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A favorite of Michelin-starred chef Alain Ducasse, the Café de la Fontaine is the little brother of Michelin-starred l’Hostellerie Jérôme. The rustic bistro is the perfect place for a light lunch or afternoon drinks while watching the world go by from the center of La Turbie.

Perched among the conveniences of Mountain Village, the Inn at Lost Creek is a popular choice for those seeking easy access to the slopes or links. Winter visitors can step right from the hotel onto a chairlift, while summer guests will find their carts and clubs ready to go to the Telluride Golf Club. You can even reserve the rooftop hot tubs for an hour of private use, or take advantage of the extensive spa facilities at nearby Peaks Resort, including multiple pools and hot tubs, a waterslide, steam rooms, and dry saunas. When hunger strikes, head to the on-site Siam Talay Grille, which serves Thai fusion dishes like orchid lettuce wraps, steamed buns, and stir-fry noodles with grilled elk for a local twist.

Rooms face the mountain and feature balconies for enjoying the views, as well as kitchenettes, laundry facilities, jetted tubs, and humidifiers. Suites and condos even have gas fireplaces and steam showers.

Casablanca is known for its seafood, and La Sqala is one of the loveliest places to get a taste of the ocean. Diners sit in a leafy gazebo garden near the 18th-century Portuguese sea walls, and order the catch of the day for lunch. It’s also possible to while away an hour over coffee and fresh juices.

A trip to the Land of 10,000 Lakes wouldn’t be complete without spending some time on, well, a lake—even if you’re only visiting the cities. In Minneapolis, everyone heads to Bde Maka Ska, the largest of five in the city’s Chain of Lakes. Located in the Uptown neighborhood, the 401-acre lake is surrounded by parkland and trails, making it a favorite of locals for everything from ice fishing in the winter to swimming, biking, and volleyball games in the summer. Along the shore are rental options for nearly every water sport, from sailing and kayaking to paddleboarding, plus lockers for stashing your stuff when you’re out on the water. For those who prefer dry land, there are also several Nice Ride stations where you can access the city’s bike-share program, and a seasonal restaurant serving sandwiches, wings, and tacos.

This urban icon started as a hippie food truck housed in a surf shop parking lot on Vancouver Island. It has since blossomed into three restaurants, two burrito bars, a taco joint, and two food trucks, located everywhere from Hastings-Sunrise and Yaletown to Gastown and the Financial District. Chef Stefan Hartmann, who once ran a Michelin-starred restaurant in Berlin, now captains these elevated spots along with founder Jason Sussman. Expect nuanced options like chorizo-kale, pork al pastor with pineapple, and chicken with pickled vegetables, all on soft wheat tortillas for six to seven dollars. Also noteworthy are the meat-free dishes like “vegetable scrapple”—a delicious fritter of squash and chickpeas, topped with herbed tomatoes. And don’t overlook the octopus tostada—Tacofino not only sources seafood sustainably but also participates in Vancouver’s Climate Smart program and is working toward being a zero-waste business.

An intimate gem whose only shortcoming (in some eyes) is that it does not sit on Pink Sands Beach, the Rock House Hotel & Restaurant was a labor of love for the late Wallace Tutt, an interior designer to the stars who was best known for designing Gianni Versace’s Miami mansion. Ten individually decorated rooms in the 1940s private home turned boutique hotel echo that property’s grandeur with king size beds and seaside motifs, as well as sumptuous linens and stone lion heads mounted on the walls in the restaurant. But the real story here is the service: There is always a picnic basket on-hand in every room, a library of games and books is available for perusal on rainy days, and the concierge is happy to arrange in-room pampering treatments if the walk to the neighboring spa feels like too much trouble.

Work days in the ‘concrete jungle’ are hectic. Long hours are spent indoors, sitting at desks. It’s easy to forget that we live on an island. The East River Walk, beginning at 34th street and the FDR, is where I go to get away from the hustle and bustle. Looking out on the East River, I forget I’m in a city at all. Take a deep breath. Run/walk/bike/skip down to the Brooklyn Bridge and back. If you’re brave, continue around to the West Side.

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.

