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The charming Róże i Zen (Roses and Zen) is a café-restaurant, located between two neighboring buildings on a somewhat-secret garden patio that can only be described as magical. In this enchanted setting, guests sit comfortably and take their time, whether in the company of friends, chatting with colleagues, or enjoying a romantic date. Beyond its atmosphere, Róże i Zen is known for its short but delicious menu, filled with freshly made dishes and desserts like homemade pastries and cakes. Whatever you choose, pair it with something from the extensive coffee and tea selection.

This Playa del Carmen restaurant takes its name from a traditional Mexican dish known as aguachile: chili-marinated shrimp with lime juice, onion, and sometimes other ingredients that lend it a strong, spicy-citrus flavor. With its open-air setting and laid-back, beachy style, plus a location a few blocks from bustling 5th Avenue, Los Aguachiles is in fact more local hangout than tourist joint. There’s an extensive menu of other casual Mexican seafood, most notably delicious tacos and tostadas (crispy tortillas piled high with traditional ingredients), as well as mezcal cocktails and chamochela (michelada-style beer mixed with sauces, then rimmed with chili powder and decorated with a shrimp).

The Carmel Market is the largest outdoors market in Tel Aviv and sells everything from toiletries, clothes, meat, fruit and vegetables and some delicatessen cheese. Like in a lot of outdoors markets, the fruit and vegetables are displayed in such a way you can touch, smell and sometimes even taste it before you buy. The outdoors markets (shuk) are busy, noisy and crowded but they are also a micro-cosmos sometimes of the country’s nation. Markets in Israel are opened quite early in the morning and close around 7 or 8. Friday before the Shabat, is mostly the most busiest days as people in a hurry to get food for the weekend. Saturday Shabat the markets are closed. Almsot every city in Israel has an outdoor market (shuk). Some of the well known ones are: Kerem Hateymanim, a a small neighborhood named after the immigrants from Yamen. The most famous shuk in Jerusalem is Machne Yehuda, which is quite a big outdoor place, very busy with a mix crowd of Jews, Muslim, Christians, Orthodox and seculars. In Haifa the shuk is in the arab quarter in Vadi Nisnas, the market has bakeries, fish and seafood stores and grounded arabic coffee. In recent years some main cities have Farmer markets, which take place mostly on Fridays.

This unpretentious and welcoming old-fashioned restaurant is a favorite with locals and tourists alike, and many guests are regulars. The elegant interior design features traditional linens on tables and modern art on brick walls, and the dining space is split into multiple small rooms as well as an outdoor patio. The food is local, with a selection of Venetian classics such as Canastrelli scallops and grilled orata fish (bream) with zucchini sauce. The pasta is homemade, and beyond fish and seafood, there are plenty of meat choices. The wine list is carefully curated by one of the owners. Service is friendly and efficient.

Carmen lies at the crossroads where quality, creativity, and sustainability (plus every other big-city culinary trend) meet. The namesake proprietress, alongside musician husband Rob Pevitts (both San Francisco Cordon Bleu graduates), is the genius who imported the restaurant’s California-sybarite style to Cartagena. She also brought a passion for everything that comes from the sea, and even imported her father, who’s responsible for serving up crab, lobster, fish, and octopus in line with standards he picked up on his many travels in New York and Japan.

Just across the street from the Pera Palace Hotel, Meze by Lemon Tree is an intimate restaurant—with seating for about 30—and a limited menu with four meat entrées and three fish ones. The main attraction, however, is the meze. Sometimes innovative (as with a seaweed salad with ginger) and other times traditional, they are all tasty. Pick your cold choices from a refrigerated case; the menu varies daily but you can expect some marinated fish options, bean and grain dishes, and pickled vegetables. Each portion for two is 11TL. Hot options may include fried fish and baked phyllo dishes. The wine and raki list is extensive. Leave room for the Balli Bademli Cevizli Kaymakli Muz or, in English, bananas topped with nuts and clotted cream, drizzled with honey. The unusual addition of chili sauce gives this sweet dessert a savory and spicy edge.

For those of us used to seeing chicken cut into parts, wrapped in plastic, and cooling in supermarket refrigerators, a trip to a local Peruvian market is fascinating and a bit daunting. At the biggest market, San Pedro, just up the street from the Plaza de Armas, you’ll find fruits, vegetables, alpaca charqui (the Quechua source of our word jerky), pig’s heads, herbs, fruit juices, weavings, and much, much more. You’ll see a fair number of foreigners wandering here as well, so for an experience that feels more authentic, try San Blas Market or Rosaspata, both off the tourist track.

The city’s most historic food hall is housed in a grand old building with a distinctive arched roof of copper and glass that lets light flood into the bustling interior. Come here to browse the 40 or so stalls and buy cakes, cheese, fish, meat, and vegetables to take away, or better yet, perch at a counter and eat right there amid all the hubbub of the market. The building was completed in 1889 and was landmarked as one of the country’s important buildings in 1985.

