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Yes, Angelina on the Rue de Rivoli (around the Tuileries Garden and the Louvre) is a tourist spot, but it is still one of the best places in Paris for hot chocolate. Their menu of pastries and other small dishes is good, but don’t miss out on the hot chocolate. It is also a fun place to people watch, as there is a mixture of tourists, diplomats and government workers, and grandes dames who frequent the cafe to get their sweet tooth fix. Sit as table 11 (3rd from the back against the mirror) and you’ll sit where Coco Chanel took her hot chocolate nearly every day.

As you walk through Stellenbosch’s town center, you’ll probably smell the bread baking at Boschendal at Oude Bank before you even arrive at the café’s main entrance. Owned by Boschendal Farm Estate since early 2017, the local favorite is a bakery, bistro, and farm shop in one, serving seasonal dishes made from locally sourced, farm-fresh ingredients. The warm interior features cozy dining nooks, but you should really sit outside, where you can sip your matcha latte while people-watching on Bird Street. Go for breakfast and order the brioche French toast, or stop by for lunch and pair the trout salad with a glass of chenin blanc from the farm.

Drink Kong is the neo-noir, Manga-meets-Blade Runner–inspired bar created by Rome’s Patrick Pistolesi. A labyrinth of dark-colored lounge spaces, with long bars, neon lights, and harlequin-patterned floors, Kong is both hang-out and experiment. Pistolesi, who has curated some of the city’s best bar menus and is one of the key players in Italy’s cocktail evolution, created an instinctive menu based only on flavors: bitter, sweet, dry. Either peruse the menu for a Kong signature cocktail like “Big Trouble in Oaxaca,” a spicy and slightly fruity tequila and mezcal drink or chat with Kong’s expert bartenders who can craft cocktails customized to your tastes. Or take a leap of faith in the Omakase Room, a Japanese-influenced wood-paneled room for private tastings in the omakase style—your drink will be whatever the bartender chooses for you.

Wine, as they say, belongs at the table. Yet most tasting rooms offer only the wine. For a richer experience, seek out wineries that offer food pairings or, better yet, an entire meal. At Robert Sinskey winery, cookbook author and Chef Maria Helm Sinskey pairs bites made with ingredients from their garden with the new releases of Pinot Noir and the excellent Abraxas, a blend of Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc and Gewurztraminer. Round Pond Estate takes it a step further — the four-course lunch served on the terrace uses all biodynamically farmed produce, vinegar and honey from the estate as well as olive oil that is crushed by stone just a stone’s throw from the winery.

Snaking, cracking, shimmering a brilliant blue in places and covered by mystical frost in others, the Mer de Glace displays nature in all its powerful glory. France’s longest glacier stretches for 4.3 miles and is over 650 feet deep. Quite literally a sea of ice, it continues to move under its own weight; its surfaces break up, crevasses appear, and pointed columns of ice known as seracs burst from the surface. Though this glacier continues to amaze, it’s slowly being decimated by climate change—in 1988, you only had to climb down three steps to reach the ice grotto, which is carved out every spring; now, the ice has receded so much that you have to tackle 430 steps.

If you don’t know that Korean beauty products are the Next Big Thing, chances are you’ve been living under a rock, you’re a non-Korean man, and/or you’re over age 50. For everyone else, K-Beauty is an of-the-moment trend that’s popping up everywhere from international cities like New York and Hong Kong, to the beauty section of Target in small Midwestern towns. Needless to say, it’s everywhere.

So of course it’s big business in Korea’s capital, where the streets of buzzy Myeongdong hum with a thousand beauty stores. Perhaps the most popular of all the products are mask sheets, made with ingredients to make one’s skin firmer, more moisturized, whiter, cleaner…you name it. Perhaps the best place to look for one’s ideal mask sheet is aptly named, Mask Sheet Story, a store that sells—you guessed it.

There are four outposts of All Mask Story. All Mask Story No. 1 is on the popular Myeongdong Shopping Street.

