  We show that Wang-Landau sampling, combined with suitable Monte Carlo trial
moves, provides a powerful method for both the ground state search and the
determination of the density of states for the hydrophobic-polar (HP) protein
model and the interacting self-avoiding walk (ISAW) model for homopolymers. We
obtained accurate estimates of thermodynamic quantities for HP sequences with
$>100$ monomers and for ISAWs up to $>500$ monomers. Our procedure possesses an
intrinsic simplicity and overcomes the limitations inherent in more tailored
approaches making it interesting for a broad range of protein and polymer
models.
