In Hawaii, you can take tours in both Maui and Kauai, flying over rainforests and waterfalls. Kauai’s Princeville Ranch Adventures Zip N’ Dip Expedition combines zip lining over eight courses and a swim beneath a hidden waterfall. Go to kauai-hiking.com.

Owner Johnroy Beggrow had The Lord of the Rings and a mystical elfin forest in mind when he developed over 30 zip-line platforms at the five-star Tall Timber Resort near Durango, Colorado. The Soaring Tree Top Adventures course opened last summer and sends you coasting through the Aspen forest and across the Animas River Canyon. Beggrow is developing an additional “extreme course” that stretches 200 feet above a valley and a half mile across it, and he’s considering opening another tour in the Smoky Mountains. For more on the course, visit soaringcanopytours.com.

Zip-line tours, which range in cost from $60 to $150, attract people from all ages and skill levels.

“You see a lot of people very timid at first,” Beggrow says. But, he adds, they quickly ease into it when they realize they don’t have to do any of the work: Just race off the platform and let the cable glide them through an unforgettable experience. — by MELISSA DITTMANN TRACEY

But before you drop out ’60s style, you need to tune in to the 21st century. Log on to TenToeTours and download the narrative stroll past Haight-Ashbury’s cultural landmarks. Pop it on your iPod and you’re ready to go. The year-old company offers several other San Francisco tours, as well as podcasts for the French Quarter of New Orleans and the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Coming attractions: New York’s Greenwich Village and like-minded walks in Chicago, Los Angeles, Paris, London, Istanbul, and Sydney. For more info, visit tentoetours.com.

BOROUGH BEAT   Brooklyn
New York City’s most populous borough emerges from the shadow of its glitzy Manhattan neighbor to offer its own cultural passport for tourists: the new Brooklyn Pass from Brooklyn Tourism.

The two-day pass gets you into the borough’s top attractions, including the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the New York Aquarium, and the Brooklyn Museum of Art, for one price — $25 for adults and $15 for children. In addition, the pass offers some cool, see-the-real- Brooklyn bonuses, like a free tour and a pint of beer at the Brooklyn Brewery, a picnic lunch from the Prospect Park Lakeside Snack Bar, a slice of cheesecake at the famous Junior’s Restaurant, and discounts on Coney Island’s Astroland Amusement Park. (You don’t have to visit in that particular order.)

Undoubtedly, many visitors will be surprised to discover such a vibrant, safe city on the other side of the bridge. Visit brooklynpass.com for more info.

BACHELOR’S LIFE    Colorado
Of all the services and amenities at the five-diamond Ritz-Carlton, Bachelor Gulch in Beaver Creek, Colorado, only one welcomes guests with a wet nose and wagging tail. Bachelor, the resort’s resident yellow lab, is available for hikes and snowshoeing activities as the star attraction of the property’s popular Loan-a-Lab program. Guests sometimes book Bachelor months in advance for spirited romps along scenic Rocky Mountain trails.

“There are a lot of travelers who don’t get to bring their dogs so Bachelor makes people feel at home,” says Steven Holt, director of public relations. “Bachelor has a great life. He gets to lounge around in a luxury resort and have people dote on him all day long.”

Visit ritzcarlton.com/resorts/bachelor_gulch for more info on spending some time with Bachelor.

ICE ICE BABY    Paris
Tucked away in a quiet little street and just steps away from Montmartre is Kube Rooms and Bars, a new boutique hotel in Paris’s district No. 18. Celebrating what they consider to be “the most modern of shapes,” the owners take the themes of transparency and coolness to a whole new level.

At this 41-room retreat, you check in at the reception — a glass box in the middle of a courtyard — and are then escorted through a futuristic lounge to your spacious suite. All warm palettes and soft modern textiles, the bedrooms feature an unenclosed bath or shower, as well as a rectangular bed lit from below to create the illusion of levitation. In-room workstations come equipped with multifunction computers (CD/DVD, TV) and Internet access.

The lounge bar showcases cubic design touches, gray-tile carpeting, and black-glass walls with plasma screens projecting colorful fl uid shapes. At night, a DJ spins downtempo grooves while chic locals and tourists relax on plush sofas.

Above the lounge is Ice Kube, a bar made entirely of ice, from the walls to the bar top and the shot glasses. For the 30 euro admission price, you can dance to electronic music and nibble on sashimi and chocolate desserts while the bartender pours all-you-can-drink Grey Goose vodka cocktails. This summer, Kube might just be the coolest spot to spend a hot Parisian night. Slide over to kubehotel.com for more.

The latter concern is eliminated with eSommelier, a stand-alone wine-management system that combines a database, preloaded with information about 150,000 wines from around the world, with a touch-screen interface. To catalog your wine, touch the buttons indicating Country, Region, Variety, Winery, and Vintage, then enter its location. The eSommelier system can be accessed from any networked PC in the home through a VNC (Virtual Network Computing), and accessories such as a bar-code scanner further streamline the process.

The eSommelier comes in three versions — Basic, Deluxe, and Integrator (for users who already have a touch-screen device). To learn more about how an avid collector can be tech savy, visit esommelier.net.