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The Carmel Market is the largest outdoors market in Tel Aviv and sells everything from toiletries, clothes, meat, fruit and vegetables and some delicatessen cheese. Like in a lot of outdoors markets, the fruit and vegetables are displayed in such a way you can touch, smell and sometimes even taste it before you buy. The outdoors markets (shuk) are busy, noisy and crowded but they are also a micro-cosmos sometimes of the country’s nation. Markets in Israel are opened quite early in the morning and close around 7 or 8. Friday before the Shabat, is mostly the most busiest days as people in a hurry to get food for the weekend. Saturday Shabat the markets are closed. Almsot every city in Israel has an outdoor market (shuk). Some of the well known ones are: Kerem Hateymanim, a a small neighborhood named after the immigrants from Yamen. The most famous shuk in Jerusalem is Machne Yehuda, which is quite a big outdoor place, very busy with a mix crowd of Jews, Muslim, Christians, Orthodox and seculars. In Haifa the shuk is in the arab quarter in Vadi Nisnas, the market has bakeries, fish and seafood stores and grounded arabic coffee. In recent years some main cities have Farmer markets, which take place mostly on Fridays.

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).

Many who have not visited Arizona think that its saguaros grow in a Sahara-like setting...but the mountainous desert around Tucson hides many lush spots, like this riparian canyon on the NE edge of the city. Late fall paints the cottonwoods along the creek below cactus-studded slopes in Sabino Canyon. Hikers hike, runners run, and deer roam...

Washington Square Park is only a fraction of the size of Central Park, but it is as almost as much of an icon of New York as its much larger counterpart uptown. It’s likely because it sits in the heart of Greenwich Village, and has thus served as a backdrop for many events in the city’s history. In the late 19th century, it was one of New York’s most fashionable addresses (that period was captured by Henry James in his 1880 novella Washington Square, later the basis for The Heiress, a play that was also adapted into a movie). The arch along its northern side dates to 1892 and was designed by Stanford White to replace an earlier one, in wood and plaster, erected in 1889 to mark the centennial of George Washington’s inauguration. When Greenwich Village became the haunt of artists and writers, the park was a green space for the city’s counterculture; folk singers and street performers are still a common sight, and the park is also frequently used for political protests and rallies. On sunny days, especially during the academic year, the park is filled with NYU students, neighborhood residents, and tourists taking in the scene.

Located on North Buffalo’s Hertel Avenue, MiMo Decor highlights mid-century, modernist, and contemporary design. Rated the best place in the city to find vintage furniture by local lifestyle magazine Buffalo Spree, the shop offers a range of upscale pieces, from bar cabinets to dresser sets. Father-daughter duo Joe and Jessica Buscaglia run the store, with Joe working to restore American and Scandinavian furniture and Jessica in charge of retail and design services. Visitors here can expect a showroom of unique items, plus a range of services, from rehabs and total rebuilds to in-home consultations, staging and furniture rental, upholstering, and more.

Located just south of Columbia, Rock Creek State Park is the perfect quick getaway from the city, with more than 2,000 acres of geological preserve and public recreation. The park is a popular spot for hiking—especially in the scenic Gans Creek Wild Area—but also offers trails for hiking, biking, and horseback riding as well as a large cave system, complete with a rock bridge, sinkholes, and underground stream at the Devil’s Icebox. Explore Connor’s Cave in the light of the opening, or simply get out in nature just minutes from Missouri’s favorite college town.

The picturesque village of Landau, located halfway between the German town of Speyer and the French town of Wissembourg, makes for a great stop along the Wine Route, especially to see the Church of the Holy Cross. A former monastery for Augustinian monks, it was built in the early 14th century but expanded throughout the centuries to include a three-aisled Gothic basilica and several attractive Baroque elements. When you’re done touring the church, head to Landau’s medieval city center, where you’ll find traditional taverns, charming cafés, some excellent restaurants, and several great boutiques.

Open to the public since the middle of the 18th century—and subsequently expanded by various Saxon Electors and museum curators—this celebrated museum contains one of Germany’s finest collections of Old Master works. Housed in the magnificent Dresden Zwinger, the museum spans three floors, focusing mainly on European painting (specifically the Italian Renaissance) but also featuring Dutch and Flemish masters like Van Eyck, Dürer, Holbein, Rubens, and Rembrandt. Highlights include Raphael’s Sistine Madonna, Vermeer’s Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window, and Bellotto’s depictions of Dresden’s historic city center. Also worth checking out is the collection of Cranach paintings—the largest of its kind in the world.

