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I stumbled along this place on a recent trip completely by accident. We’d been driving aimlessly for a while west of Kardemena looking for the perfect quiet beach to take in the late afternoon when I spied a few umbrellas through the trees between the road and the shore. I was pretty much equidistant between town and some of the huge resorts further to the west, so I figured I’d found my spot! I pulled off the road, unpacked all my stuff, marched through the trees to the beach and was met with a decent little beach, a small bar, those umbrellas I’d spied from the road and a small collection of older couples... Completely nude older couples. I wasn’t expecting this, but hey, I had no interest in spinning on my heal and re-packing up the car, so I assumed the proper attire (none), spread a towel out on a beach chair and settled in. I’m a go-with-the-flow kind of guy, after all. The beach itself is a mix of sand, pebbles and some larger rocks. The water is immaculately clear. And, as it turns out, the whole spot is watched over by one person Mandy — perhaps the nicest British lady on Kos who greets beach goers with an inviting smile and incredibly pleasant accent. I may not have been looking to take it all off, but knocking back a few Mythos beers with Mandy made for a pleasant end to the day.

West Randolph Street in Chicago’s West Loop has become a new home to the city’s culinary talents. Stephanie Izard first drew crowds cooking dishes like roasted pig face at Girl & the Goat (the restaurant pictured above). She then opened Little Goat, a retro diner, across the street. Graham Elliot Bowles keeps it simple at his casual g.e.b, where each dish has no more than three ingredients. On a more elegant note, the prix-fixe menu at Grace, from chef Curtis Duffy, features dishes such as kampachi with coconut, lime, basil, golden trout roe, and pomelo presented in a cylinder of frozen ginger water.

Check out the rocking, hip and popular Cowgirl, a melding of Texas BBQ and New Mexico flavors and Old West style. Early evening, there’s happy hour including cheap, tasty margaritas. At night, patrons kick up their heels to live music. There’s a big patio outside for plenty of sipping.

Glendalough, or Gleann Dá Loch in Irish (which means “valley of two lakes”), is a quiet, picturesque valley near the Wicklow Mountains. Its 6th-century monastic settlement founded by St. Kevin is one of the most important in Ireland, and it’s surrounded by dewy grass and heather, lush hills, mossy rocks, and an impressive variety of wildlife. Monastic City itself includes the remains of ancient stone churches, a priests’ house, a stone fort, and a 100-foot round bell tower. The cemetery is fascinating with its lichen-covered headstones tilted every which way amid unkempt vegetation. Generations of Irish family histories are contained in this small plot of land, which is an integral part of this site. Glendalough is about 90 minutes’ south of Dublin and makes for a worthwhile day tour that includes sightseeing and hiking followed by a visit to a cozy local pub.

If you’ve come to Siem Reap, you’ve already got architectural wonders on the mind. And though you’ll spend your days learning about a 1,000-year-old civilization, a stay at Viroth’s Villa allows a more recent era of Khmer creativity to be contemplated: the 1960s. The decade saw the arts flourish in newly independent Cambodia, most notably in the modernist New Khmer Architecture style.

Viroth’s Villa’s boxy, petite, two-story building is one of the Le Corbusier–inspired genre’s few remaining examples (there are others in Phnom Penh and Kep, on the coast), and its owners, Fabien Martial and Viroth Kol, went to great pains to honor its clean lines and honest aesthetic when renovating the dilapidated building in 2007. Rooms use local materials to modern effect, with dark gray tiled floors and polished terrazzo baths, woven water hyacinth mats, and teak doors. Decor is kept to a minimum—a single standing Buddha, a giant frond from an Elephant Ear palm in a vase—but expertly curated and placed, lending the property the feel of a Southeast Asian art gallery. The intimate, seductive style can also be found in the couple’s second, larger property, Viroth’s Hotel, a newly constructed 1950s-inspired space that opened in January 2015.

To many gastronomes, the subtle flavors and spicing of Khmer cuisine makes it one of Southeast Asia’s great food secrets. That’s certainly the view of French chef Joannes Riviera, who has taken inspiration from Cambodia’s unsung culinary traditions to create one of the region’s biggest restaurant success stories. Cuisine Wat Damnak has received numerous accolades since opening for business in 2011. Using only the freshest local produce (think juicy tropical fruit, bamboo shoots, and fish from nearby Tonle Sap), Riviera devises regularly changing tasting menus that burst with creativity. Recent hits include a fish sour soup with green banana and rice paddy herb, and a duck confit curry with fresh rice noodles. Dinner is a steal at just $27 for five courses or $31 for six.

Located on Buffalo’s West Side, this farm-to-table favorite comes courtesy of award-winning chefs Steve and Ellen Gedra. Here, the menu changes daily to highlight locally sourced produce and sustainably raised meat, so diners are guaranteed something new every time they visit. Dishes are simple and straightforward to let their ingredients shine, while cocktails incorporate unique spirits like lavender gin and bacon-washed bourbon. Go for dinner and pair the vegetable lasagna with a classic manhattan, or swing by at brunch for the BS Griddle sandwich, featuring eggs, cheese, hash browns, and your choice of bacon or sausage sandwiched between two pancakes.

