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Galeries Lafayette Haussmann is worth a visit if only to stand under its magnificent glass dome. The family business has survived as a one-stop-shopping hub for five generations, thanks to steady innovation and an emphasis on high fashion and design. Shoppers appreciate its easy VAT refund policy. There are also multiple restaurants, a rooftop terrace with stunning city views and a cultural space for rotating art exhibitions.

Located at 37 Rue de la Bûcherie, a stone’s throw from the Seine and draped in the shadow of Notre Dame, is what should be proclaimed one of France’s national treasures: the Shakespeare and Company bookstore. This is actually the second site of the store; the original was closed in June 1940 due to the German occupation of Paris during the Second World War. The current location opened in 1951 as Le Mistral, but the name didn’t stick for long. Walk through the green double doors to find a world steeped in history and literary greatness. Endless stacks of books and shelves teeming with manuscripts make it hard to move around. The smell of old books hangs in the air, and that fragrance alone is reminiscent of a bygone era. My own weathered copy of A Moveable Feast was picked up here (Hemingway was a frequent visitor of the original shop). Stop in for a minute or stay for hours: Shakespeare welcomes your company.

Berlin is surrounded by lakes, and the star of the show is undoubtedly the Wannsee. Its waters lap at the Grunewald Forest and are dotted with yachting clubs and interesting cultural sights such as the House of the Wannsee Conference (where the Nazis planned the Final Solution) and the former villa of impressionist painter Max Liebermann, which exhibits his work and has a lovely garden café overlooking the lake. Nearby is the Pfaueninsel (Peacock Island), a former royal playground that’s now a pleasant park accessible by ferry. The most popular destination in summer, though, is the Strandbad Wannsee, a half-mile-long sandy beach jam-packed with locals and visitors.

Housed in a 1964 structure whose modern lines and central fountain greatly complement what’s on view, this anthropology museum is a repository of the most important pre-Hispanic treasures modern Mexico has discovered. The works are displayed in exhibits that trace the entire history of the Americas’ indigenous population, from the Bering migration to the present day. Exhaustive (and sometimes exhausting) in scope, many visitors choose to jump ahead to “greatest-hits” galleries focusing on name brands like the Aztecs (to see their misnamed calendar stone); the Maya and their artifacts; or the Olmec culture, famed for its colossal (and quite sensual) head sculptures dating back to Mesoamerica’s earliest recorded eras.

Seclusion and tranquility are the new forms of luxury in a world that is so accessible and plugged in. Aqua Wellness Resort successfully marries contemporary luxury accommodations with serene surroundings, providing a memorable and rejuvenating experience for travelers. Accessible by a two-and-a-half-hour drive or 40-minute helicopter ride from Nicaragua’s international airport in Managua, Aqua offers peace and privacy so that you can enjoy the beautifully wild landscape of Nicaragua’s Pacific “Emerald Coast.” 24 Tree Houses accommodating 50 luxurious villas and suites dot Aqua’s forested hillside, which overlooks a private, white sandy beach.

Though it is just outside the French Quarter, St. Joseph’s Cathedral is one of the most famous landmarks of the colonial era in Hanoi. The neo-Gothic church was modeled after Paris’s Notre-Dame Cathedral and sits on the west side of Lake Hoan Kiem. The church dates from 1886, making it the oldest church in the capital city. (Vietnam has a Catholic population of around 4 million people.) After the Viet Minh officially took control of North Vietnam in 1954, following the Geneva Accords, Catholic leaders and institutions were repressed and St. Joseph’s was closed for decades. In 1990, services resumed, and now several masses take place each day, sometimes drawing more worshipers than can fit in the building.

Nairobi has a new mainly vegan restaurant. “Mainly vegan” may sound like an odd description, but it works here: Boho Eatery’s owners have swapped what would be a mostly meat menu with a mostly vegan one, leaving a couple of options for those carnivores unwilling to branch out. Label the cuisine what you will, it is definitely delicious. Try, especially, the mushroom ceviche, the coconut cream panna cotta, and the scrambled tofu breakfast bowl. The elegant restaurant, located in a converted house, has an outdoor bar and patio seating area as well as a large garden.

Carey Bringle hails from West Tennessee and grew up around serious barbecue culture. A photo on the wall of Peg Leg Porker, depicting his grandfather cooking hogs in the South Pacific during World War II, attests to that. It’s still a family affair at this Gulch restaurant: Bringle’s wife and kids work with him in the kitchen, dining room, and business office. The white box of a building on the edge of the Gulch has a no-frills, classic barbecue joint decor. Aside from family photos on the walls, the focus here is on the food—dry-rub ribs, pulled pork, and smoked chicken with sides like smoked green beans, slaw, potato salad, and mac and cheese.

