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Verti Marte is at heart a cramped, bare-bones deli. But any effort the owners have failed to expend on stocking the shelves or sprucing up the decor they’ve put into making excellent food. Head to the small counter in the back and make your request; while your sandwich is being assembled, forage for chips or soda. Verti Marte is known for its oversize po’boy sandwiches (shrimp, dressed, is among the more popular), along with muffulettas and tasty side dishes, like smothered cabbage and Brussels-sprout salad. Still hungry? Nobody has gone wrong by ordering the bread pudding and pecan pie.

Audubon Park sits on the site of a former sugar plantation—the only plantation in the city that wasn’t subsequently developed for homes or businesses. It’s about 25 minutes via streetcar from downtown, but feels a world apart, with its spreading live oaks hung with Spanish moss and its lagoons that serve as sanctuary—appropriate given the park’s name—to egrets (great, cattle, snowy), herons (green, blue, night), ibises, and the black-bellied whistling ducks. A loop around the paved walkway/bikeway, which boasts a public golf course at its center, runs 1.75 miles; alternatively, trek to Magazine Street for a visit to the Audubon Zoo, then catch a bus downtown along the city’s best shopping thoroughfare.

Travelers who think heaven should include golf, tennis, horseback riding, mountains, vineyards, and mouthwatering food and wine all in one place should book a stay at Algodon Wine Estates. The property rolls across 2,000 acres of picturesque foothills in San Rafael, Mendoza. The land blossoms with walnut, pear, and plum orchards, miles of olive groves, and a world-class vineyard producing a wide range of varietals. Eight estancia-style suites are housed in the Algodon Villa and Algodon Lodge, featuring wood-burning chimneys and wraparound stone patios overlooking the vineyard and surrounding estate.

The sprawling property has a history that dates back to Argentina’s golf legend Jose Jurado, whose descendants (also professional golfers) owned and designed the first nine holes of the estate’s golf course. Today’s 18-hole course winds through lush vineyards, glacial water reservoirs, olive trees, and fruit orchards. The championship tennis facilities feature seven clay courts, one hard court, and two grass courts. With such an attractive range of on-property activities, it might take some willpower for guests to venture beyond the estate grounds, but the natural wonders surrounding San Rafael are worth a visit.

You can find a respectable beer selection at most Banff Avenue restaurants, but a well-crafted cocktail requires a little more intel. For a fabulous mixed drink, head to Block Kitchen + Bar on Caribou Street, an intimate venue specializing in all things shaken and stirred. With concoctions like the Gin Beetroot Sour and the Coffee & Artichoke Negroni, you’ll be glad you ventured off the main drag. You can grab tapas and gourmet sandwiches here too, like the Red Devil Calamari appetizer with spicy Thai sauce or the Kuterra Salmon on ciabatta bread. Keep in mind this teeny spot has limited seating, so arrive early or roll in fashionably late to get a seat.

Bypass the roadside watering holes and take a boat ride to Floyd’s Pelican Bar, instead. This thatched hut stands on stilts out in the water, making it a dreamy spot for an afternoon of swimming and shooting the breeze, solo or with friends. It’s 30 minutes from Treasure Beach (arrange a boat ride through your guesthouse or resort), and you can arrive for lunch and stay until after sundown for the just-caught fish, rum, and chilled Red Stripe on the menu. Inside the tiny shack, the flags of various countries hang and previous customers have left messages scrawled on planks and benches. Sit outside and watch the pelicans flying in formation across the horizon.

Lime Cay, an uninhabited island about two miles off of Port Royal, is a favorite destination of Kingstonians for white-sand beaches, sunbathing, and swim time. This is an ideal deserted escape on weekdays, and weekends are usually only a bit busier and bring a few vendors. Don’t count on the vendors, though: Bring your own food, water, sunscreen, and snorkeling gear. Wear water shoes, as there can be urchins. To arrange a trip over, ask at your hotel, or inquire at the bar on Morgan’s Harbour called the Y-Knot—they’ll help you find a boat ride or fisherman willing to take you to the island for no more than US$20.

One word: Hamburgers. Hamburgers are the reason to come to this tiny grocery store–restaurant that’s still one of Houston’s best-kept secrets. Here’s a sample of the life-changing combinations you’ll find on the menu: the South of the Border (Monterey Jack, pico de gallo, avocado, and cilantro dressing); the Grim Burger (mac and cheese, bacon, a fried egg, and jalapeño); and the loaded Triple-Meat burger. If for some inexplicable reason you want to order something without beef, try the heavenly chicken strip sandwich. And keep an eye out for the daily specials, too—they’re fantastic. Open Monday, Wednesday and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Thursday and Friday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.; and Saturday 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

San Francisco prides itself on its Mexican food, so when chef Gabriela Cámara moved from Mexico City to open Cala in 2015, it was both a show of confidence and a nod of respect. The celebrated chef behind Mexico City’s legendary Contramar, Cámara opened her first American restaurant in a warehouse-like former sound studio just off the main commercial thoroughfare in Hayes Valley. The restaurant’s abundant greenery—creeping kangaroo vines and a statuesque fiddle-leaf fig tree—makes guests feel as if they are dining on a patio somewhere decidedly more tropical than San Francisco. Cámara’s food uses ingredients familiar to Mexican food devotees, but she prepares them in unexpected ways, to extraordinary results. She serves a whole fire-roasted sweet potato, for example, with a stack of warm, house-made tortillas and a scoop of salsa negra—an extra-rich mole infused with bone marrow. Pro tip: Do not miss the trout tostadas with chipotle, avocado, and fried leeks. One order probably won’t be enough, so put in for two as soon as you sit down.

