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Bordeaux’s world-renowned Arcachon oyster is a delicacy not to be missed. Experience it for yourself with help from Bordovino, a tour company offering half- and full-day trips to the beautiful Bay of Arcachon to climb the biggest sand dune in Europe, sample local oysters, and sip crisp white wine. Should you not be one for bivalves, the company also offers tours by bike and bus to places like St-Émilion, Médoc, and Graves for tastings at wine estates along the Route des Châteaux. Both private and group tours are available.

Arriving in Dublin on the morning of St. Patrick’s Day is like experiencing the calm before the storm. The cobblestone streets of Temple Bar are quiet and nearly empty, and bicyclists can cycle through the narrow streets with ease. This is the time to have breakfast while devising a plan: Do you want to find a place near the parade route? Should you claim a table at a pub? We filled up on eggs and coffee at Elephant and Castle in Temple Bar, and then saw the end of the parade. By noon, streets were clogged with people from all over the world -- singing in the streets, painting shamrocks on strangers’ faces -- and pubs rang out with traditional Irish songs. Don’t be shy if you don’t know the lyrics, since there’s a good chance you’ll hear the songs again. Have a Guinness (or two) and join in!

Simplicity reigns at The Charter Oak, the gamechanging restaurant owned by Christopher Kostow (who also helms the kitchen at The Restaurant at Meadowood). The family-style menu by chef Katianna Hong features “elemental” cooking, with dishes that highlight only one or two ingredients at a time. The best representation of this is the crudités, raw vegetables from the restaurant’s farm, served on a bed of crushed ice with a side of fermented soy dip. Another example? Crudo of kanpachi with grilled Rangpur lime and herbs. Most of the menu’s larger dishes are seasonal and prepared in a hearth at the center of the restaurant. Highlights include roasted pork shoulder with spiced molasses and winter squash, and beef rib grilled over cabernet barrels and beets dried over the fire. The most Instagram-worthy part of the meal may be the moment the server explains where to find the silverware—forks, knives, spoons, and napkins are stored in hidden drawers on the side of each table. During warm summer evenings, precede your meal with a few rounds of handcrafted cocktails in the open-air courtyard out front. The happy hour of half-priced beers and $3 shots of Fernet-Branca can’t be beat.

Some find this narrow, neon-lit French Quarter street appealing, others appalling. But it’s worth a stroll either way. It’s as if all the sins of mankind and then some were rounded up and corralled here—tawdry strip shows, cheap and potent drinks, the coveting of neighbors’ wives, petty larceny, big-ass beers, bad cover bands, and so on. (Bad cover bands were not technically mentioned in the Old Testament, but to many they’re the street’s most shameful sin.) The heart of the party zone stretches eight blocks from Iberville Street to St. Philip Street, with the thickest concentration of bars on the Iberville end. New Orleans allows alcoholic drinks outside, as long as they’re in plastic cups, or “go-cups"—meaning you can roam the length of Bourbon Street with your beer or hurricane in hand.

“I am a song, I live to be sung, I sing with all my heart!” Pay your respects to the man who penned “Rocky Mountain High” and spent a lot of time in Colorado. The John Denver Sanctuary is a quiet cluster of carved boulders and monuments, located along the Roaring Fork River, near the Aspen Art Museum. Many of the singer’s famous lyrics are carved into the stone, which you can read as you listen to the creak rush by. Fans gather at the sanctuary every year on October 12, the anniversary of Denver’s death (Denver died in 1997, in a plane crash off the coast of California).

In the 1920s and 1930s, this heritage-listed property on tree-lined St. Kilda Road was an automobile showroom that sold the ultimate status symbol—the Rolls-Royce. Now it peddles another sort of luxury good: the boutique hotel stay. In the lobby, the Royce Hotel honors its Art Deco past with an arched ceiling in imitation hammered gold and lovingly restored wrought-iron chandeliers, but a zebra rug and curved mirrored walls anchor the design in the present. Some of the property’s 100 rooms and suites feature two levels and soaring bay windows, while others have kitchenettes, spa baths, and balconies with views of the city skyline, but you’ll want to venture out for the contemporary Australian specialties, including grilled steaks prepared from a selection of local grass-fed beef, at the hotel’s chic 100-seat restaurant Dish. Central though it is, there’s no lack of green space nearby: The hotel is situated between the sprawling Royal Botanic Gardens and Fawkner Park, while buzzy South Yarra is just a 15-minute walk away.