Founded by five friends who missed the taste of craft beer so decided to brew their own after moving to Seoul, this laid back brewery has become a magnet for beer lovers in Korea’s capital. There’s a location in Hongdae, but the original in Itaewon is still the place to be, where classics like porter and pale ale are served up in a the laid-back, industrial-chic space that also hosts regular concerts, classes, and food and drink workshops. Magpie also offers a small menu that includes pizza considered to be some of the best in Itaewon—just sayin’. 244-1 Noksapyeong-daero, Yongsan-gu

While walking around Florence, have you noticed something different about some of the street signs? Clet Abraham is a French artist who stealthily alters traffic signs with graphic stickers that transform a DEAD END sign into a crucifix or a ONE WAY arrow into Pinocchio’s nose. In the artist’s jumbled studio in San Niccolò, you can learn a bit about his process and purchase a sign of your own. If the original works are too pricey, there are also vinyl stickers and T-shirts bearing his whimsical designs.

The state’s first dedicated craft-beer café and boutique showcases over 500 brews in the up-and-coming Kakaako neighborhood. All seven Oahu breweries rotate through here, including Home of the Brave. This nearby brewpub not only produces great suds like the smooth Remember Pearl Harbor Lager, but it squeezes World War II memorabilia into its Brewseum (brewseums.com). The shop is especially strong on Hawaiian beers with seasonal flavors like Lanikai Brewing’s use of Surinam cherries in a sour or Honolulu BeerWorks drawing pad thai flavors into a Hefeweizen. Look for beers steeped in terroir too: Waikiki Brewing is smoking its own malt with local kiawe wood, while Aloha Beer salted a German-style Gose with ocean water!

This eco-friendly property is unlike anywhere else in the Caribbean. A 400-acre working farm built within a sustainable community on Mount Liamuiga, the low-key luxury resort has St. Kitt’s requisite gingerbread trim and banana-plant landscaping. Here, however, signs tell guests when the fruit is ripe enough to pick—even the golf course is designed to be harvested. Belle Mont’s 84 clapboard cottages have open-air baths and wrap-around verandas that look out on the neighboring islands of Saba and St. Eustatius, but the resort’s real draw lies in its six farm-to-table restaurants, where guests can enjoy global takes on West Indian specialties (think papaya lamb stew and wine-braised pork with coconut, pumpkin, and chocolate) under the stars.

To get a feel for Kerala’s rich and layered history, head to Fort Kochi. Once a small fishing village in pre-colonial times, this area—now the historic old town neighborhood of the city of Kochi—belonged to the Portuguese for much of the 16th and 17th centuries, then to the Dutch for a little over a century, then to the British until India’s independence in 1947. For all that time, the waterside spot served as an important port along the spice route, with Chinese and Arabian traders sailing through to pick up sandalwood, cloves, cinnamon, pepper, and other local goods. Today, Fort Kochi features myriad reminders of all who have lived and worked here: the Dutch cemetery, Koonan Kurish Old Syrian Church, and the 16th-century St. Francis Church, the Mattancherry Palace (aka the Dutch Palace), colonial Parade Grounds, still-in-use Chinese fishing nets, and the painted tiled-lined Paradesi Synagogue, built in 1567 and considered the oldest active synagogue in the commonwealth. The Indo-Portuguese Museum and Southern Naval Command Maritime Museum provide more context, while Fort Kochi Beach—with its colonial-era bungalows, Arabian Sea strand, and food stalls peddling the day’s fresh catch—draws both locals and tourists. Architecture buffs will love historic sites like Thakur House, Bastion Bungalow, and David Hall, many of which can be spotted from a stroll along breezy Church Road.

Elevate the normally mundane experience of shopping for medicine-cabinet basics like soap and toothpaste with a visit to one of the oldest pharmacies in the world. In this 13th-century chapel with early Renaissance frescoes, Gothic carved wooden cabinets, and crystal chandeliers, most items are still crafted according to formulas originally created by Dominican monks. A small museum displays equipment once used to make Santa Maria Novella products, as well as a collection of beautifully painted ceramic jars that held the herbs and powders. Linger a little longer in this fragrant world by ordering a pot of herbal tea or a small glass of one of the historic liqueurs in the tearoom.

Let the Urubamba River set your course during a thrilling rafting adventure along the Ollantaytambo rapids, available through the Belmond. The river helped form what is now the Sacred Valley, and along the way you’ll not only sense its power, but also get a feel for some less visited corners of the region it created. You’ll pass towering eucalyptus trees and the ruins of Inca terraces and more as you make your way down river, ending with a picnic lunch before returning to the hotel by car. Photo by Rod Waddington/Flickr.