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Built on the site of Roman and Celtic ruins, the unassuming 5-star Widder Hotel comprises nine medieval townhouses that were painstakingly renovated over a 10-year period by Swiss architect Tilla Theus. The results are jaw-dropping, from the unusual structures such as circular rooms and passages that refer architecturally to a Roman well uncovered during construction, to the mix of antiques and modern designer furnishings (Eames, Frank Lloyd Wright) in the rooms.

Alongside the 35 standard rooms, 14 suites also mix the old with the new, featuring works of art by the likes of Robert Rauschenberg and Andy Warhol, contemporary design classics by Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe, and original medieval frescoes, exposed-beam ceilings, and brick or stone walls. All rooms are equipped with a TV, Quadriga communication system, and two telephones.

Widder Hotel also features three great restaurants, a bar with more than 1,000 spirits, and a cozy garden restaurant and lounge open in the warmer months.

In the Akihabara neighborhood, giant anime billboards, towering Sega arcades, and electronics shops dominate the streets. The area’s denkiya, or electric appliance stores, boast an unparalleled selection of gadgets for gear geeks. The giant among them is Yodobashi-Akiba, an electronics megastore located directly east of Akihabara Station. Yodobashi-Akiba has nine levels of appliances, electronic toys, sports gadgets, and travel items. Check out 700,000 yen (about $7000 USD) Leicas as well as the many non-electronic offerings: lightweight kimonos known as yukata, anime figurines, bicycles, and books. The first and eighth floors offer sustenance and a break from shopping, with restaurants serving up ramen, tonkatsu (fried pork cutlet), soba, and sushi at any hour from the popular Tokyo chain Sushi Zanmai. The ninth floor is devoted to golf and baseball, complete with a driving range and batting center.

Architecture lovers flock to the Huangpu River’s western side to stroll the Bund, a waterfront tourist magnet in central Shanghai. There’s a glorious mishmash of late-19th- and early-20th-century styles here, from Gothic revival to art deco. Walk by the Fairmont Peace Hotel—first opened in 1929 as the Cathay Hotel—to behold its copper pyramid roof turned aqua with age. (Talk about aging gracefully.) Then hit the marble-floored HSBC Building (No. 12) to admire the domed ceiling’s eight mosaic murals, with frescoes depicting the 12 zodiac signs.

Come to this neighborhood corner establishment for the seafood, but don’t overlook the beef tartare, complemented by radish, nori, and ranch (and don’t be ashamed to order two if you’re with a party of three or more). Pricing is akin to the Ordinary, without that big brother’s fancy full experience, but it’s worth a visit for treats like tempura blowfish tails—bone-in adult lollypops of crispy, savory flavor, with lemon and spicy mayo on the side. Unconventional entrees like the smoked fish curry (amberjack one week, mackerel the next) with pumpkin and peanuts and hints of citrus, make each bite a pleasant and surprising adventure of textures and tastes. The tiny dining room gets packed quickly on weekends, and the residential setting means they still haven’t acquired a liquor license a year in, but the flavor is worth any sacrifice. The small but excellent wine list includes creative sparkling varietals, and the restaurant is one of a few places in town to serve Life Raft Treats desserts—don’t leave without a waffle-flavored ice cream in the shape of a small chicken leg, coated in toasted corn flakes, wrapping a frozen cream-filled chocolate wafer.

This property is currently closed for renovation and expects to reopen in early 2020.

An intimate boutique hotel with a B&B feel, La Colombe D’Or (meaning “golden dove” in French) is a Texas landmark built in 1923 as a private residence, for the founder of Humble Oil. Acquired by Steven Zimmerman in 1979, the “Fondren Mansion” became one of the smallest luxury hotels in the world. The unique property also has its own art gallery and Le Grand Salon event space, which has carved wood panel walls that originally hung in a French chateau. The third-floor gallery displays sculpture and oil paintings by local and international artists as well as works on paper by Picasso, Dali, and Man Ray, and there are many more pieces sprinkled throughout the property.

