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Once just a popular food truck in a temporary locale, Charly’s now has its own permanent location on Tulum’s hip hotel strip. Its chefs have managed to take traditional Mexican meat-based dishes and turn them into 100-percent vegan recipes while still maintaining the classic flavors. Try the vegetarian version of an aguachile (seafood marinated in lime juice, onion, and chili) or a trio of tacos with your fillings and toppings of choice, like imitation carnitas, porkless crackling, or mushrooms. Best of all is the restaurant’s garden location, whose atmosphere of cool, beachy charm features shady trees and wicker lanterns.

Chef Chuck Hughes’ first flagship restaurant remains one of the best good-time spots in Old Montreal, featuring a blackboard menu full of seasonal dishes and insane cocktails. The Caesar is a must-try and comes with a salad’s worth of vegetables and a whole snow-crab leg sticking out of a monster mug. After feasting on lobster salad, short ribs with cauliflower mash, or pan-fried sea scallops with carrot butter, hang out in this dimly lit joint and watch the night turn into a party, with the drinks flowing and the music thumping louder and louder as the cooks and waiters from nearby restaurants file in after their shifts.

Ultra-modern Hotel Habita sits on upscale avenue Presidente Masaryk, in the midst of the Polanco’s fine restaurants and shops. Opened in 2000 and renovated in 2012, the hotel, which looks like a glass cube, continues to attract travelers who appreciate its sleek design and superb location. Rooms are typical of Grupo Habita hotels-spare and uncluttered, with luxurious toiletries and high-tech amenities, like flat-screen TVs and free Wi-Fi. The staff is accommodating and will help guests with everything from transportation recommendations to securing reservations at top nearby restaurants, such as Biko, Pujol, and Quintonil. All three appeared on the 2015 “Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants” list.

The moment you walk into Buba’s, you feel like family. It’s easy to understand why when you consider that surrounding this blink-and-you’ll-miss-it hillside restaurant are Buba’s house, Buba’s sister’s house, and Buba’s Brother’s house across the street. Buba’s own two daughters, nephews, cousins, and other miscellaneous family either host, help in the kitchen, play dj, man the bar, or simply greet visitors from their porches with welcoming, West Indian waves. This homegrown approach extends beyond hospitality to deliciously impact the food as well. Nearly every fruit, vegetable, and herb used in the dishes at Buba’s are all grown on the sloping overgrown gardens surrounding the restaurant. The result is a quintessential island restaurant with no real set menu. Instead, expect the freshest ingredients of the day lovingly coaxed into a collection of authentic Caribbean fare like rice and peas, stew chicken, steamed veggies, salad, and more.

Marv & Ben has become famous within Copenhagen for its focus on simple classics served in an artistic way while still remaining packed with flavor. As with most New Nordic restaurants, the menu is highly seasonal and draws heavily from what is available in Denmark. The restaurant states that everything used on the menu is Danish and that they make an effort to source things from as close to Copenhagen as possible. This includes growing a lot of what they use in their own garden. The wines served are biodynamic and organic. Marv & Ben aims for a relaxed feel which has, at times, been described as a gastro-pub ambience.

You have a few different options when it comes to stopping for a coffee at The Shops at Downtown, the retail complex inside Hotel Downtown in Mexico City‘s Centro Histórico. There’s the hotel’s own restaurant, which offers comfortable chairs and couches; the chocolate purveyor Que Bo!, which also serves espresso drinks; or one of the several restaurants and cafés in the complex, among them Padrinos, Azul Histórico, and Café Punta del Cielo. Take your pick–no matter where you end up in the center, you’ll find yourself surrounded by a 17th-century building with volcanic walls and lots of history.

Chef Alex Seidel is more than a chef, he is the farmer of most of the fresh food being served. On his 10-acre farm, he tends to herbs, fruits, vegetables, flowers, pigs and bees. With the addition of sheep in 2010, he created Colorado‘s first Artisanal Sheep Dairy and Creamery. The Carbonara, which is the only item consistently on the menu, is infused with his delicious cheese. The cavatelli pasta is also topped with crispy pork belly and a poached egg for you to crack and mix into the meal. The rest of the rustic menu rotates seasonally and is a favorite among foodies.

The Miracle Mile is a large loop of shops, restaurants, and entertainment options wrapped around the edge of Planet Hollywood. This mall is accessible and bright, with name brands like H&M, French Connection, Urban Outfitters, Victoria’s Secret, and Roxy. The restaurants tend to be on the casual side, and V Theater, located in the middle of the Miracle Mile, is home to several shows that run throughout the day and into the evening. The mall is easy to reach from Las Vegas Boulevard, and its central location on the Strip makes it a hassle-free stop for some shopping.

It’s difficult to pin down what exactly Star Provisions is. Is it a cafe run by award-winning team Anne Quatrano and Clifford Harrison? Is it an upscale grocery store where you can buy artisan meats and cheeses found in restaurants like Abbatoir and Bacchanalia? Is it a home goods store selling beautiful pieces of kitchenware? The answer is all of the above. And while the restaurant is delicious (try the prosciutto, sweet butter, and parmesan baguette!), the store is often overlooked in all the foodie mayhem. The glassware, serving utensils, and other items are sure to add unique touches to your home.

