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Surrounded by bold artwork inside and magnificent ocean views outside, guests are never quite sure where to direct their gaze when they arrive at Ellerman House. A stay here is a bit like visiting an elegant and attentive friend, starting with the complimentary airport pickup straight through all the thoughtful, personalized touches (guests might find a bottle of their favorite vodka already stocked in their room). The hotel owner is a well-known aficionado of South African art, and his private collection graces the walls of the guestrooms and public spaces. True art fans should be sure to visit the on-site gallery to view masterpieces by Louis Maqhubela, Wayne Barker, and Angus Taylor. If it’s not occupied, also sneak a peek at the breathtaking wine gallery, which features a wall made of soil from the Cape Winelands and a spiral-shaped wine rack modeled after a corkscrew.

Sitting on the edge of a cliff, this luxuriously appointed hotel makes for one of the best spots in Cape Town for a sundowner. Have a cocktail on the terrace while watching the fiery African sun meet the tumultuous Atlantic waves.

Any hotel in San Francisco that has been operating for more than a century certainly has some stories to tell, and the Westin St. Francis is no exception. From socialites to celebrities to politicians, it seems every bold-faced name has slept (or attended late-night soirees) in its Bliss and Faville–designed towers. Today, guests to this distinctive 1,195-room property still enjoy top-notch service with some thoroughly modern touches: The 1904 landmark building recently underwent a $45 million renovation by Dallas-based interior design firm Forest Perkins, inspired by San Francisco’s moniker as “The Paris of the West.” Guest rooms are painted in Parisian blue, goldenrod yellow, and peony pink, and feature original crystal chandeliers. Downstairs, travelers can marvel at the lobby’s master clock—the first example in the western United States—and study a collection of photographs by Ansel Adams depicting the hotel’s long-lost Patent Leather Bar. Pro tip: Let the hotel’s resident historian bend your ear during a historical tour.

Once a separate municipality, San Ángel—in the city’s south, nestled into its western foothills—is a leafy, genteel enclave whose relative isolation adds a soigné feel (for better or worse) you won’t find in neighboring Coyoacán. Ground zero for promenading is quaint Plaza San Jacinto, whose cute parish church (and beautiful cloister garden) is a sort of spiritual last stand amid the surrounding area’s high-toned consumerism. That said, the plaza’s true spirit comes alive Saturdays, at the so-called Bazar Sábado, an artisanal market that fills the area with stall after stall of handmade jewelry, textiles, crafts, and accessories, plus a great deal of art—some finer, some less so—in styles that go from hippie to haute. Strolling musicians and performers add to the carnival atmosphere.

Imagine a scene from Scott F. Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby where a live jazz band serenades guests as they subliminally move to the rhythm of the music, with hors d’oeuvres in one hand and a vodka martini in the other. Expect a mirrored image of the same vibrant energy and posh ambience of Gatsby’s soirees aboard the Orient Express. Orient Express, the most expensive restaurant in Delhi and voted one the world’s best restaurants, offers a world-class dining experience alongside live jazz bands and fresh food flown in daily from France. The luxurious culinary journey begins in private booths on faux carriages that beautifully mimic the legendary train. The crisp menu offers cuisines of all countries through which the Orient Express traversed, with the classic French fare remaining triumphant. Revel in the seven-course meal, with an appetizer to whet your appetite and the signature dessert to perfect the extravaganza, and of course, succulent sorbet bites in between dishes to neutralize your overwhelmed, yet gratified palate. The individual carriages of the Orient Express are illuminated by gleaming brass fittings, polished wood paneling, and steel facades which not only mesmerize, but promise to fiercely invigorate your senses.

With its exposed brick walls, small tables, and inventive Japanese fare, this Elmwood Village sushi spot is a restaurant you’d expect to find in Brooklyn rather than Buffalo. Still, chef Kuni Sato has run the local favorite since 1996, serving everything from traditional sushi and sashimi to daily specials with a modern twist. Don’t miss the Kuni’s Fried Chicken (chicken breast marinated in ginger and soy sauce, then deep-fried until perfectly crispy) or the impressive sake collection, imported directly from Japan. Guests can either grab a table, eat at the sushi counter, or belly up to the bar, but act fast when space opens up because this place is typically packed.

James and Connie Roberts, the husband-and-wife team behind Toutant, opened Dobutsu in 2018 with the aim of bringing quality seafood to Western New York. At their Larkin Square spot, the menu highlights American and Asian Pacific fare, with a strong focus on fish dishes like Caribbean jerk snapper and grilled Nova Scotia salmon—though options like Wagyu beef ribs and tomahawk pork tonkatsu are also available. The Hawaiian poke bowls are especially popular, served with either bigeye tuna and sesame soy, or marinated Atlantic salmon and ginger miso. If you’re celebrating something special, opt for the omakase and let the kitchen choose your courses and wine pairings.

A stalwart on the “best of” lists, this restaurant blends dynamic global cuisine with comfort food… set against a steampunky-sports bar décor. None of this should work, but it very much does. The industrial touches evoke the city’s heritage as a Western working town, as well as its iconic grunge epoch that swept the globe. (The bottle-cap portrait of local legend Jimi Hendrix is especially endearing.) Don’t miss the chicken khao soi, foraged-mushroom pizza with taleggio, or the sublime Vadouvan-spiced carrots with thin curls of feta smoked in-house. The restaurant’s connected to the Kimpton Hotel Monaco and also delivers a mean breakfast, from malted waffles to duck confit hash with cippolini and dried cherries.

