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Book a sunset charter on Atebeyra, a boat that comes with a rum-running history (she ran booze during prohibition) for a unique evening excursion. The boat can also be chartered for day trips to the outer islands where you can spend the day lazing on deck and snorkeling in the gin clear sea.

After crawling through a few of the tunnels that have been somewhat expanded for tourists and seeing the displays of recovered bombs, people who were not involved in the Vietnam War (called the American War there) can get a feeling of the horror that occurred during those years. A system of 125 miles of tunnels became almost a complete underground city. The picture offered above is the delivery bomb of cluster bombs from the U.S. The Vietcong recovered many of these and other unexploded bombs and used them against South Vietnam and the U.S. It is a sad place but worth going for a better understanding of why the U.S. lost this war.

A visit to Little Water Cay offers the best chance of spotting the endangered Turks and Caicos rock iguanas that were once prolific throughout the islands. Local conservation efforts at this small islet have helped revive their population. Two boardwalks allow visitors to take an easy stroll and look for the lizards. You can visit Little Water Cay as part of an organized boat trip, or simply rent a kayak and paddle there from the Leeward Marina area on Providenciales. There is a visitor center on the island where you can pay the admission fee.

A new 16-bungalow beach retreat lures travelers to Mexico’s Pacific coast surf town of Puerto Escondido. When the sun goes down, locals and guests hit the underground dance club. From $213. This appeared in the January/February 2014 issue.

After decades of rule by innocuous lagers, a small revolution is brewing in Beijing’s beer scene, with a handful of small-scale brew operations popping up over the past few years. Great Leap is among them and brings together foreign beer makers with local ingredients in a way that doesn’t make “East meets West” sound cliché.

Take the popular Honey Ma Gold Ale. It has peppercorns from Sichuan, in central China, and Shandong date honey from the coast. Meanwhile, Little General IPA uses Chinese hops, while Danshan Wheat Beer includes black tea from Fujian. All fun to try. Beers at Great Leap start at ¥25 for a pour of Pale Ale No. 6. Great Leap’s flagship brewery and pub, on Xinzhong Street, can handle everything from large parties to single imbibers, offers views of the brewing equipment behind a glass wall, and has a good range of bar food, including a tasty burger and fries at ¥40. Order it and you are almost sure to get one last pint.

On a recent visit to Asheville, North Carolina, I was anxious to try some of the great restaurants I’d heard about. In the end though, my husband and I found ourselves gravitating back to the same restaurant over and over again - breakfast, lunch, and dinner - because it was absolutely delicious. We just couldn’t resist it. Tupelo Honey is a must if you’re in Asheville looking for some incredible Southern comfort food. This macaroni and cheese was probably the best I’ve ever tasted - rich and creamy, with delicious bits of bacon and other wonderful ingredients mixed in. Definitely not a diet food but worth every calorie!

Located in the heart of Orlando’s Little Vietnam district, this casual eatery does Pan-Asian cuisine perfectly, with a spread of affordable, piping-hot dishes inspired by hawker-style street food. It’s hardly a new concept in a city known for great Asian restaurants, but Mamak does it exceptionally well with small plates like beef bulgogi, golden roti canai bread, Indonesian nasi goreng, and a spectacular version of Malaysian char kway teow noodles. Come with a group so you can order a little bit of everything—it’s the kind of place where sharing just two dishes is nothing short of sin.

If you’re on your honeymoon or traveling with one other couple, Acacia Villa is a great choice. Priced at around the same rate as a four-star hotel room, but you get the privacy of staying in a home. The villa has an open and airy feel and is built facing east so you get the cooling trade winds the islands are famous for. The only downer is it is on the leeward side of Provo -- on the waterfront -- and not on the beach side. That said, Grace Bay Beach is just a short drive away and you do have your own private swimming pool.

Hit the Fondouk Kaat Smen, otherwise known as the honey souk, to taste your way through as many as 17 different wild honeys for sale. Varieties range from familiar orange blossom and lavender to more unusual treats like caper and carob. If jujube is available, note that it’s favored for its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, is considered to be particularly good for the liver and is locally consumed more as a medicine than something to spread on toast. People travel from afar to take this honey home, so the proprietor, Mr. Hicham, is used to packing it for air travel. Pop around the corner to the spice shop on Rue Bouhaj to stock up on freshly ground spices, too, like lemon-scented cumin, rich red paprika, ground ginger, sweet and earthy turmeric, and heady cinnamon.

Le Rêve rises up like a dollhouse from a street lined with bars and restaurants in the leafy neighborhood of Providencia. Completely renovated in 2011, this pretty boutique hotel works on a B&B basis, the idea being that guests make the most of the surrounding eateries. However, tea, coffee, and snacks are always available, and there is an open kitchen so guests can poke their head in the fridge when peckish. This gives the hotel a unique, homey feel.

