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From the dusty street, the Hotel El Convento in León, Nicaragua, beckons with its stately façade and red Spanish-tiled roof. Step inside and you instantly feel at home amidst ornate period furnishings that are surely a far cry from the building’s humble beginnings as the 1639 San Francisco Convent. The elegant Restaurante El Victoriano offers an indoor-outdoor retreat centered on the hotel’s manicured, tropical courtyard—an example of the colonial hacienda style found throughout León. The restaurant is a meeting place for people from all walks of life—aged former Sandinistas who now hold positions of leadership, locals splurging on a fine meal, or foreign students from one of the city’s many Spanish language schools seeking tranquility and an excellent cup of coffee.

The Fish Deli, founded by Martin and Katja Wittneben in 2008, is a seafood shop and restaurant located in Swakopmund, Namibia. The restaurant—one of the first in Namibia to sell seafood—serves fresh fish, oysters, and other foods sourced directly from Namibia’s coastal waters.

Panama City’s seafood market stands near the halfway point along the Cinta Costera, so the goodies on offer can be your reward after a long walkabout. Since colonial times, fishermen who sold the city its seafood have anchored here; there’s now an up-to-date market home to nearly a score of open-air stalls where customers chow down on ceviche, fried corvina fish with patacones (fried plantain rounds), filete a lo macho (fish filet in a shellfish ragout), and those same patacones, now stuffed with shrimp or much-celebrated shellfish guacho (think a tropical risotto). Don’t expect anything ritzy: This is plastic-chair-and-table country, but the food is so delicious that you won’t be thinking about the ambience.

Visitors often want to bring a souvenir from San Miguel back to the kids or friends at home...nothing too elaborate, but authentic nonetheless. Head to the three-block Mercado de Artesanías for a leisurely stroll amid the stalls. Start at the west end and work your way east to find silver, crafts, jewelry, pottery…if it fits in a suitcase, you can buy it here. To the east of the artisans’ market, visit the Mercado Ignacio Ramírez, where you’ll find head-high pyramids of fruits and vegetables, perfect for great photos; nightstand-worthy flowers; and food stalls offering everything from custom-made licuados—think smoothies, Mexican style—to peeled cactus leaves freshly prepared for a nopal salad. Good hunting!

Florence has been the place to buy leather for centuries, and this workshop has become the place to shop for leather in the past few years. Two best friends, Ben and Matteo, create stylish and modern leather items through traditional methods. Both men had backgrounds in the Italian high-fashion world (Ben worked with Simon Spurr and Luisa Via Roma) before establishing this brand with outlets in Milan, Rome, and Tokyo. Every item is crafted with local leather by Italian artisans outside Florence. The belts, bags, shoes, and jackets have a stylish edge, and each comes with a lifetime guarantee.

Hogfish Bar and Grill, under a thatched palapa roof with open sides, is tucked in among the boats and gulls of Safe Harbour Marina in Stock Island. In short, a meal or a drink there makes you feel like an insider, a salty local far from the crowds downtown. That in-crowd feeling is burnished on weekends, when local bands play sets, or during one of the events held by Hogfish during the season, like shrimp boils. The simple food is served generously on plates crowded with side dishes. The hogfish sandwich, served fried on Cuban bread, is the stuff of late-night-post-beer legend.

Now based at several branded boutiques (including outposts in Roma, downtown, and posh Lomas de Chapultepec), and with a growing presence in some of the city’s smartest specialty shops, Mexican designer Carla Fernández has come into her own as a fashion force whose geometric cuts and mastery of color lead to clothes for men and women that are as bold as anything on Manhattan and Tokyo runways—yet always come alive with irrepressible Latin verve. Often inspired by indigenous palettes and textiles, the overall feel is edgy and today; and while the fit can be loose, even enigmatic, there’s a sexy something going on that has nothing to do with exposure or flaunt.

