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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.

Overlooking the Coal River Valley, Barilla Bay, and the vineyards that produce the winery’s award-winning rieslings, sauvignon blancs, and other cool-climate varietals, Frogmore Creek is also home to a restaurant you can write home about, open daily for lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Here you can pair the star of the most recent wine harvest with colorful dishes such as beef tataki with horseradish gnocchi or cured yellowtail kingfish sweetened by seaweed and soy caramel, apple, and pomegranate. Edible flowers and bright sauce droplets create art on the plate. But the real masterpieces are the desserts. If “chess mate” and “lemon basil legos” are on the menu, order both. In late 2017, Frogmore Creek opened a second restaurant inside the MACq 01 building on the Hobart waterfront.

This hotel is on our list of The 10 Best Hotels in Canada.

Fogo Island Inn sits at the very edge of the north Atlantic on isolated Fogo Island in Newfoundland. Designed by internationally renowned architect Todd Saunders, the inn’s arresting modern appearance is suggests an iceberg from a distance, with its raised section representing the island’s traditional stilted fishing platforms. But when visitors get close, they see the wooden boards layered together, and it’s clear that everything is handmade. The by-hand ethos covers all the furniture and furnishings, created by local artisans who’ve worked with artists in residence to create contemporary versions of traditional objects.

Staying at the inn is admittedly expensive, but this is essentially a living art piece that supports the local community and aims to honor the island’s past while carrying it to the future. It feels like a grand home with attentive staff. A private 42-seat cinema, partnered with the National Film Board, carries a movie library for guests to enjoy at any time; there’s also an art gallery, a well-stocked library, and a supply of Gore-Tex hiking boots and other outdoor equipment to borrow. The inn shows off the dazzling landscape, and it’s easy to spend all day at the windows watching the sea while whales breech, icebergs float past, or storms dash on the rocks.

The Slow Food people could learn a thing or two from The Saltry when it comes to really stretching out the pacing of a meal: This restaurant sits a beautiful one-hour ride away on the Danny J ferry (one of the cutest ferries ever), across Kachemak Bay from Homer, Alaska. (Seriously, this meal is not for the seasick prone.) Once the boat arrives in tiny Halibut Cove, you get three hours to dine, explore, and visit the two art galleries in town. (OK, town is a strong word. Halibut Cove is a tiny pip of a place.) For such an out-of-the-way spot, The Saltry serves up a stunningly high-end meal. The seafood-heavy menu depends on mostly local ingredients. (Do not, unless you’re allergic, skip out on the oysters.)

In San Pedro, a town on Belize‘s northern island of Ambergris Caye, the Mestizo traditions are strong. The Mestizo people are descendants of the Maya and the Spanish, and when those two cultures mixed, a new one was born. You’ll find many Mestizo people in San Pedro, but you’ll hardly find a better Mestizo restaurant than El Fogon, a spot owned by a local woman known as Miss Suzanna and run by her daughter. All of the food is cooked in a traditional outdoor oven (fogon means “kitchen hearth”), and everything is delicious. Try the salbutes, a tacolike dish made with fried tortillas, with a texture that’s somehow both soft and crunchy, or the pig tail with split peas. And the coconut rice is to die for.

Casablanca is known for its seafood, and La Sqala is one of the loveliest places to get a taste of the ocean. Diners sit in a leafy gazebo garden near the 18th-century Portuguese sea walls, and order the catch of the day for lunch. It’s also possible to while away an hour over coffee and fresh juices.

At the Fish Pot, right on the water on the northwest coast outside of Speightstown in Barbados, grilled lobster and seafood platters are as fresh as you’d expect. The ambiance is one of wicker chairs in a historic, old stone fort house with wooden floors and shutters and lime-colored wooden railings on the terrace.

Family run for almost two decades, this small restaurant is an excellent place to swing by for a seafood lunch or dinner. Dress code is relaxed (it is an island vibe, after all) and the company is excellent.

Chef Drew Hedlund combines classic and contemporary Southern fare here in a retired 1940s naval building on the east side of the Charleston peninsula. Long used for storage by the South Carolina Port Authority, today it’s home to one of the city’s most popular waterfront restaurants, with incomparable views of the harbor. Some highlights of the menu include crispy whole flounder with apricot glaze, Charleston shrimp and grits, crab cakes, Lowcountry boil and lump crab bruschetta.

It’s not just Restaurant le 3842’s elevation that will make you lose your breath. Known as one of Europe’s highest restaurants (3,842 meters above sea level), this remarkable spot provides panoramic views of snow-dipped Alpine peaks that you can almost reach out and touch. Somehow built onto the side of Aiguille du Midi and only accessible via the cable car, this remarkable feat of engineering seems more like the dining place of Gandalf the Grey than a quality French restaurant. Once you’ve dragged yourself from the viewing platform, head inside to dine on locally sourced fare including cured meats, cheese, and Savoie rump steak.

