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Elizabeth street cafe is the charming outpost offering French breakfast bites & creative Vietnamese plates you didn’t know you needed in your life. The menu consists of everything from ho and bun bo hue to sticky rice, banh mi, and chocolate croissant and macaroons. It’s most known for its brunch, but they also server dinner.

One of the country’s largest Asian markets, this massive complex has anchored the International District since 1928—and contains a Japanese bookstore, a 12-station food court, and a Taiwanese hot-pot hot spot: The Boiling Point. Its shelves stock everything from curry to durians and juicy kalua pork, plus surprisingly good, affordable freezer bags to preserve your haul on the way home. Fancy a quick bite in the food court first? Hit Uwajimaya’s Asian deli last and pay at the express lane. While one-stop shopping rocks, fans of Asian curios and calligraphy supplies may want to wander to nearby Kobo (koboseattle.com) or Deng’s Studio and Art Gallery.

Devout foodies flock to the hawker stands in Singapore, one of the world’s cleanest cities. Check out the tasty Hainanese Chicken Rice at the famous Maxwell Food Centre; you’ll want to find the Tian Tian stall. Explore the other stands and salivate over the combination of Malay, Chinese, Indian, and European flavors with such items as barbecue pork, steamed pork buns, fish cakes, and Hokkien mee (seafood pasta infused with special flavors). —Susan Sparks This appeared in the August/September 2013 issue.

The Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum is the first and longest running venue for contemporary and modern art in San Antonio. It features a plethora of exhibitions each year and always has something going on at the museum. It also hosts concerts and performance art events. The museum is a great place to visit and has had a significant impact on the surrounding communities and the city of San Antonio. One of the best things about the museum is that it’s accessible from the River Walk trail network and can be reached from downtown on a short bike ride. It’s located in a great neighborhood with no shortage of activities, so it’s worth the trip even if you aren’t a contemporary art lover.

When he sold his jewelry company in 2007, Canadian expat John Hardy and his wife reinvested much of the money into the Green School, an innovative K-12 school in Sibang Kaja, Bali. The curriculum is very experiential—the international and Balinese students learn everything from aquaculture to Balinese puppetry. Named greenest school of 2012 by the U.S. Green Building Council, the school is worth a visit if only to see the far-out architecture. Many of the complex buildings are constructed entirely of bamboo.

Anyone with an iota of interest in art will certainly visit the Prado while in Madrid. But be sure to save some time to visit another nearby museum, where there’s something wonderful to see before you even get inside. Just a 5-minute walk down Paseo del Prado you’ll find the CaixaForum Madrid, with its awe-inspiring vertical garden. From a distance, you might even think you’re looking at a mural there on the wall, but as you approach, the lush greens and earth tones come to life with varying textures that are luscious and welcoming. A masterpiece where nature is the medium!

Bauhaus—the German design, crafts, and architecture school founded in 1919 by Walter Gropius—is one of the most famous design movements of the 20th century, and this Berlin museum shows its impressive breadth and influence. Designed by Gropius himself and completed in 1979, the building holds a wealth of Bauhaus items such as furniture (lamps, chairs, tables), ceramics, photography, and theater pieces by an array of the movement’s most famous teachers and practitioners, including Gropius, Johannes Itten, Paul Klee, Lyonel Feininger, Wassily Kandinsky, László Moholy-Nagy, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. (Note: The museum is temporarily located in the Charlottenburg district while the main building is being renovated and extended to pay tribute to the movement’s centennial.)

Amid the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong, it’s hard to believe that nature is always just a short taxi ride away. Opened in 2009 as a designated historic site, the Tai Tam Waterworks Heritage Trail on Hong Kong Island is a picturesque network of idyllic pathways along the dams and pumping houses built by the British in the 19th century. On sunny weekends, you’ll bump into locals with their dogs in tow.

The only building on sheltered Apantima Bay, this funky beach bar with rooms is one of the reasons the tiny island of Antiparos has suddenly become fashionable. Hanging with the skimpily clad in crowd doesn’t come cheap: If you’re not staying in one of the nine quietly chic suites, you’ll have to fork out handsomely for a sun bed. The payoff is chilling under juniper trees with a detox smoothie, idly watching athletic beach babes paddleboard into the sunset. There’s an alfresco massage and yoga pavilion; a stylish boutique where you can pick up caftans, scents, and sandals; and a 26-foot bar for sundowners and tuna burgers with wasabi mayo.

Ladakh, a region in the Indian Himalayas an hour’s flight north of Delhi (elevation: 11,500 feet), became a lot more accessible 10 years ago when Shakti Himalaya started hosting homestays in restored village houses. Their spacious new four-bedroom Shakti Indus River House and the three-bedroom Indus Farmhouse are well-appointed bases for families or groups looking to spend a week meditating with monks, white-water rafting, and hiking to nearby villages and monasteries.

Located down on the harbor and hidden inside the chic Reykjavik Hotel Marina, this vintage-cool bar is run by master mixologists who create dapper cocktails from fresh, local ingredients and house-made syrups. Behind the handsome wooden bar there are also several types of beer (including Icelandic brews) on tap, a bunch of wines, and a wide choice of liquor—including ten different types of rum. The food menu is pretty good too, with steaks, fish, lamb, and vegetarian options.

Culross is Scotland’s most complete example of a 17th-century burgh, featuring white-harled houses, cobbled streets, a hilltop abbey, and an ocher-colored palace. Visitors can wander along the charming streets, once filled with the hustle and bustle of a thriving port on the River Forth, then explore Culross Palace, with its tiny rooms, connecting passageways, and painted ceilings. You can even buy freshly grown herbs, fruits, and vegetables from the organic palace garden while visiting with the rare Scots Dumpy hens. One of the most picturesque villages in Scotland, Culross has served as a regular shooting location for the TV series Outlander.

Spinneriet Lindome, south of Gothenburg, is an enchanting destination for a weekend outing. The former spinning factory houses little shops and studios for artists, craftsmen, and designers, so this is heaven if you’re interested in interior decoration and design. Looking for something new for the baby’s room, textiles for your bedroom, or graphic art for your living room? You might find it here—and meet the designers behind the artwork at the same time. The shops are open to the public during weekends, mostly. If you are hungry, the restaurant Lilla Spinneriet serves excellent seasonal lunches.

Long considered one of the top hotels on Oahu, the Kahala has always been a particular favorite among the type of guests who travel with their own security detail. A number of past U.S. presidents, plus kings, queens, princesses Grace and Di, a handful of Nobel Peace Prize winners, rock stars, and movie stars, all have slept under its venerable roof at some point during the hotel’s 50-year history. The see-and-be-seen set moved on long ago, but privacy seekers still make a beeline here. They’re drawn less by the property’s fabulous beach (though that’s reason enough to stay here) than by its exclusive location—in a well-fortified cul-de-sac in the ritzy Kahala neighborhood. But there’s a warm and fuzzy side to the hotel, too. A pod of dolphins has full-time residency in the hotel lagoon, and visitors of all ages can swim with them (for a fairly steep fee). Rooms have a preppy beach house vibe—raffia ceiling fans, linen loveseats—and many come with heart-stopping sea views.

A Lisbon favorite, this family-run chocolate-and-coffee café is continually showered by locals with love and devotion. Here, both the coffee and cocoa beans come from São Tomé and Príncipe. The former are roasted in-house and perfectly executed in one of Lisbon’s best espressos, while the latter are churned into artisan chocolate bars in outstanding flavors like ginger, orange, sea-salt-and-pepper, and toffee. If you order an espresso, you’ll get a free sample of chocolate so you can suss out your favorite before committing to a pricier piece of heaven.