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It’s one of the most recognizable facades on Passeig de Gràcia: a modernist fantasy of undulating stone, brightly colored mosaics, and stained glass—one that could only come from the mind of famed Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí. Designed in 1904 as a home for local industrialist Josep Batlló, the building pays homage to the legendary tale of Saint George and the Dragon. The balconies are reminiscent of skulls, and exterior columns look like bones—recalling the dragon’s human victims—while the roof’s arched shape and scale-like tiles mimic the dragon itself. The interior is just as fantastical, all sinuous lines and curving forms. To avoid the crush, try going first thing on a weekday morning, or shell out a bit extra for a Fast Pass timed ticket online (28.5 euros, or about $37—5 euros more than regular admission).

Myrtle Allen is Ireland’s answer to Alice Waters: The centenarian chef has lobbied the Irish parliament for better food policies, earned some Michelin stars, and, 50 years ago, opened a restaurant called the Yeats Room in the town of Shanagarry, an hour east of Cork City. She eventually added bedrooms upstairs and called it Ballymaloe House, and her sous-chef-turned-daughter-in-law, Darina Allen—who has written canonical Irish cookbooks and helped lead Ireland’s Slow Food movement—tacked on the Ballymaloe Cookery School and farm two miles from the main house.

This is thus the seat of Ireland’s food royalty, and it shows. The restaurant spins flavorful dinners out of whatever comes in from the farm or East Cork’s fishing boats, and the cookery school has become known the world over for teaching expert and novice chefs to make pizzas, ferment pickles, cook baby food, and grow fruits, vegetables, and herbs. Even without all that, the ivy-fronted house—and cabins and cottages on the farm’s grounds—make for a simple, pleasant country retreat.

Get a handmade leather wallet, purse, or passport holder—without breaking the bank. Since 1949, local secret Armando Rioda (hidden on the 2nd floor of a building near the Spanish Steps) has been turning out top-notch, handcrafted leather goods. Sketch out your design with one of the shop’s master craftsman, pick your own leather, even get it monogrammed. Small wallets start at about 50 euros and purses at 100 euros, so for a unique, bespoke leather item, the prices couldn’t be more fair.

The Common becomes extraordinary on winter evenings when the Christmas tree is up and soft lights seem to hold back the twilight chill, but the truth is there’s no bad time to visit the nation’s oldest public park. The former cow pasture has been a focal point for Boston’s history and culture since its inception in 1636—a site for riots and rallies from the Revolutionary War to the Vietnam War era as well as weddings, hangings, and burials. Summer splashing and winter skating at the Frog Pond are local traditions, and you can spend hours wandering from landmark to landmark (like Augustus Saint-Gaudens’s famous bas-relief Memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and the Massachusetts Fifty-Fourth Regiment, or the Soldiers and Sailors monument atop Flag Staff Hill). Or you can just laze in the sun on the park’s west-side lawn.

When it opened in December 1999, the Burj al Arab—a sail-shaped, all-suite skyscraper hotel built on an artificial island—put Dubai on the map as an over-the-top travel destination and became a landmark. Even today, the Burj al Arab sets the standard for outsized luxury with Rolls-Royce airport pickups, a helipad, gold-plated iPads, and butler-serviced duplex suites equipped with beds with mirrored ceilings, double Jacuzzi bathtubs, and full-size Hermès toiletries. The cool architectural exterior conceals a vivid interior with acres of gold leaf, dancing fountains, and room decor so distractingly jazzy that it may make guests feel as though they’ve drunk the world’s largest cup of Arabic coffee. (This is not the place for admirers of subtlety or minimalism.) The Terrace, an ambitious project even by Dubai standards, added nearly 2.5 acres of cabana, beach, pool, and restaurant space to the resort in 2016. Come sunset, though, the place to be is the 27th-floor Skyview bar.

