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Part of a family of three restaurants, Mango Mango has a prime location in Hoi An, on the Thu Bon River close to the Japanese Covered Bridge. Its bright interior—sunny walls; high, wood-beamed ceilings; a colorful replica fishing boat that doubles as a countertop—sets the stage for the modern Asian food. While many of the dishes have witty, pun-inspired names, like Lust in Translation (tuna rolls with seaweed) or Chasing the Chick (grilled chicken breast with house-made Asian pesto), the combinations of spice and texture are spot-on. In addition to the chow, expect delicious cocktails, Pasteur Street brews, and live music.

Vegetarian food has never looked better than at WUJIE, a temple to some of the world’s freshest cuisine. Dishes here are creative, beautifully plated, and a mélange of textures. The kitchen makes all of its tofu and milks (almond, rice, etc.) in-house and uses seasonal and domestic ingredients whenever possible; so those mushrooms in your radish dumplings come straight from southern Yunnan province. WUJIE shies away from mock-meat dishes, though there are a few delicious exceptions, including a tonkotsu-inspired cutlet of minced mushrooms wrapped in tofu skin and doused in crispy panko crumbs. The Taiwanese-and-Chinese-fusion restaurant has three branches, one at the border of Xujiahui and the French Concession, another on the Bund (prix fixe menu only), and a third in Lujiazui, inside the Shanghai World Financial Center.

Palermo’s Norman Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has been a seat of power in Sicily for centuries. Its apartments (open to the public Friday through Monday) provided quarters to King Roger II during his reign in the 12th century, and the palace is still in use today: It now houses the Sicilian Regional Assembly. Visit the basement to see the stone walls of the original Phoenician structures upon which the palace was built. The opulent Palatine Chapel, added by Roger II in 1132, is an attraction in its own right.

Rockefeller Center was one of the great construction projects of the Great Depression, a complex of 14 buildings between Fifth and Sixth avenues and 48th and 51st streets built over the 1930s. It’s also one of America’s grandest examples of Art Deco design, from the Indiana-limestone-clad buildings themselves to its interior murals and allegorical figures in panels above the entries to the various buildings. (Daniel Okrent recounts the fascinating history of the complex in detail in his acclaimed Great Fortune: The Epic of Rockefeller Center.) For many travelers to New York, the center is a favorite destination even if they aren’t students of architecture or urban planning. It’s the home of Radio City Music Hall, where the Rockettes perform; its 70th-floor observation deck offers sweeping views of the city; and every morning tourists gather outside the windows of the NBC studios during the broadcast of The Today Show.

The center also hosts temporary large-scale art installations, like Jeff Koons’s enormous dancer and flower puppy in recent years, and the lighting of its Christmas tree marks the unofficial start of the holiday season. Another bucket-list experience here is taking a turn on the small sunken ice rink under the golden statue of Prometheus. Just across Fifth Avenue from Rockefeller Center is another New York landmark, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, looking better than ever after a multiyear renovation that included a thorough cleaning of the Gothic building’s facade.

Upstairs from her flagship Delirio boutique (also worth a duck-in), a beautiful town house is home to chef Mónica Patiño’s Casa Virginia, featuring a changing seasonal menu that takes creative advantage of Mexico’s wide-ranging culinary variety. Its sunny dining room and nostalgic “shabby chic” details cannot fail to delight; its family-style servings are great for sharing. Recent specials included an endive salad and two artichoke preparations, a squash soup, a Mexican-style osso buco, and a rack of lamb. All ingredients are locally sourced and most of the herbs—a key element in everything Patiño does—are grown on the roof. There can be few more civilized meals anywhere in Mexico City.

Deng Bing Bing started his line of ceramic, cloisonné and lacquer home goods after he spent a decade in Melbourne. Traditional Chinese designs incorporate playful details and vibrant colors, blending Eastern and Western styles seamlessly. Scoop up ceramic trays, bowls painted with acrobats and beautiful cloisonné tiffin carriers.

One of San Antonio’s best breakfast spots, Magnolia Pancake Haus is the kind of place where flapjacks and waffles are the order of the day. Featured on the Food Network, the restaurant usually has a line but it’s worth waiting for the delicious pancakes, which are made from scratch with only the freshest ingredients. Don’t miss the melt-in-your-mouth chocolate chip cakes, or the incredible corned beef hash. If you’re in the mood for lunch, you can also choose from a variety of sandwiches, including a Reuben with house-cured brisket and grilled pumpernickel bread.

Cape Town’s Table Mountain National Park, which hugs the perimeter of the city, is so popular that the line for the cable car to the top can be longer than a queue for a Disneyland ride. But why stand in line when you can put your feet to use? There are several routes that lead to the top of the 3,562-foot, flat-topped mountain, including the two-mile Platteklip Gorge trail. Yes, it’s steep, but startling views of the city and the Atlantic await. Trek, get hungry, then picnic on local provisions—crackers, Dutch-style Gouda, and biltong, the thick-sliced South African jerky—before riding the cable car back down.

