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The Common becomes extraordinary on winter evenings when the Christmas tree is up and soft lights seem to hold back the twilight chill, but the truth is there’s no bad time to visit the nation’s oldest public park. The former cow pasture has been a focal point for Boston’s history and culture since its inception in 1636—a site for riots and rallies from the Revolutionary War to the Vietnam War era as well as weddings, hangings, and burials. Summer splashing and winter skating at the Frog Pond are local traditions, and you can spend hours wandering from landmark to landmark (like Augustus Saint-Gaudens’s famous bas-relief Memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and the Massachusetts Fifty-Fourth Regiment, or the Soldiers and Sailors monument atop Flag Staff Hill). Or you can just laze in the sun on the park’s west-side lawn.

For 20 years now, the Spring Mountain corridor north of the Las Vegas Strip has been a hotbed of hot pots—and every other Asian dish under the desert sun. When celebs such as Anthony Bourdain and Penn Jillette raved about the real-deal northern Thai cuisine at Lotus of Siam, chowhounds followed. Tell your friends you’re finally making the trip out to the strip mall and they’ll tell you to avoid the items you can order from the takeout joint at home: no pad thai, no chicken satay. They’re right. Dive into the last page of the menu, the one about dishes from Northern Thailand, then entrust your tastebuds to the award-winning hands of Chef Saipin Chutima and try her larb or the jackfruit curry, anything with ground pork sausage, the khao soi (egg noodles and meat in a coconut curry sauce), the nam prik ong (a chunky mix of pork, tomato, and red chili, served with lettuce and raw vegetables), or the whole fish with chilis. The food is spicy, yes, and the afterburn is serious, but the depth of flavor is sublime enough to make you weep with regret the next time you have to call your local takeout place for delivery.

Located among several other hotel behemoths in Nob Hill—such as the neighboring Fairmont—the Ritz Carlton San Francisco makes a strong impression right from the outset. It’s housed within a neoclassical building that was originally designed as the Pacific Coast headquarters of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. The entrance’s large columns and ornate stonework befit its 1909 birth year, a style that continues on into the chandelier-and-marble decorated lobby.


Though historic, the hotel is not stuck in time. A 2015 revamp brought the hotel’s 336 guest rooms and suites squarely into the present day, with effortlessly elegant decor, luxurious Frette linens, and comfortable, lounge-worthy spaces. And despite the culinary temptations that await just beyond the top-hatted valets, be sure to enjoy at least one cocktail at the in-house bar and lounge (our favorite: a martini shaken with a novel, yet effective, turn-of-the-century contraption) or a glass of champagne in the sunny outdoor courtyard.

Two veteran chefs from Austin’s popular Uchi restaurant empire draw from various traditions for this modern take on Chinese cuisine. You will find inspiration from the Philippines in a chicken and rice congee dish fragrant with cilantro, jasmine, and ginger, while Texas grapefruit puts a local citrus spin on crunchy chicken. The lively atmosphere pulses with a hip-hop beat and features an oversize portrait of a panda bear draped in a gold rope necklace like an ursine version of rap legend the Notorious B.I.G. The vibe is the first clue about the irreverent attitude of a kitchen that drops classics like cumin beef and new-school favorites such as sunchoke fried rice.

This hotel is on our list of The 11 Best Hotels in Chicago.

Chicago invented the skyscraper, and some of the world’s most elegant examples define the city’s skyline. You can stay in the coolest one of them all, designed by German American architect Mies van der Rohe and run by Langham Hotels. To access the Langham Chicago’s minimalist-yet-opulent 268 guest rooms (including 48 suites), you must first check in at the second-floor lobby; its ceiling is hung with silver pebbles, its sofas populated by stylish guests, and its David Rockwell–designed Travelle restaurant alive with music and bites by executive chef Damion Henry during coveted afternoon teas.

The former IBM building with a black exoskeleton also houses a Chuan Spa, which specializes in such Eastern therapies as acupuncture, cupping, and gua sha. A 67-foot-long indoor pool and full-service fitness center are available to all guests.

Anyone spending the night in the rooms, with floor-to-ceiling glass windows framing Chicago views, has access to one of the city’s best concierges, who can organize a River North food tour, a Frank Lloyd Wright walking excursion, or a mixology class at Travelle. Don’t leave without taking a photo beside Jaume Plensa’s “Anna” sculpture in the Wacker Street lobby—then walk over to Millennium Park to see his larger works on display.

The most luxurious way to experience Dubai’s desert may smash an entire holiday budget, but a stay in the Bedouin-inspired tented suites at Al Maha might well be worth it. It’s one of the best places to see desert conservation in action: Al Maha is in the heart of the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve, home to the UAE’s largest free-roaming herd of Arabian oryx, a species brought back from extinction in the wild through rehabilitation initiatives. Guests should keep their eyes peeled for gazelles, too—300 Arabian and 100 sand gazelles inhabit the dunes, and the more inquisitive ones often come right up to the 42 tented accommodations. Water recycling, biodiesel, and solar panels all contribute to Al Maha’s efforts to tread lightly on the fragile desert ecosystem.

