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The Maiden’s Tower, which seemingly floats in the Bosphorus off Asia, is one of the more popular symbols of the city. Once a Byzantine tollbooth and later an Ottoman lighthouse, it’s most famous for a legend involving a princess and a prophecy that she would die from a snakebite. Her father exiled her to the tower in the hope of protecting her but, alas, the prophecy could not be avoided—a snake made its way to the island, either in a bouquet of flowers or a basket of grapes (depending on the version of the tale).

Gonçalo Alves and his wife, Marta Fonseca, spent eight years turning an abandoned chicken farm on Portugal’s wild Costa de Prata into their dream retreat. “We wanted a big house to share with people,” says Alves. Their hotel, located a 45-minute drive north of Lisbon, is a whimsical escape with a hippie vibe. Each night Alves and Fonseca invite guests to join them for wine and traditional folk music around a bonfire. The architecture is modern, but the interiors have a fashionable flea-market feel. Inside the 10 rooms and four villas you’ll find bedding, rugs, and light fixtures from Morocco and India, driftwood-frame beds, and fireplaces that hang from the ceiling. Doubles from $345. 351/2-6193- 6340. This appeared in the October 2013 issue.

From its new location on the Singel, Supperclub maintains the old traditions of one of Amsterdam’s most innovative nightclubs. In few other upscale restaurants can you take off your shoes, get in an oversize bed with friends, and savor an unconventional five-course meal over the course of an evening. But supperclub is not for everyone. Part culinary journey, burlesque/vaudeville club, cocktail bar and experimental free state, it’s a unique if somewhat pricey venue for a fun, quirky evening with friends or business colleagues. When not wintering in India, flamboyant Howie may greet you, ushering your posse to La Salon Neige, where you’ll scoop courses from hospital bowls, ash trays and sensual models dressed in slices of Carpaccio, brandishing salad dressing in syringes and deep-fried cricket tidbits—crunchy croutons! Opt for the upper level lounge and you can watch from above as dykes, belly dancers and aerial artists perform. Don’t worry about crumbs in bed; get into the act while the drag queens vamp and the dancers swirl. Between courses, enjoy a Lavender Love or Leap of Faith cocktail in the Chapter 21 bar. Or venture to the downstairs smoking room that doubles as a gay toilet. While puffing on a joint, don’t be surprised if spontaneous music erupts or locals engage you in conversation. There are supperclubs in Istanbul, London, Los Angeles and San Francisco, but this is the original. And there’s nothing conventional about it!

If you are looking for a fun, buzzing eating scene in the Wall Street area, this is it. Stone Street is a narrow, cobblestone street lined with restaurants and bars and filled with outdoor, communal tables. During lunch on nice days, an energetic crowd of casual business types from the Wall Street area fill the alley with loud laughter and clinking glasses. And after work—especially on Wednesday and Thursday nights—it’s a busy social scene. Stone Street was the first paved street in NYC. It starts at Hanover Square (off William Street 2 blocks south of Wall Street). Look for the imposing brownstone India House with the famous Harry’s Bar in the basement and walk around the building. Directions may sound complicated, but once you get in the area, follow the buzz of the crowd or ask one of the locals. About ten years ago, this historic corridor had a $2 million restoration of its cobblestone streets and vintage lamp posts, which helped usher in the new restaurants and the young crowds. Popular eateries include Adrienne’s Pizza Bar, Vintry Wine & Whisky and Ulysses Pub. Also on this street is Harry’s; opened in 2006, it is a new generation offshoot of the historic Harry’s at Hanover, a high-profile eatery in the financial district from 1972 to 2003. Food festivals also attract a hungry crowd. Look for Stone Street Fest in May and the Oyster Festival in September.

Located on the Samaná Peninsula, 300 feet above Playa Cosón and the Atlantic Ocean, this 18th-century, plantation-style home impresses with Victorian trim and wraparound terraces perfect for sipping cocktails in the shade. Inside, antiques from Asia, Europe, and Turkey; rugs from Istanbul; and details like Brazilian hardwood floors and French doors add further charm. The six guestrooms, all housed on the second floor, feature four-poster beds, mahogany soaking tubs, and private terraces—rooms 5 and 6 have the best ocean views.

Breakfast and dinner are served on vintage china in the main house, while lunch takes place a seven-minute shuttle ride away at the Beach Club. This is where you’ll also find the inn’s pristine beach, a nearly 90-foot stretch of sand that’s mostly empty, great for swimming, and considered one of the country’s best places for kiteboarding. When you’re not lounging here, visit the town of Las Terrenas (just 10 minutes away) or try to spot the humpback whales that migrate from as far off as Greenland and Iceland to mate and calve in the warm waters surrounding the Samaná Peninsula (every January through March).