Near the Dominican Republic’s northwestern border with Haiti, the city of Montecristo, and El Morro National Park, this 12-room lodge makes a great base for exploring subtropical forestland and boating through mangroves. Warm woods, neutral tones, and black-and-white photos decorate the lovely understated guestrooms, while comfy loungers and lush greenery surround the bean-shaped pool. Spend your days bird-watching in the national park, deep-sea fishing, kayaking, or snorkeling off the cactus-covered Seven Brothers Island, then head back to the hotel for traditional Dominican dishes at El Morro, wood-fired pizzas at Restaurant Bubí, or drinks at the lobby bar.

Yes, it’s tiny—and no one knows its name—but this hole in the wall is a new favorite, simply because it’s like no other vibe we’ve seen in the city: an open kitchen and a rustic setting, both a lunch stop and a forum for learning about corn, the ingredient that lent form to Mexican cuisine as we know it today. The big idea came from taco-maker Paulino Martínez, founder of iconic Taquería El Parnita, who reasoned that to make a better taco, you had to get involved starting with corn. It translates to superior grain in everything from sopes and gorditas to atole and tejuino (a slightly fermented corn, brown-sugar and lime beverage).

Housed in a building that looks like a giant, shimmering wine decanter, La Cité du Vin is the world’s first high-tech, interactive wine museum. Experts from more than 40 different countries weighed in on the exhibitions here, which cover everything from the history, cultivation, production, and trade of wine to grape varieties, contemporary trends, and climate change. After touring the 32,000-square-foot space, visitors can enjoy a free glass of wine (or grape juice for children), then stock up on bottles at the boutique, dine at one of the on-site restaurants, or test their new knowledge at the rooftop bar, which features spectacular views of the city.

One of the best dining deals on the rather posh, relatively expensive Riviera can be found in a school that prepares future chefs, servers, and sommeliers who will eventually work at the pricey coastal restaurants. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, the school operates three restaurants, one with a 10-euro menu, the second with a 15-euro menu, and the chicest with a three-course lunch at 20 to 25 euros. All three offer panoramic views of the city, and delicious food prepared and served by students who are carefully overseen by strict-looking professors. The afternoon may become a cultural exchange as servers practice their English with guests. Reservations are required.

This lovely contemporary-American eatery anchors the Ballard Public lofts. Chef Shaun McCrain shows off his time spent in the kitchen at New York City’s Per Se with reimagined classics like foie gras layered into a terrine with apple, black sesame, and a gelée of dashi (a Japanese broth). Even the cocktails are innovative—ask for the restaurant’s fresh take on a Pimm’s No. 1 cup. Reserve ahead for a leisurely dinner, or just belly up to the bar. And if you don’t have time for that nonsense, no worries! You can order a takeaway case with goodies like truffled deviled eggs, white bean spread, and lemon-thyme flatbread.

This famous Vashon Island creamery maintains a toehold on the mainland in the Chophouse Row Building on Capitol Hill. It sells cheese, including the gooey bloomy-rinded Dinah’s treasured by top Northwest chefs. But all products pale beside the simple richness of Kurtwood Farms ice cream. Churned on-site in Seattle, it’s made with Jersey cream and milk, organic cane sugar, and pastured eggs. Yes, you can order farm-fresh flavors, like bay laurel, lemon verbena, and even Sungold tomato jam. But connoisseurs prefer the real deal, straight up. “The taste is pure Puget Sound, it’s the grass the cows are eating,” notes the Emerald City’s columnist-in-chief Dan Savage.

Chef Julia Sullivan grew up in Music City before moving away to study at the Culinary Institute of America and work at restaurants like New York’s Per Se and Blue Hill at Stone Barns. When she returned home, she opened Henrietta Red with sommelier Allie Poindexter in the culinary hotbed of Germantown. The women bring a strong oyster game to landlocked Tennessee as well as options like wood-roasted pork sausage with broccoli rabe and rhubarb mostarda. Diners can take a seat at the long marble bar for natural wines and craft cocktails or settle into the dining room, where white walls and wood tables create a bright, homey feel.