Friday

4 p.m.
1) CREATIVE SOUVENIRS

With its relatively affordable rents and D.I.Y. ethos, Salt Lake City is a bastion of creativity. To survey the design scene, stop by Frosty Darling (177 East Broadway; 801-532-4790; frostydarling.com), a whimsical gift shop stocked with retro candy and handmade clothing, accessories, and housewares by the owner, Gentry Blackburn, and other Utah designers. Signed & Numbered (2100 East 2100 South; 801-596-2093; signed-numbered.com) specializes in limited-edition, hand-pulled art prints and concert posters, from $8 to $150. And at Salt Lake Citizen (210 East 400 South; 801-363-3619; facebook.com/SaltLakeCitizen), in the atrium of the Main Library building, you’ll find street-inspired clothing and accessories from 40 city designers, including embroidered wide-leg jeans and jewelry made of laser-cut acrylic.

7 p.m.
2) UTAH FARMS

Chain restaurants used to dominate Salt Lake City’s food scene, but today intimate spots are popping up, run by young chefs inspired by the bounty of local organic farmers and artisanal purveyors. Leading the pack is Pago (878 South 900 East; 801-532-0777; pagoslc.com), a bustling neighborhood joint housed in a squat 1910 brick building. The chef Mike Richey spotlights local organic products in dishes like bagna cauda wagyu bavette steak with heirloom fingerling potatoes and local arugula ($29) in a rustic candle-lit room that seats just 50. Another newcomer is Forage (370 East 900 South; 801-708-7834; foragerestaurant.com), which serves wildly creative dishes like vanilla-scented diver scallops paired with smoked beluga lentils. A three-course dinner is $45.

9 p.m.
3) OPEN CITY

Raise a glass to celebrate the repeal of liquor laws that required bars to operate as private clubs and collect membership fees. The Red Door (57 West 200 South; 801-363-6030; behindthereddoor.com) has dim lighting, a great martini list and kitschy revolution décor — yes, that’s a Che Guevara mural on the wall. Squatters Pub Brewery (147 West Broadway; 801-363-2739; squatters.com) serves high-gravity beers from the award-winning brewmaster Jenny Talley, like the 6 percent alcohol India Pale Ale. And Club Jam (751 North 300 West; 801-891-1162; jamslc.com) is a friendly gay bar with a house party feel and impromptu barbecues on the back patio.

Saturday

9 a.m.
4) BOTANICAL BLISS

The Red Butte Garden, nestled in the foothills above the University of Utah campus (300 Wakara Way; 801-585-0556; redbuttegarden.org), has a newly planted rose garden, 3.5 miles of walking trails and morning yoga in the fragrance garden. For a wake-up hike, ask the front desk for directions to the Living Room, a lookout point named for the flat orange rocks that resemble couches. Sit back and absorb the expansive views of the valley, mountains and the Great Salt Lake.

11 a.m.
5) NOT JUST TEMPLES

Chart your own architecture tour. The city’s Main Library (210 East 400 South; 801-524-8200; www.slcpl.lib.ut.us), a curving glass structure built in 2003 by the architect Moshe Safdie, has fireplaces on every floor and a rooftop garden with views of the city and the Wasatch Mountains. For older buildings, wander the Marmalade Historic District, home to many original pioneer homes from the 19th century, or go on a walking tour with the Utah Heritage Foundation (801-533-0858; utahheritagefoundation.com).

1 p.m.
6) DIVERSE PALATE

Although recent census figures put the city’s population at 75.3 percent white, there is a growing ethnic population of Latinos, Pacific Islanders (particularly Samoan and Tongan), and refugees from Tibet, Bosnia and Somalia. Taste their influence at places like Himalayan Kitchen (360 South State Street; 801-328-2077; himalayankitchen.com), a down-home dining room with turmeric-yellow walls and red tablecloth tables, where dishes include Nepali goat curry ($15.95) and Himalayan momos, steamed chicken dumplings served with sesame seed sauce ($10.95).

3 p.m.
7) GIMME SUGAR

The Sugarhouse district is known for its one-of-a-kind shops and pedestrian-friendly mini-neighborhoods that are near the intersections of 900 East and 900 South (which locals call “9th and 9th”), and 1500 East and 1500 South (“15th and 15th”). Highlights include the Tea Grotto (2030 South 900 East; 801-466-8255; teagrotto.com), a funky teahouse that specializes in fair-trade and loose-leaf teas, and the charming King’s English Bookshop (1511 South 1500 East; 801-484-9100; kingsenglish.com), a creaky old house filled with books and cozy reading nooks.

7 p.m.
8) ITALIAN HOUR

Salt Lake City has plenty of appealing Italian restaurants — Cucina Toscana and Lugäno are perpetual favorites — but the most romantic is arguably Fresco Italian Cafe (1513 South 1500 East; 801-486-1300; frescoitaliancafe.com), an intimate 14-table restaurant tucked off the main drag in a 1920s cottage. The menu is small but spot-on, with simple northern Italian dishes with a twist. The butternut squash ravioli, for example, is served with a splash of reduced apple cider and micro-planed hazelnuts ($18). There’s a roaring fire, candlelight and, in the summer, dining on the brick patio.

9 p.m.
9) LIVE FROM UTAH

As the only sizable city between Denver and Northern California, Salt Lake City gets many touring bands passing through. Hear established and up-and-coming acts at places like the Urban Lounge (241 South 500 East; 801-746-0557; theurbanloungeslc.com) and Kilby Court (741 South Kilby Court; 801-364-3538; kilbycourt.com). If you want to make your own sweet music, stop by Keys on Main (242 South Main Street; 801-363-3638; keysonmain.com), a piano bar where the audience sings along.

Sunday

10 a.m.
10) SECULAR MISSION

Mormons get around, and not just for missionary work. Latter-day Saint Humanitarian Center (1665 South Bennett Road; 801-240-5954; lds.org/placestovisit) is a humanitarian juggernaut that sends out handmade quilts, secondhand clothing and educational and medical supplies from their gigantic, factory-like complex to needy places around the world. If you’re curious to see how it all works, take a 45-minute tour of the sprawling warehouse, where workers and volunteers sort the more than 100,000 pieces of clothing that arrive at the center daily. If you’re inspired to help, you can stay after the tour and help prepare the humanitarian kits that regularly ship out to Haiti, Zimbabwe and other countries in crisis.

2 p.m.
11) OLYMPIC GHOSTS

Thrill-seekers head 28 miles east to Park City’s Utah Olympic Park (3419 Olympic Parkway, Park City; 435-658-4200; olyparks.com), which hosted 14 medal events during the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. Even in the summer you can make like a medalist and fly down a slope at 70 miles per hour on a Comet bobsled, race along a slick steel alpine slide, or recreate a ski jump that is billed as the world’s steepest zipline. Burgeoning culture and culinary sophistication has its benefits, but for sheer thrill, nothing beats an adrenaline rush.

