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Inside the city’s most innovative restaurants, maverick chefs are defining modern Czech cuisine.

What started as a simple hat shop has grown over the years to a full-scale boutique with a wonderful range of women’s clothing from local designers. And you’ll find accoutrements such as scarves, gloves, bags, and umbrellas, stationery sets, coffee table books, cute odds and ends for the home, as well as children’s books and clothes. However, the hats still reign supreme—with fedoras, cloches, caps, and berets from hatmakers like Bailey, Christy’s, and Goorin Brothers.

Whether you have time to kill while waiting for your train or you simply like architecture, Milan’s main train station, Stazione Centrale, is worth a walk through for its epic 20th-century architecture. Originally designed at the turn of the century, Stazione Centrale has beautiful, monumental Liberty and Art Deco ornament in its main hall and entrances, while the platform area is covered in a gorgeous rooftop of iron arches. If you have a few more minutes, the Stazione also has some great shops, a traditional Motta caffe, and one of the best newsstands in the city.

On a trip with a young traveler in tow, a writer reflects on her first Venice adventure—and how it changed her life.

Located in the charming Haidhausen district in the heart of Munich, with an in-house S-Bahn station providing direct connections to the central train station and the airport, Hilton Munich City offers an ideal balance between convenience and calm. Enjoy amenities like a 24-hour fitness center and onsite bike rentals, plus innovative signature cocktails at Juliet Rose Bar and delicious Italian fare at MONA, each an elevator ride away from a comfortable stay.

The trendy Amsterdam-Noord district is home to the city’s newest outpost of the famed burger joint called the Butcher. Set inside the hip designer hotel Sir Adam, the sprawling, dual-level space is pure fun, with table tennis, pinball, billiards, and live DJs five nights a week. Open 24 hours on Fridays and Saturdays, and until 1 a.m. Sundays through Thursdays, this is where you’ll find chic young locals devouring gourmet burgers and fries and sipping fancy cocktails. The waterfront terrace offers excellent views of the IJ River. It’s a free five-minute ferry ride to the restaurant from Amsterdam’s main train station.

Tourism is down, prices are up, social services are disappearing, and the government is bankrupt. Which means it’s a good time to get to know Seychelles.

Locha is a hard word to translate. A literal English translation would be “a problem,” but that misses the mark. You could think of it as a “mess,” but that’s not really it either. Locha is more along the lines of “something funky is in the works.” And true to its name, Chemical Locha is all kinds of funky—and a very colorful kind of funky at that. This little store is set up right where N Main Road turns into Lane 5, and the bright green and purple logo is hard to miss if you are walking past. Duck in for all sorts of quirky, kitsch, and crazy swag. Items on sale include: A rib-tickling collection of t-shirts, including an Iron Man shirt with a turbaned laundrywala ironing a pile. Kooky bar accessories—look out for those with an Indian twist, like the “Horn OK Please” coasters. Bright stationery, including diaries, notebooks, and bookmarks you can plant (the bookmark is embedded with sunflower seeds; the idea is to read, sow, and reap). A set of funny mugs, key chains, and games. If you’re looking for offbeat souvenirs, this is definitely your place.

Never has a yummy treat been mired in such controversy as the Whoopie Pie. First, how did this burger-shaped cake with the sugary cream filling get its name? Does the name come from the exclamation that schoolchildren shouted upon opening their lunch bags to discover these delights? Or does it come from the Amish farmers, who were rewarded with these portable “pies” in their lunch boxes? My vote (and Pennsylvania Dutch lore) favors the school kids. But wait—there’s more controversy! While I am one hundred percent certain that these little cakes called pies originated in my lovely state of Pennsylvania, it seems that the state of Maine has also laid claim to their origin, even going so far as to name the Whoopie Pie as its “official state treat.” Other research points to somewhere in New York state as their birthplace. We may never know… There was a time not long ago when Whoopie Pies felt much like a prized local secret because no one outside of Pennsylvania had ever heard of them (excepting, I guess, some of those Mainers). These days, though, you can even find Whoopie Pies in the bakery sections at Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods. But the most authentic and delicious version can only be found at the Amish bakery Beiler’s in the Reading Terminal Market. My personal favorite is the pumpkin flavor, but the chocolate is also delicious. Or maybe try the oatmeal, or the red velvet. Better yet, try one of each—they’re portable!

This Romanesque Revival landmark has become Nashville’s crown jewel. The city’s main train station from 1900 until the 1970s, when railway service was discontinued, the building sat vacant for decades until it was restored to its former glory and reopened as a boutique hotel in 2016. Now on the National Register of Historic Places, the hotel retains pieces of the past—including its iconic clock tower, an original arrivals and departures board, and the solid wood staircases—while providing all the comforts of the present. The 125 guest rooms skew contemporary, with soothing tones of gray and neutral walnut, as well as cowhide headboards and custom ironwork lights. By contrast, public spaces veer on the nostalgic: The atrium lobby has painted barrel-vaulted ceilings, 100-year-old stained-glass skylights, bas-relief moldings, and ornate crystal chandeliers. It’s an atmospheric backdrop for the hotel’s “Riffs on the Rails,” a weekly series of live music performances.

Though the bagels here are hands down the best in Taipei, Good Cho’s is so much more than just a bagel joint. Housed in a ramshackle military veterans’ housing complex tucked in the shadow of Taipei 101, the shop’s quirky, DIY vibe marks a cozy departure from the ultra-modern style of surrounding buildings. Come early on the weekends for a chance to grab a bagel in flavors like sun-dried chili tomato and, if you’re lucky, a seat in the popular café. Or opt to take your bagel to go so you can browse through a carefully curated selection of Taiwan‘s best home-grown products, ranging from beautifully packaged tea leaves to whimsical stationery goods. 886/(0)2-2758-2609

Young artists stake their claim to the city’s open spaces.

Vancouver boasts its fair share of big name brands and department stores along Robson Street, but the city also has popular shopping areas loaded with independent stores, clothing boutiques, and art galleries, especially around Gastown, Main Street, and West 4th.

Not just a wonderfully large bookstore—although it is that—the University Bookstore is also a café and a fantastic gift shop. The two-level bookstore has a textbook section for students and general fiction and nonfiction for the public, as well as a good selection of art supplies and kids’ crafts and toys downstairs. The large front room is devoted to all things fun: journals and stationery, makeup counters, bags and silver jewelry, candy and novelty items, soaps and housewares. If you’re a Husky fan, they have plenty of team merchandise, too. The Seattle bookstore has frequent author reading events (shown above: a cupcake-loving dragon sketched by illustrator Jackie Morris during a Robin Hobb reading), so check their calendar and see what’s going on while you’re in town.

In the city’s once-gritty fishermen’s quarter, a group of activist chefs is reviving—and reinventing—traditional cuisine.