An Art Deco landmark on Rio’s famous stretch of sand, the Belmond Copacabana Palace has set the standard for visiting celebrities and discerning guests for nearly a century. In the luxurious rooms, muted colors, original artwork, and botanical murals serve as the backdrop for views of the ocean and black-and-white boardwalk. Outdoors, guests can lounge around the almost Olympic-sized pool—much like Marilyn Monroe once did—or take advantage of the hotel’s beach service, complete with assistants to watch your belongings while you swim. Visitors also have access to the hotel spa, which uses Brazilian fruits and Amazonian ingredients in its treatments, as well as an impeccable concierge team, which can arrange exclusive sunrise visits to Christ the Redeemer before it opens to the public.

The restaurant and nightlife scene may be hotter in Ipanema these days but Belmond guests are spoilt for dining choices. Hotel Cipriani Restaurant—named for the Copacabana’s sister hotel in Venice—serves elegant Northern Italian, while Pérgula is bustling day and night thanks to caipirinha cocktails prepared tableside and a menu of Carioca favorites like grilled seafood and steaks. For an award-winning meal, there’s also Mee, which holds a Michelin star for its haute Pan-Asian dishes and extensive sake selection.

If you happen to be in town for Cherry Creek’s annual arts festival in July, Halcyon makes a great base for exploring the neighborhood’s shops and galleries. Crisp white guest rooms with masculine touches have Nespresso machines, smart TVs, and sculptural turntables, as well as subway-tiled bathrooms with brass fittings and peekaboo showers; upgrade to a terrace room for a private outdoor space in which to bask in the Colorado sun. In keeping with its surroundings, the hotel displays more than 700 works by local artists, with an original piece in each room, but there’s plenty of reason to linger in the public spaces. A rooftop pool is lined with neutral-hued cabanas and white cushioned chaises, and two restaurants satisfy every kind of craving: Departure Restaurant + Lounge’s Asian-fusion menu covers miso ramen and roasted-duck fried rice, while Quality Italian offers shareable lasagna, dry-aged steaks, and cannoli prepared tableside. Just don’t be put off by the $30 per day amenity fee on your bill. Though it includes standards like WiFi and pool and fitness-center entry, it also gets you snacks and drinks at the Kitchen Counter, plus access to a Range Rover shuttle for stops around the neighborhood and the Gear Garage, which lends out everything from snowshoes and a Piaggio scooter to Leica and Go Pro cameras during your stay.

Husband-wife duo Yves and Claudine Camdeborde got their start as industry pioneers with their restaurant La Régalade, the city’s first “neo-bistro” (a trend marked by high-quality cooking at an accessible price point), which they ran for 12 years. Since 2005, their acclaim has come from their Relais Saint-Germain hotel-restaurant combo located in the beating heart of Saint-Germain. The hotel blends quaint Parisian style with a just-like-home atmosphere.

The design goal was to preserve the 17th-century soul of the building, keeping its original, exposed beams and stones and blending antique furnishings and old parquet floors with avant-garde decorative elements and rococo textiles hand-picked by Mme. Camdeborde. The result is an urban inn that guests would want to return to year after year. Each of the 22 rooms bears the name of a celebrated writer inspired by Paris—from Madame de Sévigné to Marcel Proust—and a unique aesthetic theme (Asian, African, Louis III) in a nod to the neighborhood’s literary past. What unites them is an intimate vibe that instantly makes guests feel at home.

If you’ve come to Siem Reap, you’ve already got architectural wonders on the mind. And though you’ll spend your days learning about a 1,000-year-old civilization, a stay at Viroth’s Villa allows a more recent era of Khmer creativity to be contemplated: the 1960s. The decade saw the arts flourish in newly independent Cambodia, most notably in the modernist New Khmer Architecture style.

Viroth’s Villa’s boxy, petite, two-story building is one of the Le Corbusier–inspired genre’s few remaining examples (there are others in Phnom Penh and Kep, on the coast), and its owners, Fabien Martial and Viroth Kol, went to great pains to honor its clean lines and honest aesthetic when renovating the dilapidated building in 2007. Rooms use local materials to modern effect, with dark gray tiled floors and polished terrazzo baths, woven water hyacinth mats, and teak doors. Decor is kept to a minimum—a single standing Buddha, a giant frond from an Elephant Ear palm in a vase—but expertly curated and placed, lending the property the feel of a Southeast Asian art gallery. The intimate, seductive style can also be found in the couple’s second, larger property, Viroth’s Hotel, a newly constructed 1950s-inspired space that opened in January 2015.

