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A classic Plaka hotel close to Syntagma Square, the Electra Palace checks all the boxes for convenient location, rooftop restaurant overlooking the Acropolis, comfortable rooms, plus niceties like a gym, spa, and pool. Spacious suites feature views of the Parthenon, marble bathrooms with Jacuzzi tubs, and handwoven carpets. A Greek breakfast buffet is served in the downstairs garden, and drinks and food are served all day on the fifth-floor rooftop. Hydrating facials, body wraps, and Cretan olive oil massages are given at the spa, which also has a heated indoor pool and jacuzzi. For spring and summer visitors, an afternoon at the outdoor pool overlooking the city’s monuments and neoclassical archicture is practically a requirement.

Local-style comfort food gets the portions it deserves here, filling the soul and the stomach. Massive pancakes, kalua pork hash, and an all-day Big Island Breakfast Menu are the main draws. Seafood eaters shouldn’t miss the poke bowl (pronounced POH-keh): cubed raw fish seasoned any way you wish.

Korean fare involves a broad array of dishes deeply rooted in agricultural tradition. To get an overview of the cuisine and sample a bit of everything, head to Seasons Table. You should arrive with an appetite—this restaurant chain has an all-you-can-eat buffet with fresh, healthy dishes, including vegetarian options, that are made with seasonal ingredients sourced from local farmers. The decor features warm wood accents and modern takes on traditional textures, creating a rustic yet inviting space that reflects the food. With close to 100 dishes on offer—everything from salad and rice to dumplings, entrées, kimchi, soup, and dessert stations—you are sure to leave satisfied.

The Fish Deli, founded by Martin and Katja Wittneben in 2008, is a seafood shop and restaurant located in Swakopmund, Namibia. The restaurant—one of the first in Namibia to sell seafood—serves fresh fish, oysters, and other foods sourced directly from Namibia’s coastal waters.

Panama City’s seafood market stands near the halfway point along the Cinta Costera, so the goodies on offer can be your reward after a long walkabout. Since colonial times, fishermen who sold the city its seafood have anchored here; there’s now an up-to-date market home to nearly a score of open-air stalls where customers chow down on ceviche, fried corvina fish with patacones (fried plantain rounds), filete a lo macho (fish filet in a shellfish ragout), and those same patacones, now stuffed with shrimp or much-celebrated shellfish guacho (think a tropical risotto). Don’t expect anything ritzy: This is plastic-chair-and-table country, but the food is so delicious that you won’t be thinking about the ambience.

Visitors often want to bring a souvenir from San Miguel back to the kids or friends at home...nothing too elaborate, but authentic nonetheless. Head to the three-block Mercado de Artesanías for a leisurely stroll amid the stalls. Start at the west end and work your way east to find silver, crafts, jewelry, pottery…if it fits in a suitcase, you can buy it here. To the east of the artisans’ market, visit the Mercado Ignacio Ramírez, where you’ll find head-high pyramids of fruits and vegetables, perfect for great photos; nightstand-worthy flowers; and food stalls offering everything from custom-made licuados—think smoothies, Mexican style—to peeled cactus leaves freshly prepared for a nopal salad. Good hunting!

The true nature of old Bangkok can’t be sampled at its busy malls and modern shopping districts, but in enclaves such as this timeless thoroughfare in Chinatown. A narrow pedestrian lane, Trok Issaranuphap links two of the area’s main streets, Yaowarat Road and Charoen Krung Road, with Sampeng Lane, another pedestrian-only street filled with small department stores. It’s a portal to the traditional side of the city, especially for those who want to sample street food, as it is filled with stalls and vendors purveying tasty Chinese/Thai snacks and meals such as roast pork and duck and dumplings. The alley’s wet market is a great place to purchase fruit and vegetables. Other attractions include traditional-medicine shops, fortune tellers, and stalls selling assorted bric-a-brac.

The Rex Hotel remains the most historic hotel in District 1. It’s undergone massive renovations since its heyday as a hangout for journalists during the war, including the addition of a luxury ground floor filled with pricey shopping. Skip that and head to the hotel’s rooftop bar. Some of my favorite memories have been talking to visitors who were here in the 1970s back to the setting of so many of their evenings. Everyone has told the same story- Saigon has changed but the roof remains frozen in time. The same kitschy elephant statues, stiff drinks, small steaks and the rotating golden crown illuminating the local Vietnamese band playing some pop love ballads. The Rex Hotel 08038292185 141 Nguyen Hue, Quan 1, Ho Chi Minh City

Hogfish Bar and Grill, under a thatched palapa roof with open sides, is tucked in among the boats and gulls of Safe Harbour Marina in Stock Island. In short, a meal or a drink there makes you feel like an insider, a salty local far from the crowds downtown. That in-crowd feeling is burnished on weekends, when local bands play sets, or during one of the events held by Hogfish during the season, like shrimp boils. The simple food is served generously on plates crowded with side dishes. The hogfish sandwich, served fried on Cuban bread, is the stuff of late-night-post-beer legend.