For many centuries, the Hohenzollerns were one of Germany’s most powerful families, their influence only diminishing with the end of the monarchy after World War I. During their dominance, they lived in this majestic neo-Gothic castle, visible from miles away thanks to its prime location on a conical hill. Inside, a series of opulent rooms remain resplendent with period furnishings and valuable oil paintings. The Treasury—which hosts personal items of Frederick the Great and Queen Louise, the Prussian Royal Crown, and a great deal of expensive porcelain and silverware—and the royal chambers can only be seen via a guided tour, but the grounds are free to explore. Also open to the public is the café-restaurant Burg Hohenzollern, with decent regional food and an outdoor beer garden in summer.

Originally constructed in 1886, the building for this elegant five-room boutique inn went through a few different iterations as a private home and a small hospital before earning its National Historic status in the 1970s. But about 50 years ago when the hospital shut down, it fell into disrepair. Enter new owners Dina and Richard Dwyer. World travelers themselves, the Dwyers brought their expertise in design and construction and spent about four years renovating the building, which they opened in fall 2018. The property has an onsite pool, an outdoor fire pit, and is a short walk to shops and restaurants in downtown Calistoga. Guest rooms are elegant, with plenty of natural light, and bathrooms feature high-tech Toto toilets—all wonderful to return to after a day exploring Napa Valley. Breakfasts are a delight, too: ingredients are fresh (you might even get some herbs from their garden!) and Dina takes pride in highlighting local and regional purveyors. The beautifully appointed living and dining room—as well as Richard and Dina’s welcoming hospitality—will make travelers feel right at home.

Colombian fashion designer Silvia Tcherassi took the design world by storm when she transformed a 250-year-old mansion in the center of Old Town Cartagena into a contemporary refuge that honors both past and present. Mansion Tcherassi’s seven rooms blend fashion-forward decor (think sparkly gold throw blankets) and original features such as restored stone walls and private balconies, but the vibe is much more understated, with ethereal fabrics, soft colors, and natural wood, in the 42 neutral-hued rooms at sister property Tcherassi Hotel & Spa. You can order fresh-caught seafood and icy raspaos (traditional drinks made with fruit and condensed milk) at the restaurant, while carpaccios, pizzas, and ceviches are on the menu on the rooftop lounge; the Italian restaurant at the mansion extends to a cozy patio facing a plunge pool and vertical garden made with thousands of local plants. After a day spent exploring Old Town’s historic buildings, relax with a Chinese medicine–inspired treatment in the spa, or take a dip in one of the property’s four pools.

The Blue Ridge Mountains stand in for the Black Forest at Grand Bohemian Asheville, a 104-room luxury property inspired by old-world Bavarian hunting lodges, complete with stag-antler chandeliers, rich velvet and brocade textiles, and a popular mascot in the lobby—a taxidermied wild boar named Zsa Zsa. In contrast to the more dramatic public spaces, rooms and suites are spacious and light with crisp white bedding and tufted headboards; almost all of the bathrooms have large tubs with shutters that open up to the sleeping area. In addition to the rare original artwork that’s scattered throughout the hotel, there’s a gallery featuring paintings, art glass, woodwork, and sculptures from local, regional, and international artists. George W. Vanderbilt’s Gilded Age castle is across the street, and the hotel is within walking distance of Biltmore Village’s popular restaurants and shops and only two miles from trendy downtown Asheville, making it a convenient jump-off for exploring the Great Smokies.

Spain takes its food seriously. After all, it’s the country that gave birth to El Bulli and, as of 2015, has 169 Michelin-starred restaurants (11 in Madrid alone). So it comes as no surprise that a top hotel on a main boulevard in the capital should be home to one of these temples to gastronomy, the two-Michelin-starred Santceloni. But the Hotel Hesperia Madrid doesn’t content itself with just a world-class restaurant. No, this sleek retreat—decorated boldly by some of Spain’s top designers, including Pascua Ortega, Erico Navazo, and Mercedes Gonzalez López-de-Carrizosa—is devoted to the best of contemporary Spanish dining, with a total of three acclaimed restaurants and a sultry scotch bar attracting the most discerning palates in Madrileño society. In between decadent meals—and exploring the ritzy shopping and myriad sights just outside the hotel’s front door—work up an appetite at the open-air gym up on the rooftop, yet another of the Hesperia’s claims to fame.

