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The centerpiece of the city’s emerging Vulkan neighborhood, Oslo’s very first food hall is a culinary utopia. Let your nose guide you to one (or five!) of 27 eateries peddling everything from cupcakes to tapas to bento boxes. Can’t decide? Stop at the Torget stall and order the Taste of Mathallen menu to sample mind-altering dishes from the hall’s best restaurants. The communal wooden benches in the center of the hall encourage sharing, so you and your friends can divide and conquer. Finish your visit with a craft beer in the basement pub Smelteverket, which features Norway’s longest bar.

Mendoza has suffered devastating earthquakes that have reduced the city to rubble. The earthquake of 1861 destroyed most of the city. Instead of repairing all the damage, the city decided to build a new city center southwest of the original location. They created a large principal plaza—Plaza Independencia—surrounded by four smaller plazas: Plaza San Martin; Plaza Chile; Plaza Italia; and the most picturesque, Plaza Espana. These open spaces created a safe retreat for residents to gather in the event of another destructive earthquake. On weekends the plazas come alive with artisan markets, food vendors, lip-locked lovers and families. Enjoy the people watching and be aware of your belongings.

This is the closest you’ll get to France without actually going. The shop of famed pâtissier Christian Faure recently opened in the heart of Old Montreal, on the site of the first public market, and it’s already become a must-do. A look at the picture above might explain the instant popularity. The title of this highlight is a quote from Antoine-de-Saint-Exupéry—and a longtime motto of the talented pâtissier. It represents his brand quite perfectly. Biting into one of his creations is indeed nothing short of a dreamy experience. The shop also offers pastry courses so you can learn to replicate the dream creations yourself.

Bombed to smithereens during World War II, the Neues Museum—inaugurated in 1855—reopened in 2009 following a slow and sensitive reconstruction by the office of British architect David Chipperfield; both the building and its inspiring contents are well worth the visit. The current structure, featuring delicately restored frescoes, beautifully renovated columns and doors, and deliberately preserved war damage, won the prestigious Mies van der Rohe Award in 2011. The museum’s collections comprise thousands of ancient artifacts from the Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection, the Museum of Prehistory and Early History, and the Collection of Classical Antiquities. Highlights include a 3,300-year-old bust of Queen Nefertiti, the famous Neanderthal skull from Le Moustier in France, and Heinrich Schliemann’s collection of antiquities from Troy.

In the shadow of Buckingham Palace lies Fortnum & Mason, the department store with a royal warrant famed for its loose-leaf tea, luxury picnic hampers and sweet treats, including an excellent selection of macarons. You can buy all of these inside the store, as well as browse the gentlemen’s department, and cast your eyes up to the spectacular atrium, but the real highlight of a trip here is the afternoon tea, served in a gilded Diamond Jubileee Tea Salon, opened in 2012 for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. An accompanying piano player sets the tone: at high tea, you can expect a charming display of finger sandwiches, individual pastries and cakes from the cake carriage, and scones served with Somerset clotted cream and Fortnum’s lemon curd. The extensive champagne list is also not to be ignored.

Ever heard of a bonut? Neither had we until we visited Biscuit Love, a cult-favorite breakfast spot in Nashville‘s happening Gulch neighborhood, where morning queues often exceed an hour on weekends. And bonuts—deep-fried biscuit dough slathered in lemon mascarpone and balanced on a sticky heap of blueberry compote—are just one of the many hits on the menu. The restaurant had its origins in 2012 as a food truck, where husband-and-wife team Karl and Sarah Worley’s made-from-scratch biscuits made them an overnight success. In January 2015, they opened a brick-and-mortar restaurant, where Karl mans the stoves and Sarah runs the front of the house, making sure patrons get their Southern classics while they’re hot. Be sure to order a bonut, along with the sweet-and-spicy Chronic Bacon, shrimp and grits, and the off-menu Nasty Princess, a biscuit topped with Nashville-style hot chicken, gravy, pickles, mustard, and honey.