Despite its unappealing name, Dead Rabbit is one of the most popular bars in all of New York City and has also charmed the judges behind the World’s 50 Best Bars list, which listed it second in 2015. Drinks are served in two discrete spaces: The first is the downstairs Taproom, where you can have “craft beer, bottled punch, and whiskeys of the world"; the second is the upstairs Parlor, which features “72 historically-accurate cocktails dreamed up by the 19th century’s most celebrated bartenders.” The names, however, aren’t very 19th-century (and frankly, not all of the ingredients are, either). Take the Snake Charmer, for instance, a concoction of mezcal, New York and Oregon gins, blanc vermouth, yellow chartreuse, and gentiane. Whatever time and place they’re trying to evoke, no one who comes to drink here really seems to care; the cocktails and service are just so great, that’s all that matters.

The winding road to Gorges du Verdon (Europe’s Grand Canyon) is a bit of a white-knuckle ride. If you want to take in the views, it’s best to pull over at Point Sublime (the right bank after La Palud on the D952), where a gigantic cliff of calcareous rock plunges 2,834 feet to the bottom of the gorge. Once you reach Gorges du Verdon, there are hikes for every athletic ability, but the 8.6-mile Blanc Martel circuit, which takes you to the heart of the canyon, is legendary. Just note that it can take between five and nine hours depending on your skill level, so be prepared with water, sunscreen, hiking shoes, a hat, and an extra pair of socks for the puddles in the two tunnels near the end. If you prefer the water, head to the emerald-green Lake of St. Croix, where you can rent a stand-up paddleboard, canoe, or kayak, or simply spend the day swimming and sunning. No matter how you spend your time at Gorges du Verdon, remember to bring a bag for garbage and leave nothing but footprints.

When this wine country–style restaurant opened in the Laguna Hills in 2016, it was instantly embraced by locals. Maybe it’s the hillside location—no bikinis in sight—that allows diners to breathe easy and indulge. Maybe it’s the warm wood-clad dining room with its lively open kitchen. Or maybe it’s the craft cocktails and 25-plus international wines poured by the glass. Regardless, Ironwood is not the place to come while on a diet. The biggest reason: the house-made giant meatball, served with fresh, made-from-scratch herb pappardelle, spicy pomodoro sauce, and ricotta salata. Limited numbers are made each night, so it’s worth going early (the dinner-only restaurant opens each evening at 5 p.m.). The menu also features American Wagyu burgers, mac and cheese skillets, and pork shanks with fried green tomatoes and fresh burrata—plus colorful, palate-cleansing salads incorporating handpicked local ingredients. When the weather’s good, a retractable roof is pulled back from the heated patio to reveal views of the picturesque Saddleback Mountains. Must-order: the warm fromage blanc brownie with Nutella ice cream.

Arriving in Dublin on the morning of St. Patrick’s Day is like experiencing the calm before the storm. The cobblestone streets of Temple Bar are quiet and nearly empty, and bicyclists can cycle through the narrow streets with ease. This is the time to have breakfast while devising a plan: Do you want to find a place near the parade route? Should you claim a table at a pub? We filled up on eggs and coffee at Elephant and Castle in Temple Bar, and then saw the end of the parade. By noon, streets were clogged with people from all over the world -- singing in the streets, painting shamrocks on strangers’ faces -- and pubs rang out with traditional Irish songs. Don’t be shy if you don’t know the lyrics, since there’s a good chance you’ll hear the songs again. Have a Guinness (or two) and join in!

Occupying what were the Maison Blanche department store and the S.H. Kress & Co. five-and-dime, this stately hotel first opened its doors in 2000 after a $250 million overhaul of the then-shuttered Beaux-Arts buildings. After Katrina, the property underwent a second renovation, which included the expansion of its spa (now a sprawling 25,000 square feet) and the addition of a private entrance for Club level guests.

This is a Ritz-Carlton, so you can expect the same (high) level of service and luxury—think ornate furnishings, sumptuous linens, and a $3.5 million art collection—as at other properties within the brand. But the property isn’t just another Ritz. Bellmen wear seersucker, the bistro serves po’ boys, and there’s live jazz in the lounge (which also serves a mean Vesper).

