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Sailing is Anguilla’s national sport, but it’s also the best way to explore the island’s dreamy Caribbean shores—and the best way to explore its marine life while in transit. Spend the day with Tradition Sailing Charters, gliding across iridescent blue waters on a 1978 50-foot sloop, drifting from one cay to another. You’re welcome to watch and learn how to sail if you’re a newbie, or to participate if you have experience. After a lunch stop at the only restaurant in Prickly Pear Cays, get underwater to check out this reef-protected bay where sea turtles, blue tang, and numerous other tropical critters thrive. There’s also a brown booby colony on land here.

The W Taipei showcases the city’s geography and cutting-edge technology. The lobby’s light installation reacts to human motion, and guest rooms feature dramatic skyline views. The W is also home to some of Taipei’s hottest nightspots, including the Bar at Yen on the top floor. From $314. 886/(0) 2-7703-8888. This appeared in the November/December 2012 issue.

Hol Chan Marine Reserve, located just a few minutes’ boat ride from San Pedro, is the place to go for snorkeling in Northern Belize. This small, protected area (Hol Chan means “little channel” in Mayan) is home to part of Belize’s barrier reef, which is the second largest in the world (after Australia‘s reef), and the largest healthiest. There are many tour operators out of San Pedro that can take you out for a half-day of snorkeling the reef, and you’ll see colorful coral, rainbow fish, and manta rays, among other marine life. Make sure your guide brings you to Shark Alley, where nurse sharks come to feed on the fish scraps boats leave behind. There, you’ll be able to swim mere feet—or even inches, if you dare—from the creatures.

To immerse yourself in the life of a Moroccan housewife, take a stroll through the fresh-produce market of R’cif, which winds through the lower part of the Fes medina. Plan to arrive by 10 a.m. when the market really gets going (by 11:30 a.m., it’s packed). In addition to browsing stalls of plump fruit and vegetables from farms in the Middle Atlas, you can snack here, too: hot trid—a gossamer-thin pastry baked over a rounded clay pot or “egg”—and irresistible meloui (multiple layers of dough that become soft and flaky as they are cooked) stuffed with spiced onions. Don’t miss seeing the infamously grumpy camel butcher whose signage is a real camel’s head hanging from a hook. Around lunchtime, mastermind your way deep into the souks to find the Achabine area, where the city’s best street food vendors ply their trade. The dishes served up here built this city and continue to do so every lunchtime: comforting bessara (split-pea or broad-bean soup) and harira (a Moroccan staple of chickpeas, lentils, and lamb broth); sardines doused in charmoula and deep-fried until crunchy; hard-boiled eggs dipped in cumin. Come in the evening if you crave bite-sized brochettes of tender lamb and spiced liver.

Forget everything you thought you knew about the food court: In China, mall restaurants are often quite good, with queues of hungry diners eagerly plotting out what they’ll order. Ban Ban, on the fifth floor of IAPM mall, is where it’s at. These dishes are Asian fusion, but healthy, bursting with color from a mélange of vegetables. The menu is labeled clearly, so you know what’s spicy or raw, and what contains nuts or dairy. Order one of the cheekily named bowls on the menu, like Hippie in Me and HCMC Is My Jam, or put together your own with a base of brown rice, greens, or soba noodles, a protein (tofu, beef, fish, shrimp, or chicken), and toppings from creamy avocado to sour pickled cucumbers.

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.

Since launching her handbags and accessories line in 2008, accessories designer Clare Vivier has mastered the delicate combination of Parisian chic, American prep, and California cool. While her brand has spread to seven boutiques across California and New York, her flagship shop in Silverlake may best personify her brand. Two walls of windows let the California sun stream in each morning and afternoon, and shadowboxes designed by local architect Barbara Bestor hold the goods that lure passersby along Sunset Boulevard. Technicolor best sellers such as the La Tropezienne, Simple Tote, and coveted Foldover Clutches may sit on copies of the most recent Paris Review or Louis Vuitton City Guides, which are also for sale. Everything in the well-rounded space has a connection to France, Los Angeles, or Vivier herself. The shop stocks jewelry by her friends Annie Costello Brown and Grace Lee, for example, along with French Veja sneakers and candles from West Hollywood’s iconic Chateau Marmont. Pro tip: Head here for a last-minute gift—clutches and other leather items can be monogrammed on the spot.

Among the three Cayman Islands, Brac is the most topographically endowed, thanks to its distinguishing feature: the Bluff, a limestone cliff rising along the length of the island and topping out at about 140 feet at the eastern end. Between that and the island’s densely forested interior, the local hiking options have a lot to offer—one of the best cases in point being the Lighthouse Footpath, a trail that runs two and a half miles (one way) along the bluff’s edge and that serves up endless sea views and likely encounters with the absurdly adorable brown boobies and soaring frigate birds. Try to go in the morning or late afternoon, and of course, take along plenty of water: You’re looking at a two-hour outing to the most beautiful of boonies.

Chef Nyesha Arrington’s personality may have won her fans on Top Chef years back, but it’s her talent in the kitchen that shot her to success at various Michelin-starred restaurants. With Native, which opened in late 2017, she brings together Los Angeles’s diverse influences and cultures through food. Pastrami from local Langer’s deli inspired her roast duck breast with pastrami jus and marble rye tuile; her Wagyu beef tartare seasoned with Aisoon sauce was named for her Korean grandmother. Enthusiastic waiters—many of whom go the extra mile by getting to know diners by name—may suggest favorites such as chestnut spaghetti with shiitakes and burrata, or even a secret item like a super-tender steak when available. As with Arrington’s cuisine, the 95-seat restaurant is approachable yet elevated, with rich honey-hued wood, brass, and a touch of marble. Don’t miss weekend brunch for the crazy-sounding but addictive kimchi latkes, as well as the coconut brown butter pancakes. Pro tip: If you can’t make it for a sit-down dinner, come to bar during Community Hour, daily from 5:30 to 7 p.m., and ask for the off-menu burger along with your rum-based cocktail Right by the Beach, served in a coconut.

