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Located in downtown facing the square Praça da Figueira, this 18th-century building, with a view of São Jorge’s castle, was recently restored and has become a hotel. The name is that of the square, Figueira, which in Portuguese means Fig Tree. This square once housed a market (many years ago) and was surrounded by fig trees. So you will find green and brown are the predominant colors, and the fig is the main element of the décor, designed by Nini Andrade Silva. The hotel’s restaurant, Honra (Honor), is dedicated to Portuguese cuisine. (Chef Olivier has three other restaurants in Lisbon: Olivier Avenida, Yakuza, and Guilty.)

Located 100 miles south of Santiago, the Colchagua Valley has in the past decade become one of Chile‘s wine hotbeds for the production of robust red wines. Stretching from the Andean foothills in the east through the coastal mountains to west, always following the Tinguirrica River, the valley is renowned for its “big” reds like Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, and Chile‘s flagship wine, Carmenere. The majority of the vineyards lie in the center of the valley around the small country town of Santa Cruz with its charming colonial plaza and several hotels. New vineyard plantations are also extending into the hillsides in prestigious sub appellations like Apalta nearby and to the west towards the sea. Besides red wine, Colchagua is also steeped heavily in Chile’s country traditions and cowboy culture as an agricultural valley, making it an ideal weekend getaway. For wine enthusiasts, every March during harvest the valley puts on its annual harvest festival during a whole weekend with tastings from valley wineries, regional food, music, dance, and local color.

This tiny island is north of Isla Mujeres and Cancun and is only 26 miles long and offers visitors in search of a “Robinson Crusoe” experience the perfect escape. Long, sweeping beaches beckon with water sports, snorkeling, sport fishing, and total R&R. A shallow lagoon gives sanctuary to thousands of flamingos, pelicans and other exotic birds and creatures, allowing visitors the perfect spot in which to commune with nature. Several good restaurants and hotels are available and tours to area attractions can be arranged by ferry and small plane. Getting around the island is via bicycle or golf cart.

This boutique hotel doubles as a contemporary art museum. Founders Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson wanted somewhere to store their growing art collection while helping revitalize downtown Louisville, so they opened a hotel with rotating public exhibitions. Housed in a 19th-century tobacco-and-bourbon warehouse, the hotel provides a unique space for modern installations like a giant gold replica of the Statue of David, which sits out front. If you don’t stay here, at least stop by for the exhibits. You really should book a room, however, as the service is excellent, the rooms beautiful, and the amenities everything you could need.

The Artmore is one of the few independent boutique hotels in Atlanta. The 1924 Spanish Mediterranean style hotel has been renovated and is strategically located to public transportation. The modern décor is present in guest rooms as well as the Studio Bar and Lounge. The plush outdoor lounge would look at home in Miami. In addition to standard one and two bed guestrooms, the Artmore has loft suites for guests staying for extended periods of time.

Most London hotels can’t claim to have a bowling alley in the basement. But then Ham Yard isn’t most hotels. The new address, opened in June 2014, also features a 190-seat cinema with Dolby surround sound, a spa with its own Hypoxic Studio for high-altitude training, a roof terrace with a full vegetable garden, and a karaoke bar curated by Lucky Voice. Ham Yard is the eighth opening for Firmdale Hotels, the chain run by husband-and-wife team Tim and Kit Kemp. Tim brings business brains to the partnership, while Kit handles the interior design. It’s this aspect for which the brand is best known, and Ham Yard is the most exuberant of Kit’s colorful creations. Kit has filled the space with her trademark mismatched fabrics and art works sourced from the likes of Shilo Engelbrecht. Curious touches, such as light installations from cult-creator Gods Own Junkyard, lend the hotel an idiosyncratic edge. The unusual name derives from the Soho square in which the hotel stands. Ham Yard’s emergence has not only created London’s hottest new opening, but also a courtyard space where locals come to sit and linger at the hotel’s partner shops, including Brazilian beachwear brand Frescobol Carioca and a Press London juice bar.

In the heart of SoHo, the colorful Crosby Street Hotel is a boutique from the Firmdale Hotels group out of London. In 2009, owner and design director Kit Kemp opened this fresh, whimsical property, full of art, bold patterns, and a feminine touch that is frequently missing from the more common masculine-themed hotels of New York. Rooms feature floor-to-ceiling warehouse-style windows, with gorgeous views over SoHo and lower Manhattan. The ground-floor bar is a popular gathering place for New Yorkers, but many common spaces at this hotel are reserved just for guests. The Sculpture Garden and vibrant Drawing Room with deep, plush couches provide space to relax after a day of shopping in SoHo’s boutiques. There is also a 99-seat cinema where films are screened weekly.

