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The village of Santa Maria Atzompa is located about three miles from Oaxaca city, near Monte Alban archaeological site. This village has been producing pottery since ancient times, and today you can find a wide variety of pieces, from practical jugs and dishes to beautiful figurines and large decorative items. You’ll find a good selection of practical items, especially the green glaze ware that’s very popular, at the village co-op market. For finer pieces, seek out the artisans in their home studios.

Inside the main market in Ocotlan de Morelos there is a food stall called La Cocina de Frida (“Frida’s Kitchen”), and standing behind the counter is none other than Frida Kahlo herself, or at least a reasonable facsimile. Owner Beatriz Vázquez Gómez likes to play up her resemblance to the famous Mexican artist. She greets visitors warmly and serves up excellent chiles rellenos, mole, enchiladas, and other local specialties. This is a great choice for breakfast or lunch on a day trip to Ocotlan.

A residential neighborhood with traditional commerce, and considered to be the most peaceful in Lisbon, this neighborhood brings together the best of life conditions to those who call this home. Taste a chocolate cake at the pastry shop which sells “The Best Chocolate Cake in the World” (Rua Coelho da Rocha, 99, next to the market). Then walk off your calories by visiting Santo Condestável’s Church, an emblematic monument which was designed by Vasco Regaleira, the architect of the “new churches.”

Learn to cook traditional dishes, and modern twists on old favorites, with the chefs at Barcelona Cooking. Sign up for an evening cooking class and learn to prepare dishes like seafood paella and Crema Catalana (the Catalan version of Creme Brûlée) and other regional dishes with seasonal ingredients purchased from Barcelona’s celebrated Boqueria Market. Interested in learning about how to select the freshest ingredients? You can accompany one of the school’s chefs on the hunt for ingredients at La Boqueria.

Cafe L’Eclair is everything you expect when you think of the perfect French cafe: delicious cafe au lait, croissants and tartine and a bonus, this cafe turns into a cocktail bar after dark. Another benefit of this lovely cafe is its location on rue Cler. You can order a cafe to go and wander the pedestrian street market to your heart’s content!

On a recent inner city tour I attended with tour operator, Past Experiences, we went past some of the local stores, one of which was a Muti Store. Muti is the Southern African traditional medicine which is prepared by a Sangoma or traditional healer. The medicines range from plant materials to mineral compounds and even zoological specimens. This particular store carried all that and more (traditional dress, traditional weapons, etc), as store owners try to capitalise on the very diverse African market that filters past.

Petaling Street is renowned for selling fake goods, everything from designer watches and bags to football jerseys and video games. Originally, the street was open to traffic, but it has since become an enclosed area, complete with transparent roof for protection against rain. Bargaining is the norm when buying, but nowadays stall owners have become so used to this ‘game’ that they’re reluctant to reduce their prices too low (like in the old days). Still, it’s a must visit if you’re in K.L. Even though it’s more crowded, it’s best to go at night when it’s cooler and there are more stalls. The top photo shows the main entrance to the street, and the bottom photo shows the view as you walk in.

• Neighborhood: Sentosa Island
• Why we love it: A secluded off-mainland retreat with mahjong and feng shui lessons
• From $1,180

Refreshed in 2021 by Hong Kong designer André Fu, the 112-room Capella Singapore plays up its idyllic beachfront setting. The stylish, ultra-comfortable rooms have a palette of soothing sand, sage, and mineral gray and come with deep soaking tubs and window lounges that frame green jungle foliage.

Beyond the striking design, standout amenities include a three-tier infinity pool and an award-winning art collection (there are more than 900 pieces on-site). Also notable is the Capella’s Culturalist activity calendar, which offers lively mahjong lessons, farm-to-table cooking classes, and a sidecar tour with a feng shui master who explains how the ancient Chinese philosophy influenced the placement of Singapore’s iconic Marina Bay Sands and the mystical Merlion statue.