IF YOU GO

Most major domestic airlines fly into Salt Lake City, including Delta, which operates a hub here. A recent Web search found a nonstop flight from Kennedy Airport for about $407 for travel in June.

There’s a light rail system downtown, but you’ll still want a car.

The elegant Grand America Hotel (555 South Main Street; 800-621-4505; grandamerica.com) lives up to its name with a formal afternoon tea, green tea spa treatments and 775 palatial rooms with Italian marble bathrooms. Doubles from $179.

The Inn on the Hill (225 North State Street; 801-328-1466; inn-on-the-hill.com), housed in a 1909 English-style manor, retains its historic character with Tiffany stained-glass windows and reproduction antiques in the 12 guest rooms. Queen rooms start at $135, including breakfast.

Downtown, Hotel Monaco (15 West 200 South; 800-805-1801; monaco-saltlakecity.com) has 225 whimsical rooms, embellished with colorful fabrics, geometric headboards and striped wallpaper. Doubles start at $129.

THE LOCATION

Tucked away on a residential street in South Congress, a trendy neighborhood just over Lady Bird Lake from downtown Austin. A short walk away are chic boutiques, restaurants and one of Austin’s oldest music halls, the Continental Club.

THE ROOM

The hotel occupies a white-clapboard Victorian house and several bungalows, on a small estate with oak trees, cactuses and topiaries. Each of the 14 rooms is different, but they all have an eclectic mix of vintage furniture and edgy art, monogrammed sheets and those astronomically priced mattresses made by the Swedish company Hästens that start at $8,000. My room, Suite Three, was in the historic house; it was compact but comfortable, with 11-foot ceilings and ornate Victorian millwork painted glossy black. Cool design touches included a headboard upholstered in red mohair velvet, a Turkish kilim rug and a tufted leather sofa in pea-green. A psychedelic video, by the Marfa, Tex., artist Adam Bork, was installed in the nonworking fireplace. Other rooms have outdoor showers, screened porches and a piano.

THE BATHROOM

Beautiful to look at, with a black penny-tiled shower, brass fittings and a bathtub. Toiletries include fig soap and other Côté Bastide products. Fancier items like an old-fashioned shave brush and Portuguese toothpaste are for sale. Small caveat: the shower floor angled slightly, sending water into the center of the room, soaking my socks.

AMENITIES

Everything you’d expect: free Wi-Fi, iPod sound system, flat-screen television and DVD player. And plenty of pleasant surprises, like a lap pool lined with beanbag chairs and curvy deck chairs, free bicycles for exploring the city, and a guest lounge with a fireplace and creative cocktails at the bar. Best was the in-room minibar, with more than 40 items from around the globe, including Scottish shortbread, Dutch peppermints, three kinds of cheeses and Russian caviar accompanied by mother-of-pearl spoons.

ROOM SERVICE

A streamlined “breakfast in your room” menu is offered from 7 to 11 a.m., and includes a Gruyère omelet topped with truffle oil ($15); homemade scones served with fresh lemon curd and guajillo honey ($18) and a Bloody Mary made with fresh heirloom tomato juice ($14). My room had no table, so I ate in the sunny courtyard. Service was prompt, warm and friendly.

BOTTOM LINE

Rock-star style and Southern hospitality make a rare and beguiling combination. Everything about this hotel is thought out and well considered, from the plate of locally made sweets that greet you in your room to the handwritten note nearby. Studio rooms start at $295.

Hotel Saint Cecilia, 112 Academy Drive, Austin; (512) 852-2400; hotelsaintcecilia.com.

Having already pointed out the fermented tea kombucha “living” on top of the fridge, and the kefir milk fermenting in the pantry, and the homemade sourdough crackers browning in the oven, Melinda Stone led a visitor down to the basement of the Victorian house she shares with three other creative 40-somethings in the Duboce Triangle neighborhood of San Francisco. “There’s a lot of stuff bubbling down here,” she said enthusiastically, sliding open a door. “I think it’s beautiful.”

livepage.apple.comSure enough, in a corner of the dark room, five glass jugs filled with hard apple cider silently burped and fizzed. Ms. Stone (who is a part-time farmer; she and her husband own a 21-acre solar- and wind-powered farm in Humboldt County) uncorked the air lock and added some honey water, to keep the fermentation going and increase the alcohol content. “Lots of people in San Francisco make their own hooch,” she said. “Alcohol is often the gateway to urban homesteading.”

In cities across the country, the term “homesteading” has taken on a new meaning. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it referred to settlers occupying land, cultivating it and claiming it as their own.

Today in the Bay Area and beyond, urban homesteaders like Ms. Stone and her roommates are raising their own food in their backyards, in community gardens and on derelict and undeveloped spaces in the city. They’re preserving and pickling vegetables and fruits, sewing their own clothes, baking bread, making alcoholic beverages, and much more.

As the movement has flourished and become more mainstream — embraced by activists and food lovers alike — so too have the resources for would-be urban homesteaders.

The husband-and-wife authors Erik Knutsen and Kelly Coyne, inspired by their adventures in their Los Angeles kitchen and garden, published “The Urban Homestead,” the contemporary bible on the subject. This fall, they’ll have “Making It: Radical Home-Ec For a Post-Consumer World” (Rodale), a step-by-step book that covers everything from building a chicken coop to cooking from scratch.

For those eager to pick up (or polish) some homesteading skills, the Bay Area now teems with accessible, affordable classes and workshops.

At the three-month-old Hayes Valley Farm, which is located on a former freeway ramp in the heart of San Francisco, you can practice planting a vegetable garden and learn about seed-saving (hayesvalleyfarm.com). Up in Napa, Taylor Boetticher, an owner of the Fatted Calf charcuterie, leads four-hour salumi and whole-hog butchery workshops, as well as occasional offal-themed “blood and guts” classes, where participants create pâté, pickled pork tongues and blood sausage (fattedcalf.com).

Happy Girl Kitchen’s monthly canning workshops, which are held in Oakland and also on a farm in the Santa Cruz mountains, focus on pickling, fermenting and jam- and jelly-making (happygirlkitchen.com). At the Institute for Urban Homesteading in Oakland, the founder, K. Ruby Blume, and other instructors teach roughly 50 classes a year, on subjects ranging from cheesemaking to “urban rabbitry” and animal husbandry (iuhoakland.com).

And the chef Nicole LoBue teaches monthly four-hour “Self-Sufficient Kitchen” classes that are held at the Studio for Urban Projects in San Francisco. Planned lessons cover naturally leavened bread and fermented foods like kimchi and sauerkraut (studioforurbanprojects.org).

Homesteaders who have mastered their skills can register to sell their wares at the SF Underground Market, which pops up in a different location every month. Conceived as a way to connect consumers with home cooks and small-scale purveyors and build a sense of community, the most recent market, held in a SoMa gallery last week, attracted 2,000 attendees and 70 vendors, hawking homemade items like peanut brittle and grass-fed beef jerky.