Starting from where Mapleton Avenue transitions into Sunshine Canyon, this beautiful ridgeline trail runs 1.3 miles up the southern spine, gaining nearly 1,200 feet to the 6,800-foot summit of Mount Sanitas. This is a moderately difficult trail, but it has a number of level spots that make for nice places to rest. And since it follows the ridgeline, it almost always has a great view overlooking the town of Boulder and out to Denver, especially once on the summit. For a gentler stroll, hit the wide Sanitas Valley Trail or cruise along the lower, but also scenic, Dakota Ridge trail, all accessed from the same parking lot.

There’s no need to fly all the way to Italy to try the pie that earned first place at the 2007 World Pizza Cup. Just head to North Beach and Tony’s Pizza Napoletana, where chef-owner Tony Gemignani was the first American to win the title. Gemignani serves only 73 of the prize-winning Margherita pizzas a day, but the seven ovens in the kitchen make a broad selection of styles, including Sicilian, Roman, New York, St. Louis, and even a Detroit-style pie—a square pizza made with Wisconsin brick mozzarella cheese. To find Tony’s, either follow the scent of baking crust or look for the line of eager customers awaiting entry to the no-reservations corner eatery.

This little-known museum stands in the shadow of Barcelona Cathedral. You’ll find dramatic sculptures from pre-Roman times all the way to the 20th century, including religious works from medieval-era Spain. Frederic Marès was a sculptor by trade, but he was also an inveterate collector, and the museum’s upper floors—called the Collector’s Cabinet—are crammed with 17 rooms of quirky treasures. Among them is the Smokers’ Room, filled with hundreds of pipes, tobacco pouches, cigarette cases, ashtrays, and erotic matchbook covers. Other spaces are devoted to everything from walking sticks to cameras to timepieces to ladies’ accoutrements: gloves, fans, brooches, and even needlework made of human hair.

The second property in the Bulgari Hotels collection is an Italianate stunner perched on the cliffs of Uluwatu, a region at the southern tip of the Bukit peninsula. While the hotel’s vibe stays true to the brand’s roots, hand-hewn volcanic rock, Javanese mahogany, and exclusive fabrics banded and bordered by local artisans reflect the heritage of the archipelago. In fact, Asian-European duality is a prominent theme here: One restaurant focuses on Indonesian fare, while the other is a formal reflection of Italian culture. Watching over the resort at its highest point sits a temple, which employees use to perform daily rituals, as well as a traditional guardian—the Hindu elephant Ganesh. And at Bulgari’s base is a private stretch of sand accessible via an inclined elevator.

Nestled into the base of Mount Sturgeon, at the southern entrance of Grampians National Park roughly three and a half hours from Melbourne, the Royal Mail Hotel combines a bush experience with world-class food and wine. The property is a slow-paced reprieve at the site where the town of Dunkeld was first settled. Accommodations range from minimalist mountain-view rooms bedecked with furniture and light fixtures by Melbourne designer Jardan to the Mt. Sturgeon sheep station, home to a six-bedroom homestead as well as eight dog-friendly sandstone cottages with bathrooms built inside old water tanks. Gardens play a prominent role in the Royal Mail experience; the hotel has the largest kitchen garden in Australia, which supplies the restaurant with nearly all its organic produce, and a 24-acre private garden is home to many rare indigenous and non-indigenous plants. With the Grampian Mountains and their year-round waterfalls right at the hotel’s back door, the Royal Mail is also a prime base for exploring the wilderness and its native wildlife. After a day in the woods, guests can indulge in an eight-course tasting menu with matched wines from one of the top-ranked cellars in the world.

In partnership with the Four Seasons Rancho Encantado, the new groundbreaking equestrian program EQUUS practices a decade-old field known as equine integrated learning. The theory is that, as our animal companions since ancient time, horses can teach us about us—participants spend quiet time moving among horses in a corral, interacting with them, and reacting to them, and, through this, learn about nonverbal communication and setting boundaries, thus gaining confidence, inspiration, and strength. At these stables in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, guests harness the power of the herd to gain (often very emotional) insights into themselves.

Rum cakes, so the story goes, were once hard biscuits that got dunked in the daily serving of black liquor provided to sailors of yore. Whatever the origin, the recipe has improved over the years, and you can taste the newer—and softer—versions soaked in island rum at the Bermuda Rum Cake Company. This “cakery,” which is housed in a historic dockyard, is a Bermudan marquee attraction. Sharing a space with a glasswork factory, the bakery allows visitors to see the classic treats prepared and packaged and also try free samples. In addition to traditional cakes with lemon and vanilla, there are ones flavored with chocolate and coconut—as well the Swizzle, dotted with apricots, cherries, pineapple, and other ingredients.