Bourbon House is one of New Orleans’ best restaurants, serving fresh seafood (oysters topped with caviar!) and dishes made with local ingredients. In fact, over 70% of ingredients are sourced within 150 miles. Moreover, Bourbon House is passionate about fresh seafood and if something isn’t in season you won’t see it on the menu. For dessert, try their chocolate chunk bread pudding with bourbon sauce or a bourbon milk punch made with milk, gelato, nutmeg and bourbon. Bourbon is, unsurprisingly, a specialty: The restaurant offers over 100 different bourbons. With picture windows looking out on Bourbon Street, it’s also a great place to people watch.

Coconut Grove represents old-school Miami. This small pocket of bayfront parks, marinas, shops, and restaurants just south of downtown Miami was one of the city’s first neighborhoods, and people from all over the city are realizing that the Grove is cool again. Recently, independent shops and restaurants have been opening, and young families have started moving in to enjoy the art galleries, green spaces, and pedestrian-friendly streets. Coconut Grove’s waterfront location and historic charm kick off its appeal, but the real winner here is the dining scene. Mouthwatering options include French, Peruvian, Hawaiian, and Mediterranean cuisine, creamy gelato, and more. Come hungry.

“Buongiorno, Signor Farley,” said Umberto, the head waiter at Hotel Missoni’s Cucina restaurant. By the beginning of the third day of my stay, the staff knew my name. And what I drank with breakfast. An espresso doppio was delivered to my table a minute later. “Prego,” the server said.

You’d think I was in Italy. In fact, I was 2,500 miles southeast of the country’s heel, in the capital of diminutive, oil-rich Kuwait. Opened in spring 2011, Hotel Missoni, owned by the eponymous fashion and home furnishings house, is one of many designer-conceived hotels that have popped up around the globe.

I have to confess: I have a complicated relationship with fashion. Maybe it’s related to my childhood. (Isn’t everything?) In the seventh grade, I wore a T-shirt to school that read, “My Son Is in the Navy.” My trend-conscious peers, who clearly had no sense of irony, laughed at me until the final bell rang. When I wore bowling shoes to high school, I was similarly mocked. How would I do in a hotel designed by a couturier?

I was picked up at the airport in Kuwait City in a Maserati (a complimentary perk for all Missoni guests). Not a bad start.

The property (like its sister hotel in Edinburgh, which opened in June 2009) is the brainchild of the Missoni family matriarch, Rosita. The hotel’s 169 rooms were designed to feel like her home. Compact Hans Wegner wishbone chairs and tuliplike Eero Saarinen–designed tables rest on hardwood floors, and everything—espresso cups, towels, even the swimming pool—displays the colorful striped patterns Missoni is known for. Generous helpings of turquoise, gold, and beige are splashed throughout the hotel to evoke the bayfront landscape outside, and every room looks out on the ever-expanding Kuwait City skyline. Like many things Italian, the hotel is simple and comfortable.

The Missoni team, which is fine-tuning its approach before opening hotels in larger markets, learns fast. There are no design hotel clichés here: no faucets with the function designed out of them, no overly formal staff. “Are those Camper shoes?” a waiter asked me one day at breakfast. I nodded. “Like bowling shoes,” he said. “Very cool.” Here, it seemed, fashion and I got along great.

965/2577-0000, from $414. This appeared in the September, 2012 issue.

Wynn Las Vegas, and its younger sister Encore, are known as some of the nicest properties in town, and for good reason. The suites are spacious and clean, the beds are comfortable, there is a lot of room in which to spread out and the views are stellar. Beyond the rooms themselves, the rest of Wynn is equally as beautiful, with fine art located throughout the property, very helpful staff, high-quality restaurants (all of which have at least one vegan option on the menu) and a general ambiance that feels classy, not trashy. This is a great hotel for honeymooners or couples, or for people who want a high-end Las Vegas experience that makes them feel like more than just another visitor in the city.

Nestled in charming Bloomingdale, the rustic Red Hen is a golden egg of D.C.’s dining scene. Chef/owner Michael Friedman (also of All Purpose Pizza) has created an inviting home for culinary pleasures like the cool taste of soft, bulbous burrata and classics like an elevated rigatoni pasta with fennel sausage ragu. Inspired by Italian and Jewish traditions, the vibe is familial, and thoughtful attention is paid to each dish, drink, and decor detail. The best seats are at the bar next to the open kitchen, where you can watch the grilling, flipping, frying, chopping, baking, and plating. Don’t leave without dessert—the maple custard with a caramelized hazelnut crumble will transport you.

The Setai is unlike most hotels in its neighborhood, offering a mature, sophisticated alternative to the frenetic party-time energy of other properties. A member of Leading Hotels of the World, the Setai attracts numerous celebrity guests, thanks in no small part to its attentive and discreet service. While the hotel’s exterior may be somewhat staid, with art deco flourishes that are modest compared with other hotels built in that era, the Setai more than makes up for this in interior design. Somehow avoiding being ostentatious, the hotel still uses ultra-luxurious everything: the finest Swedish beds, deluxe Italian linens, deep soaking tubs, and lacquered wood furniture and accessories. The building includes residence units, which are ideal for extended stays.