If big museums aren’t your thing, but you’d like to get a flavor of the story of Dublin, drop into the Little Museum on St. Stephen’s Green, which is full of quirky memorabilia from times past in the city, all donated by the public. There are guided tours on the hour, and each tour reveals some of the city’s secrets, with letters from famous literary characters like James Joyce and Samuel Beckett, signed U2 albums, and all sorts of things on display—from badges and newspapers to old signs and even bullets—all of which have a story to tell. Set in a Georgian townhouse, with views out over the green and the excellent Hatch & Sons Irish Kitchen in the basement for post-tour grub, this little space offers a lot to love.

The Riviera was a refuge for many artists during the war, and when the owners of La Colombe d’Or in St-Paul-de-Vence exchanged meals for works of art, they eventually found themselves with a world-class collection. Today, pieces by Fernand Léger, Pablo Picasso, and Joan Miró adorn the cozy dining room where guests savor regional specialties.

This is it. The moment you arrive on-island, do not pass go, do not collect $200 — just get yourself to the La Reine Chicken Shack to immediately immerse yourself in the uniquely local St. Croix vibe. No, this is not haute cuisine, this isn’t even a nice looking place, but what it is is an institution sporting the best BBQ chicken on island. Everyone eats here from senators to sanitation workers and all walks of life in between. On Sunday’s you can even expect some roast pork added to the menu. Whatever you order, you won’t go wrong pairing your styrofoam wrapped meal with a nice rum & Coke!

The Carré Saint-Louis (also known as St. Louis Square) is one of Montréal’s most important literary streetscapes. Famed Québecois poets Émile Nelligan and Gaston Miron called this home. Brightly painted Victorian/Second Empire graystone rowhouses line the square—one of the best leafy spaces in the city. (It’s been called “the closest thing to a European neighborhood square you’ll find this side of the Atlantic” by the Project for Public Spaces.) A few blocks away is the fabled Schwartz’s Deli. Grab a “smoked meat” to go, then come here to chow down by the fountain, surrounded by trees and 19th-century façades. (The nearest subway is Sherbrooke station on the Orange Line.)

This charming bakery by the beach in La Jolla rivals the best bakeries in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Founder Crystal White, a former lead bread baker at San Francisco’s Tartine, sources the best ingredients from California, except the high-fat European style butter. Fruit from Chino Farms, organic flour from Central Milling in Petaluma, and organic milk from Clover Dairy in Sonoma are showcased in fruit-filled galettes, nutty multigrain loaves, and croissant flavors like the sweet and salty strawberry-pistachio, inspired in part by Parisian baker Pierre Hermé’s famed croissant Ispahan. The bright seating area is decorated with a cheerful mural and midcentury modern couches, but the most desirable seats are on the patio outside.

This 248-room hotel in one of the city’s tallest skyscrapers—Roppongi’s glass-sheeted Tokyo Midtown—offers some of the best views in the city, but the interiors are just as eye-catching. The property starts on the 45^th floor and espouses classic European decor, with four colorful abstract works by California painter Sam Francis, each 12 feet high, dominating the lobby. Rooms and public spaces look onto Mount Fuji, the Imperial Palace, and Tokyo Bay; inside delicate woodwork, hand-tufted carpets, patterned chiyogami wall coverings, a lobby waterfall, and Murano chandeliers set the scene. The hotel proudly touts the most expensive guest room in Japan, the Ritz-Carlton Suite, yours for the princely sum of $16,200 per night.

Founded in 1028 and built overlooking a Viking settlement, this incredible cathedral is nearly 1,000 years old and is Dublin’s oldest building. The 12th century crypt is one of the largest in Ireland or Britain and here you can check out the treasures of Christ Church exhibition, with its fascinating manuscripts and artefacts. There are also 16th Century costumes from the historical series The Tudors on display here and there are audio tours of the cathedral. Pop over to nearby St Patrick’s Cathedral to complete the experience.

This little market is full of treasures (and a few tourist souvenirs). What you get to experience here is everyone’s trade and how these crafts help support their family and village. Lots of things to buy...and they’re willing to bargain.

Wander through the historic rooms of Newman House on Dublin’s St. Stephen’s Green to explore the art of Irish literature through a series of thoughtful exhibitions in the Museum of Literature Ireland, or MoLI. The first gallery covers the founding of University College Dublin in 1854, and then leads on to an exhibit with quotes from the Irish writers. Much of the MoLI is dedicated to James Joyce, with a model of Joyce’s Dublin and the first-ever copy of Ulysses on display in a glass case. Different galleries display old fashioned desks and typewriters as well as interactive digital and audio displays, reading areas, and a film. A writers’ room is furnished with tables, paper, and pen, as well as advice from Irish writers, so you can start your own piece. Make sure to browse the bookshop on the way out for all types of literary-themed gifts including notebooks and jewelry, and grab a coffee on the terrace of the Commons cafe.