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Reykjavík’s old harbor, built between 1913 and 1917, has seen quite the transformation in recent years, morphing from a mainly functional area dominated by ships and their fishermen to a lively, modern tourism area that’s almost a new city district of its own. The sparkling, award-winning Harpa concert hall and conference center has dominated the area since it opened in 2011, and several restaurants and cafés, along with offices, now line the harbor promenade, interspersed with the occasional cultural spot such as the fascinating Reykjavík Maritime Museum. The boats, trawlers, and whaling ships are still there, of course, and remain a big part of the atmosphere, but they’re today joined by a number of tourist boats offering whale-watching and puffin tours.

The largest ice caves in the world lie just 30 miles south of Salzburg in the Eisriesenwelt at Werfen. Only a portion of the more than 20 miles of caves are open to the public on a 75-minute guided tour, but what’s available to visit is impressive. Magnificent ice formations, frozen waterfalls, and a smooth, rinklike ice palace can be found in this underground world. Visitors will also see Hymir’s Castle, an enormous ice sculpture named for the ice giant of the Edda (the oldest Germanic-mythology saga), and witness layers of time, much like rings on a tree, encased in the glacier (which is actually not a glacier but a massive chunk of accumulated ice).

No beer company has left more of an impact on Australia than XXXX, established as Castlemaine Perkins Brewery in 1878. Since then they’ve become a national icon, creating some of the most clever advertisements. You can visit their Brisbane brewery, where all of their selections are made before ending the tour in the Ale House. In addition to their famous XXXX Gold, try the XXXX Summer Ale and XXXX Bitter, as well as more craft selections from James Squire.

Brewery tours at XXXX are 90 minutes long and end with a beer tasting with four beers. The brewery recommends visitors make an advanced reservation, due to COVID safety measures. The tour costs $32 AUD per adult and are available Friday, Saturdays, and Sundays.

French chef Eric Fraudeau spent 30 years working in three-star kitchens. When he returned to France, he opened a cooking school to share the wealth of French cuisine with visitors from across the globe. He started with market-to-table classes and was soon overrun with requests for his fun, informative, hands-on lessons. There is now an entire team at CWC, all of them professional chefs or sommeliers, offering a range of classes, from “Mother of All Sauces” to cooking with kids, wine pairings, and baking croissants or macarons. You can also opt for a gourmet food tour instead.

Have you ever seen a bear standing up and waving at you? Well, you can definitely see them here in Show-shinzan Bear Ranch. It’s a bit funny to see them this way, cause even in a zoo, you don’t get to see them like that. I’m sure these are trained, which is somehow a bit sad, cause it’s unnatural. Anyway, when we visited, we bought a couple of bags of apples and cookies to feed them. They’ll wave at you, begging you to throw them either an apple or a cookie. According to them, there are about 100 bears being bred here. There is a section on the side where there are younger bears too. At the bear ranch souvenir shop, we were able to buy bear oil, which is used for dry skin as well as treating small sores. Actually, the more popular one is horse oil cream. Our local guide told us the one sold at the bear ranch, orange box, is quite a good quality one, absorbs well and does not leave a greasy feeling. She also explained that the horse oil comes from the fatty acids found in the horse neck under the mane. Although it seems a bit gross at first, I quickly realized how our ancestors in the early days use animal fats for almost anything, including medicinal purposes, fueling and cooking. Nearby, you’ll get a good close look at Showa-shinzan, the new volcano, which is still active and spewing smoke. There is also a ropeway (cable car) to Mt. Usu, where you can get a good view from the top of Lake Toya area. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to go up.

