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The Thoroughbred Club is in the lobby of Charleston Place hotel, right in the middle of downtown Charleston. They serve up classic cocktails (try their gussied-up negroni) and also have a great tea service, with live music every afternoon and evening.

The classic cocktail list at The Rarebit is hard to beat: Moscow mules served in gorgeous copper mugs, Manhattans with a touch of Benedictine. The food menu is composed of similarly solid throwbacks: a pork chop with mac and cheese and green beans, a perfect chicken club sandwich.

For a reasonably priced Island eatery, Kona Canoe Club has pupus (appetizers), salads, sandwiches, burgers, fish & chips, and several local entrees. The location is phenomenal for sunset and every dish is served with aloha!

You can find all sorts of shipyard treasures at Nautical Antiques in Galveston. They have ship lanterns, wheels, flags, glass floats, and figureheads—plenty to choose from for a cool souvenir to represent your time on the Texas coast. Photo via Nautical Antiques Facebook page

Never has a yummy treat been mired in such controversy as the Whoopie Pie. First, how did this burger-shaped cake with the sugary cream filling get its name? Does the name come from the exclamation that schoolchildren shouted upon opening their lunch bags to discover these delights? Or does it come from the Amish farmers, who were rewarded with these portable “pies” in their lunch boxes? My vote (and Pennsylvania Dutch lore) favors the school kids. But wait—there’s more controversy! While I am one hundred percent certain that these little cakes called pies originated in my lovely state of Pennsylvania, it seems that the state of Maine has also laid claim to their origin, even going so far as to name the Whoopie Pie as its “official state treat.” Other research points to somewhere in New York state as their birthplace. We may never know… There was a time not long ago when Whoopie Pies felt much like a prized local secret because no one outside of Pennsylvania had ever heard of them (excepting, I guess, some of those Mainers). These days, though, you can even find Whoopie Pies in the bakery sections at Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods. But the most authentic and delicious version can only be found at the Amish bakery Beiler’s in the Reading Terminal Market. My personal favorite is the pumpkin flavor, but the chocolate is also delicious. Or maybe try the oatmeal, or the red velvet. Better yet, try one of each—they’re portable!

Along with stylish boutiques and design shops, the narrow lanes of the upscale Khan Market are lined with all manner of eateries, from cafés and cocktail bars to food stalls and fusions restaurants. As of late 2018, the roster also includes Sly Granny, which arrived on a wave of buzz generated from its original Bengaluru location. Through this often-packed bi-level outpost is smaller than the sprawling first location, the concept here is the same: a space “inherited” from a mythical globetrotting grandmother and inspired by her favorite recipes and eclectic style. Here, that translates to a décor of plush velvet sofas, old cookbooks, and crystal bric-a-brac, statement tableware, and bold, quirky artwork in the snug dining room, plus a cozy upstairs bar that converts to a cocktail lounge come dark. Drinks there range from the creative (crafted with ingredients like elderflower, yogurt, or honey-ginger syrup) to the classic (twists on G&Ts and Pimm’s cups), not unlike the style of the food menu below, which starts with pastas, steaks, and burgers, then veers towards tacos, schnitzel, chicken liver pâté, and Kerala-style fish moilee. You won’t need a granny’s encouragement to eat up dishes like bacon-gruyere mac-and-cheese balls, house-cured salmon, chocolate lava cake, and a twist on grilled cheese with ricotta, onion jam, tomato chutney, and two kinds of chilies.

Built in the 1920s by a Croatian businessman, Palacio Astoreca underwent two years of refurbishment and restoration before opening its doors as a boutique hotel in 2012. The work was carried out to a meticulous degree, maintaining the original parquet floors, and adding splashes of color with art deco furniture and modern art, including one piece by Switzerland’s Frédéric Clot. The stucco-and-brick mansion rises up from the streets of Chile’s port city, Valparaíso, like a piece of red-and-white confectionary.

A statement staircase winds up to the 23 rooms, some of which have stand-alone bathtubs. And the basement level is home to a small spa with an open-air, wood-fueled hot tub set alongside a living wall. The reception level and entrance hall open out onto a terrace where lunch, tea, and cocktails are served, allowing guests prime views over the hilly city and Pacific Ocean. There are quiet corners for those seeking a solitary moment, including a library and a piano bar, which comes to life in the evenings with live music.

Every Wednesday and Saturday, a farmers market sets up in Union Square in New York City. On the west side of the square, by 16th Street, is an orchard stand which makes the best apple cider donuts in the entire world. Breezy Hill Orchard is always there with many different types of apples, pears, pies, baked goods and - best of all - apple cider donuts. A bag of three will only cost you a few dollars. Coupled with a cup of hot apple cider, it might just be the most perfect breakfast. Pull up a seat on one of the many benches in the park and gaze up through the towering trees as donut crumbs tumble down your chin.

