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Enjoy a sundowner outside on the San Deck of the Sandton Sun Hotel, which offers great views and a good menu with some light snacks. Once you’re done, find your way inside to the hotel’s restaurant before heading back up to your spacious hotel room with ample amenities.

In the lower level of the Casa Del Balboa building in Balboa Park is one of the world’s largest indoor model railway displays. There are several rooms, where you can see huge displays of trains going through miniature towns and landscapes. Parts of the California railway system is recreated in miniature, including the Southern Pacific-Santa Fe Tehachapi Pass (pictured here). There are different miniature towns representing San Diego and other California cities throughout various point in history, and the railways that went through them at that time period. In another room is the toy train gallery, with four separate lines, miniature scenery, and even a train equipped with a camera in the front, so you can watch a video from the ‘train’s eye view.’ Both kids and adults will enjoy this fantastic model railroad museum.

From the outside, San Giorgio looks like one of Greece’s ubiquitous whitewashed homes. Inside, traditional Greek textiles and locally made furniture adorn the 33 unfussy rooms. Most feature rough-hewn wooden dressers, large circular jute rugs, and beds canopied with mosquito netting. Some have terraces with views of the Aegean Sea. Guests can relax during the day in cocoonlike hanging swings near the pool or take a 10-minute walk to the popular beaches Paradise and Paranga. In the evenings, it’s not uncommon for DJs such as Bob Sinclar or David Guetta to make guest appearances in the hotel’s open-air lounge.

On the banks of the Macal River, at the edge of downtown San Ignacio, you’ll find a sprawling Saturday market where everything from shoes and clothing to housewares and fresh produce is for sale. Local people shop for supplies and gather to catch up on gossip at the food stalls. The market is somewhat divided between produce sellers and souvenir vendors, but as the market has grown, the separation seems to have floundered a bit. Leave enough time to wander every aisle and stall to ensure no gem is left undiscovered. Locals recommend the tacos and pupusas as the best choices for lunch, and the snow cones topped with evaporated milk for a snack. Buses also park just next to the market in a dirt lot, so transportation is not difficult if you’re coming from outside of town.

The San Carlos Institute was founded in 1871 by Cuban exiles who came to Key West to campaign for Cuba’s freedom from Spain. The original building was elsewhere and burned to the ground. The present building was erected in 1890. The interior was restored recently and the hand painted floor tiles and those in the main staircase area are works of art in themselves. The museum has exhibits and displays of pictures and historical articles of Cuban life in the 19th century and up until today. Stand outside and look at all the angles and balconies of this building. It’s a real piece of architectural history there in Key West. Admission is free; the museum is open from Friday - Sunday from 12 - 6.

Prior to the founding of Monte Alban, the large hill-top capital, the main center of the Zapotec civilization was in the Etla valley, west of where Oaxaca city is now. The site has several pyramid-platforms, a main square and a ball court. Excavations were carried out in the 1960s, but the site was never re-constructed to the extent of other sites in the Oaxaca valley, so a lot of it is difficult to make out, but it makes for an interesting stop on a day tour to Etla. You shouldn’t miss the community museum, which has a few striking pieces from the site, including the “diablo enchilado,” a brazier that is painted red, and the carved slab known as Monument 3, which is similar in style to the depictions known as “Los Danzantes” of Monte Alban. The museum is often locked, but if you ask someone in the community they will find the custodian who will come and open it for you.

The Iglesia de San Pedro de Atacama is a beautiful, whitewashed adobe church located in the center of town. The parish dates back to the 1600s, although the current building was constructed in 1745 and is now considered a national monument. On any given day, you will find individuals stopping for a moment to pray inside.The inside is currently in need of some repairs, as some floorboards are missing and giving way to the dirt floor underneath. As a result, if you have change to spare, the church is collecting donations for repairs.

While tourists flock to the world-famous San Diego Zoo, its Safari Park—located 30 miles away in the San Pasqual Valley—is equally interesting. Spread over 1,800 acres, it’s home to more than 3,500 animals and 260 different species as well as a huge botanical garden. Massive, open-range enclosures re-create various habitats from around the world (don’t miss African Plains, which is larger than the entire San Diego Zoo itself), while interactive exhibits allow visitors to get up close and personal with lemurs, lorikeets, bats, and more. The Safari Park began as a breeding program to supply the zoo but, over time, has become a major conservatory project. In fact, its condor-breeding efforts are behind the almost extinct bird’s successful reintroduction to the wilds of California. Note: Early mornings are the best time to see animal activity. Avoid August, September, and October, which are the area’s hottest months.

