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The Mercado Agrícola de Montevideo is a must-see for both architecture- and culinary-minded travelers. The majestic cast-iron structure is one of the most elegant buildings erected in the early 20th century in Montevideo. And while the Mercado del Puerto has been converted to a home for upscale restaurants, the Mercado Agrícola remains a working market. A walk through its food hall provides a chance to sample the best of Uruguayan produce as well as sauces, jams and sweets. The market also regularly hosts musical performances.

On a rocky plateau overlooking the Dead Sea lies the 2,000-year-old cliff-top fortress of Masada. Next to Jerusalem, it is the most popular destination for tourists visiting Israel. In addition to its sheer natural beauty, Masada is also the setting of one of the most powerful and tragic stories in Jewish history. During the First Roman-Jewish War in 73 or 74 C.E., 960 Jewish zealots—men, women, and children—committed suicide on top of the mountain rather than submit to capture by the Romans. Among the ruins are the Northern Palace, an ancient synagogue, and a Roman-style bathhouse with mosaic floors. The ascent to Masada can be done by cable car or by walking up the Snake Path, a moderate climb which should take around an hour.

Set on a village site that dates back a thousand years, this park aims to show visitors what life was like on Guam 500 years ago, when the Chamorro had the island to themselves. Walk through a small botanical park to the re-created village. What’s most interesting is the specialization: a cooking house, a men’s house (common in Micronesia), even a house for the sick. And, of course, the biggest house of all was the chief’s. The park offers an excellent introduction to the Guam that existed before the Spanish arrived.

Full disclosure: It’s authentically tourist-tacky in Plaza Garibaldi, the traditional Mexico City center for mariachi music and culture. But when you’re ready for a serenade, you’re ready. The plaza fills up late at night, every night, with a motley crew of local revelers from all walks of life, plus visitors, vendors, and dozens of extravagantly attired orchestras. Taking a table at Salón El Tenampa, right on the plaza, may afford a modicum of order. A Garibaldi institution beneath its fabulous neon sign, this music hall pulls in a fascinating, Felliniesque crew of misbehaving pencil pushers, shady ladies, brokenhearted tequila swillers, wide-eyed travelers, and slumming hipsters. Strolling bands—usually pretty good—are available for hire, but bring them in close to your table to avoid sonic interference from every other trumpet in the joint.

Why we love it: A stunning eco-resort where style meets sustainability

Highlights:
- Villas attendants who double as adventure concierges
- A treehouse-style spa
- A reputation for balancing nature and luxury

The Review:
An award-winning boutique resort, Secret Bay serves exquisite style, service, and seclusion just a 10-minute drive from Portsmouth on Dominica’s northwestern coast. The luxury property has no communal spaces, beyond the decks, beaches, a riverside yoga pavilion, and the Zing Zing restaurant. Instead, guests retreat to six elegant villas and bungalows, fully stocked with their choice of goodies. Conceptualized by Venezuelan architect Fruto Vivas, villas fuse high design, local craftsmanship, and sustainably sourced materials like Guyanese hardwood. Guests can look forward to plunge pools, gourmet kitchens, pillow hammocks, and furniture carved from red cedar, along with high-tech touches like Apple TVs and Sonos Bluetooth speakers.

Committed to sustainability, owner Gregor Nassief helped site Secret Bay’s villas to preserve the rainforest and oversaw construction of the entire resort without any heavy machinery. The property also plants vetiver to strengthen its cliff location and has applied to create a marine reserve in the waters below, where parrotfish flit among the coral. Explore them with the complimentary kayaks, stand-up paddleboards, snorkeling gear, dry bags, and GoPros on offer, or head to the treehouse-style spa, which gazes down on the cove and offers treatments like massages with custom-blended local oils. Guests can also opt to create their own culinary masterpieces or have the chef’s choice delivered by their attendant, who also serves as their housekeeper and adventure concierge.

Over the next few years, Secret Bay will slowly expand to 50 villas, hidden among the neighboring 27-acre valley and ridge. In the meantime, swim to the resort’s waterline cave or paddle a kayak to the soft, golden Secret Bay beach. Though open to the public, like all Dominica’s coast, the beach sees very few visitors, meaning you might very well be the only one there.

You can smell the enticing aroma from this shop as you leave La Piazzetta to walk down Capri’s main drag. This historic gelateria and pastry shop makes its own crisp sugar cones to serve ice cream to the crowds throughout the day and late into the night. Come here after your evening passeggiata for a gelato. If you can’t make a decision, don’t fret: You can order up to three flavors in one cone. Wonderful pastries and ready-made meals are available here, too. (There is another location down at the Marina Grande.)

The first of its kind in this country, this family-friendly museum focuses on the evolution of biodiversity and why it’s worth conserving. Opened in 2010, it showcases more than two million natural history specimens, from fossils, shells, fungi, and plants to insects, birds, reptiles, and mammals. The Beaty also boasts Canada’s third-largest fish collection, all preserved in jars. Don’t miss the star attraction, a spectacular 82-foot skeleton of a blue whale, artfully suspended in the atrium. Hungry for more science? Hit the Pacific Museum of Earth across the street for geological gems like a duck-billed dinosaur fossil, or take the fantastic Greenheart TreeWalk canopy tour of UBC’s botanical gardens.

