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The conservatory portion of the Como Park Zoo is worth a stop for its various gardens and exotic plants, especially on a cold winter day when you’re craving a pop of green. Start in the Sunken Garden, which hosts seasonal displays of everything from azaleas and tulips to roses and chrysanthemums, then explore the Tropical Encounters exhibition, which is home to an authentic South American rain forest filled with plants and animals. Also on-site is a palm dome, water lily pond, Japanese garden, orchid house, bonsai display, and Enchanted Garden, which attracts hundreds of butterflies every summer with its fragrant selection of plants, trees, and shrubs.

Cesare al Casaletto is far off the well-beaten tourist track, but it is easy to get to: just take the 8 tram from Piazza Venezia or Largo Argentina and get off at the very last stop. Fifty yards from the tram tracks sits Rome‘s best trattoria, where spectacular fried appetizers (get them all, or at least the gnocchi fritti and polpette di bollito) give way to classic pasta dishes like carbonara and gricia. The second courses are excellent and fall-off-the-tailbone braised oxtail is a favorite. Pair it all with fairly priced natural wines from all over Italy and be sure to leave room for dessert, preferably the panna cotta.

Chattanooga’s Hunter Museum of American Art is set against a cliff overlooking the Tennessee River. If the view doesn’t draw you in, it will be the collection of American art from Winslow Homer to Andy Warhol. The museum is made up of a historic mansion, pictured above, a modern 1970s structure and a sleek contemporary building that looks like at any moment it could plummet into the water. Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for children and free on the first Sunday of every month.

Hyde Park is happening. Catering to the University of Chicago crowd and its visiting dignitaries, the five-year-old Sophy takes inspiration from hometown literary and musical heroes, whose artworks ornament the walls in the popular and always convivial Mesler restaurant. Taking the title of the first boutique hotel on Chicago’s South Side when it opened in 2018, the property occupies a prime spot on 53rd Street—a vibrant commercial hub lined with shops and restaurants owned and frequented by a diverse population that range from academics to local politicians to the city’s cultural influencers. Former UofC professor Barack Obama’s home (and his under-construction presidential library) are nearby.

Come for the drinks and stay for the music at the The Royal American. This “hole-in-the-wall” bar along Morrison Drive gets you up close to hip bands while drinking a beer, a signature punch, or the house made cinnamon whiskey, and dining on pub comfort food. You’ll want to look at the cool décor that includes a refurbished Wurlitzer jukebox and paintings on the ceiling of our own “Royal Americans”, such as Walt Disney, Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball, Sitting Bull and Abraham Lincoln.

With a smart and simple chalkboard menu of cheese plates, salads, sandwiches made with homemade bread, good coffee, and Argentinian wines by the glass, Pain et Vin is a lovely venue for lunch or an afternoon glass of Malbec rosado. The Palermo Soho eatery doubles as a tasting space and shop: look for Friday evening events open to the public, or stop by to choose from the excellent selection of boutique wines to take on a picnic to the park.

Bonafide is a classic Argentine café whose roots reach back to 1917 in Buenos Aires. The name stands for “good faith” to reflect his family’s history in the coffee business and a symbol of trust for his clients. They also sell “Bocaditos” (sweet bites) and “Nugaton” (wafers filled with nougat cream), which have become classic Argentine chocolate snacks. Peatonal Sarmiento 102 - Mendoza. Tel: +54 261 423-7915

Avenue Arístides Villanueva, simply known as Aristides by the locals, is Mendoza‘s main nightlife drag. Lined with bars, Irish pubs, restaurants, dance clubs and hostels, Aristides is where all the action happens. In warm weather months, crowds flock to the outdoor tables lining the sidewalk. It’s a great option for bar hopping and getting a dose of the late-night Mendocenan culture.

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.