This intimate, bistro-like 16-seat restaurant in the heart of Pest’s trendy Jewish quarter brings a dash of Scandinavian cuisine (and Scandi decor) to the Hungarian capital. Chef Gábor Fehér spent time in Copenhagen mastering Nordic cuisine, which here comes as mini-courses (they’re flavorful but small, so the kitchen recommends ordering at least four for a meal). Hungarian and even French culinary influences aren’t ignored, either— Fehér studied at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. There’s a huge variety of Hungarian wines on offer, and the regular crowd is artsy and cool. By the way, “Esca” means “food” in Latin, and it’s easy to see what’s most important here.

Set directly above rocky low cliffs of Negril and lit at night by torches and candles, Rockhouse Restaurant provides the setting for an elegant and romantic evening. (The setting’s pretty great during the day, too—breakfast, lunch, and dinner are served in this open-sided palapa and patio.) The New Jamaican cuisine means a refined and more health-conscious preparation of classic island recipes, with as many ingredients as possible from the hotel’s small organic garden across the road. Among the notable dinner offerings are the blackened mahimahi with mango chutney, snapper steamed in a banana leaf, and coconut shrimp.

The site of the premier Academy Awards after-party in 1929, this historic Beaux Arts hotel on the edge of downtown was recently updated for the first time since the 1980s. Today, The Mayfair’s grand, monochromatic lobby features original stone columns, light marble accents, plenty of skylights amid lofty ceilings, and impressive arches and alcoves with gray-velvet seating scattered throughout. The chic M Bar at the back glows under a lit-up, seashell-like sculpture. Rooms and suites have panoramic views of the city skyline and feature patterned wallpaper, black-and-white photographs of the city, and striped canopies draped over the beds.

The founders of Soho House and the developers behind such buzzy hotels as New York City’s The NoMad teamed up to turn the historic Midland Bank building into—what else?—a one-stop lifestyle hub that’s drawing regulars of both the suit-and-tie and hipster variety. Part-hotel, part-member’s club, The Ned (named for the moniker of legendary, 19th-century architect Edwin Lutyens, who first envisioned the building) features eight dining options set around the former banking hall, from Italian, French, and Californian spots to a New-York-style deli, Pan-Asian favorite, and lounge for an overflowing, British-style Sunday feast, complete with a Bloody Mary bar and mimosa trolley. Hotel guests also have access to a downstairs bar, and a wellness level with a nail bar, gym, separate hair salon and barbershop, Cowshed Spa, traditional Moroccan hammam, and vitamin IV drips by The Elixir Clinic. The spa level also features an indoor pool, while the Ned’s Club Upstairs offers a rooftop pool and restaurant (with views out to St. Paul’s Cathedral) to Club members or those staying in higher-category rooms.

The entire property is done up in cool, vintage-inspired design, including the 250 guestrooms, which range in category from Crash Pad and Cosy to Heritage and six types of suites. All feature 1920s flair, such as mirrored cocktail cabinets, wingback chairs, and Jazz Age motifs, as well as marble-mosaic bathrooms stocked with rainfall showers and 10 full-size Cowshed products. Suites have bonus perks like dining areas, bathtubs, and upgraded views. Take all the pictures you want in your room, but Insta-addicts may want to leave their phones behind when in select public areas: there’s a photo ban in any place that’s part of the Club membership, including that stunning rooftop.

A contemporary take on traditional lodge-style accommodations, Scribner’s Catskill Lodge is a cozy, 38-room inn, housed in a circa-1966 building that was revamped in 2016. While rooms tend to have their own look and feel, most share more than a few common elements, including patterned carpets, dark maple floors, and modern furniture. The majority are geared toward couples but there’s also a suite with bunk beds, which is perfect for families or groups of friends who don’t mind shacking up together. Amenities here are geared toward weekenders seeking a break from the Big City and include regular yoga classes along with afternoon DJ performances, meditation sessions, and even healing sound baths. There’s also a restaurant, Prospect, with ever-changing dishes like roasted chicken, burgers, and duck carnitas.

When it opened in 2010, the Matilda injected contemporary style into San Miguel’s old-town hotel scene—and the accolades have been pouring in ever since. On a quiet side street a block from the lush Parque Juárez—and past a small entry courtyard shaded by jacaranda trees—the boutique lodging has filled its public spaces with modern art and decor: Witness the video installation wall behind the reception area, the Aldo Chaparro light sculpture in the bar, and the works by noted “naked crowd” photographer Spencer Tunick in the hallways. (One piece that doesn’t fit the mold is the 1940s-era painting by Diego Rivera of the owner’s mother Matilda, which hangs in the ground-floor lounge.)


Bright and airy guest rooms are spread out over a few small structures and have streamlined custom furnishings, plush linens, and Malin + Goetz bath amenities. Cap a morning spent touring the city’s famous cathedral with a dip in the small infinity-edge pool that sits in the central courtyard, or a Tata Harper facial at the jewel-box spa; body treatments use fresh ingredients like corn, cocoa, and locally grown lavender custom-blended in the on-site apothecary, and a private hammam rounds out the perks. Then enjoy elevated local delicacies at the indoor/outdoor Moxi restaurant, featuring ever-changing tasting menus by celebrated Mexico City chef Enrique Olvera.