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Offering a mix of affordable and designer brands, Tsamis Eyewear Boutique at Costa Navarino’s Navarino Dunes sells glasses, contact lenses, sunglasses, fashionable frames, and related accessories. Staff here really know their stuff when it comes to glasses, and can help you choose frames that best suit your face. Moreover, as Messenia features a sunny, Mediterranean climate it’s important to protect your eyes with sunglasses.

The dining experiences of the Spanish capital encompass tapas joints and fine dining restaurants, so whether you opt for the tasting menu at the chef’s table or a simple plate of boquerones at a bar, enjoy the fresh tastes of Spain.

Florence may be full of fancy restaurants, but it’s also easy to eat well and eat cheaply in this Renaissance gem. Look out for good value lunchtime menus at restaurants where dinner may challenge the wallet; delis offering cheap lunchtime snacks; wine bars serving up gourmet eats to pair with the best vintages; rosticcerias with a mouth-watering selection of food to go and mom-and-pop joints with the kind of authentic, homely cuisine rarely found in more up-market restaurants.

There’s a really good selection of vegetarian options on most menus at Nairobi restaurants due to the large population of Indian vegetarians living in Kenya. While the only completely vegetarian restaurant is Chowpaty—which serves utterly delicious Indian food—each of the other restaurants on this list offers some of the best veggie fare in town. Expect freshly filled wraps, inventive salads, and tasty pizzas, often served in a fun and funky rooftop location.

Tucked in the Rainforest of Costa Rica is this incredible Ecolodge. We whitewater rafted all morning to arrive at the lodge, our river guides acted as chefs and general grounds keepers upon arrival, and we were treated to the absolute best food we had the entire trip in Costa Rica. The bungalows do not have any electricity, but the staff lights candles in all the rooms and pathways each evening, and dinner is eaten by candle light. Talk about romance!! While staying they have horseback riding through the jungle, hikes, rappelling, zip lining and of course more rafting. Definitely will not be our last trip to this lodge!! The attention to sustainability efforts was also fantastic and commendable.

Okay, some of these restaurants are technically still in Charleston, but what they have in common is food that merits a trip outside the well-trodden tourist area. Get there however you can, but don’t miss the extraordinary things—soul food, Chinese food, barbecue, French-accented local, whatever!—being cooked up in these remarkable South Carolina kitchens.

San Antonio caters to every traveler with a wide range of accommodations, from a design hotel in the Pearl Brewery district to a Hill Country resort with impressive amenities. Many offer award-winning restaurants or spas, while others put you in close proximity to the River Walk with its Tex-Mex restaurants and live music venues.

Families traveling with children will love Ecoism, located at Costa Navarino’s Navarino Dunes. Here you’ll find 100 percent organic children’s clothing and eco-friendly toys crafted from natural materials. Their selection of high-quality wooden toys is especially interesting, with clocks, puzzles, and doll houses.

On the west side of Arenal Volcano, this 900-acre tropical reserve was a labor of love for owner and architect Jaime Mikowski, who spent years planting acres of native plants and coaxing the land’s natural mineral springs into a river that now flows throughout the property, spilling over into dozens of waterfalls and pools that range from 72 to 105 degrees. Spacious rooms have marble floors and streamlined furnishings; splurge on a suite, which features a private terrace and a Jacuzzi tub—a little superfluous considering all the other options for soaking in warm water here, but who’s complaining? There are also five swimming pools, one with a swim-up bar and waterslide, and a spa comprising 12 bungalows with treatments that all include, you guessed it, a dip in a thermal spring-fed tub. While the property is also open to day trippers, guests of the resort have exclusive access to Shangri-La Gardens, an adults-only lounge area with pools, cabanas, and a folliage-filled bar.

North of Santa Teresa, in Playa Hermosa, you’ll find sushi master Koji Hyodo carving yellowfin tuna, red snapper, and sea bass at his tinkling, tin-roofed restaurant, Koji’s. His signature Koji Roll wraps spicy tuna around fresh shrimp paste and avocado. Then the entire roll is drizzled with a secret sauce and dipped in crunchy tempura bits. The grilled octopus is lightly fired, then sprinkled with sea salt; his lobster sashimi, sliced so thin you can almost see through it, starts with a crunch and finishes sweet.

It isn’t wine or cocktails that mark happy hour for locals in Marseille but Pastis, the anise-flavored drink of choice first commercialized by Paul Ricard during the prohibition of absinthe. Ricard’s recipe and formula– star anise, licorice root; five volumes of water for one volume of Pastis - proved an instant hit back in the early 1930’s and is largely responsible for popularizing the aperitif-hour tradition in the south. Today’s experts can be found at La Maison du Pastis, a shop tucked deep in the colonnades of the Vieux Port specialized in 75 different varieties of Pastis and Absinthe. Be sure to ask for a taste before you pick up a bottle, the staff is more than happy to oblige.

Built atop a west-facing cliff, Doca Do Cavacas is the best waterfront restaurant in Funchal for views of Madeira’s spectacular sunsets. There is nothing fancy about this place—it serves simple, down-to-earth grilled fish and seafood. For some locals, this is the top spot for limpet clams and bolo do caco bread.

Part of Barcelona’s undeniable allure is its food: Catalan cuisine has romanced travelers with its greatest hits: paella, tapas, late-night dinners, tissue-thin slices of ham, street food, churros, breakfasts that stretch into afternoon, and Spanish wine. In the years since Ferran Adrià shook the food world awake with the experimental cuisine of his tiny El Bulli, Spanish cuisine has found new respect and attention, from its smallest rustic bodegas to spectacularly modern dining rooms.

Locals take a casual attitude toward food in the Netherlands. Service is mellow if there at all, but Dutchies don’t mind. Unlike Americans, they linger over food at informal joints with high-quality food or grab street snacks like herring, fries smothered in sauce, or brodjes (sandwiches). Many Amsterdammers will claim they’ve never bought a kroquet at a FEBO, but you’ll find them in the wee hours at these coin-operated eateries.

The hot-right-now Fierro Hotel bills itself as the ‘Hotel for the Gourmand,’ and it’s no wonder - the boutique hotel is famous on the foodie scene for hosting special events like ‘One Table,’ the biweekly TFIF Happy Hour brings in the talent of celebrity bartender Fede Cuco, and - drum roll, please - resident chef Hernán Gipponi and his restaurant were recently recognized at the Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants Awards 2013. To see what Gipponi - who honed his craft at Michelin-starred restaurants in Spain - can do, come for the nine-course modern Argentinian tasting menu, or splurge on his classy weekend brunch.