The sustainably designed andBeyond Sossusvlei Desert Lodge on the edge of the NamibRand Nature Reserve captures the raw beauty of the world’s oldest living desert. The otherworldliness of the environment has been consciously translated into every aspect of the experience. The off-grid design factors in the extreme climate and harsh elements, and the desert’s forms, colors and textures are reflected in sculptural stone and steel lines that give way to soft, organic shapes. Throughout, glass walls slide away to amplify the big-sky views. The 10 guest suites are self-sufficient, solar-powered private retreats, each generating ample energy to run on photovoltaic power for everything from the AC and the deep swimming pools to the water harvesting and recycling systems.


Activities include climbing the world’s highest dunes at Sossusvlei or e-biking along gravel trails to caves with rock art by the desert’s earliest inhabitants. Back at the lodge, dishes that reflect Namibia’s cultural history include venison and Kalahari truffles and fresh seafood from the Atlantic Ocean. With close to zero light pollution, the Namib is one of the best dark sky locations in the Southern Hemisphere. The best way to end any evening is in the lodge’s observatory. You can also fall asleep counting stars, thanks to a skylight above your bed.

The red brick building that houses DeSoto Central Market has lived many lives over the course of its 90-plus years—first as a car dealership, then an antiques shop, and at one point, an advertising firm. Today, the sprawling structure is a market and gathering space where locals go for oysters, burgers, Mexican-Asian fusion spreads, community events, and more. DeSoto is both a retail beacon to the modern-day consumer (there’s a cold-pressed juice bar and a kiosk selling ethically sourced stone jewelry, for instance) as well as a stunning reflection of Phoenix history, complete with exposed brick walls and rustic beams overhead.

Vietnamese love the cool climes of this town 5,000 feet above sea level in the highlands of southern Vietnam. Da Lat was “discovered” as a site for a potential town in 1893 by French bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin; before long, it was established as a refuge where French Indochina’s colonial administrators living in Saigon could cool off during their downtime. French villas—many still standing today—and summer palaces of Vietnam’s last emperor, Bao Dai, soon followed. Today many visitors still come to escape the tropical heat typical of most of the country, wander round the man-made lake in the heart of town, and enjoy the locally grown fruits and vegetables sold at the morning market—strawberries, peaches, avocados, artichokes, and more. The Hang Nga guesthouse here is a small hotel with an unusual surrealist design. Da Lat is also a great destination for adventure travel, with outfitters offering mountain-biking, kayaking, white-water-rafting, and canyoning excursions; Phat Tire Ventures is the best operation in town.

Norway’s only revolving restaurant is a great choice if you’re traveling with family. Located at the top of a telecom tower, the restaurant takes approximately one hour to complete a rotation, ensuring a different view of Trondheim’s glorious water and mountains whenever you glance out of the window. While there’s nothing special about the food here, some dishes offer better value than others. Shun the pizzas, burgers, and steaks and order instead from the creative mains menu. Blackened chicken rarely disappoints, and the pasta dishes will easily fill you up. Booking is essential on the weekend. Allow an extra 15 minutes before your booking time to ride up in the elevator.

This Michelin-starred imaginative seafood restaurant, inspired by a small Venetian theater of yesteryear, is an intimate dining spot with just nine tables. The brainchild of Gianni Bonaccorsi, who had a vision to create a fine-dining place in this spot more than a decade ago, it serves a seasonal menu that’s at once creative and well researched. Expect modern interpretations on classic Venetian favorites, with a focus on locally sourced fish that can change daily. The decor is as inviting as the food, with white cloth–covered tables set in a wood-beam-and-brick dining space. Reservations are essential. Il Ridotto is open for lunch and dinner and offers both prix-fixe and à la carte menus.

In addition to Slow Bakery’s celebrated original coffee shop, bakery, and deli in Botafogo (Rio’s answer to NYC’s Soho), a new location in Ipanema (Rua Barao da Torre, 422) opened in August. The new space will limit itself to selling natural-yeast bread, further simplifying the original bakery’s slow-food ethos. This idea is that if you’re looking for a delicious coffee or a quick lunch, you will go to the original Slow Bakery, but if you just want a loaf of your favorite bread, head to the new shop, near Posto 10 on Ipanema Beach and a few blocks from the Nossa Senhora da Paz metro station.