The 40-room John D. Rockefeller estate is sometimes described as being modest compared to other Gilded Age mansions on the Hudson. While it is true that it doesn’t have the same over-the-top quality of the Vanderbilt mansion, it does have one thing that distinguishes it from the other estates nearby, its gardens. Laid out at the beginning of the 20th century with Frederick Law Olmsted (of Central Park fame) leading the project briefly before being replaced by William Welles Bosworth, the gardens are one of the best examples of Beaux Arts garden design in America. Bosworth’s design consists of a number of different gardens spread over terraces descending from the house, many with views of the Hudson and the Palisades on the other side. (The Rockefellers helped protect the land on the opposite side of the river, assuring their views would never be ruined.) Japanese, French, and other styles are contained in separate garden rooms, while the grounds are also home to a number of contemporary sculptures, fitting given the Rockefellers’ legacy as patrons of the arts. It is only possible to visit Kykuit on guided tours offered from the beginning of May to the end of September. (Members of the Rockefeller family continue to use other buildings on the estate and they are apparently not interested in having visitors wander away from Kykuit and drop by unannounced). Choose the “Landmarks Tour” if you are interested in spending more time in the gardens than the house itself.

Laurel Hill Cemetery is a hidden gem that many locals don’t know about, and those who do have put it on their bucket list of places to go. The cemetery is also on many “first” lists: The first planned rural cemetery for the city. The first architecturally designed cemetery in the US. The first US cemetery designated a National Historic Landmark. A sprawling 78 acres of hillside overlooking the Schuylkill River, Laurel Hill is now within the city limits but when conceived in 1836, this area was considered a rural suburb. Laurel Hill was the final resting place for Victorian gentry, Civil War generals, a signer of the Declaration of Independence (who was re-buried here), architects, spiritualists and industrialists, and local hero and beloved Phillies sportscaster Harry Kalas (on whose grave are blue seats from the old Veterans Stadium). To appreciate the architecture of the tombstones and mausoleums, visitors can wander the winding paths on a self-guided tour. Download a map from the website or get one in the gift shop (Yes! There is a charming gift shop). Or consider checking the website for unique and informative tours, held year-round. Spring and fall are the best times to go; the grounds are elegantly landscaped and maintained. If you drive, there is a parking lot across from the cemetery’s gatehouse entrance. By public transit, Septa’s Route 61 bus from Center City stops near the entrance. There is a small museum across from the gift shop that shouldn’t be missed.

Dating back to 1843, this massive museum has grown and modernized over the years, especially with the addition of the Neue Staatsgalerie (New State Gallery) in 1984 and a modern hall specially built in 2002. Spanning some 96,875 square feet of exhibition space, the collection focuses on early Swabian panel painting and 19th-century Swabian Neoclassicism, but also includes modern pieces like Oskar Schlemmer’s Figurines for the Triadic Ballet, Matisse’s famous Back Series, and a Joseph Beuys room that was installed by the artist himself. Other highlights range from Dalí’s Raised Instant and George Grosz’s The Funeral to Miró’s Bird with a Calm Look. Opt for a guided tour to ensure you see everything, then visit the museum shop and the Fresko café-restaurant. Note that, on Wednesdays, you can visit the permanent collection for free.

The Black Forest is famed for its cuckoo clocks, and the German Clock Museum (Deutsches Uhrenmuseum) in Furtwangen is the best place to get up close and personal with several examples. Here, visitors will find a collection of more than 1,000 iconic clocks, some 160 years old and others extremely rare, as well as troves of information on the history and technology of clock-making, including the concept of timekeeping. Visit the main exhibition to see items like an atomic clock, iron clocks from the 16th century, and the first-ever radio-controlled wristwatch, then check out the library and archive, which features books on horology from the local university. If you have kids in tow, be sure to also take advantage of organized treasure hunts for children, guided tours, and workshops on how to make and decorate a clock.

Siem Reap sees a lot of Koreans visiting throughout the year, both tour groups and independent travelers. This means the city has a large number of Korean restaurants to cater for them. My favorite is Dae Bak, on busy Sivutha Boulevard. This simple place with stainless steel tables that get packed with groups of tourists, as well as off-duty guides and Korean expats, does deliciously authentic Korean food. There’s a fairly long menu of specialties, including everything from dumplings to kimchi soup and bulgogi to seafood pancakes. A few dishes to share is enough for a couple, as also serve half a dozen tiny dishes of starters, from kimchi to various pickled and fermented vegetables. Dishes start at $5 and a bottle of soju goes for $4. My only gripe is that the Korean BBQ is done outside and not at the table.