I love the wines of Mendoza, Argentina, but I wanted to marry the wines of Catena Zapata when I had the chance to drink them whilst overlooking the green vineyards backdropped by the soaring, snowcapped Andes peaks. The wines of Catena are mostly big reds made from malbec or cabernet, and they make some chardonnay and sauvignon blanc as well. The winery is fashioned after a stepped Maya pyramid and is furnished with state of the art equipment. Wine tours last about an hour and a half and finish at the tasting room, where you can purchase bottles of wine. Catena Zapata and the rest of the Mendoza region wineries are only open by appointment, so be sure to have a day’s worth of wine tours booked in advance for your itinerary. Be sure not to skip over the city of Mendoza, as there are many wine tasting rooms featuring wines from the region and selling limited releases and other rarities not readily available at the wineries.

Located at the Westin Puntacana Resort & Club, this open-air restaurant specializes in grilled meats and seafood but also offers several delicious pastas. The executive chef hails from Peru, which explains why the menu includes a traditional ceviche with sweet potato garnish, along with a few other Peruvian dishes. Look forward to everything from grilled rib-eye and salmon to penne with chicken and prosciutto, and be sure to save room for desserts like lemon pie and flan.

I don’t know whether it was the early morning fog, the rolling hills surrounding the vineyard, or the grapes themselves that made me do a double-take: Was I really in Chile’s Colchagua Valley, or was I back in California’s Sonoma Valley? With its intoxicating location and old world charm, Casa Silva (the colonial-style inn that sits in the midst of the family vineyard) has the best of both. It’s a place to relax, tour the surrounding vineyards, and – naturally -- drink their own varietals (especially the Sauvignon Gris, Sauvignon Blanc, and Petit Verdot). With only seven rooms, Casa Silva sits somewhere between a B&B and a guest house, with shabby chic rooms that are a throwback to Chile’s colonial era. We snagged room no. 4, with high ceilings and a comfy four-poster bed as well as an oversized bathroom. While the inn itself is special, the restaurant is worth a visit on its own. It has a clubhouse feel, overlooking the family polo field, but with unique and breathtaking views of the Andes. Hotel guests can take a leisurely 20-minute walk through the vineyard to the restaurant, which features Chilean specialties like conger eel, queso fresco, and tuna ceviche in one of the most dramatic settings I’ve ever enjoyed. (And don’t pass up the mote con huesillos, aka “wheat berry peach dessert.”) Finally, not to be missed: the tour of Vina Casa Silva, which houses one of Chile’s most up-to-date wine facilities and the family’s collection of perfectly restored antique cars.

I hesitated to try it at Randy LeBlanc’s Pont Breaux Restaurant while all around me the locals dumped it on everything on their plates. It flirted with me next to the salt and pepper while others got up to dance to the lively Cajun music, but I resisted. In the morning sitting down to my eggs and sausage at the Sonnier’s Bayou Boudin Cabins in Breaux Bridge I wanted to give it a shot. With the color of Tabasco but thicker and with a subtler flavor, it tasted of tomato, paprika, garlic powder/juice and tamarind. Mommy like! By lunch at Poche’s, I went right for the garlic sauce to pour liberally over my fried alligator. On the way out I grabbed two bottles from the store shelf to take home. Now, nearly out of my supply way over in Oregon, I am starting to worry. I won’t even share with my loved ones. I tell you am in deep. This stuff starts out easy, and then you develop a fondness, and finally there are certain foods you can’t even enjoy without it. Now when I order etoufee, jambalaya or even a cheese omelet I lament the lack of garlic sauce on the table. The meal is not complete. Oh the sweet addiction! Some places make their own, some have their branding affixed to the label. Poche’s. www.poches.com has a store with all sorts of Louisiana Cajun goodies and will ship.( the answer to my prayers). Cajun Power Sauce is a manufacturer and you can check it out at www.cajunpowersauce.com