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This shaded park near the University of St. Thomas is right next to The Menil Collection. The park is very shaded and nestled between streets lined with classic 1920s bungalow houses. This place really captures Houston!

Opened in 2021, the first urban resort from LVMH—the arbiter and exporter of French luxury—feels sumptuous at every turn. A 100-foot pool, the largest of any French hotel, is covered in hand-laid mosaic tiles, while a series of virtual window panels display illustrated scenes of the Seine in perpetual motion as you swim laps. A penthouse apartment has its own 41-foot pool, projection space, and panoramic terrace. Plénitude, the fine-dining restaurant, earned three Michelin stars within months of opening. The hotel was designed by Peter Marino, an American known for his chromatic and sculptural retail spaces in the LVMH universe, including the recently renovated Tiffany’s flagship in New York.

After a long day of hiking, biking, running, and rafting my body usually craves something healthy but also satisfying. I found my perfect summer dish at Element 47, the newly remodeled restaurant at the Little Nell. Don’t be fooled by the simple name on the menu. Element 47’s Spring Vegetable Salad pays homage to the famous French chef Michel Bras who is known for his mastery of vegetables. At Element 47, chef Robert McCormick artfully prepares an assortment of 20 to 30 locally sourced, seasonal vegetables on the plate creating a vibrant dish that offers a surprising pop of flavors and textures with each bite. It’s the type of dish I could order every night without ever getting bored.

This 101-year-old building in the Financial District spent its first 59 years as the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. In 2003, the Hong Kong–based Langham Hospitality Group reopened the landmark building as a well-appointed hotel. The building still has its original brass Federal Reserve seal embedded in the marble floor of the hotel’s Italian restaurant, Grana. In the lobby, the banker’s box drawers line one of the walls, while the custom-designed carpets are inspired by the leaf motif found on dollar bills.

The 312 guest rooms, renovated in 2021, have a modern residential feel, with a blue and tan color scheme meant to evoke the shores of New England. Sprawling marble bathrooms have rain showers, while a wooden armoire hides a well-stocked mini bar. On the first floor of the hotel, visit the Fed, a moodily lit 1920s-style cocktail bar with a vault of rare spirits from around the world.

When I want to experience nature and get away from the city, I head to Davis, just 20 minutes from Sacramento. Davis is home to University of California at Davis and the university’s 100-acre arboretum. I love walking the winding paths of the arboretum and wondering what interesting plants are waiting around the next turn. Some of my personal favorites are the huge collection of California oaks at the far end of the arboretum, the lake, the desert collection, and the redwood grove. Pack a lunch to eat at the picnic tables or on the grass around the lake. The 3.5-mile loop through the arboretum may be too long for a quick visit, but maps are available for you to choose which areas interest you, or you can join a guided tour. Maps and a tour schedule are available on the website (link below). They are also available at the arboretum headquarters, open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

This independent bookstore feels like a cozy home, with rooms full of books and comfortable chairs in which to sit and browse. Fans of Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code may recognize the shop as the one where Robert Langdon searched for Dante’s Divine Comedy. There is an extensive selection of English-language titles about Florence, Tuscany, and Italy that range from tiny novelty volumes to large coffee-table tomes. Head to the back and you will find a few shelves of secondhand paperbacks that provide material to read that doesn’t require Wi-Fi.

Located across from Vanderbilt University on West End Avenue, this hotel has been a mainstay in the area for decades. But after a recent renovation, it’s back with some swagger, especially at the new Mason’s restaurant and bar, a Southern-style brasserie decorated tastefully with accents of Mason jars.

Paris is known for many things but until recently, ethnic fare wasn’t one of them. In the hip neighborhood south of Pigalle, YOOM is my go-to spot for wildly delicious dim sum in an environment that is both cozy and contemporary - not the dive we all tend to imagine for good Asian bites. It’s a mix of New York style and Hong Kong spirit but universally delicious.

Most people come to the tiny town of Ioannina to cruise Lake Pamvotida -- the town’s most popular landmark. You’ll find yourself on a small island in the middle of a beautiful fjord, where the water is smooth as glass and your surroundings are spectacular. Ioannina itself is an intellectual city, known particularly for its university. Several famous poets and novelists call this place home, and the city often runs several arts-related events year round.

One of the capital’s most popular bars (which becomes a nightclub in the wee hours), Bar Constitución feels like the inside of a factory warehouse. The walls are graffitied, and it’s got a refreshing mix of people from Santiago hipsters to foreign expats and university students. Bartenders pump out well-mixed cocktails and there’s room to hang out or dance to eclectic music from house to funk to ska. Constitución 61, Bellavista Phone: 56 (2) 2244 4569

During the late 19th and most of the 20th centuries, the Testaccio district hummed with activity from the sprawling slaughterhouse. Thought animal slaughter was moved away from Testaccio in 1975, most of the building has been preserved. In recent decades, areas have been slowly transformed for new functions. The place houses a contemporary art exhibition space called the MACRO, a university campus, and even an organic supermarket (open Tuesday to Sunday).

In Tucson, gelato is, understandably, becoming part of the cityscape. A handful of Italian gelato-masters have settled here, educating desert palates with tempting desserts. Here, just a few blocks from the University of Arizona, Allegro rotates its offerings in style—literally. (I mean, come on, isn’t this the coolest frozen dessert display?) Flavors such as saffron and anise, or even avocado, beckon on a hot evening.

James and Connie Roberts, the husband-and-wife team behind Toutant, opened Dobutsu in 2018 with the aim of bringing quality seafood to Western New York. At their Larkin Square spot, the menu highlights American and Asian Pacific fare, with a strong focus on fish dishes like Caribbean jerk snapper and grilled Nova Scotia salmon—though options like Wagyu beef ribs and tomahawk pork tonkatsu are also available. The Hawaiian poke bowls are especially popular, served with either bigeye tuna and sesame soy, or marinated Atlantic salmon and ginger miso. If you’re celebrating something special, opt for the omakase and let the kitchen choose your courses and wine pairings.

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.

The Place Bonaventure is widely recognized as one of the most important buildings constructed in Canada in the 1960s, though that’s not to say it’s universally loved. It’s a regular contender for the title of Montreal’s ugliest building. For the student of architecture, however, whether armchair or otherwise, it’s worth a visit to see an outstanding example of brutalist architecture. Architect Raymond Affleck’s vision was to turn the city inside-out in a building appropriate for its location in a cold climate. The Place Bonaventure was designed to include a conference center, hotel, and several floors of retail space, all along internal streets while the building presents a foreboding exterior of ribbed concrete (echoing the design of the seminal Architecture School at Yale University by Paul Rudolph) to the street. The entire complex included 3.1 million square feet of floor space, making it the largest building in the world when it was completed (in 1967). Much of the retail space was converted to offices in later renovations, though the conference center and the hotel (now the Hôtel Bonaventure Montréal) remain. The photo here was taken inside the hotel—a walk around their common spaces will give you a taste of Affleck’s vision for a new urban architecture.