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This boutique hotel in the downtown business district exudes timeless class, with accents of wood and leather throughout. While the rooms are spacious and elegant, the most impressive features are the amenities. They rebooted the hotel’s historic 1915 beginnings as the Minneapolis Athletic Club with a massive modern fitness center, including a full indoor six-lane lap pool, running track, and racquetball, handball, and squash courts. The swanky hotel lobby serves food and drinks from the infusion specialists at Six15 and has a complimentary wine reception hour for guests each night.

Quinta de La Rosa was built in an unusual location, on a hill with steep stairs that connect the different levels besides the Douro River. The Bergqvist family has been making Port wine since 1815. The Quinta de La Rosa estate was offered as baptism gift to Claire Feuheerd, Sophia’s grandmother, in 1906. Guests can stay in traditional family House or in the new and more modern building.

The Hotel St. Francis lays claim to being Santa Fe’s oldest hotel. Rebuilt in its current location in 1924, after a fire left its predecessor completely ravaged (save the brick chimney), the property formerly known as the De Vargas Hotel played host to elegant ladies and gentlemen in top hats, politicos, and other VIPs during its heyday. After World War II, the hotel lost some of its luster, though it was still popular with government types until the 1960s. In 1986, new owners restored the hotel to its previous grandeur, replaced the barber and beauty shops with a restaurant and bar, and gave the property its current name. Most recently, in 2008, the property was purchased by Heritage Hotels and Resorts and underwent yet another makeover. Inspired by St. Francis, the patron saint of Santa Fe and founder of the Franciscan order, the look is best described as haute-monastic. Think Frette linens and flat-screen televisions paired with neutral hues, wood furnishings crafted by local artisans, and dim, candlelit common spaces.

From the royal ambience of the lobby (bedecked with Murano glass chandeliers and a grand piano) to the classical elegance of the rooms, the Grand Hotel Oslo pulls out all the stops in making guests feel like visiting dignitaries—which should come as no surprise since the hotel has played host to countless actual visiting dignitaries. Nobel Peace Prize winners including the Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela give interviews and greet crowds from the balcony of the eponymous Nobel Suite, but junior suites offer the best views overlooking buzzing Karl Johans Gate. Be sure to make time for a visit to the hotel’s Artesia Spa, where birch tree trunks separate the chromatherapy pool from a rooftop sun terrace.

Located in downtown facing the square Praça da Figueira, this 18th-century building, with a view of São Jorge’s castle, was recently restored and has become a hotel. The name is that of the square, Figueira, which in Portuguese means Fig Tree. This square once housed a market (many years ago) and was surrounded by fig trees. So you will find green and brown are the predominant colors, and the fig is the main element of the décor, designed by Nini Andrade Silva. The hotel’s restaurant, Honra (Honor), is dedicated to Portuguese cuisine. (Chef Olivier has three other restaurants in Lisbon: Olivier Avenida, Yakuza, and Guilty.)

Perched 300 feet above the Pacific on 15 verdant acres, Hotel Wailea is a former members’ club that still feels like a hidden enclave of cool. In 2014, new owners invested $15 million in a redesign that left 72 one-bedroom suites with white oak floors, Sub-Zero appliances, and Hawaii-inspired art. Still, it’s the pool that really wins over guests—it’s calm and quiet (thanks to the hotel’s no-kids policy); there are umbrella-shaded loungers and bungalows with fans for when you’ve had too much sun; and the beyond-gracious staff are always at the ready with water, cocktails, kombucha, and coconut water. The hotel lounge offers free wine and appetizers at 5 p.m. on Friday nights, while the farm-to-fork restaurant highlights produce grown in the resort’s own garden. Complimentary on-site activities include yoga, outrigger canoeing, and mixology classes, but guests can take the hotel’s Tesla Model X house vehicles anywhere in Wailea or rent an electric bike and cruise the South Maui coast if they want to get off property.

In the historic Candelaria district, the 42-room Hotel de la Ópera occupies two colonial townhouses and parts of a 1940s art deco mansion. Head up to the rooftop restaurant, El Mirador, to enjoy ajiaco (potato soup with corn, chicken, and aji chili) along with views of the city’s main cathedral. From $162. 57/(0) 1-336-2066. This appeared in the August/September 2013 issue. Image courtesy of Hotel de la Ópera

Located in a pair of centuries-old Flemish townhouses in the center of town, Hotel Julien epitomizes Antwerp today: traditional on the outside, cutting-edge modern on the inside. Antwerp has the chic feeling of a mini Paris. Korte Nieuwstraat 24, 32/(0) 3-229-0600. This appeared in the January/February 2013 issue.

