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Museum of Islamic Art Café, located in the atrium of the museum, overlooking the Doha Bay and skyline, combines French with Arabic cuisine in a limited, but superbly delectable, selection of homemade signature creations. The high-end menu, on a user-friendly iPad, includes a selection of foods created by Adam Ducasse, the famous chef preparing the food in the exclusive IDAM restaurant upstairs and a collection of teas and coffees, as well as mocktails. This mixture of Arab-French cuisine, the mind-blowing architecture of the museum, the view, the peaceful atmosphere of the atrium, make this café a mandatory stop after an afternoon at the museum or a stroll along the corniche.

The supper club is reinvented for the next generation at Yvonne’s, banishing any possible ghosts from the former Locke-Ober’s, and leaving just enough of the old girl (the beautiful hand-carved original bar and woodwork) to recognize her former self. The entrance is a bit mysterious, and the outer-bar area a happening scene. Walk through the “library,” a cozy space that looks like it’s right out of an Anthropologie catalog, and you’ll find lime-green banquettes, fancy chandeliers, and a modern web of lighting. The small plates are meant for sharing and make it possible to taste a good many flavors from the kitchen. Baked oysters Savannah are a nod to the well-heeled crowd, combining lobster, porcini cream, and Parmesan into a decadently rich mouthful. Seared halloumi has just the right sweet-and-savory combination and is a favorite that doesn’t disappoint. Be sure to make a reservation; there is usually a line. Try one of their crowd-pleasing punch bowls presented in unusual vessels. The “Goodbye, Me"—with Moroccan-mint-infused gin, sake, watermelon, lemon, and champagne—lives up to its name.

Sprawling over 80,000 square feet, this timbered cathedral is a monument to all things outdoors. The Seattle landmark’s spire, a 65-foot rock pinnacle, is the world’s third-largest indoor rock-climbing wall. Take a class or just reserve a 15- or 30-minute time slot for a single climb ($15 for members, $25 for nonmembers). No experience is required; REI supplies gear from its Outdoor School. The store also has a mountain bike test track outside, as well as a small café and a tree house play area for kids.

Home to warehouses and bustling trolley stops in the 1920s and ’30s (with the warehouses becoming artists’ studios and storage facilities in the ’70s), these few blocks in South Dallas’s Oak Cliff neighborhood were designated a National Historic Landmark in 199O—right around the time the area was experiencing a decline. In the new millennium, however, there’s been a revival: Today the area’s brick buildings and charming former homes hold over 60 independent shops, restaurants, bars, cafés, and galleries. Grab a coffee or glass of wine and browse the tomes at the Wild Detectives bookstore, shop for furniture and local artwork at Neighborhood, and find unique gifts and design items at Bishop Street Market and We Are 1976. Foodies also flock to top spots like Hattie’s for Southern low-country–inspired fare; the much-acclaimed (and often hard to reserve) Lucia for Italian fine dining; Eno’s Pizza Tavern for thin-crust pies; Tillman’s Roadhouse for Texas- and Southwest-flavored favorites; and the legendary Lockhart Smokehouse for pit BBQ. Save room for artisan sweets from Dude, Sweet Chocolate (which has garnered national acclaim) and a slice of fresh-from-the-oven pie from Emporium, where the menu changes seasonally. With the area now firmly enjoying “features on travel TV shows” status, and private residences still lining the side streets, parking here can be tricky—especially on the weekends, or during a festival or one of the regular wine, art, or jazz nights.

Cacao beans’ scientific name is theobrama cacao, which translates into “drink of the gods.” Casa Cortés in Old San Juan will truly please any god with its Cortés chocolate concoctions. This welcoming café fuses modern style of its seats and dishes with the antique charm of walls covered in Cortés chocolate molds and a short history of chocolate on a collage of artwork that exudes nostalgia. The menu features mouth-watering items such as a baguette filled with Brie, chocolate, and a hazelnut spread; a blood orange and passion fruit cheesecake topped with a chocolate mousse; and an Argentinian ice wine. I opted for the mallorca (a sweet bread dusted with powdered sugar) stuffed with Ibérico ham, Manchego, chocolate, and a guava spread, accompanied by a European hot chocolate that was to die for. My meal was perfect, but I’m sure everything I didn’t get to taste was just as amazing. That’s what you get when your chocolate comes straight from a nearby farm. While I waited for my food, I watched a video on chocolate production. There’s also a museum (unfortunately, I was unable to see it, but you can bet I’ll be back there next time I come home to my beautiful island) and some products for sale. Make sure to take a little piece of Casa Cortés with you for future indulgences—they advertise one chocolate tablet as being enough for two beverages.