La Ménagère is simultaneously a breakfast spot, a tapas and cocktail bar, a flower shop, a café, a housewares store, and a restaurant. The large space, once home to a famous Florentine home-goods emporium, is now a ramble of beautiful rooms that serve many needs. The bright and airy bar area is the site for breakfast, lunch, aperitifs, and cocktails, while dinner can be eaten in several of the other charming rooms, including a narrow passage set with a long communal table. There’s even a downstairs space where live music is played a few nights a week.

Rodney Dunn and Séverine Demanet, founders of the eponymous schoolhouse turned farm and the cooking school less than 10 minutes away, opened the Agrarian Kitchen Eatery in 2015 to share their produce and cooking with a wider audience. The light-flooded space, with original stamped tin reflecting off the high ceiling, is so beautiful you’d never guess it was once a mental asylum. The only mental hardship now is deciding what to order for lunch, whether it’s the wood-roasted southern lamb or the hot smoked bay trout. Still can’t decide? For $70 per person, the kitchen will feed you the best dishes of the day. If you’re road tripping up the Derwent River, at least stop in for a biscuit or a lamington with Agrarian Kitchen jam.

A 1901 landmark in Hanoi’s French Quarter, the colonial-style Sofitel Legend Metropole has long been a celebrity magnet, welcoming presidents, ambassadors, and literary and cinematic royalty into its marble lobby. Somerset Maugham and Graham Greene both wrote books here (The Gentleman in the Parlour and The Quiet American, respectively); Charlie Chaplin and Paulette Goddard celebrated their honeymoon at the property; and Jane Fonda and Joan Baez took to the bomb shelter beneath the hotel during air raids (book the complementary Path of History Tour, held every day at 5 and 6 p.m., for a chance to see where they hid out).

The 364 guest rooms are divided between two wings: The historic Metropole section has decor shaped by French architecture and Vietnamese culture (think wood floors, louver windows, bird-cage lampshades, and porcelain light fixtures); the newer wing, opened in 1996 just across the traffic circle from the Opera House, has a strong Neoclassical edge with rooms in dramatic red, black, and white. With its green awning, filigree ironwork, and outdoor wood-deck seating, La Terrasse has the feel of a Parisian café, while Le Beaulieu restaurant serves classic French fare and a decadent Sunday brunch. Spices Garden showcases Vietnamese flavors, and three drinking dens—sleek Angelina, gentlemanly Le Club Bar, and poolside Bamboo Bar—appeal to every kind of spirits lover. Between the central courtyard garden and the pool sit the SoFit gym and Le Spa, with eight rooms for soothing East-meets-West treatments.

The Castelo de São Jorge, is one of the Alfama neighborhood’s most historically significant monuments. Plan a visit late in the afternoon so that you can explore every nook and cranny and learn about the castle’s abundant history. Stay for golden hour so that you can capture the light as it dances on the castle walls, and later to watch the sunset dip below the horizon.

La Glorieta attends to those attracted to tango’s drama but who eschew slick, three-hour dance extravaganzas in downtown cabarets. Free and open to the public, this gazebo, in a plaza near Belgrano’s Barrio Chino, transforms on weekend evenings into an open-air gathering place for tango dancers—young and old, experienced and rookies alike. If you’re looking to learn the dance’s steps (as well as its complex etiquette), go early for classes (5–6:30 p.m.) before the dance floor opens. Dancing goes on until 11 p.m. and is canceled on rainy nights.

Just as Rome has the Colosseum and Paris the Eiffel Tower, so Switzerland has the Matterhorn. Located above Zermatt, this 48,195-foot wonder attracts hordes of visitors, eager to see the morning sunlight beam off its four faces, ski its neighboring mountains, or even attempt to climb the beast itself. The Matterhorn, however, is not for the faint-hearted and has claimed the lives of more than 500 people since it was first scaled in 1865—an average of 12 per year. It’s also been replicated at Disneyland in California as a rollercoaster.

Just five miles from downtown Telluride and accessible by high-clearance 4x4, Alta Lakes is a sonnet-worthy area of crystal-clear alpine lakes, studded on all sides by snow-capped peaks. Camping is primitive—don’t expect running water, much less a hot shower—but it’s precisely this lack of frivolities that keeps the surrounds so pure. Area residents love Alta for its hiking and mountain biking trails, and the fact that it’s an Instagram post come to life. When you’re done exploring in nature, be sure to stop by the hamlet of Alta itself, a former mining boomtown that looks like a spaghetti western set.