The first market, held in December, had 150 attendees and 8 vendors. Since the vendors don’t have commercial kitchens or business licenses, attendees comply with health department regulations by signing up online as “club members” before the event (foragesf.com/market).

To further empower and inspire people, Ms. Stone, an associate professor of media studies and environmental studies at the University of San Francisco, works with fellow filmmakers and students to create quirky how-to videos that she then posts to her experimental Web site, howtohomestead.org.

On April 29 at Southern Exposure, a San Francisco arts organization and gallery, she’ll premiere films geared toward homestead newbies, including “The Elixir of Life” (about making alcoholic apple cider) and “What I Learned the Year I Made My Own Linen Underwear.” The screenings will be followed with tastings, live music and a square-dance party.

Todd Champagne, an owner of Happy Girl Kitchen, said homesteading is more than a passing trend.

“I joke at my workshops, ‘Canning is the new knitting,’ ” he said. “Food security takes on a heightened importance during difficult times.”

But he is optimistic that the cultural shift will outlast the economic downturn.

“There’s an enduring quality to these skills,” he said. “Once you get a taste of your own pickles, it’s hard to go back.”

Kyoto, the former imperial capital of Japan, is a vibrant mash-up, an ancient city electrified by the breathtakingly new. Cruise the futuristic food halls of a department store, gaping at the perfect fruit and glistening sea creatures, before zipping up to the traditional floor, with its kimonos and tea ceremony implements. See 2,000 ancient temples and shrines, then dine at a sleekly modern restaurant. Glimpse a geisha gliding down a cobblestone lane, bracketed by wooden machiya houses, and feel yourself catapulted to the 18th century — until you see her duck into a very 21st-century taxi, with a passenger door that opens and shuts automatically.

Friday

5 p.m.
1) HERITAGE HUNT

Two and a half years ago, the city enacted a landmark law aimed at protecting the city’s heritage districts, which have been defiled in recent decades by concrete block towers and other forces of modernization. Fleeting fantasies of old Kyoto can be found in Gion, the entertainment district, where, around dusk, geisha and maiko (geisha-in-training) can often be spotted flitting down Hanami-koji like exquisite rare birds to meet clients. As the sky dims, wander along Shirakawa Minami-dori, an atmospheric street surrounded by preserved wooden structures. But don’t wander too far or you’ll hit a gantlet of concrete and aluminum high-rises shrouded in neon signs and tangled electrical wires.

7 p.m.
2) MODERN KAISEKI

Kaiseki is Kyoto’s haute cuisine, an elaborate multicourse meal that originated about 500 years ago as an accompaniment to tea ceremonies. Today, sampling the cuisine can be a rarefied and pricey experience; meals at Michelin-starred kaiseki restaurants like Kikunoi (kikunoi.jp/english) run upward of $160 a person. But for an unbuttoned — and surprisingly affordable — take on kaiseki, try Giro Giro Hitoshina (420-7 Nanba-cho, Nishi Kiya-machi-dori, Higashigawa, Matsubarashita, Shimogyo-ku; 81-75-343-7070), a stylish restaurant carved out of an old wooden town house, with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Takase-gawa canal. Edakuni Eiichi, the chef, turns out innovative dishes like daikon rolls stuffed with foie gras and sweet potatoes. The set 10-course meal, which changes monthly, is 3,680 yen (about $40 at 91 yen to the dollar).

9 p.m.
3) AFTER HOURS

For a taste of Kyoto’s youth culture, head to one of the city’s funky live houses, or music clubs. One good bet is Taku Taku (Tominokoji-dori, Bukkoji-sagaru, Shimogyo-ku; 81-75-351-1321), a former sake storehouse that hosts big blues and rock acts like Taj Mahal and Los Lobos, and up-and-coming Japanese rock and pop bands. It’s been around since 1974, and the place oozes history, its walls plastered with concert posters. Afterward, if you’ve made some new friends, head to Super Jankara Karaoke Room (296 Naraya-cho, Kawaramachi, Takoyakushi-agaru, Nakagyo-ku; 81-75-212-5858), where premium rooms start at 450 yen a person every half-hour on weekends.

Saturday

10 a.m.
4) INNER PEACE

Though it’s mobbed by tourists during cherry blossom season (late March to early April), Maruyama Park in Gion is a tranquil spot the rest of the year. Start at the vivid white-and-orange Yasaka Shrine, where locals pray to the god of prosperity and health, and then wend your way through the park past ponds, gardens and a gigantic weeping cherry. Be sure to detour through the surreal hillside cemetery, its terraced maze of gravestones resembling a miniature city. The views are spectacular.

Noon
5) MAKE LIKE A MONK

Shojin Ryori, the vegetarian cuisine developed centuries ago by Zen Buddhist monks, consists of vegetables, beans and an array of bean curd variations, including creamy sesame tofu and chewy tofu skins. One of the best places to sample it is

Tenryu-ji Shigetsu (Syojin-ryouri Sigetu, Saga, Ukyo-ku; 81-75-881-1235), on the grounds of a 14th-century temple in Arashiyama. Diners sit or kneel in a long wooden hall and eat in silence, the better to appreciate the subtle flavors on the red lacquer tray (from 3,000 yen for a set lunch).

1:30 p.m.
6) DROP SOME YEN

Shoppers will find plenty of temptations along Sanjo-dori between Muromachi-dori and Teramachi-dori, a narrow stretch lined with stylish shops and buzzing with pedestrians and bicyclists. Also worth a wander is Teramachi-dori between Oike-dori and Marutamachi-dori, where you can find vintage textiles and kimonos made from elm, hemp and linden fibers at Gallery Kei (671-1 Kuon-in-mae-cho, Ebisugawa-agaru, Teramachi-dori, Nakagyo-ku; 81-75-212-7114; gallerykei.jp).

4 p.m.
7) TIME OUT KYOTO

For a recharge, stop by Somushi Kochaya (Karasuma Sanjo-nishi-iru; 81-75-253-1456; somushi.com), a Korean tearoom that serves medicinal teas spiked with ingredients like ginger and persimmon leaves (from 650 yen). Or seek out the new OKU Gallery and Cafe (570-119 Gionmachi Minamigawa, Higashiyama-ku; 81-75-531-4776; oku-style.com), a minimalist white space with a long, low window overlooking a miniature Japanese garden. Until 7 p.m., it serves tea and creative treats (like a jelly roll cake flavored with mugwort for 1,400 yen) on elegant black and white ceramic tableware by the local designer Shojiro Endo.