Get up, up, and away with Lake Tahoe Balloons. The company launches its colorful hot air balloons not from land but from the surface of the lake via the Tahoe Flyer, the world’s only certified balloon launch-and-recovery boat. Trips begin with a 5:30 a.m. boat ride to the mid-lake launch site. Once the balloon is in the air, passengers and pilot float up to 3,000 feet above the water’s surface for bird’s-eye views of the entire Tahoe basin. On the clearest days, views extend southward all the way to Yosemite National Park. After the flight, everybody celebrates with a champagne toast—then heads back to their hotel for a nap.

Lincoln Road is a pedestrians-only boulevard in the heart of South Beach and one of the most popular places to visit in the area. Lined with shops and restaurants in historic Art Deco buildings and shaded by tall trees and fountains, Lincoln Road Mall has some of the best people-watching in Miami. Every restaurant has outdoor seating, and there are street performers and a farmers’ market that showcases the local community, farms, and purveyors. Visitors come from all around the world, so grab a cortadito and take it all in.

A favorite cultural activity of mine is to visit bookstores wherever I go. Even if I can’t understand the language, I can usually get a sense for the themes of the most popular books. Luckily, the massive bookstore Eslite has a great English-language section in addition to the hundreds of shelves devoted to books in Chinese. What I enjoyed most was browsing through the travel section, especially the American travel area, to see exactly what the popular perceptions are of traveling to the United States. If you get hungry, there’s also a cafe and some great gift items to take home as keepsakes.

This hotel is on our list of The 11 Best Hotels in Chicago.

Chicago invented the skyscraper, and some of the world’s most elegant examples define the city’s skyline. You can stay in the coolest one of them all, designed by German American architect Mies van der Rohe and run by Langham Hotels. To access the Langham Chicago’s minimalist-yet-opulent 268 guest rooms (including 48 suites), you must first check in at the second-floor lobby; its ceiling is hung with silver pebbles, its sofas populated by stylish guests, and its David Rockwell–designed Travelle restaurant alive with music and bites by executive chef Damion Henry during coveted afternoon teas.

The former IBM building with a black exoskeleton also houses a Chuan Spa, which specializes in such Eastern therapies as acupuncture, cupping, and gua sha. A 67-foot-long indoor pool and full-service fitness center are available to all guests.

Anyone spending the night in the rooms, with floor-to-ceiling glass windows framing Chicago views, has access to one of the city’s best concierges, who can organize a River North food tour, a Frank Lloyd Wright walking excursion, or a mixology class at Travelle. Don’t leave without taking a photo beside Jaume Plensa’s “Anna” sculpture in the Wacker Street lobby—then walk over to Millennium Park to see his larger works on display.

After crawling through a few of the tunnels that have been somewhat expanded for tourists and seeing the displays of recovered bombs, people who were not involved in the Vietnam War (called the American War there) can get a feeling of the horror that occurred during those years. A system of 125 miles of tunnels became almost a complete underground city. The picture offered above is the delivery bomb of cluster bombs from the U.S. The Vietcong recovered many of these and other unexploded bombs and used them against South Vietnam and the U.S. It is a sad place but worth going for a better understanding of why the U.S. lost this war.

Sutter’s Fort State Historic Park is what remains of the first settlement in Sacramento. John Sutter was given a land grant from the Mexican government in 1839 (when California was still part of Mexico). He used this land to develop agriculture and set up the first non-Native American settlement in the Central Valley of California. Now Sutter’s Fort sits right in the center of Sacramento, surrounded by Midtown apartment buildings and restaurants, but offers a place to see a bit of California history. The large white fort has been restored to look as it did in the 1840s. Original rooms include a kitchen, stables, store, carpenter’s shop, mill, doctor’s office, and other places that served the small local community at that time. A free audio tour is available. The grounds of the park include the California State Indian Museum and a small but nice area to walk with ponds, fountains, and heritage trees. Sutter’s Fort is open 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. daily. Entrance fees are $5 for adults and $3 for kids over five. Street parking is available, and free street parking can be found one to two blocks south on 27th Street.