High above Vail Valley, atop Beaver Creek Mountain, is the oasis that is the Ritz-Carlton, Bachelor Gulch. You can’t beat the hotel’s ski-in, ski-out access, but a major makeover at the end of 2013 means the hotel offers even more perks. The new look (think rustic lodgepole pine beams and huge stone fireplaces) was inspired by the great lodges found throughout America’s national parks. The work of Colorado artists can be found throughout the hotel. In addition to a new restaurant called Buffalos, there’s the new Bachelors Lounge that caters to wine and spirits lovers and cigar connoisseurs. Stylish guests with an expense account can outfit themselves in fancy new gear sold at the outpost of the alpine shop Gorsuch. My favorite perk is returning to the hotel at day’s end and being greeted with a hot cup of cocoa.

When Mike Richardson exploded onto the fairly limited Fes dining scene in 2007, he took the medina by storm. Suddenly there was someplace where locals, tourists, and a handful of resident expats could convene. They came to view exhibitions by up-and-coming young artists, to hear Sunday sunset concerts featuring the likes of Houariyat—an all-female drumming band—and to tuck into the café’s legendary camel burger. All these attractions are still going strong, but Clock has expanded and begun offering excellent traditional-cooking classes, and holds movie nights in a screening room furnished with vintage cinema seats. It now also has a sibling in Marrakech and another soon to open in Chefchaouene, and a country cousin in the Scorpion House in Moulay Idriss, which you can book for private lunches. If all this doesn’t whet your appetite at least come at brunch for the best coffee and Berber eggs in town.

Known as The Blue City for its many homes painted to denote them as Brahmin residences, Jodhpur is a chaotic hodgepodge of blue blocks at the foot of mighty Mehrangarh Fort. Interspersed with the sacred color associated with Lord Shiva, the city projects a galaxy of shades ranging from the jewel-toned saris of traditional Rajasthani women to muted tones of the 16th-century wall that protected Jodhpur in medieval times. Long before Mark Zuckerberg used blue for its soothing effect on Facebook users, Jodhpur’s citizens apparently knew of its psychological impact on a city.

Michael and I take the lead up a scree-choked stream draining from the Gangjam glacier. Two hours of climbing through talus brings us to ice-blue seracs rising like frozen waveforms from the mottled glacier. An hour further, in the cirque beneath the black wall of Kailash, we begin to sink up to our knees in sun-softened snow. Michael’s altimeter reads 17,500 feet, and above us, the mountain’s north face rises in a 4,000-foot vertical thrust of glazed rock, capped by a treacherous overhanging white cornice. Jaws gone slack, we lift our eyes in awe toward the Throne of Shiva. “How about it, bro? Break out the crampons?” “Jesus! I am not seeing a good route on that wall,” Michael replies, and we both laugh. Kailash remains one of the few legendary mountains on this planet left unclimbed—out of reverence. “And look at that freakin’ cornice!” Michael adds “Nevé ice for sure. Like frost on a windowpane. Won’t hold your points for shit.” There were rumors, nearly a decade ago, that the legendary Austrian mountaineer, Reinhold Messner had surreptitiously planned to bag Kailash, a task which he certainly had the skill and resources to accomplish. But when Messner saw the Precious Snow Mountain for himself, he realized what a desecration it would be to set crampons on its face or boots on its summit. He’s since become a vocal proponent of keeping Kailash off-limits to climbers in perpetuity.

Peanuts characters are alive and well at this Santa Rosa institution, which celebrates the life and legacy of Snoopy creator Charles M. Schulz. The museum was founded in 2002 by Jean Schulz, the cartoonist’s widow, and today it houses the largest collection of original Peanuts artwork in the world. Permanent exhibits include a look at some of Schulz’s original comic strips, as well as a recreation of his art studio. There’s also a tile mural composed of 3,588 different comic strips. Temporary exhibits change throughout the year. The museum also has an outdoor area with sculptures that depict iconic moments from the cartoons (such as Charlie Brown with a metal kite stuck in a real tree) and a theater that screens documentaries on a loop. If you’re traveling with children, the best part of the museum is the laid-back-but-hands-on education room, where docents help visitors learn how to draw specific characters. Also worth exploring with kids: the Redwood Empire Ice Rink, located across the street. Schulz loved skating at the rink, which is open to the public. Skate rentals are available, and a café serves breakfast and lunch daily.

At Thunderbird Lodge, you can marvel at the eccentricities of the fabulously wealthy real estate magnate George Whittell, Jr., who built this 16,500-square-foot mansion on Tahoe’s east shore to house himself, his pet lion, and a small elephant. Walk through the 20-plus rooms and the 600-foot-long underground tunnel that connects the main house to the cavernous boathouse, which Whittell constructed for his 55-foot-long speedboat, the Thunderbird, a gorgeous 1939 woody that’s still available for charter cruises. Also on the 140-acre lakefront property are a lighthouse and several guest cottages. Guided tours are offered five days a week from mid-May to mid-October; arrive via boat or shuttle bus from Incline Village, or kayak over from Sand Harbor State Park.