Dutchman Dirk de Graaff left a demanding consulting position in Hong Kong to become a hotelier in Siem Reap, falling for Cambodia’s natural beauty, smiling residents, and laid-back way of life. He ran the first gay-friendly guesthouse in town before opening two hotels, a boutique hotel and the more upscale Rambutan Resort, a 16-room property, where he’s successfully re-created the traits that led him to the country in the first place. The simple but stylish rooms employ local, natural materials, with custom-made, chocolate-brown and white-flecked sugar-palm beds (of eco-friendly wood), brightly hued silk lamps, and private outdoor terrazzo soaking tubs. Modern Asian art—including comical pieces by Chinese artist Yue Minjun—adorns the walls. A lovely slate-and-stone tiled, tree-shaded pool anchors the property, its cascading water feature lending a meditative quality.

And though Rambutan’s flair is more than enough reason to stay, it’s the exceedingly personable staff that makes it a true standout. Guests are welcomed like old friends (many are on return visits); the affable check-in crew and servers artfully walk the line between doing their jobs and making time for a chat. De Graaff invests in his team—providing scholarships to further their careers in hospitality, for instance—and their mutual affection for the place shows.

Given Ipanema’s highly fashionable status, it’s no surprise that its first luxury hotel comes courtesy of aesthetic superstar Philippe Starck, who outfitted the property—his first in Brazil—with mid-century modern furniture evoking Rio’s Bossa Nova glory days. Rooms include luxe bedding, high-pressure showers, and complimentary flip-flops from Brazilian brand Osklen, while public spaces feature Starck’s Surrealist “L’oreille Qui Voit” (“ears that see”) mirrors to maximize water views. In fact, the entire hotel takes advantage of its oceanfront location—even the meeting space has a sea-view terrace.

The Fasano family made its name a century ago with Italian restaurants so, naturally, the hotel’s Al Mare takes a Mediterranean bent, serving expertly prepared seafood under sparkling Murano chandeliers. Elsewhere in the hotel, the modest fitness center offers complimentary personal trainers to guests, while the Asian-influenced spa features a Vichy shower on the roof. The surrounding beach scene may be hot during the day, but the Fasano’s rooftop infinity pool and bar—exclusive to hotel guests—is the place to be come sunset. Grab a drink and watch the sun go down over Aropador, Ipanema, and Leblon beaches and Rio’s iconic mountains.

Vasundhara Jewellers is another favorite spot of my Hyderabad friends for custom jewelry design. The owners started Vasundhara with the belief that every jewel tells a story. The most memorable moments, they tell me, should be associated with a rare and exquisite piece of jewelry that will forever ignite feelings of nostalgia. The shop is also popular for those seeking custom accessories, including diamond and ruby embellishments on an iPhone.