Located in Messinia’s Mediterranean area, this popular beach is most well-known for its distinct “omega” shape. Locals and visitors come here to lap up the waves, admire the dunes, sunbathe on soft sand, hike, and bird watch. Other attractions located above the beach include Nestor’s Cave, the ruins of Old Navarino Castle, and the tomb of Thrasymedes (Mycenaean period). As you climb, you’ll enjoy aerial views of the Divari Lagoon of Gialova, Navarino Bay, and the olive tree-littered Peloponnesian Hills. Interestingly, Voidokilia Beach is believed to be the place mentioned in Homer’s Odyssey, where Telemachus (son of Odysseus and Penelope in Greek mythology) was greeted by King Nestor—who is thought to have used the beach as a port during ancient times—when searching for his father. For a guided experience, Navarino Outdoors offers a bike tour of the beautiful Voidokilia, with time to swim and enjoy views of Gialova Lagoon.

Mendoza has suffered devastating earthquakes that have reduced the city to rubble. The earthquake of 1861 destroyed most of the city. Instead of repairing all the damage, the city decided to build a new city center southwest of the original location. They created a large principal plaza—Plaza Independencia—surrounded by four smaller plazas: Plaza San Martin; Plaza Chile; Plaza Italia; and the most picturesque, Plaza Espana. These open spaces created a safe retreat for residents to gather in the event of another destructive earthquake. On weekends the plazas come alive with artisan markets, food vendors, lip-locked lovers and families. Enjoy the people watching and be aware of your belongings.

Hol Chan Marine Reserve, located just a few minutes’ boat ride from San Pedro, is the place to go for snorkeling in Northern Belize. This small, protected area (Hol Chan means “little channel” in Mayan) is home to part of Belize’s barrier reef, which is the second largest in the world (after Australia‘s reef), and the largest healthiest. There are many tour operators out of San Pedro that can take you out for a half-day of snorkeling the reef, and you’ll see colorful coral, rainbow fish, and manta rays, among other marine life. Make sure your guide brings you to Shark Alley, where nurse sharks come to feed on the fish scraps boats leave behind. There, you’ll be able to swim mere feet—or even inches, if you dare—from the creatures.

Build in the XV century, Convento do Espinheiro was since early fascinating because its history, charm and rare beauty. Through centuries was one spot of election by the royal family whenever they moved to Évora. Luxuriously redecorated, the Convento do Espinheiro is today considered a national monument, that works with renown brand Luxury Collection of companyStarwood Hotels & Resorts. This Hotel is inserted in a sumptuous garden of 8 hectares and its interior was brilliantly decor, keeping its character. By booking accommodation in Convento do Espinheiro you begin a collection of unique experiences with a guided tour to the history of this place, as well, a tasting of its magnificent wines from Alentejo that can be found in the Gothic Cellar, escorted by the sommelier.

From the first time I set foot on the island of Ambergris Caye, Caramba became my favorite restaurant in San Pedro. And that’s not changed, even ten years later. Rene Reyes, Sr. and his wife Patty have done a remarkable job with the restaurant. Every season brings something new and exciting – whether it be décor changes, menu enhancements or even new cocktail creations. The Reyes’ sons Jonathan and Renesito are now involved in day-to-day operations, keeping Caramba one of the long-standing family-owned and operated businesses on the island. Personal recommendations include Conch Fritters (seasonal), Sopa de Lima, Fish Tacos, Pibil Pork Sub and the Coconut Shrimp. Any of the seafood dishes are spectacular – go for the Maya or Tour Guide cooking options. Be sure to try one of bartender Charlie’s cocktails, like the Strawberry Beerita, King Margarita, or a special mojito. Not a drinker? Caramba has some of the best fruit smoothies on the island. Closed Wednesdays. Check Foursquare for current specials.