Located in Old Québec, not far from the St. Lawrence River, the Musée de la Civilisation (Museum of Civilization) is an enormous (for Québec City, at least) museum with lofty ambitions. Exhibits cover just about every culture imaginable—at any given time you might find Greek sculptures displayed alongside totem poles, or an inquiry into Egyptian ideas of the afterlife juxtaposed with Australian Aboriginal artworks. Most of the time you can count on at least one exhibition focusing on some aspect of Québecois or Canadian culture, from the history of trapping to spotlights on individual Québecois artists and designers. Many of the exhibits, like a recent one focused on cats and dogs, are designed with kids in mind, with engaging, interactive installations. Even if you’ve been here before, every visit to the museum is, by design, a new experience.

Deep in Berlin‘s Grunewald Forest, Teufelsberg (literally, Devil’s Mountain; the name comes from the nearby Teufelssee, or Devil’s Lake) was once the site of a Nazi technology college. After the war, it was decided that the school would be buried beneath rubble and debris left in the city after the war, and the resulting man-made hill rose to more than 300 feet; during the cold war, American troops built a base on top from which to spy on East Germany. Since the wall fell, the base’s radar domes have become graffiti-spattered ruins and a haunting pilgrimage for urban explorers, street-art fans, and those seeking great views over the Grunewald and the Havel River. The hill is also used as a ski slope and sled run in winter; paragliding aficionados and picnickers enjoy it in summer. The website has official tour options.

It all started with a tent. The acquisition of the original tent used by George Washington during the American Revolution was the starting point of what was to become the nation’s premier collection of colonial artifacts, now housed in this museum’s galleries. Visitors can experience key moments in the history of the United States re-created in the immersive displays and exhibits of Revolutionary-era art, weapons, manuscripts, and personal items. Located at Third and Chestnut streets, the museum is a short walk from the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. Kids will love the cannon in the museum’s plaza.

Historic Santo Domingo offers a unique look at how the New World was settled in the years following Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the Caribbean on his first voyage in 1492, as well as subsequent expeditions. The Colonial Zone sits along the Ozama River, where the settlement’s original layout, walls, forts and other buildings remain much as they were 500 years ago. With its wealth of colonial architecture, the area has not surprisingly been recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. Among the historic buildings is the first cathedral built in the Americas, the Basilica Cathedral of Santa María la Menor (also known as the Catedral Primada de América, recognizing its historic significance). The ornate church once housed the remains of Christopher Columbus until they were moved to the Columbus Lighthouse, in the eastern part of the city.

The Blind Rabbit’s name is a wink to the Prohibition era, when some venues operated as theaters, doling out adult beverages alongside a “show” consisting of a real animal or statue. But actually, the hidden-away Anaheim bar is a hideaway that books reservations for Friday and Saturday nights weeks in advance. Walk-ins are welcome Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m., and Monday nights are so mellow the bar feels like an friend’s place—albeit one with a dress code for men and women (no shorts, baseball caps, or rompers). Carefully acquired tchotchkes—including numerous rabbit figurines—put tipplers in a virtual time machine. At the copper bar, cocktails are served with care and plenty of pizzazz. The Drunk Night in Thailand, with a tamarind flavor and spicy finish thanks to Hellfire bitters and Sriracha, arrives in a plastic sandwich bag with straw, rubber-banded together. The fruity Wait For It cocktail is lit on fire. Don’t miss the popular Old Man & the Sea (bourbon, rum, Fernet, and cinnamon), which bartenders put into a custom-made cocktail smoker with applewood chips. And when you get hungry, don’t miss the fine bar bites, such as duck confit mac and cheese.

Let me put the good news front and center: This is not your father’s Ritz-Carlton (nor your mother’s). For example take the infinity pool, which practically drops you in the Atlantic. Then, there’s the art deco décor, which comes alive with the Latin beat infused throughout the property. Finally, consider the location: the completely restored landmark hotel is literally steps from Lincoln Road, the epicenter of South Beach life – at least the part of life that’s off the beach. I, for one, could not have been happier reading in a poolside chaise or taking a soak in the Jacuzzi, unless it was when I headed up to the state-of-the-art spa, and then down to the beach, where attendants are standing by to cater to your (nearly) every whim. Sunrises are breathtaking — instead of taking photos to post online, I suggest you do what I did: Stand there and let the new day bathe you in its rays. But there is one important way that this Ritz-Carlton is like every Ritz-Carlton: The top-flight service. I barraged handsome Patrick, the day concierge, with a series of questions: “Where can I have dinner that is quiet and outside?” “Can you find me a yoga studio with ‘flow’ classes?” And so on. Let me say this: He knows his stuff and so does the rest of the staff. I was genuinely sad to leave, wanting more time at the pool, at Bistro One LR. Basically, more of everything, which is the ultimate compliment for any hotel. (A $28 resort fee is charged per night, per room)

What was supposed to be the first drawbridge in South America ended up as a monument to inefficiency and made laughingstocks of those involved when, just before construction finished, it was discovered that one of the bridge’s two spans had been installed upside down. The $42 million project was later featured in the Discovery Channel documentary “Horrors of Calculation” as an engineering mistake too expensive to fix. The bridge, which spans the Cau Cau River in the lovely city of Valdivia, is unusable except as a background for selfies and a caution to anyone whose mind wanders during calculus class.

Switzerland has 12 UNESCO World Heritage sites, and the Old Town of Bern was among the first to receive that recognition. You’ll understand why when you stroll along the postcard-perfect Kramgasse, the main axis of the area. At the end of it you’ll find the Zytglogge, the clock tower that is one of the city’s most recognizable symbols. Built on a hill above a bend in the Aare River, the Old Town of Bern has a medieval street plan, though most of the current buildings were constructed in gray sandstone after a fire at the beginning of the 15th century. Miles of arcades wait to be explored—and don’t miss three streets that UNESCO highlighted as among the most characteristic in the area: Postgasse, Gerechtigkeitsgasse, and Junkerngasse.