Behind the white shuttered windows, communal areas include a lounge area with an honesty bar and a library stocked with international books. The dollhouse feel continues inside with details such as an elegant green velvet sofa, blue and white ceramics, and waitresses dressed in French maid outfits. Rooms are equipped with wireless Internet access.

I love staying in a private villa home over a hotel when traveling with a small group, and Breezy Villa by Island Escapes is both affordable and impressively chic. In a secluded hillside location, complete with multiple, swaying palms for privacy and glassy sea-foam green lagoon views that are just a shade lighter than the infinity pool melting into them, it’s easy to check skinny-dipping in paradise off the bucket list when sleeping here. If naked swimming isn’t your thing, no worries, the pool is also perfect for nighttime stargazing floats. And then there is the leeward lagoon location itself -- it is super calm and you can wade for ages through calm and crystalline water here without gaining much depth. There is no direct beach access, but a series of steps wind their way down from the travertine-tiled pool terrace to a small pier where a ladder offers direct sea access. Breezy Villa’s stylish interior is equally appealing. From the arched doorways and pitched roof in the open living room and modern L-shaped kitchen to the square-shaped original ocean-hued paintings hung on either side of the front door to the Grecian-Roman columns on terrace, I love the Zen beach house meets Italian palazzo vibe. Similar-sized sleeping quarters, each featuring a unique wooden bed frame and French doors opening directly to pool terrace, make this three-bedroom home equally perfect for families, especially those traveling with a nanny. It also works well for multiple couples.

Creamy travertine floors and castle brick walls of pearl-stone tiles fuse with Asian antiques and dark teak furniture in the Caribbean-meets-Indonesian design at Villa Balinese, on an elevated crescent fronting Providenciales south shore. From the original local art to the antique Moroccan vases and curved bamboo chairs, it makes a bold and seductive statement throughout -- and best of all, every piece of furniture in this villa rental is hand-picked and meticulously placed by its owners. With just three bedrooms, but 4,200-sq-ft of space and 30-foot vaulted ceilings, it’s impossible not to be transfixed by the Alice-in-Wonderland dimensions and sexy stark vibe encountered here. Entering the grand entrance foyer, the eye is drawn almost immediately to the impressive sunken living room, where a wall of floor-to-ceiling glass windows slides open onto a grand marble pool terrace with panoramic ocean views. The infinity pool running the length of the house was constructed with emerald-colored tiles, creating a vibrant contrast with the turquoise-hued sea it disappears into. A 50" plasma TV, which can be raised with a remote click from a recessed hiding place and swiveled to face the pool, is another one-of-a-kind design example. There is no beach access on-site, but the crystal-clear sea running parallel to the property can be reached via a ladder dock. Please note that children under 12 are not allowed, but this property works great for couples or older families.

Named after the reef it overlooks, the Alexandra Resort, located about halfway down Provo’s famed beauty, Grace Bay Beach, is a great spot for families or couples. Rooms are in groups of four-story buildings circling a lagoon-style swimming pool. There is also 600 feet of pink-sand beach in front of the hotel leading directly into the emerald waters of the South Atlantic. Beyond its mid-range accommodations and excellent location, the Alexandra recently debuted a new restaurant, Asu, which has a fantastic location right on the beach and does a barefoot al fresco dinner -- book for sunset and then after the sky blackens lantern baskets provide a romantic glow.

A whole lot of history converges at the Fairmont San Francisco—as do all of the city’s cable car lines, which offer easy transportation to the Financial District, Union Square, and Fisherman’s Wharf. The hotel was built in 1906 but damaged in the Great Earthquake and subsequent fires before it even opened, so celebrated architect Julia Morgan was brought in to repair the building. Once it debuted, the hotel quickly became a city favorite, hosting more than its share of historic events, including the series of meetings in 1945 that resulted in the formation of the United Nations. The hotel’s storied bar, The Venetian Room, also featured big names, from Ella Fitzgerald and Nat ‘King’ Cole to Tony Bennett, who first performed I Left My Heart in San Francisco here in 1961 (Bennett still frequents the hotel).

Today, the Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar is a draw for tourists and locals seeking a kitschy, iconic San Francisco experience, with live music, Polynesian food, and Mai Tais severed against a backdrop of occasional staged thunderstorms. Other dining options include Laurel Court for all-day coastal California fare and the famous Afternoon Tea, a local tradition since 1907. The opulent design of the hotel extends from its lobby—with marble floors and sumptuous fabrics—to the 606 luxurious rooms, each outfitted with comfortable furnishings and modern technologies. Of the 62 suites, 10 also include balconies with city and bay views.

Pho Ga (chicken pho) is traditional to northern Vietnam and is served all day. The best time to get it from a local vendor is early in the morning because it’s SO fresh and makes for a perfect breakfast. As a side note about this photo, I love spicy food so I thought that this was the perfect amount of chili peppers. As they warmed up however they spread a layer of hot chili oil over the soup making it very very spicy. While the colors make for a pretty picture, I had a stomach ache later. Stick to about 3 slices and then see how it tastes in 10 min.