Fleetwood Mac front man Mick Fleetwood is behind this bar and restaurant, located on a third-floor rooftop in Lahaina. Here, guests sip drinks under beige umbrellas while taking in views of the dreamy blue Pacific. To pair with award-winning cocktails like the Heart of the Jungle (Cynar, Velvet Falernum, coconut rum, and lemon juice), which comes in a tiki artichoke, executive chef Eric Morrissette serves a menu of elevated bar bites, fresh local fish, and meatier dishes like filet mignon with peppercorn reduction. If you’re not a cocktail person, know that the robust drink menu also features beers from Maui Brewing Co. and Kohola Brewing as well as exclusive wines like Krug Brut from Reims, Luberri Gran Reserva rioja, and even a Chateau Musar red blend from Lebanon.

This five-star beachfront hotel toes the line between being a hub of activity and a luxurious, only-in-Southern-California hideaway. For restoration, head to the sprawling spa for a customized wellness-oriented treatment or a meditation class. Mind cleared, make your way to the on-site outfitter Compass Sports—where staff will coordinate local mountain biking, paddleboarding, hiking, and surfing expeditions—or to the palm tree–lined, mosaic-tiled pool. Big ocean views and a light, airy design define the 250 rooms; for guests seeking extra solitude and space, there are bungalow suites, which are essentially private beach houses. At the hotel’s three eateries, it’s all seasonal all the time, from the fresh morning juices to evening cocktails. That ethos peaks at the fine-dining restaurant Studio, where executive chef Craig Strong creates elegantly plated French-meets-California dishes using locally sourced fish and meat, along with vegetables picked from the hotel’s 1,000-square-foot garden. Pro tip: In a setting this transporting, you almost want to break into song. Good news—the hotel will rent out mini guitars to guests for the duration of their stay.

Situated closer to Cambodia than Vietnam in the Gulf of Thailand, Phu Quoc has arguably the best beaches in the country. An international airport opened in 2012, raising the island’s profile and bringing in droves of visitors. Despite this, the island retains a laid-back, underdeveloped charm, and its coast is still dotted with small fishing villages with brightly painted boats. The interior of the island includes plenty of forest, while some of the land is earmarked for growing black pepper—pepper from here is famous throughout Vietnam. The best beach lies to the west of the town of Phu Quoc; it’s a 13-mile long straight stretch with golden sands, coconut palms, and clear turquoise waters. The An Thoi Islands, south of Phu Quoc but still part of its marine park, offer excellent snorkeling and diving during the dry season from December through May.

With its pristine beaches, emerald lagoons, and wildlife-filled jungles, Manuel Antonio National Park is considered one of the world’s most beautiful natural wonders. There’s no better place from which to explore it than the five-star Arenas del Mar, an 11-acre hotel and reserve that’s set atop rain-forested cliffs overlooking the Pacific and delivers just the right amount of luxury within walking distance of the park. (Just don’t be surprised to cross paths with the occasional monkey, sloth, crab, or iguana.) The rooms on the upper level have ocean views and feature hot tubs on large terraces; beachfront rooms are a particularly good choice for families with children thanks to easy access to the lower pool and the casual Playitas Restaurant. But the resort is also an unexpected culinary beacon, serving sustainable dock-to-dish seafood caught by local fisherman that morning and certified gluten-free options alongside traditional Costa Rican specialties.

When you need to get out, but you are not sure where to go, that is the precise moment to remember that it’s not about the destination, it’s about the drive. Visions of rambling hills, populated with quaint, artful farmhouses like this one are an integral part of the southern landscape of Skåne, southern Sweden. I know this isn’t Heidi country, but somehow these farmhouses remind me of a peaceful, storybook lifestyle, where you eat good, dark bread, fresh goat cheese, breathe in the brisk, fresh air, and your cheeks immediately turn rosy.

Tourists visiting Tanzania usually spend a few days on safari, spotting lions and zebras from their 4x4 vehicles. But clever tourists go on to experience an equally thrilling marine safari off the coast of Pemba Island. Among the island’s several luxury resorts is Fundu Lagoon, a boutique beach hotel founded by British fashion and film designer Ellis Flyte. The property has its own diving facility, called Dive 710. The shallow coral lagoons, warm clear water, and unique locations like the Emerald Reef—an undersea garden of green-hued corals—make this region one of the best dive sites in the world. Divers off Pemba can expect to see fish of every color as well as sea turtles and rays.

You really can’t ask for fresher beer than they serve at the Pike. This huge pub is actually built around the equipment that is brewing the next batch as you drink. It’s the brainchild of Charles Finkel, whose passion is evident in this glorious shrine to beer, with his collections of bottles, ads and vintage merch covering every square inch of the place. When we visited, he was actually putting up some beer-themed stamp collections on one of the few remaining patches of uncovered wall; we got chatting, and in his enthusiasm he insisted on taking us down to the basement for a tour of the workfloor. Charles just adores what he does and you can taste it in the microbrews, a selection of lovingly crafted beers that you’ll struggle to find outside the Pacific Northwest. I loved “Naughty Nellie,” a golden ale that slips down rather too easily, but there’s more than a dozen types to choose from not to mention seasonal varieties (we visited at Halloween, when a special Pumpkin ale was on tap). A good way is to buy the tasting menu, which includes around eight of their flavours (although beware, some of them are fairly strong and might go to your head). The Pike’s easiest to find if you approach it from 1st Avenue, through Pike Place Market, although we stumbled onto it in Post Alley, where you can get an elevator up to the pub. We stumbled upon it when we were just gasping for a drink—but we got so much more.