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Wake up hungry, for good things are in store. To many locals, a Santa Fe breakfast is the best meal of the day, with a range of Southwestern-style restaurants doling out hearty huevos rancheros, carne adovada, breakfast burritos smothered in chile sauce—all accompanied by fresh juices and hot coffee. It’s best to rise early and beat the crowds.

Fashionistas and heavy spenders heading to Montreal will have no trouble finding pieces worth writing home about; the city being of the creative type, it’s no wonder so many designers set up shop in this part of Canada. Stroll along Boulevard Saint-Laurent and Notre-Dame Ouest for some of the best shopping in Montreal, with gender-defying, high quality, and unique pieces awaiting.

Vancouver’s cocktail bar scene is top notch, featuring award-winning bartenders, excellent hospitality, and some truly innovative cocktail lists. If you want to go really local, ask your bartender to use a BC-made spirit in your drink. The area’s microdistilleries are producing some of the world’s best liquors. Of course, the wine and craft beer scene offers plenty of delights too. Oh, there are plenty of happy hour spots worth popping into too if you’ve got food and drink on your mind. Stay an extra week. You’re going to need the time.

These Cape Town markets peddle everything from native crafts and flea market goodies to artisanal food, local designs, and fresh flowers. Some pop up weekly in neighborhood squares, others operate full-time in airy refurbished warehouses, others are in luxury malls, but what they have in common is that they all sell authentic local flavor.

Founder’s Note: Beyond the Headlines

AFAR chose a destination at random—by literally spinning a globe—and sent Chris Colin on a spontaneous journey to Iceland.

You’ll find great brew pubs, fine cocktail lounges, and corner locals in this City of Brotherly Love. Great hotel bars and hot rooftop spots offer great things to do in the evenings during your visit to Philly whether it’s in search of craft beer and comfort food or locally distilled spirits and tapas.

With countless museums, numerous parks, and abundant art and cultural happenings, Brussels offers much for the culturally curious. Entertaining yourself in the city can be as cheap and easy as lacing up some comfortable footwear and taking a self-guided walking tour.

AFAR chose a destination at random—by literally spinning a globe—and sent Sloane Crosley on a spontaneous journey to Ecuador.

The food and wine of the Amalfi Coast, local and impossibly fresh, are the perfect companions to the landscape. Savor every taste, from the morning’s pastry eaten on a sunny piazza to the evening’s final sip of grappa enjoyed on a seaside terrace.

You needn’t look far to find the sources of Kerala’s cuisine, only as far as those green fields and forests and the proximity of the ocean. Restaurant and teahouse tables are laden with fresh fish and vegetables, local teas, and rice grown nearby. To your health!

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.

Many restaurants around the Cayman Islands have pushed the ocean-to-table movement to new heights. From the Grape Tree Cafe, a popular roadside fish fry, to Morgan’s Seafood Restaurant, a fine dining spot in West Bay, there are plenty of locally-sourced options waiting for you. For a meal well worth the trip all on its own, try the tasting menu at Blue by Eric Ripert, the French chef’s restaurant at the Ritz-Carlton on Seven Mile Beach.

Seattle offers specialty and independent stores to suit every interest. Belltown has high-end salons and galleries, Ballard has stylish vintage apparel, Fremont has everything hippie-ish and New Agey, and West Seattle has local art with flair. And every neighborhood boasts its local bookstore, usually with resident cats.

You might not be expecting to find a gem and mineral store among the kitschy souvenir shops of Leavenworth, but Mainz Haus of Rock has staked out its own little corner off the main drag. There, you’ll find crystals, semi-precious stone jewelry, mineral specimens and collections, gemology guidebooks, and stone bookends. For budding rock hounds, Mainz has some nice kid-appropriate coloring books and rock guides, break-apart geodes, and boxed rock collections, some with a particular focus on local Washington minerals.