When you’re staying at this historic property, it’s worth waking up early to watch the sun rise and turn the sky pink against the San Jacinto Mountains. Romance suffuses this upscale three-acre resort of low-slung bungalows, designed in 1952 and later refreshed by acclaimed designer Steve Hermann. The light-drenched Fireplace Junior Suite Bungalow—once Marilyn Monroe’s room of choice—is a favorite for couples, with its private outdoor shower and wood-burning copper fireplace, plus Frette robes and L’Horizon-branded eye masks. The property’s restaurant, SO•PA, is equally alluring, thanks to a linear fire pit and fountain outdoors and sparkling modern metallic chandeliers inside. While the menu of New American fare is inspired—try the honey mussels paired with an Infinity Paloma cocktail—the chef will also create, with advance notice and upon request, a personalized tasting menu riffing off the day’s best produce and in keeping with any dietary restrictions. Pro tip: The deep-tissue rubdown at the indoor-outdoor spa is unparalleled, but pampering doesn’t need an occasion here—hit the poolside sun beds early for complimentary back and foot massages.

No island getaway is complete without seeing gorgeous scenery you’d never, ever see at home—and Willemstad’s floating bridge delivers! Built in 1888, “Our Swinging Old Lady” is supported by 16 pontoon boats and two motors. When you hear the siren, look to see the entrance gates slam shut and moments later, the bridge sways to accommodate passing ships. (If you don’t feel like waiting for Queen Emma to reopen, you can take a ferry between Willemstad’s Punda and Otrobanda districts instead.) At night, the bridge’s lights cast a shimmering rainbow on the water.

Famous since its 1998 opening as the place with the dancing fountains (further immortalized in the final scene of the 2001 film Ocean’s Eleven), the 3,933-room Italian-themed Bellagio is a Las Vegas icon. There is a fantasy feel about it, with its five courtyard pools, its indoor botanical garden and conservatory that change with the seasons, its lobby-dominating Dale Chihuly blown-glass flower sculpture, and its eight-acre lake, out of which rise the fountains. Yet following a 2015 upgrade, it also feels as modern as any hotel on the Strip. The Bellagio still does a few things the old-fashioned way: Along with the expected celebrity restaurants, there is a buffet (a long-cherished Las Vegas tradition) brought up to modern standards with an all-you-can-drink alcohol option. Throughout the hotel, service is tops, shopping is high-end, the Cirque du Soleil production O draws ’em in, and—another Las Vegas tradition—a casino with nearly the area of two football fields makes it all go ‘round, which is no doubt why everybody has to be out of the pools by 7 p.m.

Visiting the Strip? Save time for its spas. One of my favorites: Qua, at Caesars Palace. The Roman baths make you feel like you’ve left Las Vegas behind, and the snow room is worth a (quick -- it’s cold!) stop. Then the treatments are out of this world. On my most recent visit, I got the Nagomi treatment, on the mini-menu for the new Nobu boutique hotel inside Caesars. It included a therapeutic massage and excellent facial with a new fizz-like layer that worked on my skin. I couldn’t think of a better way to start my day.

A short walk from Daikanyama Station is one of the metropolis’s iconic bookstores, Tsutaya at T-Site. Designed by Klein Dytham Architecture, the Tsutaya bookstore is celebrated not only for the beauty of its three buildings but also for the extensive selection of books, magazines, CDs, and DVDs. Tsutaya opens at 7 a.m., perfect for travelers who land before hotel check-in. You can have a coffee or a cocktail in the Anjin Lounge while perusing books. The concierges are specialists in a variety of topics to help guide consumers through the books, music, and movies.

At 185 acres, the Montréal Botanical Garden is less than a third the size of Mount Royal Park, but it manages to fit a remarkable collection of some 22,000 plant species and cultivars into that space, organized into 20 thematic gardens and including 10 exhibition greenhouses (ideal if you are looking for some tropical warmth in the depth of a Montréal winter). Everyone will have his or her own favorites when it comes to the different spaces—Alpine, Chinese, Japanese—but the First Nations garden stands out. Wandering alongside its pond and following its forested trails, you’ll feel like you are far from the city and instead in the northern reaches of the province of Québec—at least until you catch sight of the swoop of the nearby Olympic Tower, with its distinct incline. You can continue the naturalist itinerary at the Biodome, also nearby, where five different ecosystems of North America are re-created with flora and fauna—auks, lynx, penguins, and more.

Guarded by the Hammering Man sculpture outside, this superb museum collection romps from native tribal art to African masks to carvings from Oceania. Highlights include the 16th-century wood-paneled Italian Room and The Studio, a portrait of the Seattle home of Jacob Lawrence, arguably the most acclaimed African American painter of the 20th century. Check the calendar for world-class temporary exhibits, not to mention lectures, performances, film screenings, and evening SAM Remix dance parties. If you need some air, head for the waterfront Olympic Sculpture Park to catch a glimpse of art in the wild. Free to visit, this green space offers stunning views of Puget Sound and the ferries trundling across it.