6 p.m.
8) NOODLE DINNER

Slurp handmade udon and soba — the ultimate Japanese comfort food — at Honke Owariya, established in 1465 and said to be the oldest noodle shop in Kyoto. There are three locations citywide, but the original 545-year-old restaurant is the most charming, with both traditional tatami-matted dining areas (remove your shoes and sit on the floor) and Western-style tables and chairs set within the creaky rooms of a former confectionery shop (322 Kurumaya-cho, Nijo, Nakagyo-ku; 81-75-231-3446; www.honke-owariya.co.jp). Try its signature Hourai Soba set, topped with shiitakes, shrimp tempura, Japanese leeks and grated daikon (2,100 yen). Bonus: a descriptive English-language menu, a rarity in Kyoto. The original closes at 7 p.m., but two other locations stay open later.

9 p.m.
9) NATIVE NIGHT LIFE

Pontocho-dori, a narrow alley packed with bars, restaurants and giant glowing paper lanterns, is great for photo ops. But for a more local scene, head north to Nijo-dori, a quiet street of private homes and small businesses. Highlights include Cafe Bibliotic Hello! (Nijo-dori, Yanaginobanba Higashi iru, Nakagyo-ku; 81-75-231-8625; cafe-hello.jp), a cozy cafe, gallery and bar with a fireplace and floor-to-ceiling bookcases. End the evening at Chez Quasimodo (Takakura Dori, Nijo-agaru, Nakagyo-ku; 81-75-231-2488), an intimate bar with a low, barrel ceiling where the mustachioed owner, Yoshio Sawaguchi, pours rare Scotch, stokes the fire and plays French chanson and jazz on vinyl.

Sunday

10 a.m.
10) CULTURE SHOCK

For a whiplash tour of Japanese culture, start at the Onishi Seiwemon Museum (Kamanza-cho, Shinmachi Nishi-iru, Sanjo-tori, Nakagyo-ku; 81-75-221-2881; www.seiwemon-museum.com), run by the 16th-generation tea kettle artist Seiwemon Onishi, where you can inspect tea ceremony implements and one-of-a-kind cast-iron kettles. Then blast into the present at the International Manga Museum (Karasuma-Oike, Nakagyo-ku; 81-75-254-7414; www.kyotomm.jp), which opened in 2006 in a converted elementary school, with exhibitions, drawing demonstrations and a library dedicated to Japanese and international comic books.

Noon
11) KYOTO’S KITCHEN

The flavors of Kyoto burst in Technicolor at Nishiki-koji Market (Nishiki-koji-dori, Nakagyo-ku; 81-75-211-3882), a seven-block arcade chockablock with tiny stalls of produce, seafood and specialty foods like deep-fried eel bones. Aritsugu (Nishiki-Koji Dori, Gokomachi Nishi-iru, Nakagyo-ku; 81-75-221-1091) is a 450-year-old family business that once produced swords for the Imperial Household and now specializes in hand-wrought steel chef’s knives, which can be engraved with your name, in English or Japanese, on the spot. They’re pricey — around 20,000 yen — but they make a sharp souvenir.

IF YOU GO

Kyoto is a 75-minute train ride from Osaka’s Kansai International Airport, or a 2.5-hour Shinkansen bullet train ride from Tokyo to Osaka (english.jr-central.co.jp). In early June, a one-stop flight to Osaka from Kennedy Airport (via Tokyo) starts at about $1,200 on American Airlines or Japan Airlines.

Kyoto is well served by buses, taxis, trains and subways, and easily navigable by bike.

If you’ve wanted to sleep in a capsule hotel, try the new and surprisingly stylish Nine Hours (588 Teianmaeno-cho Shijo Teramachi, Shimogyo-ku; 81-75-353-9005; www.9hours.jp). Each 3.5-foot-high black-and-white pod costs 4,900 yen a night, or $53.75 at 91 Japanese yen to the dollar.

The four-year-old Hyatt Regency Kyoto (644-2 Sanjusangendo-mawari, Higashiyama-ku; 81-75-541-1234; kyoto.regency.hyatt.com) remains among the city’s most luxurious, with 189 rooms decorated with oak furniture and silk-upholstered headboards. Standard doubles start at 22,000 yen.

Founded in 2004, Iori Machiya Rentals (144-6 Sujiya-cho, Tominokoji-dori, Takatsuji-agaru, Shimogyo-ku; 81-75-352-0211; kyoto-machiya.com) restores old wooden houses and rents them out, with rates from 26,000 yen.

Urban beekeeping, or backyard beekeeping, is taking off in a major way in the Bay Area, as a growing brood of city dwellers is raising bees on rooftops, patios and small plots of land; harvesting the honey; and, in some cases, selling the yields in local shops and bakeries.

Ms. Wood started beekeeping in late 2008 and is a trailblazer in this growing movement, which is drawing a new crowd to a very old trade. At her nine-month-old shop, she sells beeswax candles, native honey, beekeeping supplies and a $200 starter kit that includes a two-tier cypress hive with a shiny copper roof. Since the shop opened last July, she has sold 130 kits and 450 pounds of bees, and hosted 21 beginner-level classes. In October 2009, she started a meet-up club, the  San Francisco Urban Beekeeping Group, which attracts up to 60 attendees at each gathering.

Paul Koski, a retired schoolteacher and the current secretary of the San Francisco Beekeepers Association, a club that promotes responsible urban beekeeping, estimates that in 2000 there were about 50 beekeepers in the city. Today, according to Ms. Wood, there are “at least 400.”

Beekeeping is thriving in cities across the nation, from Washington to Chicago to New York (where, on March 16, it was re-legalized). But compared with most urban areas, San Francisco offers a particularly hospitable habitat. It has a temperate climate, abundant plant life and legions of residents obsessed with local and sustainable food.

Even better, it happens to be “one of the most permissive places in the country to keep bees,” said Karen Peteros, a part-time employment lawyer and a former president of the beekeepers association. “Not only is it legal, but it’s totally unregulated — which means that as long as your bees don’t present a public nuisance, you can keep them wherever you want.”

According to Ms. Peteros, the current beekeeping boom dates to 2007, when reports of colony collapse disorder, or C.C.D. (the still-unexplained phenomenon of honeybees disappearing en masse), hit the media, sparking interest right around the time the local food and urban greening movement was taking off.

“C.C.D. is the worst and best thing that’s happened to honeybees in the last 50 years,” Ms. Peteros said. People saw beekeeping as “a chance to be close to wild nature in the city and participate directly in the production of food,” as Ms. Peteros put it. She speaks from experience: the first year she kept a hive in her backyard, in 2006, her neighbors’ previously anemic fruit trees produced an epic harvest. “One plum tree was so bursting, my neighbor made plum jam for the first time,” she said. “Someone else’s apple tree was so weighed down, its branches started breaking.”

On the national level, beekeeping remains a commercial, male-dominated industry, entwined with agribusiness, with thousands of hives trucked in to pollinate sprawling fruit and nut orchards across the country. But in cities, among hobby-level and sideliner beekeepers, that demographic is swiftly changing. When Mr. Koski started attending the local bee association meetings in the early ’90s, there were just a dozen members, “mostly middle-aged and older, mostly men,” he said. “Now it’s a wider demographic, pretty much a cross-section of who lives in San Francisco” — including unprecedented numbers of women.