Most London hotels can’t claim to have a bowling alley in the basement. But then Ham Yard isn’t most hotels. The new address, opened in June 2014, also features a 190-seat cinema with Dolby surround sound, a spa with its own Hypoxic Studio for high-altitude training, a roof terrace with a full vegetable garden, and a karaoke bar curated by Lucky Voice. Ham Yard is the eighth opening for Firmdale Hotels, the chain run by husband-and-wife team Tim and Kit Kemp. Tim brings business brains to the partnership, while Kit handles the interior design. It’s this aspect for which the brand is best known, and Ham Yard is the most exuberant of Kit’s colorful creations. Kit has filled the space with her trademark mismatched fabrics and art works sourced from the likes of Shilo Engelbrecht. Curious touches, such as light installations from cult-creator Gods Own Junkyard, lend the hotel an idiosyncratic edge. The unusual name derives from the Soho square in which the hotel stands. Ham Yard’s emergence has not only created London’s hottest new opening, but also a courtyard space where locals come to sit and linger at the hotel’s partner shops, including Brazilian beachwear brand Frescobol Carioca and a Press London juice bar.

Hotel Zelos brims with understated luxury. Rooms are kitted out with on-demand movies and music, in-room spa services upon request, and a complimentary honor bar stocked with organic treats. The hotel’s 4th and Market Street location puts it within walking distance of Union Square, AT&T Park and the Moscone Center. For further distances, guests can borrow free bikes. The hotel’s crowning jewel, though, is Dirty Habit, it’s rooftop restaurant and bar. A favorite among locals as well as tourists, Dirty Habit’s film-noir-inspired dining room offers guests a chance to play the part of old Hollywood glamour while nibbling on seasonally inspired dishes like seared king salmon and sipping inventive craft cocktails (try the Bonzai, a mix of whiskey, orgeat, grapefruit, lemon, and matcha green tea).

Few structures in Taiwan are as instantly recognizable as Taipei’s Grand Hotel. Set on a hill on the northern bank of the Keelung River, the Grand seems less a hotel and more an imperial sentinel keeping eternal vigil over the metropolis to the south. Among the world’s tallest classical Chinese structures, the hotel’s 285-foot red columns hold high a curvaceous burnt umber, temple-style roof topped by carved dragons. This classical Chinese motif continues inside the hotel, with dragons, lions, plum flowers, and other symbols of Imperial China woven throughout. Guestrooms are stately, though more functional than plush. All are decked out in imperial gold and red, and each offers carved teakwood chairs alongside other furnishings reminiscent of bygone dynasties. South-facing rooms all have balconies with city views so visitors can enjoy quiet meditations while looking out over the meandering river separating Taipei’s quieter north side from the more frenetic south.

In 2012, a forgettable Radisson was reborn as the indie-luxe Revere Hotel, today one of the hippest hotels Boston has to offer. The 356-room space underwent a dramatic transformation that was completed in March of 2017, with the decor now dramatically modern. It’s the only hotel in Boston where every room has a private balcony, and with guestrooms starting on the ninth floor, everyone is guaranteed a legitimate skyline view. Personal touches abound as well, from the hotel’s pillow library to cool towels on hand for guests post-morning runs or on a hot day.

The hotel is centrally located to downtown and the Back Bay, catering to most visitors’ shopping and dining desires, while theater enthusiasts will appreciate the close proximity to the city’s most iconic venues. Come summer, the seasonal Rooftop at Revere offers luxe cabanas, outdoor fitness classes, and one of the most popular social scenes in the city.

In the Middle Ages, it was gently sloping Rennweg that served as the city’s main shopping street and its widest. (Bahnhofstrasse? Back then the now tony street—one of the world’s most exclusive—was a moat known not charmingly as Fröschengraben “Ditch of The Frogs.”) These days, Rennweg is still lined with small boutiques, but the pedestrianized cobblestone-lined street serves less as a shopping draw than one for an idyllic stroll among centuries old pastel-colored buildings. Make sure to stop by Honold’s Tea Room for a few Lotti’s Best, divine squares of crunchy nougat enrobed in chocolate. Photo © Bruno Macor/FB/Zürich Tourismus.

If there’s such a thing as a single “Seattle style” for women, it’s probably epitomized by the charmingly craftsy, slightly bohemian, shabby-chic goods for sale at Burnt Sugar. From knitted hat to knee-high Frye boot, with all kinds of semi-precious stone jewelry and frilly scarves and graphic Orla Kiely bags in between, this boutique overflows with interesting and pretty things to admire. The striking Jonathan Adler salt-and-pepper shakers would make a great housewarming gift, while the cosmetics, scented soaps, and candles are sure to please any hostess. Check out their sale table for cute, good-quality leather shoes under $100.

Anyone from South Florida knows that the Sawgrass Mills Mall in Hollywood is the place to find just about anything. It’s Florida’s largest outlet center and the second-largest mall in the state. Home to more than 300 shopping and dining destinations, it has both well-known retailers and luxury brands. To create a more social, upscale vibe, the complex added an outdoor part with cobblestone walkways, fine eateries, and high-end boutiques. Shop for outlet deals at places like the Burberry Factory Outlet, Guess Factory Store, PUMA Outlet, Kenneth Cole Company Store, Coach Factory Store, Escada Company Store, and the Polo/Ralph Lauren Factory Store.