In a sleek, black brick building lies C27 Cheesecake & Coffee, a trendy café where chicly dressed Koreans take selfies as they sip cappuccinos amidst the whimsical interiors (the entire third floor has been transformed into faux kitchen Architectural Digest would be proud of). A glass case at the entrance displays—you guessed it—27 varieties of cheesecake, from the classic original, to flavors like green tea, Dutch apple, and marshmallow chocolate options. Hang out and choose from the surprising wine selection, or take your cheesecake to go, and they’ll wrap it in an adorable, cheese shaped box. 39, Dosan-daero 15-gil, Gangnam-gu

Berggasse 19 is the address of a modest house on a modest street, but it was there that much of the modern world and culture were changed forever. For nearly 50 years, the Freud house—now, officially, the Sigmund Freud Museum—was the home and office of the legendary psychoanalyst, until 1938 when he finally departed for London as Nazi forces were descending on Vienna. The rooms are filled with old books, antiques, personal artifacts, and correspondence, though not the famous couch (which is now at the Freud museum in London). In 2019, the house will undergo a yearlong €4 million renovation to its facade and exhibition spaces. If you walk the Ringstrasse over to the Burgtheater area, you can see the University of Vienna that was once the General Hospital where Herr Professor worked for many years.

Gottfried Semper and Karl von Hasenauer may not be household names abroad, but in the Vienna of Franz Joseph’s time they were towering architects. The duo was responsible for the soaring cupolas and sweeping staircases of two stunning mirror-image cultural institutions on the Ringstrasse. In the Kunsthistorisches (Art History) Museum, famous stairwell-roof frescoes are by Gustav Klimt, and the rich assemblage of works includes Pieter Brueghel’s Tower of Babel, Caravaggio’s David with the Head of Goliath, and works by Dürer, Raphael, and Velázquez. The sister Naturhistorisches (Natural History) Museum is home to one of Europe’s oldest pieces of art: the famous Paleolithic goddess figure known as Venus of Willendorf. There are also displays that range from insects to dinosaurs and flora and fauna collected worldwide.

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!

Before you even leave for Telluride, the staff at Madeline Hotel & Residences can help you arrange itineraries, transfers, and equipment rentals or book activities like snowmobile tours and alpine hikes. Once you arrive, however, you might be content to never leave the property. Guests can get acclimated with an altitude oxygen treatment at the spa, browse the 80 original paintings chosen by the in-house art curator, or find their Zen during a yoga class at the fitness center. There’s also an outdoor heated pool, a kids’ club with games and movies, and the Black Iron Kitchen and Bar, which serves local comfort food like Colorado bison chili and warm Camembert with honey and figs. Outdoor fire tables offer the perfect place for après-ski cocktails but the Madeline’s pièce de résistance is its Sky Terrace—a 9,500-square-foot outdoor lounge with fire pits and two hot tubs. Should you actually tear yourself away from the hotel, you can take the nearby gondola to Telluride’s nightlife and shopping, or use the slope-side valet to get on the mountain quicky and easily.

The Madeline is surrounded on three sides by the San Juan mountains, so many of the guest rooms offer stunning views. They also feature contemporary but comfortable furnishings, plus access to a “bath barista,” who will draw you a customized soak in your spacious tub. Suites have heated bathroom floors and a separate living area with a kitchenette and gas fireplace, while residences include full kitchens, laundry facilities, and balconies.

When visiting this dramatic, narrow beach in the wealthy La Jolla enclave, take time to admire—and photograph—its single surf shack. One of San Diego’s most important surf-culture icons, the wooden palapa is actually a designated historic landmark, built in the 1940s by soldiers and surfers who served in World War II and reconstructed as recently as 2016. Windansea is also known for its pounding, experts-only surf break; you should attempt it only if you’re experienced, but it’s just as fun to watch from atop the beach’s smooth sandstone rocks. For some peace and quiet, sunbathe in one of this stretch’s secluded pockets.

