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All those Willamette Valley pinot noirs you’ve heard about? This is the wine shop in Portland where you’ll find many of them. Fresh off a move in 2016 to a former brasserie, Park Avenue Wines now covers 8,500 square feet of space and includes a wine bar called Bardot, storage for your wine (wine lockers!), and plenty of room for evening tasting events. Northwest wine aficionados will want to join one of the wine clubs, one of which focuses solely on wines from the region. As a place to start an education about the wines from the Willamette Valley and environs, it’s hard to beat.

One of Canada’s most iconic hotels, the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise is cradled by the Rocky Mountains, its grand, castle-like structure surrounded by towering peaks and the pristine, protected wilderness of Banff National Park. The hotel was founded in 1890 by Cornelius Van Horne, the general manager of the Canadian Pacific Railway, who envisioned creating a refuge for “the outdoor adventurer and alpinist.” What began as a one-story log cabin ended up helping to kick-start tourism in the Canadian Rockies, launch the Canadian mountaineering scene, and draw a host of notable names to the region, from Marilyn Monroe to Queen Elizabeth II.

Today, guests arrive in a grand lobby outfitted with imposing chandeliers and sweeping staircases. Common areas are decorated with old-timey photos from the hotel’s past, while the 552 spacious rooms and suites are all about showcasing views of the stunning turquoise lake and snowcapped Victoria Glacier. There are plenty of activities to enjoy year-round, from canoeing, hiking, fishing, rafting, and horseback riding in warmer weather, to skiing, snowboarding, ice skating, and snowmobiling in the winter. In between, savor everything from European alpine dishes, authentic Italian fare, and Canadian comfort food to a large selection of bourbons and whiskeys at the seven dining outlets, or head to the spa and health club for a pampering treatment or dip in the indoor heated pool.

In a regal redwood grove along the Big Sur coast lies a place “where nothing happens,” according to its proprietors. The highway traffic noise disappears, the filtered sunlight takes on the quality of stained glass, and the earthy smell of the forest is enough to cleanse your mind of digital and other distractions. This quiet altar of wisdom and irreverence serves as a bookstore and art hub focused on promoting the works of author Henry Miller, who lived in Big Sur between 1944 and 1962. The library hosts events throughout the year, but especially from May to October, including concerts, lectures, and book signings. The annual Big Sur International Short Film Screening Series occurs outside, in the redwood amphitheater. In the winter, the library takes on the aura of a writer’s retreat, when time stretches endlessly forward and you can spend hours browsing books, nursing a cup of coffee, and watching the light and shadows change the landscape outside the windows. Unlike a library, there’s no borrowing here, but what you walk away with may just be richer than any physical possession.

The second-oldest public aquarium in the United States, this classic attraction dates back to 1904 and has amassed 3,500 marine animals since then. The emphasis remains on aquatic life in the Pacific, including seahorses, giant clams, and deeply endangered monk seals, as well as propagation of corals like the rare Montipora dilatata. A 7,500-gallon tide pool offers a hands-on experience where you can interact with tropical fish, sea urchins, and tubular sea cucumbers. Once a month—tides permitting—the aquarium is open for visitors to explore nocturnal activity by torchlight. Water babies will especially appreciate the aquarium’s box jellyfish calendar online, which charts when the fierce, stinging animals are most likely to surface in shallow waters alongside swimmers, snorkelers, and divers.

A visit to Ripley’s Aquarium will swiftly transport you to the tranquil depths of the ocean—or to a different planet completely. This popular attraction, home to 16,000 sea creatures, features a number of galleries that show different ocean habitats from around the globe. Fancy some up-close time with jellyfish? A backlit display can transfix even the most jaded visitor. An underwater tunnel lets you walk through a shark tank. A journey into Canadian waters reveals what lurks beneath. (Hint: There’s plenty of kelp in the Pacific.) But not everything is behind glass: Aquatic fanatics can get in the water to swim with a stingray or assist the animal caretakers.

So many grand fjords crisscross Chile’s southern Pacific coast that guiding a ship through the region is like trying to decide which highway off-ramp to take to your next destination. When weather allows, the two-kilometer-wide (one-mile-plus-wide) El Brujo Glacier at the back of Asia Fjord is a glorious wall of ice waiting to be discovered, with chunks the size of cars tumbling down hundreds of feet into the icy waters below.

The centerpiece of Turks and Caicos is Grace Bay, on the island of Providenciales (known locally as Provo), where the miles-long sugar-sand shore routinely tops “best beach” lists for the Caribbean and the world. The inland area along this stretch of northern shoreline is where you’ll find most of Provo’s hotels, shopping, and restaurants. Grace Bay is part of the Princess Alexandra National Park. It has calm waters and a sandy seafloor with no rocks or corals to step on, making Grace Bay the perfect place for swimming, splashing along the shoreline, parasailing, and stand-up paddleboarding.