Since its founding in 1985, Studio Ghibli has become one of the world’s preeminent masters of film animation. The Ghibli Museum, opened in 2001, is nested within one of Tokyo’s most beloved parks, Inokashira Park—just 20 minutes by train from Shinjuku to either Mitaka or Kichijōji. Take time before or after your museum visit to stroll through the park or to rent a paddle boat. Included with the price of admission is one viewing in the Saturn Theater, where Ghibli’s short films—made exclusively for the museum—are screened. The tickets themselves are precious as well—each one is made of original 35mm film print. On the second floor, the permanent exhibits are set up as an animator’s workshop and display the many steps of the animation process. Tubes of paint, pencils, and figurines sit scattered across a desk alongside paint palettes and works in progress. A stack of books about World War II aircraft sits in the corner, while model airplanes dangle from the rafters. Visitors can see original concept sketches, storyboards, background matte paintings, and animation cels—a rare treat for fans. Other exhibits demonstrate the science of animation, including the “Bouncing Totoro” zoetrope. When illuminated by strobe lights, the figurines on the turntables spring to life. Admission is by advance purchase only. While it is possible to buy tickets in Japan at most Lawson locations, visitors outside Japan can buy tickets through an authorized travel agency. Photo: Grace Lingad

Make the three-and-a-half-hour trip from Boston for seafood and salt air. Opened last year, this hotel in the heart of town has a whimsical preppy aesthetic. From $219.

Few structures in Taiwan are as instantly recognizable as Taipei’s Grand Hotel. Set on a hill on the northern bank of the Keelung River, the Grand seems less a hotel and more an imperial sentinel keeping eternal vigil over the metropolis to the south. Among the world’s tallest classical Chinese structures, the hotel’s 285-foot red columns hold high a curvaceous burnt umber, temple-style roof topped by carved dragons. This classical Chinese motif continues inside the hotel, with dragons, lions, plum flowers, and other symbols of Imperial China woven throughout. Guestrooms are stately, though more functional than plush. All are decked out in imperial gold and red, and each offers carved teakwood chairs alongside other furnishings reminiscent of bygone dynasties. South-facing rooms all have balconies with city views so visitors can enjoy quiet meditations while looking out over the meandering river separating Taipei’s quieter north side from the more frenetic south.

A few minutes from the shops, galleries, and restaurants of Sedona, but tucked away along the banks of quiet-flowing Oak Creek, L’Auberge de Sedona is one of the Southwest’s most romantic hideaways. It has red-rock views, as every accommodation in Sedona must, but its French-country-inn style, in the land of adobe architecture, and its leafy, creekside location, are what define it. Through a series of chefs, its restaurant, Cress on Oak Creek, has maintained a stellar reputation, in no small part because of the romance of dining at a table that in some cases is practically in Oak Creek. And the spa, L’Apothecary, with at least one seasonally offered treatment requiring guests to wade in up to their ankles, draws much of its essence from the creek, too. Extensive renovations done in 2011 included the redesign of the 58 rooms and cottages, and the addition of 29 more, many with fireplaces, private decks, and—because romance matters—outdoor cedar-lined showers. Still there, and still popular, are the early morning duck feedings and the nighttime telescope sessions with a professional astronomer.

Right on Key West’s famous Sunset Pier and next to Mallory Square, Ocean Key is at the center of the action, proven by the flocks of tourists who descend on the pier every evening at sundown. Inside the resort, the contemporary rooms are decorated in tropical colors like bright lime and turquoise, and have bathrooms with rainfall showers and whirlpool tubs and private balconies with views of the Gulf of Mexico or buzzy Duval Street. The angular pool is surrounded by cabanas and day beds; grab a ringside seat for the daily fashion show at Liquid, the kicking poolside bar. Prefer a quieter experience? The spa has a full range of treatments and packages that lean heavily on Asian traditions and ingredients, from Balinese massage to a Javanese rice-and-turmeric body scrub.

Although Troutbeck’s current incarnation only opened in 2017, the estate property has stood in the Upstate New York town of Amenia for considerably longer. It started in 1765 as an inn and tavern and, over the years, has hosted some of America’s most celebrated literary greats, from Mark Twain to Ralph Waldo Emerson. While the historic home now includes plenty of modern comforts, it also retains many of its old-fashioned features, from the wood paneling in the cozy living room to the enchanting Walled Garden, which was constructed over a century ago to house the then-owner’s collection of clematis. The property also has a lovely outdoor swimming pool, tennis courts, an elegant ballroom that’s popular for weddings, and a range of stylish rooms and suites, many with big windows, four-poster beds, and deep soaking tubs.

Vietnamese food is widely regarded as one of the world’s healthier cuisines. There’s nothing particularly holistic or nutritious about this traditional favorite however. A local variant on steak and eggs, the dish is a calorific wonder. Steak is sautéed in butter on a sizzling platter, an egg is added and some hot-dog style sausages complete the picture. Mop it up with a banh mi baguette and wash it down with a glass of potent coffee.

There’s no shortage of sex shops or love stores in LGBT-friendly Zona Rosa, but Erotika may be the cleanest and most inviting, with its hot pink color scheme and “No shame here” attitude. This is one of several stores Erotika runs throughout the city. The surrounding neighborhood is filled with gay-themed nightclubs and bars, so you’ll have plenty of choice about where and how to spend an evening in Mexico City.