Just down the beach from the dreamy Rancho Pescadero hotel is Baja’s popular San Pedrito surf break. I paddled in just in time to get this dreamy shot of the clouds melting into the horizon.

Meandering along the streets of Casco Viejo is a walk down a physical timeline; with old Spanish ruins next to forgotten French architecture neighboring restored boutique hotels, this historical neighborhood manifests Panama City’s colorful past. The diversity in buildings reflects the array of people who occupy this peninsula, from hat-totting tourists to barefoot residents to the President himself. The energy of the place is packed between the thin streets, filled with shops, cars, pedestrians, and restaurants and then shoots out over the extensive coast line of the canal. My favorite people watching activity is to capture a drama in the making, and that is exactly what I caught between this boy and his elder. It is for these moments that it pays off to constantly lug around a SLR.

Petroglyphs are always worth a stop. About 40 minutes north of Globe, on US 60/AZ 77, as the highway winds down through its hairpin curves to the bottom of the Salt River Canyon, stop at ‘Hieroglyphic Point.’ (It’ll be on your left.) This pull-off overlooking the river divides the San Carlos Apache Nation to the south from the White Mountain Apaches to the north. Keep your eyes open for the darker boulders strewn about: they’re covered with pre-columbian petroglyphs dating to centuries before the Apache ever called this area home...

Years ago when Mexico City’s southern neighborhoods were in fact small, independent cities, the quarter known as San Ángel Inn was a sylvan getaway for well-heeled urbanites. No longer an inn, the area’s namesake—a former Carmelite convent from the eighteenth century—persists as an iconic, country-club-style restaurant and lounge. Its venerable walls, gardens, and fountains call up colonial gentility and ward away the urban chaos just outside the door; strolling mariachis are the sole “disruption.” Sip what many believe is the city’s best margarita amid an impeccable, songbird-serenaded garden.

This used to be a hacienda, but it was turned into a restaurant almost 50 years ago. The food is phenomenal and the margaritas are famous—in fact, they’re my favorite thing on the menu. There is always a band or a pianist playing.

In 1589, the Church of San Luigi dei Francesi became the official church of Rome’s French community, and with true Bourbon flair, the church’s decorations are a celebration of France’s power and wealth, with gilded stucco, lavish marbles, and detailed ornament. But it can feel as though no one is noticing, since visitors usually head directly to the Contarelli Chapel in the transept to the left of the main altar, where three incredible Caravaggio paintings reside: The Calling of Saint Matthew, The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew, and Saint Matthew and the Angel. Known as the Matthew Cycle, the beautifully detailed and dark oil paintings show off the best of the baroque painter.

At the world-famous San Diego Zoo, you’ll essentially take a journey around the world as you explore 100 acres of habitats that resemble everything from the Australian Outback to the South African coastline. In fact, this institution cares so much about making animal enclosures authentic that it even re-creates rock formations specific to various regions, like the jagged tsingy of Madagascar. The impressive Africa Rocks exhibition debuted in 2017 and includes six enclosures, including an Ethiopian highland for baboons and an acacia woodland for leopards. The zoo is also home to more than 3,700 rare and endangered animals, like Malay tigers and both Asian and African elephants.

It had been a long wait for modern art lovers, but after a three-year closure and a $305 million renovation and expansion, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) reopened in May 2016, and was it ever worth the wait. A new 10-story addition from the renowned Norwegian design firm Snøhetta integrates seamlessly with the existing black-and-white-striped atrium tower, giving San Francisco‘s SoMa neighborhood some serious eye-candy. It’s also now the largest modern and contemporary art museum in America, with nearly triple its previous gallery space. New to the already impressive collection are selected works from the esteemed Doris and Donald Fisher Collection, featuring significant American and European artists of the 20th and 21st centuries such as Andy Warhol, Ellsworth Kelly, Alexander Calder, Georg Baselitz, Barbara Hepworth, and Henry Moore, among many others. Gifts of painting, sculpture, drawings, media arts, and architecture made to the museum since 2009 also rotate through various galleries, while the entire third floor is dedicated to the Pritzker Center for Photography. Visitors take a breather in the tranquil sculpture garden with enormous living wall, or in the fifth floor Cafe 5. Along with offering free entry to visitors 18 years old and under, SFMOMA invites you to try In Situ, the museum’s signature 150-seat lounge and restaurant, helmed by Michelin-star chef Corey Lee, with a menu of dishes culled from the recipes of some 80 chefs from around the world.