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Ralph Brennan’s Red Fish Grill pairs eclectic, of-the-sea décor with some of the best seafood in town. Don’t miss the BBQ oysters with Crystal Hot Sauce and blue cheese dressing. Next door, Bourbon House is known for its towering plateaux de fruits de mer, which comes with oysters with caviar, boiled Gulf shrimp, mussels, crab fingers, and seafood salad, and its impressive bourbon selection. Donald Link’s latest endeavor, Peche, is to seafood what Cochon is to pork. On Magazine Street, Casamento’s is an institution for its oyster loaf and fried seafood platters, plus it’s fun to watch the hulking shuckers tackle piles of just-off-the-boat bivalves.

Tucked into the ancient, magical maze that is Old Acre, the Efendi Hotel looks out onto the city walls and the sea just beyond. Combining two Ottoman palaces, this labor of love from celebrity chef Uri Jeremias—whose nearby restaurant, Uri Buri, is practically a foodie pilgrimage site—took restorers and artisans the better part of a decade to complete under the watch of the Antiquities Authority. The layer cake of history beneath the hotel includes a 12th-century Crusader cellar, where you should head for a wine tasting, and a 400-year-old hammam, where you should book a Turkish bath. Also not to be missed at the Efendi: the 19th-century fresco commemorating the debut of Istanbul’s Orient Express station, the gorgeously preserved ceilings, and the rooftop bar (be sure to go at sunset, when your drinks will be accompanied by a chorus of Muezzin calls). Though you’ll be tempted to linger over the sublime views—and fresh dates—in your room, get out during the day and explore the surrounding alleys, mosques, synagogues, markets, tunnels, fortress, citadel, and port.

Melbourne’s market culture is obviously very much alive and, in the case of Queen Victoria Market, has been since the 1870s.


Food stalls to try: Börek; Bratwurst Shop & Co.; American Doughnut Kitchen; Gozleme Turkish Café; Le Croissant des Halles; Pizza by Nature; La Cantina; Sushi Kissaten; Pide Bread Bakery; Spanish Donut Van.

This appeared in the May 2014 issue.

The Harris Farms retail center that began openings in 2013 has a few additions for 2014, the first being the highly-anticipated Da Orazio Pizza + Porchetta owned by Iceberg’s Maurice Terzini. Terzini hired a pizza chef from Naples, who cooks fluffy, stretchy, and perfectly charred pies in a wood-fired, brick oven. You can’t go wrong with the margherita-like Reginella, but if you’re feeling more adventurous, try the Prosciutto, the Diavoletta (topped with hot salami), or the vegetarian Caponatina (with zucchini, eggplant, and bell pepper). Since porchetta is also in the restaurant’s name, you have to order some pig; your options are a pork platter served with lemon wedges or the Focaccia Con Porchetta sandwich. Desserts are Italian classics plus a cleansing dish of watermelon. Judging by the noise and the crowds, the pizza here will be tough to beat.

Opened in a brick-walled space that used to be a favorite local bookstore, Brewtown is the latest venture by Simon Triggs and Charles Cameron, who met while working as managers for the coffee company Toby Estate. The coffee is what you’d expect from two industry veterans—well-executed espresso drinks made using a computerized machine and filter coffee served hot, brewed, or cold and poured from a tap. But the food is somewhat surprising for a small, coffee-focused place. For breakfast, there’s polenta with mushrooms and poached eggs, beet-cured trout served on rye toast that’s smattered with avocado and feta, and house-made “cronuts"—a cross between a doughnut and a croissant, imported from New York and earning a cult following here. There’s also a retail space run by Triggs’ wife upstairs, which has plans for an affogato bar.

Marché aux Puces de St-Ouen, aka Clignancourt, is Europe’s largest flea market and the city’s favorite place to find a bargain. Exiting the Métro at Porte de Clignancourt, those in the know pass by the counterfeit designer-goods hawkers, avoid the parking lot with camper vans full of cheap goods, and head under the overpass to Rue des Rosiers. Groups of stalls form smaller flea markets, each with its own specialty, so shopping can feel like walking through a museum where you can actually buy things. The market called Serpette draws serious dealers looking for mid-century marvels, but shoppers who head as far as Jules Vallès market may score some true bargains. Of course, this is France, where food matters, so there are plenty of local cafés to choose from. Ma Cocotte is trendy chic, La Chope des Puces has live jazz with moules frites, and Chez Louisette draws a crowd nostalgic for French tunes with its simple steak frites.