The sustainably designed andBeyond Sossusvlei Desert Lodge on the edge of the NamibRand Nature Reserve captures the raw beauty of the world’s oldest living desert. The otherworldliness of the environment has been consciously translated into every aspect of the experience. The off-grid design factors in the extreme climate and harsh elements, and the desert’s forms, colors and textures are reflected in sculptural stone and steel lines that give way to soft, organic shapes. Throughout, glass walls slide away to amplify the big-sky views. The 10 guest suites are self-sufficient, solar-powered private retreats, each generating ample energy to run on photovoltaic power for everything from the AC and the deep swimming pools to the water harvesting and recycling systems.


Activities include climbing the world’s highest dunes at Sossusvlei or e-biking along gravel trails to caves with rock art by the desert’s earliest inhabitants. Back at the lodge, dishes that reflect Namibia’s cultural history include venison and Kalahari truffles and fresh seafood from the Atlantic Ocean. With close to zero light pollution, the Namib is one of the best dark sky locations in the Southern Hemisphere. The best way to end any evening is in the lodge’s observatory. You can also fall asleep counting stars, thanks to a skylight above your bed.

Norway’s only revolving restaurant is a great choice if you’re traveling with family. Located at the top of a telecom tower, the restaurant takes approximately one hour to complete a rotation, ensuring a different view of Trondheim’s glorious water and mountains whenever you glance out of the window. While there’s nothing special about the food here, some dishes offer better value than others. Shun the pizzas, burgers, and steaks and order instead from the creative mains menu. Blackened chicken rarely disappoints, and the pasta dishes will easily fill you up. Booking is essential on the weekend. Allow an extra 15 minutes before your booking time to ride up in the elevator.

This Michelin-starred imaginative seafood restaurant, inspired by a small Venetian theater of yesteryear, is an intimate dining spot with just nine tables. The brainchild of Gianni Bonaccorsi, who had a vision to create a fine-dining place in this spot more than a decade ago, it serves a seasonal menu that’s at once creative and well researched. Expect modern interpretations on classic Venetian favorites, with a focus on locally sourced fish that can change daily. The decor is as inviting as the food, with white cloth–covered tables set in a wood-beam-and-brick dining space. Reservations are essential. Il Ridotto is open for lunch and dinner and offers both prix-fixe and à la carte menus.

In addition to Slow Bakery’s celebrated original coffee shop, bakery, and deli in Botafogo (Rio’s answer to NYC’s Soho), a new location in Ipanema (Rua Barao da Torre, 422) opened in August. The new space will limit itself to selling natural-yeast bread, further simplifying the original bakery’s slow-food ethos. This idea is that if you’re looking for a delicious coffee or a quick lunch, you will go to the original Slow Bakery, but if you just want a loaf of your favorite bread, head to the new shop, near Posto 10 on Ipanema Beach and a few blocks from the Nossa Senhora da Paz metro station.

Tucked away off a dusty road in a suburb of Nairobi, the Tin Roof Café at the Souk is a gorgeous little place with floral cushions, spindly garden chairs, tin pots of wildflowers, and mismatched pictures on the walls. The shelves are filled with books and board games, and large blackboards list the delicious array of food and drink on offer, from Ottolenghi-style salads to sandwiches, wraps, smoothies, and juices galore. Explore a bit further inside to find a bookstore, a housewares shop, and a jewelry shop. Lost your velvet bathrobe? Don’t worry—they sell them here. The café’s offbeat charm has proven so popular that a second location opened on Langata Road.

The master jeweler at Grand Bazaar Jewelers is a fourth-generation Turkish citizen of Armenian descent who designs and hand-crafts necklaces, pendants, rings, bracelets and more using gold, silver and precious gemstones, preserving the traditional Armenian art form of jewelry making. Custom orders and international shipping are available.

This department store with six locations across the islands is quintessential Bermuda. Fashions for men, women and children are preppy and classic, with an endless sampling of Bermuda shorts. The family-owned chainlet also sells a range of traditional housewares from crystal to fine china, in addition to Bermudan-made jewelry, keepsakes and glassware.

Reservations at Donde José, with room for only 16 diners, have been coveted ever since the restaurant opened in 2014. Chef José Olmedo Carles uses traditional Panamanian ingredients from local farmers, such as ñampí, a variety of taro root, in tasting menus that change every few months. After their meal, diners can stroll along the Cinta Costera waterfront.