Terraced like the surrounding rice paddies, Soori Bali occupies an undeveloped stretch of fertile coastline roughly 25 minutes from Tabanan, a town northwest of Denpasar known for traditional farming and artisan crafts. The resort’s modern design plays on the shapes, colors, and landscapes of the surrounding area and incorporates local stone. (At the recommendation of the surrounding village’s elder, the property also constructed 10 stone temples onsite within the property.) Outdoor spaces feature bright green trees and grasses along with infinity pools, while high ceilings, cool colors, and marble floors inside create a tranquil escape from the heat. The property’s spacious rooms and wood-slat shades give off an art-gallery vibe, and the reading-room lounge displays the works of the hotel’s artists in residence. Food is another big focus here, both at the resort’s three restaurants and in tours that explore rice cultivation, exotic ingredients found at the Kerambitan market, and the spices, cacao, and coffee from nearby Jatiluwih.

Opened in April 2015, this is one of the newest additions to New Orleans’ hotel scene. It’s also one of the most unique. Set in an 1854 warehouse near the Port of New Orleans, the property pays homage to its past as well as to its Arts District location. The look is contemporary industrial, with plenty of original architectural details (hardwood floors, exposed piping and brick, wall-to-wall windows) paired with Tivoli radios, flat-screen TVs, free Wi-Fi, and other modern conveniences. The hotel lobby is part art gallery, with a rotating collection curated by the New Orleans Center of Creative Arts, part commissary, with locally crafted products displayed in chandlery cases, and part coffee shop, with pastries from the neighboring restaurant—which is one of the hottest openings this year.

Compere Lapin (French for “brother rabbit” and also a fictional character in Caribbean and Creole folk tales) serves food that draws on chef Nina Compton’s island roots, classic French training, and traditional Creole fare. The result is wonderfully colorful dishes like conch croquettes with pickled pineapple tartare sauce, roasted jerk corn with aioli and lime, and curried goat with plantain gnocchi and cashews.

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II is more than a shopping center, it’s a place for coffee, drink and dessert. Even more, in the center of the shopping center, there is a mosaic art of bull, which is said that if you spin your heel on the ball three times, it will bring you good luck. Of course a lot of people were spinning on the ball, and there is a hole on the mosaic art.

Palazzo Mezzanotte (Mezzanotte Palace) is the seat of Italy’s stock market and a great example of 1930s architecture. Designed by architect Paolo Mezzanotte it was considered the most tech building of its time. 21st notoriety can claim artist Maurizio Cattelan’s comment to finance in the form of a large hand with extended middle placed in the very center of the piazza.

Art lovers and garden enthusiasts visiting the Cape Winelands should set aside an hour or two to tour the Dylan Lewis Sculpture Garden in Stellenbosch. Here, more than 60 of Lewis’s renowned works—from his human forms and shamanic figures to his monumental abstracted fragments and iconic great cats—dot 2.5 miles of walking paths, blending seamlessly with the landscape. If you can, tour the gardens in July and August, when the fynbos trees are in full bloom. Then stop by Lewis’s old studio, which now functions as an art gallery, before having coffee or tea in the small café. Visits to the sculpture garden are by appointment only and can be arranged via email. Guided tours are also available.

Among the city’s coolest art spaces, Fonderie Darling is a giant – and I mean GIANT – industrial space-turned-contemporary art gallery. It’s a shining example of the type of architecture that existed in the area before the rapid gentrification. Divided into two halves, the space generally hosts one monumental work or series of works in the cavernous main area, and a smaller, more human-scaled exhibition in the second half. Fonderie Darling is also home to a dozen or so artist studios for artists-in-residence from around the world, which one can occasionally visit. Make an evening of it and reserve a table at the Fonderie’s restaurant, Le serpent, one of the hottest addresses in town.

Located within the walled grounds of Blockhusudden on Djurgården, Thielska Galleriet is a fine art museum with late 19th- to 20th-century works by Eugène Jansson, Carl Larsson, Bruno Liljefors, Edvard Munch, August Strindberg, Anders Zorn, and other leading artists of that era. Characterized by spacious rooms with glass roofs, the museum walls are covered with paintings, and collections include Nietzsche’s death mask and prints by Edvard Munch. It also houses painter Richard Bergh’s extensive archive—letters, notes, drawings, drafts, and photographs.