What everyone has in common, he observed, is an interest in food and sustainability, the environment and “making the city a greener, more favorable place for humans to live.” Last year, the association’s membership peaked at 207.

So, what’s the draw? As far as urban agriculture goes, beekeeping is accessible, inexpensive and low-maintenance, Ms. Wood said. And it “yields a rather large and delicious reward.” Harvests vary year to year and colony to colony, but a typical hive of 60,000 bees will produce, on average, between 40 and 60 pounds of honey.

Some of that honey ends up on the shelves at Mission Pie, a bakery and cafe in the Mission District that focuses on local, seasonal and sustainably grown produce. Krystin Rubin, a co-owner, said the shop sells between three and eight different varieties at any given time, each hailing from a different neighborhood, and each with its own particular flavor, depending on the bees’ favored foraging spots (most often groves of eucalyptus trees, blackberry bushes or clumps of wild anise).

San Francisco’s newfound bee love thrills Ms. Rubin, who attributes it to residents’ growing desire to connect with their food sources and counterbalance increasingly high-tech lives.

“There’s only so much FarmVille you can play on Facebook before you want to grow your own real radish,” she said. “We’ve got so much contact with the virtual world that we’re hungry to come back to earth.”

Friday

4 p.m.
1) DRESS THE PART

If you forgot to pack your Western wear, make a beeline for Heritage Boot (117 West Eighth Street; 512-326-8577; www.heritageboot.com), where Jerome Ryan and his team of “boot elves” fashion fanciful boots out of exotic leathers like shark and caiman alligator, using vintage 1930s to ’60s patterns. With colorful stitching, hand-tooling and puffy, butterfly-shaped inlays, they’re instant collectors’ items — and priced accordingly, from $295 to $1,800. Next, stop by the new location of Cream Vintage (1714-A South Congress Avenue; 512-462-3000; www.creamvintage.com) for vintage Western shirts and weathered concert tees, customized to your dimensions by an on-site tailor.

6:30 p.m.
2) MEAT MECCA

Barbecue is a local sport and there are a lot of competing choices. For a classic pit experience — meaning you can smell the smoke and sauce as soon as you pull into the state-fair-size parking lot — drive 25 miles southwest to the Salt Lick (18300 Farm to Market Road 1826, Driftwood; 512-858-4959; www.saltlickbbq.com), settle into a communal picnic table and order the $18.95 all-you-can-eat platter, piled high with brisket, ribs and sausage. If you prefer to stay in downtown Austin, check out the newcomer Lambert’s Downtown Barbecue (401 West Second Street; 512-494-1500; www.lambertsaustin.com). Carved out of a brick-walled general store that dates from 1873, it is raising the bar (and provoking outrage among purists) with its newfangled “fancy barbecue” — think brown-sugar-and-coffee-rubbed brisket ($14) and maple-and-coriander-encrusted pork ribs ($16).

8 p.m.
3) CULTURAL ANCHOR

Just off the south shore of Lady Bird Lake is the world-class Long Center for the Performing Arts (701 West Riverside Drive; 512-457-5100; www.thelongcenter.org), opened in early 2008 after an epic $80 million fund-raising effort. It has one of the largest, most acoustically perfect stages in Texas, home to the Austin Symphony, Austin Lyric Opera and Ballet Austin. There’s also a smaller black box theater spotlighting local musicians, improv troupes and theater companies. Even if you don’t attend a performance, it’s worth stopping by for a glimpse of the glittering skyline views from the building’s front terrace.

Saturday

10 a.m.
4) BIKE STRONG

Explore the city at a leisurely pace by renting a bicycle from Mellow Johnny’s Bike Shop (400 Nueces Street; 512-473-0222; www.mellowjohnnys.com), opened by Lance Armstrong, a native son, in May 2008. In addition to selling and renting bikes (from $20 for four hours), the shop stocks accessories like wicker baskets, Chrome messenger bags and colorful racing jerseys. An adjacent cafe serves protein smoothies and organic coffee. If you ask, staff members will chart an appealing route along Austin’s 20 miles of urban hike-and-bike trails.

1 p.m.
5) LUNCH ON THE GO

Some of Austin’s best grub can be found in parking lots and vacant lots, dished out of Airstreams and food trucks by both amateur and professional chefs. You’ll find them all on www.austinfoodcarts.com, but here’s your shortlist: tarragon mushroom crepes with goat cheese ($6.75) at Flip Happy Crepes (400 Jessie Street; 512-552-9034; www.fliphappycrepes.com); slow-roasted green chili pork tacos ($3.25 each) at Torchy’s Tacos (1311 South First Street; 512-366-0537; www.torchystacos.com); and the hot, crunchy chicken-and-avocado “cone” with coleslaw and mango aioli ($5.95) at Mighty Cone (1600 South Congress Avenue; 512-383-9609; www.mightycone.com).

3 p.m.
6) VINYL TO DUCKS

South Congress is an appealing neighborhood for window-shopping, or shopping-shopping. Pick up rare and collectible vinyl, from 99 cents to $1,000, at Friends of Sound (1704 South Congress Avenue; 512-447-1000; www.friendsofsound.com), down an alley off the main drag. Quirky souvenirs, like a duck decoy ($28) or antique beaver top hat ($95), abound at Uncommon Objects (1512 South Congress Avenue; 512-442-4000; www.uncommonobjects.com), a sprawling emporium with a flea market aesthetic.

7:30 p.m.
7) BATS!

Early spring through late fall, the Congress Avenue Bridge hosts a Halloween-worthy spectacle: at dusk, more than a million Mexican free-tailed bats pour out from under the bridge and head east to scavenge for insects. The best spot for viewing the exodus is from the park at the southeastern end of the bridge, so you can see their flitting forms backlit by the glowing sky. To hear an estimate of the bats’ flight time on a particular evening, dial the bat hot line, operated by The Austin American-Statesman newspaper and Bat Conservation International (512-416-5700, extension 3636).

8:30 p.m.
8) FRENCH CONNECTION

There’s something almost Felliniesque about driving down a dark road lined with industrial warehouses, and stumbling onto Justine’s (4710 East Fifth Street; 512-385-2900; www.justines1937.com), a new, pitch-perfect French bistro. Outside, a family plays pétanque on the driveway; inside, groups of friends and couples sit on Thonet chairs at candlelit cast-iron-and-marble cafe tables, as a turntable, manned by the owner, Pierre Pelegrin, plays old jazz and reggae tunes. With atmosphere this good, the meal — Parisian comfort food, and delicious — is just a bonus. Order the duck confit ($15) or the steak frites with pepper sauce ($18).