Bangkok is well known for being a party town, but not everyone is aware of how nuanced its nightlife scene actually is. The city’s naughty reputation is alive and well in notorious red-light districts such as Patpong, Soi Cowboy and Nana Plaza, but there’s a whole lot of life beyond the go-go bars. Well-heeled Thais and expats alike flock to the Thong Lor area where high-concept bars such as the fairytale-themed Iron Fairies rub shoulders with state-of-the-art techno clubs such as Demo. For James Bond-meets-Shanghai bordello flamboyance, try Maggie Choos in Silom, one of the city’s new buzz bars. Another nightlife favorite is RCA, a long strip of nightspots, which encompasses everything from cavernous clubs to intimate, grungy venues such as Cosmic Café.

One of the most recognizable sites in Hawaii, this volcanic ash cone overlooks Waikiki’s coastline—a tectonic memory from an explosion half a million years ago, measuring almost 3,500 feet across. British sailors named it Diamond Head in the 1800s, mistaking calcite crystals in the crater’s soil for jewels. Despite its volcanic grandeur, the ascent takes most hikers an hour or so, clocking in at 560 feet of elevation gain and 1.6 miles round-trip. At the top, on a clear day, you can see all of Oahu’s south shore, from Koko Crater and Waikiki to the mountains of the Wai’anae Range.

Housed in an Ottoman-era stone building beside an old lighthouse at the port of ‘Akko (Acre), Uri Buri restaurant has been serving fine fish and seafood for more than 30 years. Must-try dishes include salmon sashimi in soy sauce with wasabi sorbet, and a Thai fish chowder with coconut milk and basil leaves. Owner and chef Uri Jeremias has had a long-standing relationship with the sea: His first two jobs were as a diver and a fisherman. Jeremias also owns the Efendi Hotel nearby, as well as the ice cream parlor up the street from Uri Buri. So for dessert, stroll by and try some of the unique flavors on offer, such as date, cinnamon, and rose.

Referred to by locals as Bustani ya Mungu—literally, “the Garden of God"—this national park is a botanist’s delight, bursting with the colorful orchids, lobelias, and lilies that thrive in the fertile volcanic soil. This veritable Serengeti of flowers is also a bird- or butterfly-watcher’s paradise, with many endemic species swooping and fluttering amid the open and fertile grasslands. The plateau is accessible by 4x4 from Mbeya. Follow one of the hiking trails along the impossibly beautiful rolling plains or attempt a hill climb in the shadow of the looming peaks of the Kipengere, Poroto, and Livingstone mountains. The best time to visit is during the blooming season between October and April.

Kona coffee is famous around the world as one of Hawaii’s best known products. The relatively small coffee growing area on the Big Island of Hawaii produces only a small fraction of the world’s coffee beans. The limited production makes Hawaii Island’s caffeinated product like liquid gold for Kona coffee lovers. Among the hundreds of coffee farms on the Big Island, Country Samurai Coffee Company operates a lush and green outfit on the Kona slopes and still grows their coffee trees in a natural and traditional method that enables them to grow tall—up to 18 feet. Harvesting requires ladders and can be time-consuming, but the trees are able to develop a larger root system, pull in more nutrients from the volcanic soil, and produce more coffee berries. To try these distinctly grown beans, visit the family owned Country Samurai Coffee shop in Kailua-Kona. The shop sells several other items including chocolate covered coffee beans and macadamia nuts and Hawaiian teas.

The world-famous Road to Hana hugs a jagged black lava shore. Just past mile marker 16 lies the Keanae Peninsula, where visitors can explore a traditional village, a stone church from 1856, and vast taro fields. The peninsula itself was formed by a massive lava flow from Haleakala, then softened by native Hawaiians, who carried soil down basket by basket to blanket the young rock. Today, the area is covered in lush greenery, which makes for an impressive sight against the turquoise sea and Maui’s famous North Shore waves. Before getting back on the road, be sure to stop at Aunty Sandy’s, one of the best banana bread stands along the Hana Highway, for a slice, a shaved ice, or a pork sandwich if you’re hungrier.

My relentless pursuit of photographic glory leads my travel partner and I to suspect locations every now and then. She would say more often than that, but I choose to plead the fifth. At any rate, I found Cabo Vidio by scouring Google Maps/Earth, my GPS, and a local road map for a location with interesting topography. Often, this sort of research leads us on a wild goose chase into the middle of nowhere (more on one of those adventures later), but every now and then, we find what we’re looking for. The image here is Exhibit A; a rocky, wind-battered headland born to be photographed. It’ll be a few weeks before I’m back on North American soil and have a chance to edit and cull my images properly, so I thought I’d share something I took on my phone. It doesn’t even feel like cheating! If you ever get the chance to visit the gorgeous little fishing port of Cudillero, make the 20+ minute drive west to the lighthouse at Cabo Vidio. You’ll be all alone on the rocks with nothing but the wind and your thoughts. Depending on the tide, you’ll be thrilled, or more than a little nervous.

The only thing better than a room with a view is a bar with a view, and YEN Bar is undoubtedly that. Located on the top floor of the hotel, floor-to-ceiling glass walls open up onto a stunning view of Taipei 101 and the surrounding city. Compared to sister bar Woobar, YEN Bar can be likened to an older sibling: a bit more traditional, but still undeniably intriguing.

At the afternoon tea buffet, you’ll find whimsical offerings such as paint tubes of jelly (a nod to artist Marc Chagall) and meringues planted in edible soil alongside dim-sum classics. Sip on a world-recognized tea harvested from nearby Pinglin District: Oriental Beauty, anyone?

If afternoon tea isn’t actually your cup of tea, YEN Bar has an extensive drinks list that includes over 80 types of whisky, a reflection of what seems to be Taiwan’s current spirit du jour.

Reservations recommended for afternoon tea.