These are a few of our favorite things. From the perfect travel footwear to a high-flying adventure, here’s what to buy, where to wear it, and what to do this fall and beyond.
First, let’s talk footwear. With its handsome look, cool backstory, and packability, the Sabah might just be the perfect travel shoe.
The Sabah colors—cobalt, camel, mint—were the first thing to catch my eye. But it was founder Mickey Ashmore’s refreshingly personal approach that sealed the deal: The shoes are stitched by hand in Gaziantep, Turkey, using a 1,000-year-old shoemaking technique, then are sold at shows around the world that are more like casual house parties. (You can also place an order through their website.) After kicking around in a pair for a few weeks, I can honestly say that I never want to travel in anything else. They go with everything—I tried them with dresses, shorts, and jeans—and are almost slipperlike in their comfort. Most important, they’re leather, which means that a) they’ll form to your foot the more you wear them, and b) they breathe, so you can go sockless without offending anyone when you slip them off in the TSA line. From $190. —Aislyn Greene
Next, our new favorite food destination, or nine things you just have to taste in Montreal.
Now, what you should bring home to keep the beach with you always.
Spur Driftwood side table $3,250, timothyoulton.com
Beachcombing is serious business for British designer Timothy Oulton. Along the coastlines of France, his team gathers stray pieces of wood, tossed by the tides and roughened by travels. They then arrange the sticks into a delicate tangle and encase them in smooth, solid acrylic. The resulting mod-but-rustic Spur Driftwood side tables “celebrate the imperfections in the wood and the notion that time makes things more beautiful,” Oulton says. The name was inspired by the spur of a plant, a nectar-filled tube. “There’s the idea that the wood is a living thing. And we’ve preserved it in a natural state.” In other words, it’s a fossilized reminder of a serene landscape for the home. —Sarah Purkrabek
Finally, it’s time for an adrenaline rush with Frontiers Paragliding in Nepal.
Ringed by peaks, including the 23,000-foot Mount Machhapuchhre, the trekking base of Pokhara, Nepal, is best seen from the sky. Pilots with Frontiers Paragliding fly tandem with guests, taking off from 4,800 feet above sea level to ride upward air currents, the same way birds do. Short trips are packed with adrenaline-pumping maneu- vers, while the longest flights can stretch to two hours and take adventurers some 15 miles into the mountains north of the Pokhara Valley. The company also donates a portion of its profits to earthquake relief efforts in Nepal. From $82. —Sarah Purkrabek
…And when it’s time to check in for the night, check out our favorite hotels with an artsy twist.