I’m not sure exactly how Rainbow Beach got its name, though I wouldn’t be surprised if it actually had a lot to do with rain. The island’s most popular beach bar, especially on Sundays, is centrally located on St. Croix’s West Coast, some of the island’s tallest peaks and dense rainforest just a few miles behind it. Prevailing weather patterns, particularly during the summer months, make brief afternoon showers a fairly regular occurrence here. That doesn’t stop the party, though. Live bands play on and everyone keeps dancing. When you’re already wet from the sea and feeling the vibes, a little rain doesn’t hurt one bit.

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.

The Golden Gate Bridge is probably the most photographed site in California, but this vantage point never gets old. Explore the hollowed out fort, learn some history, and marvel at the view from the top floor.

Sure, it’s the largest town on St. Croix, but it’s the charming Danish-influenced architecture that makes it most noteworthy. The city center is a protected national park lined with candy-colored buildings and historic churches, while the streets are made of cobblestones and punctuated by stone archways. At the waterfront, which was a focal point of the island’s sugar trade, a wharf is populated by restaurants, bars and water sports shops. There’s also an 18th-century fort.

The 66-square-mile Swiss National Park is a completely unmanaged natural area that was founded in 1914, the first national park in the Alps and a rare undeveloped location in the Swiss German–speaking part of Switzerland—a corner of the world better known for ski resorts than nature reserves. Its ungroomed hiking trails offer opportunities to encounter Alpine wildlife like marmot, ibex, chamois, northern hares, and lizards, not to mention innumerable birds and wildflowers (many of which are sadly endangered and on IUCN’s Red List). Biologists here are doing some of Europe’s most important conservation and research work to help better understand Alpine flora and fauna that have experienced only minimal interaction with humans.

Le Viaduc des Arts, an abandoned railway line, was converted into an elevated park, and the arches below it were turned into ateliers for artisans. Parasolerie Heurtault is one of the workshops worth a detour. Master artisan Michel Heurtault created corsetry in haute couture houses before pursuing his childhood passion of making and restoring bespoke umbrellas. In the showroom, ready-made umbrellas and precious handles fill shallow drawers. Rolls of silk and natural fiber fabrics are gathered into colorful bouquets in the workshop beyond. In addition to providing shelter from the rain, Monsieur Heurtault will repair family heirlooms and makes spectacular pieces for period films.

Within the Aysén Region, the Chonos Archipelago, named for an extinct people, is laced with innumerable islands around which blue whales thrive. Both the Darwin and Moraleda channels traverse the archipelago, which extends down to the 17,420-square-kilometer (6,726-square-mile) Laguna San Rafael National Park in the Northern Patagonian Ice Field. The San Rafael Glacier and a 16-kilometer-long (10-mile-long) fjord are found within the park that is part of a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.

Henri Matisse was already a successful artist in 1917 when he left Paris behind to settle in the suburbs of Nice. It was here that in 1941—too infirm to hold a brush steady—Matisse developed his cut-paper artworks. The Matisse Museum, set in an expansive and sunny park of palm trees, has a collection of works spanning every period of his career and includes more than 180 items that belonged to him, including his palette. The perfect end to a day spent at the museum is an outing to Vence. The Rosary Chapel, designed by the artist, features vivid and modern stained-glass windows, tile murals, and a distinctive blue-and-white roof.

Travelers looking to trade the urban confines of Hobart or Launceston for a more rugged experience without sacrificing on comfort should consider a weekend away at Cradle Mountain Lodge, a wilderness resort and spa that’s tucked away in Tasmania’s Central Highlands. While the forested location on the edge of Cradle Mountain–Lake St. Clair National Park and ample hiking opportunities are enough of a draw—it’s not uncommon to see rambling wombats or, occasionally, more elusive Tasmanian devils in the immediate surroundings—Cradle Mountain Lodge operates as a destination unto itself, with a glass-walled spa that looks onto verdant King Billy pines and hotel-style suites and stand-alone cottages with gas and log fireplaces and private balconies. Rough-hewn wood, leather, and stone greet you in the Highland Restaurant, which impresses with its extensive wine list and strong emphasis on locally harvested ingredients (think ratatouille ravioli and wallaby porterhouse with pumpkin cream).