10 p.m.
9) PERFORMANCE ANXIETY

The sheer quantity and variety of music in Austin on any given night can be daunting. Step one: consult Billsmap.com, which lists every gig in the city, highlights recommendations and includes links to previous performances on YouTube. Two spots that reliably deliver a good time are the Broken Spoke, an old-time honky-tonk dance hall (3201 South Lamar Boulevard; 512-442-6189; www.brokenspokeaustintx.com), and the retro red-walled Continental Club (1315 South Congress Avenue; 512-441-2444; www.continentalclub.com), which dates from 1957 and has roots, blues, rockabilly and country music.

Sunday

10 a.m.
10) TAKE A DIP

Wake up with a bracing swim in the natural, spring-fed Barton Springs Pool (2101 Barton Springs Road; 512-476-9044; www.ci.austin.tx.us/parks/bartonsprings.htm), a three-acre dammed pool that maintains a steady 68-degree temperature year-round. There’s sunbathing (sometimes topless) on the grassy slopes, a springy diving board and century-old pecan trees lining its banks. Then, park yourself on the patio at the new Perla’s Seafood & Oyster Bar (1400 South Congress Avenue; 512-291-7300; www.perlasaustin.com) for a decadent lobster omelet ($16) and an oyster shooter spiked with rum and honeydew ($7).

2 p.m.
11) EXPLORE OUTSKIRTS

Hill Country beckons to the west and south of Austin, with rolling limestone hills, wildflower-filled meadows and dozens of wineries. Get a closer look by driving 30 minutes to Bastrop State Park (3005 Highway 21 East, Bastrop; 512-321-2101; www.tpwd.state.tx.us/bastrop), for a hike along the 8.5-mile Lost Pines Trail, which takes you past a creek and a toad pond, and through rock outcroppings, mini-gorges and wooded ravines filled with oaks and loblolly pines. Channel your inner cowboy, especially if you’re breaking in new boots.

THE BASICS

American, Continental and JetBlue fly into Austin from many major cities; a flight from Kennedy Airport in New York in early December on JetBlue runs about $300. Public transportation is lacking — though a light rail is planned — so you’ll need a car or bike to explore the city.

An appealing home base is the lively and pedestrian-friendly South Congress neighborhood. Hotel Saint Cecilia (112 Academy Drive; 512-852-2400; www.hotelsaintcecilia.com), which opened last winter, has nine modern studios and bungalows, and five rooms in a converted Victorian house, starting at $275.

More affordable are the 40 rooms at the Hotel San José (1316 South Congress Avenue; 512-852-2350; www.sanjosehotel.com), which are airy and simply adorned with Indian bedspreads and framed vintage concert posters. Doubles with shared bath from $95; doubles with private baths from $160.

Nearby is the year-old Kimber Modern Hotel (110 The Circle; 512-912-1046; www.kimbermodern.com), where six minimalist rooms, from $250, open onto a hammock-strung patio shaded by a giant Texas live oak tree.

But the crowd at Ma(i)sonry, a new shop on Washington Street, was sampling something different. Armed with glasses of pinot noir and zinfandel, the preppy weekenders from San Francisco and beyond tiptoed from room to room, admiring oil paintings of golden-hued riparian landscapes by Wade Hoefer and graphic silhouettes of California poppies rendered in acrylic on canvas by Chiara Mondavi, a scion of the legendary winemaking family.

Housed in a restored 1904 manor house with exposed log rafters and thick stone walls, Ma(i)sonry (6711 Washington Street, Yountville; 707-944-0889; www.maisonry.com) represents the new, multifaceted face of Napa: wine, with a side of art.

Art is popping up all across the vineyard-rich valley, from agricultural barns that used to house hay and livestock feed to private, museum-worthy collections secreted in the rolling hills studded with faux Tuscan villas, orderly rows of grapevines and, in the winter, yellow stripes of mustard flowers.

“Hundreds of artists live here, there are galleries in every town and there’s an extraordinary range of art available, if you know where to look,” said Michelle Williams, executive director of the Arts Council Napa Valley, a nonprofit that promotes the arts. “You could go to an art opening or event every weekend, if you wanted.”The valley’s artistic roots go back to 1970, when Margrit Mondavi, the matriarch of the Robert Mondavi Winery (841 Latour Court, Napa; 707-226-1395; www.robertmondaviwinery.com), opened a 5,000-square-foot gallery at the Spanish Mission-style estate, with adobe walls, exposed beam ceilings and huge windows that frame the surrounding vineyards and purple oaks. It was the region’s first such wine-and-art combo.

“I saw empty wall space, and I thought: some art must go there,” Ms. Mondavi said. “We wanted to introduce our wine together with beautiful things, to capture the joie de vivre of winemaking.” Ms. Mondavi, 84, still curates the gallery, which focuses on abstract and figurative paintings and sculpture. Exhibitions change every two months, and often showcase work by established artists like Wayne Thiebaud and Earl Thollander.

Mondavi may have paved the way, but Ira Wolk, a local gallery owner who died this past summer, helped the art scene blossom. In 1990, he opened the I. Wolk Gallery in downtown St. Helena (1354 Main Street; 707-963-8800; www.iwolkgallery.com), the region’s first fine-art gallery not affiliated with a winery. The gallery, with its eclectic lineup of high-caliber artwork, quickly attracted a rarefied clientele, from French aristocrats to Oprah Winfrey to the Queen of Jordan.

More recently, Mr. Wolk opened two satellite galleries, including a 33-acre sculpture park at Auberge du Soleil (180 Rutherford Hill Road, Rutherford; 707-963-1211; www.aubergedusoleil.com), a resort that is a favorite of celebrities and splurging honeymooners.

Officially, the open-air gallery at Auberge is open only to resort guests, but for visitors who can’t swing the $550-and-up room rate, they can take their chances by dining at its Michelin-starred restaurant and sweet-talking the maître d’ into unlocking the gate to the undulating sculpture garden, laced with olive groves and meandering gravel paths. It’s worth the extra legwork.

“I was going for the ‘aha’ moment,” Mr. Wolk said earlier this year. He placed 90 sculptures throughout the lush grounds, most of them tantalizingly sited barely within view of one another, so moving from one piece to the next is a process of discovery and delight. Certainly that’s the effect when a visitor stumbles on a full-scale aluminum moose peering through tall grasses (a piece by Ken Kalman), or the bright yellow and red steel hoops that appear to roll down a grassy slope (by Jack Chandler).

Fortunately the region’s most dynamic collection requires no wrangling to view. A sleek three-story temple to modern and contemporary art, the Hess Art Museum at the Hess Collection Winery (4411 Redwood Road, Napa; 707-255-1144; www.hesscollection.com) is free and open to the public.

The owner, Donald Hess, a Swiss entrepreneur and wine producer, opened the 11,000-square-foot museum in 1989, partly to promote artists he had been collecting, including heavyweights like Robert Motherwell, Francis Bacon and Anselm Kiefer. He also wanted to draw customers to his winery, which is situated well off Napa’s beaten track, along a winding road lined with pine and redwood trees.