To succeed, a restaurant that opens in Honolulu usually has to cater to locals or derive its patrons from the ever-widening pool of visitors in Waikiki. Morimoto Asia Waikiki does both with great style. On a recent visit just before sunset, we left our car with the valet at the new Alohilani Resort across from Waikiki Beach and walked up the entry stairs to the second floor restaurant. The interior was unmistakably Chef Masaharu Morimoto. Spare yet elegant, open and inviting Morimoto Asia Waikiki welcomes the early set who may be dressed casually, to the dinner date or bar set who might want to dressy-it-up. Our table was what they call “outside”. Settling in on the covered lanai with beach and ocean views, we lingered over the drink menu. Would it be a Morimoto Sparkling Sake from the well-curated sake menu? A glass of chardonnay? An Asian Whiskey? A Morimoto Black Obi brew? We opted for cocktails with the help of our server‘s descriptions. I love Mai Tais and Morimoto Asia Waikiki calls their version a P.O.G. Tai in a nod to the Passion Fruit Orange Guava juice mixture so famous in Hawaii. They make theirs with fresh juices and with white and dark rums and a splash of Cointreau. It had just the right balance. My dinner companion tried a North Shore Mule made with premium vodka, passion fruit juice, kabosu (a citrus) juice and ginger beer. It was so incredibly refreshing and a perfect libation to toast the surfers riding the waves as the sun turned the sky orange and slipped below the ocean. Looking around the room, the clientèle were a mix of visitors, business people entertaining guests and a few locals, but it was early. We took a look another look at the menu as our server walked up again to deftly explain the nuances of each dish. The menu is built to share which is great because there are so many things you’ll want to taste. Chef Morimoto’s concept for this restaurant is a combination of Pan-Asian foods. You’ll find Chinese, Japanese, Thai and Korean style dishes and flavors along some Western twists to ingredients. Like the steamed “pancake” served with the Morimoto Peking Duck is more of a tortilla. And yes, in addition to the eclectic menu you can have a N.Y. Strip steak if you’d like. We ordered a Beef Carpaccio starter flavored with yuzu soy and ginger. It was one of the most tender and delicious I have ever tasted because it is made with Japanese Washugyu beef. Arriving at the exact time we were ready for it, the creamy Buri Bop was mixed at our table by our waiter. After enjoying that simple rice dish, the Morimoto Asia Waikiki signature dish, the Morimoto Peking Duck arrived. Succulent and tender, it’s served with apricot sweet chili sauce and hoisin miso by our waiter who assembles our first bites enveloped in a steamed pancake, table-side. There so many options to suit your own style and preferences. Two local ladies next to us made a meal out of Tonkatsu Ramen and Chicken Pho accompanied by their bottle of wine. Too stuffed for dessert we would have had the Almond Pudding with kuromitsu (black sugar syrup), tropical fruit and oshiruko (sweet bean) or the little filled doughnuts with whipped cream,or the choice of strawberry yuzu, coconut, or passion orange guava sorbets. But alas, we just couldn’t do it. Making our way out of Morimoto Asia Waikiki we noticed the restaurant was full and the bar was packed. The pleasant hum of people enjoying their experience filled the bar. Looks like the locals love this place too. Dinner reservations a must, open for dinner only. Note on Chef Morimoto. He began at age 24 in his native Japan hometown of Hiroshima, with his own restaurant. After learning the art of his sushi he moved to America which presented him with possibilities to expand his repertoire. In 1999 he became Food Network’s Iron Chef, his name and skills familiar to millions of Americans. After a stint at Nobu as Executive Chef he opened in Philly. Following he opened Wasabi in Mumbai and New Delhi. Morimoto New York followed. There are a string of Morimoto restaurants from Bangkok to Tokyo including his Morimoto Ramen and Sake. Dubai has opened a Morimoto Dubai and the new concept Momosan by Morimoto restaurant is also opening at Alohilani Resort for casual dining to include ramen, gyoza, yakitori and the Oahu North Shore island classic garlic shrimp.

Dutch restaurants are not renowned for their customer service. But at Yumi Sushi off Max Euweplein, you control when and what you’re served because you fetch your own selections from a rotating conveyor belt. Plates are color-coded according to price and the bill is calculated by counting plates. At €2.25‒6/plate, you can rack up quite a bill if you’re not careful. But the food is fresh and delicious (nothing stays on the belt for more than two hours), and you can be in and out quickly if time is an issue. The concept is not new, but it’s especially nice in Amsterdam, where hospitality personnel are paid more than servers in America, thus typically don’t exert themselves for tips. Here, you’re on your own at the bar, where fresh offerings come around immediately after they’re prepared by Dutch and Asian sushi chefs as you watch. The interactive component adds to the fun. The sleek, contemporary restaurant is adjacent to Leidseplein, so you have an overview of the people parade through big windows that keep the place bright. It’s not the most gezellig dining option in this bustling area, but it’s a great spot for a fast, no-frills (if somewhat pricey) meal. At tables, €12–40 menus come with miso soup, rice, dumplings, 12–40 pieces of sushi, and fried bananas with ice cream—a better deal than the rotating sushi if you don’t mind the chef’s selections. Hot dishes like chicken yakitori, breaded shrimp, gyoza dumplings and grilled asparagus also can be ordered at the bar.

Take the afternoon off and wander along the many lanes of Koregaon Park. You’ll encounter an eclectic mix of establishments: Hole-in-the-walls, chic cafes, pubs, food stalls, fine dining restaurants, fast food chains, designer boutiques, and street markets. You’ll also get to see how the other half live. Sprawling bungalows with ornate gates and name plates dot these lanes, each one grander than before. The sheer opulence of the houses here will make your jaw drop. But the real magic of a walk in these parts lies with the ancient banyan trees lining the streets. They stand tall and wide with their aerial roots dropping down in clusters and almost matching the length of the trees, creating a strange but beautiful canopy. Despite the constant flow of traffic on the main outer road, there is quiet to be found here. The car horns are replaced by chirping bird calls, and an occasional laugh might float through an open window.