With only five suites (all named after French artists such as Monet and Degas) and nine villas (across the street from the ballroom), all flush with original art and 19th-century French antiques, the hotel feels personal yet posh. Bonus: 24-hour concierge service and complimentary Wi-Fi.

What started in 2002 as a little café tucked into a Newtown laneway, Campos has become one of the biggest household names in Australian specialty coffee. The company’s success stems from its simple but ambitious mission: to buy, roast and serve the finest quality coffee. Today, the Campos menu rotates more than 10 direct-trade coffee varieties grown in nine regions around the world. The café continues to experiment with beans, machines, and barista techniques to maintain its order pace of hundreds of coffees per hour. Now operating in Queensland and Melbourne as well as Sydney, Campos has recently introduced cupping classes Thursday through Saturday held in a dark upstairs lounge above the Newtown location. Customers pay $30 to compare five coffee varieties from different regions and learn the different processing and preparation styles. Sydney’s newest Campos café in the Alexandria neighborhood features a siphon bar that only serves select single origin coffees.

On any given Sunday, a multitude of Mexico City parks find themselves playing host to groups of dance aficionados, who gather together to practice their steps in a jovial, non-judgmental atmosphere. But perhaps no park has a better Sunday scene than Plaza La Ciudadela, right in front of La Ciudadela craft market, where live music typically accompanies dancers of all ages, each of them dressed to the nines in their Sunday dancing best. Women wear flowers in their hair and men sport feathers in their hats. Shoes—and hair—are polished to a brilliant sheen, and the most courteous of exchanges are shared as people ask one another for a dance. If you’re without your own dancing shoes, a group of vendors who line the plaza’s edge can supply you on the spot. Don’t be afraid to join in; you won’t find a friendlier bunch of folks to dance with.

While the art of puppetry is common throughout much of Asia, Vietnam has the unique discipline of water puppetry. These puppets are carved from wood and then lacquered to protect them from the water. The stage for a show is a pool of water, with the puppeteers standing behind, hidden by a screen, manipulating and moving the figures with rods and strings. Water puppetry is believed to have originated in northern Vietnam in the 11th century, possibly in the rice fields around the Red River Delta—flooded paddies were the original stages—and themes often explore the daily routines of rural or coastal life or old folktales. Today visitors can most easily catch a performance in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City at one of a handful of well-established theaters.

A labor of love from local brother-and-sister owners Joe and Catherine Bartolomei, this six-acre, farmhouse-style resort in Sonoma County’s Russian River Valley underwent an $8 million renovation in 2015, adding nine light-filled rooms with four-poster beds and fireplaces. The Spa at Farmhouse, modeled after a vintage stable, has double-height ceilings and pine doors for each of its four treatment rooms. The thoughtful details will win you over: a glass of wine at check-in, an attentive staff at the Michelin-starred restaurant, and fresh-baked cookies at turndown.

The journey is part of the experience at Hoshinoya Kyoto, where a charming wooden boat ferries guests to the hotel’s scenic perch on the banks of the Oi River. Here, tucked away in a grove of old cypress, maple, and cherry trees, the Hoshinoya offers a respite from urban life. Rooms feature traditional ryokan elements, like onsen-style cedar baths and picture windows overlooking the misty forest outside, and the restaurant serves nine-course, kaiseki-style dinners. A few free activities, including morning stretching sessions and tea ceremonies, contribute to the hotel’s Zen-like atmosphere. Guests can also take ikebana lessons, rent kimonos, and book meditation trips to the nearby temple.

The first of Dubai’s extravagant palm tree–shaped artificial islands once seemed an expensive marketing gimmick; but One&Only The Palm’s prime position on the tip of the outer breakwater—plus thriving starfish and transplanted mature palm trees—make the beach here feel at once natural and private (albeit with dramatic views of the gleaming cityscape lining the mainland coast). The rooms and suites, some with their own private pools, are grouped in blocks of six or nine within sea-facing, Marrakech-meets-Miami–styled mansions with beige and dark-wood interiors and freestanding bathtubs. There is a Guerlain spa on site, and the hotel’s flagship restaurant, Stay, is overseen by Michelin-starred French chef Yannick Alleno.