Just a few blocks from the bustle of Old Town and Duval Street, this Caribbean-style resort is a serene retreat with a swath of white-sand beach, a pool concierge, and a private pier for fishing or gazing out over clear turquoise waters. All of the contemporary rooms and suites are generously sized and have private balconies with views of the pool, courtyard, or ocean, but the real draw remains right outside your door. Guests can snorkel off the shore, face off on the giant chess board, or simply sway between two palms in one of the beachside hammocks. They also have privileges at sister resort Casa Marina, just up the beach, including at the oceanfront Spa al Mare. Have kids in tow? The hotel offers a full roster of activities, plus babysitting services for parents who want to hit the town.

Located about five miles west of Falls Church, America’s only national park to the performing arts continues to host world-class performances of every genre since its creation in 1971. With an average of over 90 concerts from May to September, area residents and visitors are blessed to see the biggest names in music grace the stage of the 6,800-seat indoor/outdoor Filene Center. In addition, Wolf Trap holds indoor concerts at the nearby Barns, as well as educational programs and special events such as the International Children’s Festival and the yearly Holiday Sing-A-Long.

Tucked away in the Belgian province of West Flanders is the small town (about 20,000 residents) of Poperinge, almost touching the French border. I went there to visit the Hop Museum and the area produces around 80% of Belgium’s hop crop. If you’re a beer lover, then you know this is a fact: no hops = no beer. Every September the town holds the annual Hop Festival to celebrate the harvest, just has they have done (celebrating hops, that is) for centuries. An interesting fact: Poperinge also the home to Belgium’s very first astronaut - Dirk Frimout.

Statues of Communist ideologues once dotted every city behind the Iron Curtain, but in the world’s rush to forget the Cold War, such monuments are hard to find these days. Not in Budapest—once East and West came together in the early 1990s, the city decided not to destroy the evidence. It rather collected about 40 monuments of figures like Vladimir Lenin, valiant soldiers, and even a huge sets of boots from a statue of Stalin, and in 1993 put them all in a park about 25 minutes by bus from Budapest’s city center. History buffs, especially, will find it worth the trek.

You’ll likely do your sunbathing and swimming on the white-sand beaches of the Grenadines, but St. Vincent’s black-sand beaches are also quite stunning. In Biabou, for example, along the windward coast south of Georgetown, you can stare for hours at frothy ocean waves crashing onto the volcanic black sand. With luck, you’ll also catch a rainbow.

After decades of rule by innocuous lagers, a small revolution is brewing in Beijing’s beer scene, with a handful of small-scale brew operations popping up over the past few years. Great Leap is among them and brings together foreign beer makers with local ingredients in a way that doesn’t make “East meets West” sound cliché.

Take the popular Honey Ma Gold Ale. It has peppercorns from Sichuan, in central China, and Shandong date honey from the coast. Meanwhile, Little General IPA uses Chinese hops, while Danshan Wheat Beer includes black tea from Fujian. All fun to try. Beers at Great Leap start at ¥25 for a pour of Pale Ale No. 6. Great Leap’s flagship brewery and pub, on Xinzhong Street, can handle everything from large parties to single imbibers, offers views of the brewing equipment behind a glass wall, and has a good range of bar food, including a tasty burger and fries at ¥40. Order it and you are almost sure to get one last pint.

The world’s seventh-largest public square is best known in the West for the 1989 student protests, but this is also where, on October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong founded the People’s Republic of China. The square was named for Tiananmen (which translates as “Gate of Heavenly Peace”), one of the gates of the former imperial city. It was built in 1651, then expanded in 1958 to four times its original size, and enlarged even further in 1976 with the construction of Mao’s mausoleum. Arrive at sunrise to watch the solemn flag-raising ceremony, performed with pride, precision, and a touch of flair.

Among the neighborhood’s art-minded hotels, the Gladstone is the most interactive, with shows, classes, and ongoing events. The 37 rooms, all designed by local artists, have breathed new life into the 128-year-old icon, which filmmaker Christina Zeidler took over in 2003 and revitalized in 2005. The Victorian landmark, named for its avenue (in turn named after four-time Canadian Prime Minister William Gladstone), has been a gathering spot for over a century. And it was home to legendary Toronto characters like cowboy Hank Young, who became a fixture at the hotel as a country singer in 1961 and manned the hand-operated elevator from 2005 to 2009, and Peter Styles, former host of Karaoke Night, with applause sign in hand. The legend of Hank lives on in a framed photo in the stairwell en route to the second floor.

The Gladstone continues to push the boundaries of community and culture with creative events like its educational workshop series, Get School’d, and its annual alternative design event, Come Up to My Room (CUTMR), which runs alongside the city’s Interior Design Show. Begin your stay in this architectural gem with a drink at the Café or Melody Bar (that is, if you’re not first thrust into Fameless Karaoke Night).