Sugar Ridge is much about the view. One of those rare Caribbean hotels that doesn’t sit at the edge of the sand, this boutique luxury resort, ranging up a hillside on Antigua’s west coast, not only overlooks palm-lined beaches and the marina at Jolly Harbour but also looks out across the greens and blues of the Caribbean toward St. Kitts, Nevis, and Redonda. The rooms, in clusters of four, two upstairs, two down, are Caribbean modern, with a focus on the four-poster, netting-draped, king-size beds. There are two restaurants, two pools, an Aveda Spa, and a fitness center so large it’s almost as if they were expecting a sports team to show up. And beach lovers fear not. A complimentary shuttle will have you down to the shore in minutes.

My photo does not do this beach justice. Flanked by coral, Baisha (which means “white sand” in Chinese) Beach is possibly the most beautiful beach on the island. Just outside of Kenting, this beach is popular with visitors year-round. There are several hotels nearby as well as two campgrounds. It is rare to hear that somebody has traveled to the south of Taiwan without stopping by this gorgeous place.

The metal-and-glass ribbon structure of this Frank Gehry−designed hotel—not too far from Bilbao—creates an ethereal silhouette that contrasts dramatically with Elciego’s medieval landscape. Opt for a guided tour to learn more about the history of winemaking in the Basque countryside.

This reconstructed village is a glimpse into old oasis living. Heritage Village is a great place to see how the Emerati lived before skyscrapers. Scenes depict desert life in great detail and highlight their historic, nomadic lifestyle. Make sure you catch a performances that shows how different work was completed generations past. The Village is centrally located near Marina Mall in Abu Dhabi City.

If Mandapa, “temple” in Sanskrit, feels more like a community than a hotel, that’s because it is. The resort occupies 24 green acres on a property previously owned by a group of neighboring families, who retain access to the land and its on-site temple. As a result, it maintains three acres of rice paddies and a traditional rice barn on stilts, and the villagers bring daily offerings to the temple, giving Mandapa a strong connection to local culture.




The hotel’s open-air lobby sits 300 feet above the Ayung River valley, overlooking 35 hillside suites with views of the jungle and rice paddies and 25 villas along the flowing river. The suites are furnished with traditional Balinese pieces and artwork and stand-alone soaking tubs, while the high-ceilinged villas, decorated with vividly colored botanical panels, have large pools and separate master suites.





Everywhere, local materials and design elements feature prominently, from the thatched roofs to the fringed umbrellas that shade the lounge chairs by the pool. The riverside spa is another place to discover Balinese products through deeply relaxing treatments and spiritual ones with a local healer, too. Five dining and drinking outlets include fine-dining restaurant Kubu, a spot for high tea, a cocktail and dinner venue called Ambar, and Sawah Terrace, where Sundays feature a Royal Brunch. Ubud’s center is only 10 minutes by car, but the guided vintage VW convertible tours on offer are arguably the best way to get around. From $1,250

It’s an unforgettable experience: Getting up at the crack of dawn in mid-winter, walking through the large municipal park on the Pest side of town, checking in to the Széchenyi Thermal Bath (mostly with Hungarian pensioners because tourists usually arrive later), and slowly easing into one of its three large outdoor hot spring pools, surrounded by the golden yellow neo-Baroque palace—built in 1913 for the baths—while old men playing chess in the water. Then watch as the sun rises slowly, and your breath dissipates into the cold, crisp air. The spa has 15 indoor baths, too, as well as 10 saunas at various temperatures. This spa isn’t about being posh, it’s about easing into the kind of everyday self-care that Hungarians have known and avidly practiced for centuries. Just join them.

The Centre Pompidou, France‘s national museum of modern art, led the way for steel-and-glass buildings in the 1970s. Now the museum leads the way in modern art with its extraordinary collection, currently the world’s second largest. Masterpieces include Pablo Picasso’s Parade and—one of my favorites—Tamara de Lempicka’s Young Girl in Green. Go for the museum, but check out the public library and the view of Paris that becomes more and more impressive as the museum’s escalators rise from floor to floor. Spot the Eiffel Tower and Sacré-Coeur (and perhaps a street entertainer or two with a gawking audience of kids) from the sprawling roof terrace.

The outside of the Sky Hotel is very deceiving. It looks like any other lodge in Aspen and then when you go inside it is quite the opposite. As you walk into the lobby there are high-backed chairs that are white in front and red with white writing on the back. The carpet is a chaotic pattern of circles and bright color dots—it all seems like something out of Alice in Wonderland. This modern, hip motif is transferred to all the guest rooms.

You can opt to sit back and relax on a 30-minute covered wagon ride to Roosevelt Lodge’s chuckwagon, or you can saddle up for a one- or two-hour horseback ride. However you choose to get to the lodge’s outdoor kitchen and campfire in Pleasant Valley’s sagebrush flats, a cooked-just-right steak, corn bread, baked beans, and fruit cobbler await you. The chuckwagon’s baked beans are rightly famous, and you’ll likely go back for seconds of the cobbler. After dinner, keep your eyes peeled for wildlife—Pleasant Valley isn’t quite as wildlife rich as neighboring Lamar Valley, but spotting bison, elk, or wolves isn’t unusual—while your ears enjoy traditional Western songs and cowboy poetry from a lodge wrangler.