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The Ritz-Carlton, Los Angeles occupies the top four floors of a 26-story, LEED-certified tower in downtown L.A. Here, every room, restaurant, fitness machine, and rooftop poolside lounger has unparalleled panoramic views of the Los Angeles basin. That alone would be enough to rest on, but this is the Ritz-Carlton, so the hotel is also home to two Wolfgang Puck restaurants, one seriously decadent spa, and sleek, modern guest rooms with everything you’d expect from the classic luxury brand.

The other impressive thing about the hotel is its location at the heart of the entertainment-residential complex L.A. Live. This puts the best of downtown’s entertainment quite literally at guests’ feet, with the Staples Center, Microsoft Theater (formerly Nokia Theatre), Grammy Museum, and loads of restaurants and shops all right there. Outdoor movies and concerts, red-carpet events, and sports events happen right here all the time; if you don’t have tickets, just ask the concierge.

Situated on Shoal Creek, just a skip downstream from Wildcat Park in Joplin, Grand Falls is the largest continuously flowing waterfall in Missouri. While it’s just 12 feet high and 163 feet wide, it’s a glorious example of Missouri’s natural beauty—and a popular place to fish and swim for generations of locals. There’s an outcropping of chert around the falls that fills with water to form natural pools. Splash around there on a hot summer day, then find a shady spot to relax over a picnic lunch.

Classic-film buffs well know the pivotal scene on the Riesenrad, the giant Ferris wheel in Vienna’s Prater park which lies between the Danube and one of its side canals. In the film version of Graham Greene’s noir tale The Third Man, Orson Welles, as Harry Lime, relates his famous Swiss cuckoo clock analogy to Joseph Cotten while on the ride. Built in 1897 for Emperor Franz Joseph I’s golden jubilee, the Ferris wheel was for a long time the world’s tallest. After a period of scruffiness late last century, the Prater and its old-fashioned amusement park are again popular. The greenery alone makes for wonderful strolling or biking, with the Schweizerhaus restaurant’s beer garden the perfect place for schnitzel or succulent Schweinsstelze (pig’s feet).

Located along the eastern border of the four-million-acre Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, the island’s first national park mixes swamp gums, stringybarks, and massive tree ferns with snow gums and deciduous beech trees at higher elevations. Depending on the season, you might walk the suspension bridge to the three-tier stunner Russell Falls or take the Pandani Grove walk around Lake Dobson—keep your eyes peeled for platypus. In winter, skiers, snowboarders, and backcountry trekkers can explore the lakes and glacial terrain of the Tarn Shelf. In autumn, the same area blazes red and orange on hikes to the Twilight Tarn Hut, an unofficial ski museum. Five other huts offer basic accommodation year-round at 3,280 feet.

I looked at shoes at every souk in every medina in every city and town in Morocco, but ... unfortunately, their sizing did not cover my apparently giant feet. Oh well. I still enjoyed the looking!

Usually I take a train across the Øresund Bridge, an engineering marvel that connects Malmo, Sweden, to Copenhagen, Denmark. Unfortunately, the train travels below the vehicle deck, which means you can’t actually see the bridge. And this is a bridge worth seeing. The crossing itself is about 10 miles. Coming from the Swedish side, the first five miles of your trip is over a bridge that floats 187 feet above the water before briefly landing on an island and then diving into a tunnel beneath the sea. The girder and cable-stayed bridge section has two pairs of free-standing cable-support towers that seem to grow in height as you approach . . . until they disappear into the sky. Even on a road that is more than 200 feet above the surface of the water, the tops of those towers are still almost another 400 feet above. Rent a car and take a trip across (either Copenhagen or Malmo makes a good day trip), but be prepared to pay a hefty fee for the privilege. The toll is roughly $60 U.S. each way. Øresund Bridge English-language web page has current toll information: http://uk.oresundsbron.com/page/1087

Seoul’s Folk Flea Market is a place where you can buy anything, I mean anything! This scary contraption looks like an invention of a comic book super-villain, but for the small price of 5 dollars you could be tightening those crow’s feet and zapping imperfections in no time! Huzzah! This is truly a special market—with more random wingdings than your grandparents’ attic. To get to the flea market, head to Sinseoldong Station on the light green line, Line 2. I recommend exit 10. After exiting, execute a U-turn, then walk straight for about 20 feet, take a right and walk straight for 280m. Along the way you will see vendors on the street and signage guiding you to the main building.