“What better way to understand yoga than to travel to its birthplace?” says Katie Christ. Two years ago, the food stylist put her life in San Francisco on hold to spend two months studying at the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute (RIMYI) in Pune, India. “It was the biggest luxury I have ever allowed myself.” Katie had been practicing Iyengar yoga, a style of hatha yoga that focuses on alignment and uses props like blocks and belts, for more than 10 years when she decided she wanted to study in India.

She applied to RIMYI, where the venerable B.K.S. Iyengar (above), the founder of Iyengar yoga, occasionally teaches with his son and daughter. “It’s not for the faint of heart,” says Katie. “There’s no music. No incense.” RIMYI requires each applicant to have eight years of Iyengar experience plus a letter of recommendation from his or her yoga teacher. Acceptance can take up to two years. The year before she attended, Katie traveled to Pune for two weeks to experience life in the city.

That first visit happened to coincide with B.K.S. Iyengar’s 90th birthday. “I had no Indian garb appropriate for the festivities, so I went shopping, and in one afternoon I saw so much. A woman making a rangoli, a traditional folk art design, let me try to draw one with colored powder on the street. At the market I saw a man whose sole job was to peel garlic bulbs. I tasted the most amazing chai, made by a chai wallah who used pliers to crush fresh ginger into a pot of milk with tea leaves and ground spices. I knew I wanted to stay. [On my second trip] these experiences would become part of my everyday routine.”

The institute doesn’t provide housing, so Katie used her first visit to find a flat to rent for her two-month stay. “I had the perfect commute: a 10-minute walk through a public garden where I would watch teens flirting on benches and women in saris and sneakers taking their morning power walks.” Classes were held six days a week: two-hour sessions led by a member of the Iyengar family and three hours of open practice each day, and an hour of pranayama (controlled breathing) once a week. “In open practice, I experienced incredible generosity from students who were advanced teachers,” says Katie. “If someone recognized that I was struggling, they would come over to help me achieve better alignment. Several times Geeta Iyengar [the daughter of B.K.S. Iyengar] called out to give me specific instruction.

I felt incredibly fortunate, considering there were up to 120 students in a class.” When she wasn’t in class, Katie and her Australian neighbors, all senior Iyengar teachers attending the institute, would hit the markets and seek out the best chai, Indian sweets, and chappals (sandals). On Sundays they took trips to sights like the ancient sculptures and paintings in the Ellora and Ajanta caves. Katie felt her body becoming stronger and her head becoming clearer with each passing day. “The goal of yoga is to calm the chatter of the mind. When I arrived I had tons of chatter,” she says. “After practicing so intensely every day for two months, the chatter became a murmur.”

From $450 for a one-month program, not including meals and accommodations. 91/(0) 20-2565-6134, bksiyengar.com. This story appeared in the January/February 2012 issue.

Another of attorney-turned-hotelier Loh Lik Peng’s boutique properties (along with the New Majestic), Wanderlust is perhaps the quirkiest hotel in Singapore, taking guests on a fanciful journey that befits its name. The building opened in the 1920s as the Hong Wen Chinese School and later served as a settlement where Indian immigrants reared livestock. Its unchanged sober white facade with black shutters gives little hint of the outré interiors. Each of the four floors was fashioned by a different Singaporean design agency, resulting in various themes. In the lobby, an industrial-glam aesthetic manifests itself in an old-fashioned collapsible metal gate repainted in gold, a Frank Gehry-designed sofa, and seats made from recycled road signs by Australian Trent Jansen. Rooms on the “Creature Comforts” floor include Typewriter, where giant lettered arms reach out and up from a sofa with keyboard letters on the upholstery, while lanterns cast shadows of monsters along the corridors.

In 1992, Bill Lark opened the first new Australian distillery in 150 years, pioneering a now thriving Tasmanian industry that boasts more than 10 producers of single-malt whiskey islandwide. Most are concentrated in the south, and Drink Tasmania’s whiskey tours visit the best of them. At the original Lark Distillery in the Coal Valley, whiskey connoisseurs can learn the whole process, from brewing to peat smoking to distillation. Old Kempton Distillery produces apple liqueur, spiced schnapps, and lavender malt in addition to its single-malt, which features barley grown here at the historic Dysart House in Kempton. Belgrove Distillery takes that a few steps further, growing its own rye, spelt, wheat, and barley and using a smoker that head distiller Peter Bignell designed himself.