Southern charm and Asian aesthetics meld seamlessly at the Mandarin Oriental, located on 15 floors of a high-rise building in the tony boutique-filled Buckhead neighborhood. Beyond a striking marble lobby, the 127 rooms feel like home—albeit a luxurious one—thanks to interiors by renowned architect Robert A.M. Stern. Plush carpets, large working desks, velvet-upholstered armchairs, and high definition LED televisions join bathrooms finished in black-and-white marble, with twin vanities, sunken tubs, and Atelier Cologne bath products. Whether you want to swim laps in the 60-foot swimming pool or simply unwind in the private English garden, the hotel is like a cocoon from the outside world; guests of the spa are welcomed with seasonal tea and an o-shibori, a Japanese steamed towel, before indulging in their massages and facials. But should you need to leave the bubble, the shops in Lenox Square are walking distance from the hotel, and free car service is available to take you within a two-mile radius.

Located just 25 minutes southwest of Atlanta’s international airport, the Inn at Serenbe feels like a world away. Spread across 40 acres, the bucolic retreat makes the most of its natural surroundings with an organic farm, a croquet lawn, and a serene stone labyrinth, plus two swimming pools, miles of forested trails, and three restaurants that incorporate farm-grown produce. Individually decorated guest rooms in the property’s three houses and three cottages display local art and heirlooms, as well as cozy amenities like Jacuzzi tubs, fireplaces, and cushioned window seats ideal for curling up with a book—that is, if you can manage to find the time between horseback riding excursions, hayrides, farm tours, and spa services. In the evenings, a bonfire provides just enough romantic light to help you make picture-perfect s’mores.

Cayo Espanto is one of those fantasy vacation spots, the kind that one might think exists only in daydreams. But this private island actually is the stuff of dreams, with powdery sand and private beaches lapped by the clear Caribbean waters, doting service, and plenty to do—or not. Cayo Espanto, one of Belize’s hundreds of cays (off-shore islands), sits three miles off the coast of another Belizean island, San Pedro, and can boast what few other properties can: a location right along the second-largest barrier reef in the world.


Each of the seven villas occupies its own private slice of the cay, and an excess of amenities is included: airport pick-up service, boat transfers to and from the island, personal butler service, three customized meals per day, snacks and drinks, and all non-motorized activities, including the use of kayaks and a sailboat. Villas are painted in tropical hues and are exceedingly comfortable, with windows that open right up to ocean views. Some have private infinity-edge plunge pools.

After a day of exploring and shopping, it’s a pleasure to pass through the wooden doors of this Relais & Chateaux hotel (near the Koutoubia Mosque and souks) and into a world of fragrant orange trees, poolside loungers, and fresh mint tea served on shaded terraces. Housed in a 1930s-era riad with three swimming pools, Villa des Orangers features 27 elegant rooms and suites, complete with decor like hand-painted tiles, latticed woodwork, arched doorways, and carved mantles as well as modern conveniences like air-conditioning, Nespresso machines, and smart TVs. As at all Relais & Chateaux properties, food is a priority here. Days begin with a generous breakfast of local cheeses and homemade jams, and end with a refined Mediterranean-meets-Moroccan dinner, which can be enjoyed al fresco or by one of the indoor fireplaces. Guests can also look forward to a five-room spa, known for its traditional Moroccan hamman ritual perfumed with roses and orange blossoms.

Towering 42 stories over the Mong Kok district on the Kowloon Peninsula, the Cordis is one of the best options for adventurous travelers looking to experience the “real Hong Kong.” The hotel is surrounded by mazes of markets. as well as shops and restaurants that are popular with locals. But getting off the beaten path doesn’t mean foregoing luxury. The Cordis has rooms with plush bedding and oversized windows, as well as homey touches like soft carpeting.

The biggest draw of the Cordis, Hong Kong, is its collection of 1,500 works of contemporary Chinese art, one of the largest hotel collections in the world. Guests can browse the collection on their own with the help of free iPod art tour cards. The hotel attracts an edgy crowd of young artists and professionals who mingle in the Garage Bar—a food truck and craft beer destination with Western-Asian fusion food and a selection of over 40 brews—late into the Kowloon night.