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While Aruba is home to a number of shopping centers and malls, it’s the small shops and boutiques you’ll really want to explore. Scattered around the island, they sell local artisan products that make for unique souvenirs, from aloe vera cosmetics and upcycled accessories to mosaics and hand-carved wood masks.

Murano glass and Venetian masks are two of La Serenissima’s classic souvenirs, though the quality of craftsmanship can really vary. Let us point you to reliably great sources for these products as well as artisanal jewelry, rare books, modern perfumes, and handmade clothing.

A refugee-turned-doctor takes the trip of a lifetime, tracking gorillas through the wilds of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.

An amateur baker apprentices with a Paris boulanger and learns the secret of artisan bread.

There’s a lot more to the San Fermín festival than the running of the bulls. In Pamplona, a skeptic learns what it’s really like to attend the biggest summer fiesta in Basque country.

If you don’t know that Korean beauty products are the Next Big Thing, chances are you’ve been living under a rock, you’re a non-Korean man, and/or you’re over age 50. For everyone else, K-Beauty is an of-the-moment trend that’s popping up everywhere from international cities like New York and Hong Kong, to the beauty section of Target in small Midwestern towns. Needless to say, it’s everywhere.

So of course it’s big business in Korea’s capital, where the streets of buzzy Myeongdong hum with a thousand beauty stores. Perhaps the most popular of all the products are mask sheets, made with ingredients to make one’s skin firmer, more moisturized, whiter, cleaner…you name it. Perhaps the best place to look for one’s ideal mask sheet is aptly named, Mask Sheet Story, a store that sells—you guessed it.

There are four outposts of All Mask Story. All Mask Story No. 1 is on the popular Myeongdong Shopping Street.

An aspiring bluegrass fiddler from London discovers much more than music on a trip to North Carolina.

This rickety old five-storey loft building downtown became an enclave for art galleries a couple of decades ago because the rents were affordable and the location was central. Management has since embraced its status as Montreal’s small-gallery and artist-run centre headquarters, and spruced the building up a bit, encouraged by the enthusiastic foot-traffic the galleries bring. Some mainstays absolutely not to be missed on your trip there include Pierre-François Ouellette Art Contemporain (pictured), where you might catch art by Kent Monkman, Maskull Lasserre or Karilee Fuglem; Circa, an exciting space in constant development these days, dedicated to sculptural works; and Galerie Joyce Yahouda, an effervescent space where you can see work by local artists including Céline B. La Terreur, François Morelli or David Elliott.

When the Evok Collection opened Brach inside a former postal sorting facility in 2018, the hotel was an instant hit. Now, this residential corner of the posh 16th arrondissement is the cool rendezvous spot for in-the-know Parisians. The energetic vibe starts with the design, courtesy of Philippe Starck’s famous melange of styles—an African mask here, a sculptural lamp there. This warmth infuses the 59 guest rooms, done up in a marvelous mix of marble, leather, and wood. The city’s glitterati rub shoulders at the popular (and family-friendly) brunch and covet memberships at the next-level sports club, styled as a 1930s boxing club, complete with a 72-foot pool. Come summer, the rooftop terrace turns into a trendy hangout with 360-degree views of the city from the vegetable garden and henhouse. Take a dip in the terrace’s Norwegian bath, cocktail in hand, and you’ll see why Brach is the darling of the district.

Since 1974, Starr Interiors has showcased a handsome array of Zapotec Indian (Indians of the Oaxaca Valley in Mexico) weavings, which the owner hand-selects. Expect a great selection of gifts from coasters, place mats, wood carvings, Oaxacan Masks, hammocks and hand crafted sterling silver.

I dare you to visit Planet Modular and not leave with a stack of new notebooks, Japanese masking tape, or sparkly envelopes. It’s unequivocally a supplies haven for artists and crafty DIYers, and while I don’t fall into either of those categories, I’m a sucker for colored gel pens and stationery. One loop around this shop, and you’ll understand why Berlin ranks high in creative design.

Located within the walled grounds of Blockhusudden on Djurgården, Thielska Galleriet is a fine art museum with late 19th- to 20th-century works by Eugène Jansson, Carl Larsson, Bruno Liljefors, Edvard Munch, August Strindberg, Anders Zorn, and other leading artists of that era. Characterized by spacious rooms with glass roofs, the museum walls are covered with paintings, and collections include Nietzsche’s death mask and prints by Edvard Munch. It also houses painter Richard Bergh’s extensive archive—letters, notes, drawings, drafts, and photographs.

The walls are adorned with colorful masks and wall murals. The displays include rustic kitchen utensils and chunky hand-crafted jewelry. A trip to the Pune Tribal Museum opens up a window into the vibrant cultures of the tribes that live in the state of Maharashtra. This isn’t the biggest museum in Pune (the Raja Dinkar Kelkar Museum has a huge collection of artifacts from the region), but each tribe—such as the Warli, Bhil, Gond, Koli, and Kolam, to name but a few—represents a unique cultural and socio-economic heritage, and that is what makes the Tribal Museum such an interesting visit.

The concierge at the hotel was skeptical. The cab driver was amused and skeptical. Lucha libre, or Mexican wrestling, is clearly an unsophisticated embarrassment, tantamount to telling a visitor to the U.S. to watch Keeping Up with the Kardashians. Attending a match, though, is a way to see a side of Mexican culture not found in museums or historic churches, but one that definitely uses some of the same mythology, iconography, and pageantry seen there. The crowd shouts, chants, and laughs through performances featuring dancing girls, inept referees, men in lavish and ridiculous costumes (a caveman with a plastic club, fur boots, and a skimpy loincloth), and some honest-to-God astounding feats of athleticism. Matches—loud and funny and thrilling—take place on Friday nights and occasionally during the week. Tickets can be bought in person at the arena, but arrive early to avoid a long line and use your time to shop the stands set up outside for handmade lucha libre wares (wrestling capes, masks, T-shirts, onesies for infants).

Most travelers can’t resist a bargain, but for some visitors, the real pleasure of shopping comes in haggling expertly to secure a lower price for the object of their desire. If that sounds like you, then head to La Ciudadela or any of the other craft markets in Mexico City, and practice your bargaining skills... in Spanish. Can you negotiate a lower price for those vasos marked 6 for 120 pesos? How about the blouse that’s marked 200 pesos or the hand-beaded mask that’s officially priced at 500 pesos? See if your Spanish skills pay off—literally—by saving you money during your market excursions.