After making her name in Paris in the 1920s, American-born singer and actress Josephine Baker became a French citizen and, like many artists and intellectuals of the era, traveled often to Morocco, which was then a French protectorate. In the early 1940s, she stayed at a royal guest house at the invitation of the Pashah of Marrakech—a riad that, today, has been restored and re-launched in her honor as a boutique hotel named “Star.” Though just a 15-minute walk from Jemaa el-Fnaa square, the riad is hidden away in a more residential—and car-free—part of the walled old town, adding to the feeling that you’re staying in a private home.

Britain-based owners Lucie and Mike Wood, who also own three other riad hotels in town, spent over two years restoring the property to reflect a mix of traditional Moroccan craftsmanship and the Art Deco style of Baker’s heyday. Along with hand-carved plaster, beautiful lamps, and original cedar woodwork, the hotel features Baker-related memorabilia and books as well as period items sourced from auctions. Past the ground-floor plunge pool and dining area (scene of the abundant daily breakfast) are 13 individually decorated rooms and suites. The Josephine has an oversized tub, the Jazz features carved cedar doors and a fireplace, and the Chiquita sits next to the lovely rooftop terrace, where guests can enjoy views of the Atlas Mountains from their lounge chairs. Also on-site is a small hammam with a steam area and massage room, as well as a cooking school, launched in 2017. When you want to get out and explore, the hotel will provide you with a free local cell phone and GPS-enabled app to help navigate the city.

Hotel Bo is a so-called design concept hotel, and its particular concept is the unification of contemporary and traditional Chiapaneco architecture and design. (Chiapaneco means indigenous to the state of Chiapas, where San Cristobal de las Casas is located.) The four elements—wind, water, fire, and earth—are central to the hotel’s aesthetic, with different design details, such as fireplaces and candles, alluding to these elements. Rooms are decorated with some local crafts, and beds are dressed with colorful spreads. The hotel really is in the heart of San Cristobal, within easy walking distance of markets, restaurants, and the city’s main sights, many of which are architectural gems dating back to the colonial era.

Husband-wife duo Yves and Claudine Camdeborde got their start as industry pioneers with their restaurant La Régalade, the city’s first “neo-bistro” (a trend marked by high-quality cooking at an accessible price point), which they ran for 12 years. Since 2005, their acclaim has come from their Relais Saint-Germain hotel-restaurant combo located in the beating heart of Saint-Germain. The hotel blends quaint Parisian style with a just-like-home atmosphere.

The design goal was to preserve the 17th-century soul of the building, keeping its original, exposed beams and stones and blending antique furnishings and old parquet floors with avant-garde decorative elements and rococo textiles hand-picked by Mme. Camdeborde. The result is an urban inn that guests would want to return to year after year. Each of the 22 rooms bears the name of a celebrated writer inspired by Paris—from Madame de Sévigné to Marcel Proust—and a unique aesthetic theme (Asian, African, Louis III) in a nod to the neighborhood’s literary past. What unites them is an intimate vibe that instantly makes guests feel at home.

The Camel Racing Festival is free and open to the public, and celebrates a sport that has deep cultural roots in the region. Much like the city itself, the current festival has a modern twist (as you can see): robot-jockey-mounted camels gallop toward the finish line during Dubai‘s Camel Racing Festival.

This 34-mile paved bike trail wraps around the River Mountains and loops from downtown Boulder City through a part of the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, past Lake Las Vegas, through the outside corner of Henderson, and back. All told, the route presents bicyclists with a challenging and diverse path on which to spend a day. There are even some spur trails from the main thoroughfare that link to Hoover Dam (through a series of old railroad tunnels), downtown Henderson, and beyond. The most challenging portion of the main trail is between Henderson and Boulder City, where a series of three hills—dubbed the Three Sisters—prompt even the fittest atheletes to huff and puff for a while. Services are available at various spots along the trail, and bike rentals are offered in Boulder City and at Lake Las Vegas.

The Bonsecours Market is hard to miss, whether you are walking around Montréal’s historic center or looking at the skyline from the harbor. A silver dome caps the long building, which dates from 1844 and was modeled on Dublin’s Customs House. It looks more like a stately civic building than a market, and in fact it was Montréal’s city hall for a while, as well as the seat of Canada‘s parliament for one session. After serving as the central market of the city for nearly a century, it closed in 1963 and was largely abandoned until 1992, when it reopened as the home of a visitors’ center for Montréal’s 350th anniversary. Today it houses a dozen or so boutiques featuring works by local designers, as well as a few restaurants that make for good pit stops on a day of sightseeing.

There is perhaps some irony that one of the most distinctive contemporary buildings in the historic heart of Montréal is a showcase for some of the city’s oldest artifacts. The modern structure that houses this archaeology and history museum opened in 1992, to coincide with the 350th anniversary of the establishment of Montréal. The highlight is its crypt, where you can wander through the digs of the city’s 18th-century market. A new pavilion, “Where Montréal Began,” opened in 2017 on the occasion of the city’s 375th anniversary. Its display of artifacts emphasizes the spiritual traditions of both the French settlers and Québec’s Algonquin, Huron, and Iroquois peoples. Temporary exhibitions on subjects like hockey and the archives of Bell Telephone help bridge the gap between Montréal’s early history and the present day.