One block west of the Bund you can find the Rockbund Art Museum, housed in Shanghai’s former Royal Asiatic Society building (1932). Like many of the grande dame Bund buildings, RAS was dreamt up by British design firm Palmer and Turner and done to the nines in art deco style. The museum hosts its share of heavy hitters from the contemporary art world, such as Zhang Huan, Cai Guo-Qiang, and Felix Gonzalez-Torres. Rockbund is small but charming, especially the tranquil top-floor café and lounge, which give way to a small terrace overlooking the Pudong skyline.

The tram gives Portland visitors stunning views of the city, river, and mountains beyond. Grab the streetcar from downtown out to the waterfront. You’re delivered to the lower terminal for the three-minute ride carrying you 3,300 feet at 20 MPH to the upper terminal at OHSU. Linger for photo ops then head back down to explore. If it’s nice, skip the streetcar and walk back along the river. Daily workout, check. Roundtrip cost: $4. At the lower terminal, the Daily Cafe is an easy find in the atrium of the OHSU Clinical building as you disembark the pill-shaped car, built with precision by the Swiss. Head for the river and stroll along the shore in any weather. Double back along SW Bond Ave and consider lunch at Bambuza Vietnamese Bistro. Check out the pricey high-rise condos on the market in the real estate office windows, then relax in one of the pocket parks to people watch. It snows in Portland. A couple of times a winter, even downtown gets dusted and it’s a huge mess. I’ve dreamed about getting my ski gear on, grabbing my boards and heading for the PDX Tram at the South Waterfront. I’d casually climb aboard with the patients and medical folks heading up to “Pill Hill” and blow their minds.

Wymara Resort Turks & Caicos (formerly the Gansevoort aims to be as much a scene as it is a hotel. Of course, with tots wandering through the lobby with sand buckets, it isn’t quite the party you might have in South Beach or NYC. But then, trendy urbanites don’t have this—the white-sand beach of Grace Bay, or an infinity pool with wood-deck islands that can be reserved for sunbathing, private dining, or just making everyone else feel less important. The 91 rooms are designer chic, with an open floor plan and plenty of space to stretch out. Also available for booking are seven luxury oceanfront villas, located on an elevated hillside overlooking the bay and Turtle Tail. Each features four to five bedrooms as well as two private pools, expansive indoor-outdoor living areas, sunken outdoor lounge areas with firepits, and over-the-water swimming platforms with direct ocean access. Stelle, the Mediterranean-influenced restaurant, has a DJ who spins on Friday nights. And Exhale Spa counterbalances the chill party vibe with sunset yoga in an outdoor pavilion.

Still run by the descendants of its founder, Malcolm Mackay, this 114-year-old family-owned working cattle ranch in Roscoe, Montana, has been hosting guests—Roy Rogers and Robert Redford among them—since the 1980s. Lazy E-L Ranch is often booked a year in advance due to a capacity of just 14 guests who stay in three period cabins furnished with Western art, family pictures, and Navajo rugs. Instead of a formulaic schedule of staged chuckwagons, cowboy sing-alongs, roping practice, and nose-to-tail trail rides, guests have the option of a more authentic experience, joining ranch staff as they manage stock on 12,000 acres roamed by moose, deer, and bald eagles. The main draw here is integrating into ranch life, feeding chickens and horses, cleaning barns, and helping prepare family meals (though chores are optional). There are no guest cattle drives, but experienced riders can occasionally join or observe Lazy E-L professional cowboys moving 2,000 head of cattle. For guests preferring play to work, there’s horseback riding and hiking across pristine alpine pasture and barren plateaus; non-horse people can mountain bike down the terrifying Beartooth Highway, play soccer, baseball, and croquet, fish a private six-mile section of the West Rose Bud River, or raft the Class IV Stillwater River.