A short walk from Daikanyama Station is one of the metropolis’s iconic bookstores, Tsutaya at T-Site. Designed by Klein Dytham Architecture, the Tsutaya bookstore is celebrated not only for the beauty of its three buildings but also for the extensive selection of books, magazines, CDs, and DVDs. Tsutaya opens at 7 a.m., perfect for travelers who land before hotel check-in. You can have a coffee or a cocktail in the Anjin Lounge while perusing books. The concierges are specialists in a variety of topics to help guide consumers through the books, music, and movies.

Guarded by the Hammering Man sculpture outside, this superb museum collection romps from native tribal art to African masks to carvings from Oceania. Highlights include the 16th-century wood-paneled Italian Room and The Studio, a portrait of the Seattle home of Jacob Lawrence, arguably the most acclaimed African American painter of the 20th century. Check the calendar for world-class temporary exhibits, not to mention lectures, performances, film screenings, and evening SAM Remix dance parties. If you need some air, head for the waterfront Olympic Sculpture Park to catch a glimpse of art in the wild. Free to visit, this green space offers stunning views of Puget Sound and the ferries trundling across it.

Like many aspects of geography, the International Date Line isn’t so much a physical boundary as it is a human construct that tries to make sense of the world we live in. It sits roughly on the 180-degree line of longitude in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and its purpose is to separate calendar days based on the Greenwich Meridian half a planet away. Everything to the left of the Date Line is one day ahead of everything to the right; it also separates the Eastern and Western hemispheres. Things get interesting when you get to Polynesia, where Tonga and American Samoa are in the same time zone but are one day apart, because American Samoa is in the Western Hemisphere on the far side of the International Date Line from Tonga. If you travel farther west, you’ll find that the time in Fiji is one hour earlier than Tonga. These exceptions have been made over the years by independent nations to improve commerce and convenience for their trading partners. Crossing the International Date Line is a unique experience, as it’s the only place in the world where you can either add or lose an entire day in a single second!

Forever on the verge of being the next big target of gentrification, the district known as Santa María la Ribera—northwest of downtown—retains its neighborhoody, down-at-the-heels charms. Its streets are home to a mix of old-school cantinas (all perfectly visitor-friendly) and mom-and-pop restaurants, alongside some neglected architectural gems, hipster coffeehouses, and standard-issue, sometimes grimy local businesses—in short, it’s still real. The district’s centerpiece is its central plaza, known as the Alameda, and its exuberant Moorish-style gazebo (it started life as the Mexico Pavilion at a long-forgotten world’s fair). Recently restored and awash in color, the kiosk is a gem—and the proud emblem of the barrio. Note some amazing old mansions and the spooky Institute of Geology lining the plaza. The nearby Museo Universitario del Chopo—housed in a glass-and-cast-iron former natural-history museum—is a renowned center for avant-garde art that leaves no viewer less than provoked.

El Farallon clings to the cliff-side above the Pacific’s crashing waves. So close is the surf that a light sea spray may even help salt your fish (not that it’s needed). Presented market-style on ice, the day’s catch is displayed for diners to select for their meal. A banquet of soups, appetizers, sides, and sauces complement the simple freshness of the sea-to-table main dish. Illuminated only by candles, stars, and the rising moon, the dramatic setting is ripe for romantic celebrations and surprises.

After moving from Saigon to Oklahoma City in the ‘90s, Lien Le opened Pho Lien Hoa, a cash-only Vietnamese restaurant offering more than a dozen types of pho and other Vietnamese specialties.

My visit to the Chichu Art Museum was somewhat of an art pilgrimage. My journey started with a flight across the Pacific Ocean, followed with several bullet trains, a ferry through the beautiful Seto inland sea for Naoshima island, and at last, a walk of a few miles by a serene landscape to find a vessel for art under a veil of green grass. While many modern museums use its architecture to make a statement, the Chichu Art Museum—Japanese for “in the earth”— opted to become one with its natural settings. Architect Tadao Ando built the museum with the intent to “rethink the relationship between nature and people.” He also gave himself the challenge of using sun as the sole light source for the artwork. The museum is primarily made of steel, glass and concrete with many galleries designed specifically for the art pieces from Claude Monet, James Turrell, and Walter De Maria. I’ll never forget how the water lilies in the Monet painting glowed and came to life under ambient light. While underground, guided by natural light pouring from above, I felt like I was in a futuristic cave discovering relics from the past. The art, along with the architecture fused with nature, make Chichu Art Museum the most illuminating museum I’ve ever been too.

Built of mud and adobe, Chan Chan—the nine-square-mile former capital of the Chimú empire (850–1470)—was the most expansive city of its time. Wander along pathways with a guide to see wall reliefs that depict creatures from the nearby Pacific. You’ll learn where various community activities, including human sacrifices, took place.