From the porte-cochère entry at the Westin Puntacana Resort & Club, you’ll catch an inviting first glimpse of coconut palms, manicured grass, and a long swimming pool that seems to end at the sea. The view only gets better upstairs, where all 200 rooms—including 16 suites—offer swoon-worthy ocean vistas. On the hottest of days, the high-ceilinged, open-air lobby is a great place to hang with a cold one while catching the ocean breezes. When it’s cooler, have lunch by the pool or at the beachside La Palapa, and plan for dinner at the open-air Brassa. As a guest at the Westin, you also have access to Puntacana Resort & Club’s eight restaurants, two golf courses, tennis center, Six Senses Spa, aquatic center, and Grupo Puntacana Foundation activities.

A stroll of St. Kitt’s capital, whether started at Port Zante Marina or the centrally located Independence Square, is an entertaining way to learn more about the island’s past. While the French named Basseterre (it means “low land”), the British are responsible for the town’s most recognizable landmark—the green, cast-iron Berkeley Memorial Clock in the center of the Circus, where several streets intersect. Make sure to visit the area, as well as Independence Square, St. George’s Anglican Church, and the Old Treasury Building, which now serves as the National Museum of St. Kitts. Along your walk, you’ll also find duty-free shops and local boutiques, plus a lively produce market by the waterfront if you come on the weekend.

A cultural hub for Turkish and international art, Istanbul Modern opened in 2004 as a permanent home for the contemporary Istanbul Biennial. The 8,000-square-foot warehouse sits along the Bosphorus next to the Golden Horn, a historically important port for thousands of years. The water views rival the exhibitions for your attention and appreciation, and the museum has an excellent restaurant and terrace to take advantage of the location. Back inside, the permanent collection shows contemporary and modern artists from Turkey, with rotating exhibitions of photography, design, and new media. The downstairs cinema has several screenings a week of films that complement exhibitions or feature distinctive work, often accompanied by panel discussions. The gift shop is one of the best places to buy unusual and beautiful souvenirs such as upcycled jewelry and kids’ coloring books of museum art.

This property will reopen from renovations in spring 2019.

The brainchild of miner James Thorpe, who bought the property in 1918 and also gave the property its name, Bishop’s Lodge lays claim to being New Mexico’s very first resort. And its history dates back even further, to the 1850s, when Jean Baptiste Lamy, a French missionary priest, became the bishop of the desert diocese—and made his home on a hill with views of the Jemez Mountains.

The property has changed significantly since Lamy built his tiny Villa Pintoresca and adjoining chapel: It now spans 450 acres, has a spa and stables, tennis courts and an outdoor pool. And its newest owners, HRV Hotel Partners, who purchased the resort in August 2014, have plans for further expansion.

Still, despite upgrades, this is definitely a Western-style ranch where you can hike, ride, and shoot—and cowboy boots are de rigueur.

You’d never know that this pueblo-luxe hotel was once the town penitentiary. It’s a credit to Rosewood Hotels & Resorts that the hotel group chose to renovate the existing structure rather than level it and start from scratch. And, if the rooms are on the smaller side, no one seems to mind, especially after the just-completed renovation by Jim Rimelspach, who originally designed the property when it opened nearly 25 years ago. Named after the lost tribe of the Anasazi, ancestors of the Pueblo, the hotel tastefully pays tribute to the Southwest. Adobe walls, kiva-style fireplaces, handwoven carpets, and throw pillows made from Pendleton blankets pair seamlessly with Italian linens by Rivolta Carmignani and toiletries by New York’s C.O. Bigelow Apothecaries. There’s also plenty of Native American art, including Arlo Namingha’s bronze sculpture Hano Mana and Ken Rosenthal’s silver gelatin print Seen and Not Seen, throughout the three-story hotel. The result: A vibe that is modern and sophisticated while still maintaining a sense of place.

This landmark inn has been around since 1936, when it was known as the Hotel Martin—and the adobe homes that comprise the property date back even earlier. Originally built in the 1800s, the structures are clustered around a central plaza that, today, serves as the hotel lobby. The largest residence is now the restaurant Doc Martin’s, named after its onetime owner, Dr. Thomas Paul Martin, the county physician as well as an avid supporter of the arts. In fact, the Taos Society of Artists was founded in his dining room in 1912, and he later bought the neighboring houses to rent out to writers and artists. When the only hotel in town burned to the ground, Doc bought the Tartleton House (the last on the square and now home to the Adobe Bar) and he and his wife Helen opened for business. The property has been maintained and upgraded over the years (most recently in 2006), but the look (Spanish colonial antiques and brightly patterned bedspreads) hasn’t changed much since then—and that’s part of the charm.