Visitors today can sip the estate’s highly regarded cabernet sauvignon in a farmhouse-style tasting room before touring the galleries, which display about 120 blue-chip works, including photorealistic paintings by the Swiss artist Franz Gertsch and an installation of melted and cracked rocks by the British artist Andy Goldsworthy. Strategically placed windows offer glimpses of the working winery: from the gallery staircase, an overhead view of giant fermentation tanks, and, in the West Gallery, a cutout overlooking a rapid conveyor belt where bottles are cleaned, filled, corked and labeled, at a rate of 100 a minute.

But while there are many places to watch wine being made (at Napa’s hundreds of wineries, for starters), seeing art in the making is a rarer treat. For that swing by Clos Pegase (1060 Dunaweal Lane, Calistoga; 707-942-4981; www.clospegase.com), where Jim Stallings paints amid oak fermentation tanks, or drop by Gordon Huether’s refurbished Hay Barn Gallery (1821 Monticello Road, Napa; 707-255-5954; www.gordonhuether.com), a huge metal-clad barn where glass is fused, pressed and laminated into abstract art.

On a crystalline summer afternoon, a dozen studio assistants were airbrushing enamel paint and sprinkling glass dust onto glass panels, soon to be assembled into a gigantic wall installation for a Houston airport. “It’s like going to the Jelly Belly factory, except with art,” Mr. Huether said, as he led visitors on an impromptu tour, past a glowing kiln.

Art in Napa also extends to photography, including a gem of a collection at Mumm Napa (8445 Silverado Trail, Napa; 707-967-7700; www.mummnapa.com), a sparkling-wine producer. There, inside a barnlike building, is a red-walled gallery where you can sip bubbly while viewing more than 30 rare, original Ansel Adams prints, on loan from Matthew Adams, the photographer’s grandson. An adjacent gallery spotlights contemporary photography.

Another iteration of Napa’s art scene has only come to the fore in recent years. With its luxurious estates and concentration of wealth, Napa and neighboring Sonoma Valley are home to many notable private art collections, some of which are now open to the public, though usually by appointment.

One of the most ambitious belongs to Steven Oliver, a construction company magnate who turned a former sheep ranch in Geyserville, in Sonoma County, into an art complex that he calls Oliver Ranch (call 510-412-9090, extension 210, for tour appointments and directions). Mr. Oliver commissioned artists like Bill Fontana and Bruce Nauman to create 18 installations specifically for the 100-acre estate. Mr. Nauman’s project, for example, is a quarter-mile-long concrete staircase that traverses grassy meadows and leads to the stone house where Mr. Oliver lives part-time.

“I tell them: you just dream, we’ll figure out how to do it,” said Mr. Oliver, who has a fleet of bulldozers and cranes at his disposal. To install a 245-ton Richard Serra sculpture, he transported a crane from Arizona because California didn’t have one large enough to handle the job. He also reinforced three bridges en route.The ranch is open to the public just on weekends from April 15 to June 1, and from Sept. 15 to Nov. 1 and only by appointment. Mr. Oliver personally leads the two-and-a-half-hour tours.

But perhaps the most eye-popping collection is di Rosa (5200 Sonoma Highway, Napa; 707-226-5991; www.dirosaart.org), which claims to hold the largest collection of contemporary art by Northern California artists. Scattered on the 217-acre property are more than 2,000 pieces — of varying quality, but never banal — owned by the nonagenarian collector, Rene di Rosa, a self-described “artoholic” and one of the first to plant grapes in the Carneros region, in the 1960s.

The artworks are crammed in two white-walled galleries by a meadow and a lake, and in a 125-year-old former winery where literally every surface, floor-to-ceiling, is spangled with colorful prints, paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, and video art.

The exuberant di Rosa may be “the opposite of the white cube,” said Kathryn Reasoner, the museum’s executive director. “But everyone leaves smiling.” That kind of buzz can’t be bottled, even in Napa.

ON $250/DAY

SLEEP Carved out of a 1920s hotel, the new Hotel Vertigo in Nob Hill (940 Sutter Street; 415-885-6800; www.hotelvertigosf.com) recently emerged from a cinematic makeover inspired by the Hitchcock classic. If the orange-and-white color scheme doesn’t make you dizzy, the spiraled mirrors and corkscrew staircase might. The 102 rooms are spacious, a loop of “Vertigo” (which was partly filmed here when it was the Empire) plays in the lobby and, during the check-in, you’ll receive a list of the best places in the city to “get vertigo,” including Twin Peaks and the top of Coit Tower. Cost for a double: $139.

EAT Have a feast for under $20 in the multiethnic Mission District, where there’s a taqueria on nearly every corner and the great burrito debate rages on. Top contenders include: El Farolito (three locations in the city, including 2950 24th Street; www.elfarolitoinc.com), a local chain that serves brick-size “super burritos” stuffed with half an avocado for $6; El Metate (2406 Bryant Street; 415-641-7209), where the chile verde pork burrito ($5) shares star billing with the fish tacos and watermelon agua fresca; and Papalote (3409 24th Street; 415-970-8815; www.papalote-sf.com), where the lard-free beans and tofu mole are a godsend for vegans. Burritos and agua fresca for two: about $15.

SHOP For quirky objects with an artistic bent, check out Park Life (220 Clement Street; 415-386-7275; www.parklifestore.com), a shop that carries a well-curated cache of art books, clever housewares and limited-edition objects — like salt and pepper shakers inscribed with the words “cocaine” and “heroin” ($125). If that’s not creative enough, pop into the adjacent gallery, which features monthly exhibitions of emerging artists from San Francisco and beyond (priced from $20 to $2,000). Silk-screened T-shirt by the Bay Area artist Tucker Nichols: $28.

PARTY San Francisco has its share of slick, stylish nightclubs, but if you crave something smaller and more intimate, head to Little Baobab (3388 19th Street; 415-643-3558; www.littlebaobab.com), a tiny Senegalese restaurant that hosts one of the city’s liveliest dance parties Wednesday through Saturday nights. Revelers of all ages and ethnicities pack the sweaty, shoebox-size dance floor, while D.J.’s spin an eclectic mix of world music (salsa one night, Afrobeat and dancehall the next). The ginger and hibiscus-based drinks are strong and cheap, $5 and $7. Cover charge is $5 on weekends. Cost for entrance and cocktails for two: $24.

SAVE Postcards may feature painted Victorians, but San Francisco also has stunning new architecture. Start your design tour at the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park (50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive; 415-750-3600; www.deyoungmuseum.org; $10 entry), wrapped in a perforated copper skin by Herzog & de Meuron. Its observation tower offers jaw-dropping views. Nearby is the California Academy of Sciences (55 Music Concourse Drive; 415-379-8000; www.calacademy.org; $25 entry), a “green” steel-and-glass building designed by Renzo Piano that contains three museums: an aquarium, a natural history museum and a digital planetarium. And downtown, there’s the Contemporary Jewish Museum (736 Mission Street; 415-655-7800; www.thecjm.org; $10 entry), housed in a 1907 brick building converted by Daniel Libeskind into a glittering blue steel monument. Total cost of admissions: $45.