Set in a row of shophouses—traditional double-use structures with a storefront on the street level, the owner’s residence on the floors above—the New Majestic Hotel is a small gem in Chinatown filled with quirks and contrasts. Colonial design is plentiful, from the vintage Compton fans in the lobby to furniture from the 1920s–1960s throughout. The rooms are a little more free-form. They range from suites with their own urban gardens to attic-style spaces with loft beds and 20-foot ceilings. Then there are the five rooms in which Singapore artists were told to unleash their creativity (Work, one of these rooms, looks like temporary housing, with plywood sections everywhere). Pieces by local emerging artists include murals with hidden messages or displaying pop art influences. The bottom of the rooftop pool has small portholes that look down onto the Majestic Restaurant, one floor down.

Today, Québec City is decidedly francophone. While 50 percent of Montreal‘s residents describe their mother tongue as only French, the figure is 95 percent for Québec City. This was not always the case, and for much of its history the city had a significant anglophone minority. The Morrin Centre is one reminder of that period. In 1868, the building, which had been used as the town’s jail (the old cells are included on tours of the building), was renovated to become Morrin College, an affiliate of Montréal’s McGill University. It offered instruction in English, though it would be forced to close in 1902 as the number of students interested in an English-language education dwindled. The institution lives on as an English-language cultural center, and book lovers should be sure to visit the elegant library, established the same year as the Morrin Centre by the Literary and Historical Society of Québec, Canada’s first learned society.

Located beneath the San Diego–Coronado Bridge, this public space might not be green and tranquil, but it tells a story of perseverance. In 1970, residents of the predominantly Latino Barrio Logan neighborhood staged a nonviolent takeover when the state attempted to build a California Highway Patrol station on land the city had promised would be a community park. Their protests were ultimately successful; the area was designated a park shortly thereafter. In 1973, brightly hued murals touching on Chicano identity and struggles began appearing on the concrete pillars surrounding the space. Today, visitors can see more than 50, which are considered so culturally significant that they earned the park National Historic Landmark status in 2016.

More and more cruise ships are arriving to the well-known Greek islands for day exploration. And while that is a boon to the local economies; crowded restaurants and beaches are not what you have come to experience. Some of these popular islands actually have very few year-round residents as the cruise visits are seasonal. So that “real Greek” town that you came to see, really isn’t. The solution? Try one of the lesser-know but equally beautiful Greek Islands like Ios in the Cyclades Islands. Here you’ll find five-star hotels, mom and pop inns, historical monuments, miles of sparkling beaches, dynamite restaurants, vibrant mountain towns, incredibly reasonable shopping, breathtaking vistas, and local wines, but most of all Ios can be your own paradise. The island of Ios is still a place where real people live and work, but there is plenty of support for tourism (sometimes it’s party central at Mylopotas Beach) and you will find true hospitality, safe streets to wander and new activities like the recently opened hiking path system. Imagine walking at your own pace to archeological sites, beaches, churches and mountain villages just like the early inhabitants did for centuries? The Greek Cultural Mountaineering Club of Fyli has long wanted to repair and connect the ancient paths and a few months ago the project was completed with the help of volunteers and the Municipality of Ios. Over thirteen kilometers of paths are open and well-marked by signs connecting other paths and old roads of Ios for you to enjoy. Not a hiker? The shopping is sublime. Not for the collectors of designer handbags but those desiring handmade leather sandals, precious gem jewelry and smart local-style clothing designs. Lounging by the pool is always a favorite. Stay at the elegant Liostasi Suites and you will be pampered like a jet-setter. Wish for a low-key stay? The Pavezzo Hotel and Suites is painted in beautiful colors and embellished by flowers offering family-style rooms, rooms for one or two and vantage points with sea views set on the side of a mountain with cooling breezes and the friendliest owners. If you are a fan of Greek cuisine there are many terrific restaurants, some right on the ocean like Drakos Taverna at the end of Mylopotas Beach. A favorite in Chora, the town above the Ormos harbor which is completely accessible on foot, is Elia. Visit the cathedral and one of old windmills the island is famous for while wandering the maze of winding stone streets that spill down from top of the hill. Or down in Yialos by the harbor pop into one of the very casual tavernas. Be sure to visit the food shop called Mosenta at the port to watch them create, and for a taste of sesame seed and honey cakes. They also package local wild herbs and make a great body cream that is made from their own honey and olive oils. Insider Tips: Go in Fall for peace and quiet and best rates on rooms. There is no airport so take the ferry from Pireaus, Athens or Santorini. Images Kurt Winner Photography