Mrs Sippy is one of the most gorgeous pool clubs around. The aqua-blue saltwater pools, surrounded by white loungers and a backdrop of palm trees, make the club very Instagram-friendly. Poolside, diving boards at one, three, and five meters (3.2, 9.8, and 16.4 feet) are for the brave or silly and provide a floor show for the sunbathers. A visit to this beautiful tropical oasis comes with a Seminyak-style price tag on cocktails, so take advantage of happy hours and drink specials (in particular, Sippy Sundays, with two-for-one frozen cocktails all day long). Loungers can be reserved ahead by phone.

One of the most recognizable sites in Hawaii, this volcanic ash cone overlooks Waikiki’s coastline—a tectonic memory from an explosion half a million years ago, measuring almost 3,500 feet across. British sailors named it Diamond Head in the 1800s, mistaking calcite crystals in the crater’s soil for jewels. Despite its volcanic grandeur, the ascent takes most hikers an hour or so, clocking in at 560 feet of elevation gain and 1.6 miles round-trip. At the top, on a clear day, you can see all of Oahu’s south shore, from Koko Crater and Waikiki to the mountains of the Wai’anae Range.

A few blocks up from the beach, the Coconut Waikiki is a bright and cheery budget-minded boutique hotel. The rooms are plenty roomy (197 to 265 square feet for the standard quarters; up to 1,200 square feet for the largest suites), and all have kitchenettes and private lanais. The look is fresh and modern, with light wood, white linens, and pops of color in armchairs and pillows. Amenities are minimal (no restaurant, no bar, and a teeny pool), but there’s free, speedy Wi-Fi, DIY laundry (for a fee), and, every morning, friendly international guests gathering in the lobby to toast their own waffles at the complimentary continental breakfast.

More commonly known as Turtle Beach, this Oahu North Shore cove often attracts honu, aka Chelonia mydas, the largest of the hard-shelled sea turtles. These big, friendly giants can reach 400 pounds as adults and are herbivorous, feeding primarily on algae and seagrasses, abundant year-round in the warm, shallow waters. Summer’s gentle surf—swells averaging just two feet—increase your odds of quality turtle time. Cross the road carefully and keep at least six feet away from the endangered turtles as they sunbathe onshore (mind any “no-go” zones maintained by volunteers). Avoid swimming here: The currents and beach rocks make it challenging.

Starting from the historic Chautauqua Park Ranger Station located on the southwest side of Boulder, the most direct route to this popular overlook and geologic feature is 1.6 miles with a nearly 1,300-foot vertical gain. Out of the parking lot the route starts on a gentle climb on a well-maintained trail across the slopey grasslands and into the shaded ponderosa pine forest. Once above the lower loops, the trail narrows some but is clear and well-marked with signs. Then the true vertical gain begins, with a mix of switchbacks and stone steps. Don’t be fooled by the crest over the eastern ridge coming down from Green Mountain. The trail dips about 150 vertical feet before starting the final climb to the arch.

One of Maui’s best hikes, this trail climbs 800 feet through the lush Kipahulu area of Haleakala National Park. Half a mile from the visitor center, an overlook provides sweeping views of the gorge and the almost-200-foot-long “horsetail” of Makahiku Falls. Continue on past a sprawling banyan, stopping to marvel at the sunlight trickling through the dense bamboo forest. Here, you’ll also find the even more dramatic cascade of Waimoku Falls, which plunges 400 feet down a sheer-walled lava amphitheater. If you’re wary of tackling the four-mile round-trip hike by yourself, know that park rangers offer guided tours every Sunday at 10 a.m. Reservations are available at 9 a.m. a week ahead of time.

If the viewing platform from the 122nd floor of the Burj Khalifa doesn’t induce vertigo, why not jump out of a perfectly good airplane at Skydive Dubai? The view of the Palm Jumeirah from 13,000 feet up will literally take your breath away—falling from that high above the ground tends to do that. If that sounds a little too extreme, give one of the biggest vertical wind tunnel in the world a go at Inflight Dubai. The tunnel, 16.5 feet in diameter, produces wind not by the inescapable force of gravity but by four 2,000-hp electric motors that let you experience skydiving without ever jumping out of an airplane. Tthe folks at Inflight Dubai opened an even bigger wind tunnel at Palm Jumeirah.

Get up, up, and away with Lake Tahoe Balloons. The company launches its colorful hot air balloons not from land but from the surface of the lake via the Tahoe Flyer, the world’s only certified balloon launch-and-recovery boat. Trips begin with a 5:30 a.m. boat ride to the mid-lake launch site. Once the balloon is in the air, passengers and pilot float up to 3,000 feet above the water’s surface for bird’s-eye views of the entire Tahoe basin. On the clearest days, views extend southward all the way to Yosemite National Park. After the flight, everybody celebrates with a champagne toast—then heads back to their hotel for a nap.