TOTAL COST $251.

ON $1000/DAY

SLEEP From its large contemporary art collection to its miles of dark wood and thick-pile carpeting, the St. Regis San Francisco (125 Third Street; 415-284-4000; www.stregis.com/sf) embodies refinement and good taste. It offers a gigantic spa and fitness center, a buzzing lobby bar and a pair of noteworthy restaurants: Vitrine, popular with power-lunchers, and Ame, which serves creative sashimi like kampachi with sea urchin sauce. The 260 guest rooms feel like luxury apartments with their white oak cabinetry, creamy marble baths and, on floors 17 and higher, eye-popping views. Centrally situated in SoMa, the hotel is a quick walk to the shops of Union Square and a fleet of cultural offerings including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. On weekends, ask for a room facing away from noisy Mission Street. Cost for a deluxe room with a city view: $429.

EAT Incongruously set amid tacky strip clubs in North Beach, Coi (373 Broadway Street; 415-393-9000; www.coirestaurant.com) is a magnet for culinary thrill seekers. The chef Daniel Patterson has garnered a bevy of honors since opening his restaurant (pronounced “kwa”) in 2006, including two Michelin stars. The main dining room has a Zen aesthetic — grass-cloth walls, backlit panels of rice paper — and seats just 29. The mind-expanding 11-course tasting menu ($125) offers flourishes of molecular gastronomy, like the gelatinous orbs of milk-and-honey that pop in your mouth, and unexpected flavors like ice cream flavored with Douglas fir needles. Reservations are required in the dining room but not in the adjacent lounge, where dishes can be ordered à la carte. Tasting menu for two: $250.

SHOP Fashionistas could blow their budget on a single frock at Philanthropist (3571 Sacramento Street; 415-441-1750; www.philanthropistboutique.com) and still feel good about it. That’s because 100 percent of profits are donated to local charities like the Raphael House, a shelter for homeless families. Hot items include $260 jeans by the cult-brand Goldsign and an “I ♥ SF” gold pendant necklace by the local designer Zoë Chicco for $590. Since it’s a recession, pick up a Lucite bangle bracelet inscribed with feel-good slogans like “Philanthropy is beautiful.” Cost: $132.

PARTY The Slow Food movement has invaded cocktail hour. Witness the industrial-chic bar in Haight-Ashbury, Alembic (1725 Haight Street; 415-666-0822; www.alembicbar.com), where bartenders tinker with dehydrators and smokers to crisp garnishes and flavor syrups. A similar approach can be found at Clock Bar, a new bar in the Westin St. Francis (335 Powell Street; 415-397-9222; www.michaelmina.net/clockbar), where the mixologist (don’t say bartender) Marco Dionysos whips up fresh fruit purées and housemade grenadine, and raids the kitchen of the restaurant next door, Michael Mina, for exotic ingredients like Peruvian aji amarillo peppers. Cost for two English Breakfast cocktails, made with Earl Grey-infused gin topped with frothy egg whites and a black tea liqueur: $26.

SPLURGE Wondering what to do with those heirloom carrots and watermelon radishes you fondled over at the Ferry Plaza farmer’s market? Find out at Tante Marie’s Cooking School (271 Francisco Street; 415-788-6699; www.tantemarie.com). One of the city’s oldest culinary institutes, it began full-time operation in 1979 and offers a Simple Seasonal Cooking class built around organic and farm-fresh ingredients. It also offers courses in global cuisine, from Thai to Moroccan. Five-hour cooking class: $185.

TOTAL COST $1,022.

THE BASICS The Good Hotel, which opened last November, claims to be the first “hotel with a conscience.” Anthropomorphizing aside, the hotel does have many admirable qualities: low prices (rooms start at $89), eco-friendly touches and a philanthropic streak. The whimsical lobby brings the hotel’s do-gooder approach to life: a bench made of recycled felt blankets, a vending machine branded by ReadyMade magazine that dispenses wallets fashioned out of FedEx envelopes ($15) and other goodies; wall art by developmentally disabled artists; and an orange phone that connects to a “philanthropy concierge” who arranges volunteer stints through One Brick, a local nonprofit.

THE LOCATION Formerly a Best Western motel and an adjacent hotel, the Good Hotel is at the corner of Mission and Seventh Streets — a gritty but slowly revitalizing corner of SoMa, the area south of Market Street. In the immediate vicinity are scuzzy single-room-occupancy housing, the futuristic-looking San Francisco Federal Building and a sleek plaza lined with cafes. Mass transit, including bus, light rail, cable car and subway, is all within walking distance.

THE ROOMS There are 38 motel-style rooms that open onto a courtyard parking lot, and 79 in a five-story brick building. Inside, it’s Ikea gone eco. Platform beds made of reclaimed pine are draped with fleece blankets made of recycled soda bottles. The pillows are made from old bedspreads salvaged from the previous hotel. A chandelier, made of empty Voss water bottles, is a D.I.Y. project taken directly from the ReadyMade book, “How to Make (Almost) Everything.” There’s also a recycling bin, a nifty fold-down metal desk just big enough for a laptop and, overhead, a secret message from the hotel that glows in the dark.

THE BATHROOM Definitely the low point. The former hotel’s bathrooms appear to have been largely left intact and unrenovated. My bathroom, in Room 303, had mildewed grout and cracked brown tiles that made me wish I’d packed flip-flops. One eco-cool update was the Japanese-style toilet-top sink: the gray water from the sink is collected in the toilet tank, saving water.

AMENITIES Somewhat sparse. The rooms offer free Wi-Fi, an iPod docking station and 26-inch flat-screen televisions. There is a spacious fitness center and outdoor heated pool — but you have to cross the street, to the recently renovated Best Western Americania, to use them. There’s also a photo booth in the lobby ($3 for two prints); visitors are encouraged to add to the photo mosaic of smiling guests.

ROOM SERVICE In lieu of room service, the on-site restaurant, Good Pizza, offers free delivery from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. The pies were unexpectedly good: a 12-inch pizza — topped with organic apples, fromage blanc from Cowgirl Creamery and toasted walnuts ($16) — arrived 15 minutes after ordering. Still, I had to eat my dinner out of a cardboard box while perched on the edge of the bed (there’s a table in the room, but, inexplicably, no regular chairs).

BOTTOM LINE A budget hotel that offers more than just cheap rooms: a sense of place and purpose. At checkout, guests can donate $1.50 to One Brick, offset their carbon footprint through Carbonfund.org, or give a $200 computer through One Laptop per Child. Rooms range from $89 to $149.

The Good Hotel, 112 Seventh Street, San Francisco; 415-621-7001; www.jdvhotels.com/hotels/good.