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In a haven for healthy eating like Laguna, The Stand stands out for its vegan menu full of plant-based, cruelty-free dishes. Established in 1975, the Thalia Street mainstay has switched hands from one local to another over the years, but has always maintained its focus on good-for-you fare. Come here for everything from freshly squeezed juices and nut-milk shakes to sandwiches, salads, and burritos made with steamed whole-wheat tortillas. If you’re feeling adventurous, opt for the special tamale and guacamole plate, which features a homemade vegetable tamale with organic pinto beans, guacamole, salsa, cabbage salad, and The Stand’s original sweet-and-sour dressing. Just be sure to save room for the fresh fruit soft serve, which you can top with vegan chocolate chips, raw almonds, big flakes of coconut, and more.

After New Year’s, tomatoes become the king of vegetables and flood the markets with no end in sight (until March). Many of the shirt-soakers hail from a dusty country town near the coast called Limache. These tomatoes hold a place in most Santiaguinos’ hearts and nearly every restaurant, joint, and household will be making copious amounts of “Ensalada Chilena” (Chilean tomato salad) at this time of year. The ingredients are simple: perfectly ripe tomatoes cut into slices or wedges (no skin), tempered onions, chopped cilantro or basil, a drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of sea salt. Heaven.

Generally speaking, shopping isn’t a big draw on St. Vincent, but if you’re searching for the perfect souvenir, you can’t do better than Nzimbu Browne’s famous banana art. Besides tourism, banana production is a driving force behind St. Vincent’s economy. By using the industry’s waste products—the banana leaves—Browne creates sustainable art with a strong sense of place. His works depict local scenes, brought to life with snippets of dried, multicolored leaves. If you’re not into art, he also makes goat-skin drums and tie-dye clothing. His studio is located on McKie’s Hill in Kingstown, but he often sets up shop in front of the Cobblestone Inn on Upper Bay Street.

In the Middle Ages, it was gently sloping Rennweg that served as the city’s main shopping street and its widest. (Bahnhofstrasse? Back then the now tony street—one of the world’s most exclusive—was a moat known not charmingly as Fröschengraben “Ditch of The Frogs.”) These days, Rennweg is still lined with small boutiques, but the pedestrianized cobblestone-lined street serves less as a shopping draw than one for an idyllic stroll among centuries old pastel-colored buildings. Make sure to stop by Honold’s Tea Room for a few Lotti’s Best, divine squares of crunchy nougat enrobed in chocolate. Photo © Bruno Macor/FB/Zürich Tourismus.

Anyone from South Florida knows that the Sawgrass Mills Mall in Hollywood is the place to find just about anything. It’s Florida’s largest outlet center and the second-largest mall in the state. Home to more than 300 shopping and dining destinations, it has both well-known retailers and luxury brands. To create a more social, upscale vibe, the complex added an outdoor part with cobblestone walkways, fine eateries, and high-end boutiques. Shop for outlet deals at places like the Burberry Factory Outlet, Guess Factory Store, PUMA Outlet, Kenneth Cole Company Store, Coach Factory Store, Escada Company Store, and the Polo/Ralph Lauren Factory Store.

Away from the busy city centre, on pretty Place Brugmann, in Brussels Ixelles neighbourhood, is local foodie favourite, Gaudron. Gaudron is many things: a catering company, a restaurant, a party venue, a deli, and a relaxing terrace to grab a drink after work. There’s one question however, in which the name Gaudron inevitably comes up – Where to get brunch in Brussels? Gaudron was one of the first of Brussels’ restaurants to catch on to the Sunday brunch concept and they haven’t looked back.You can choose from delicate, fresh pastries, egg dishes, or lunchtime favourites, like salads, croques and hamburgers. There are fresh squeezed juices and homemade smoothies and milkshakes. It’s a loud, bustling sort of place that’s filled with groups of all ages and is family friendly. With a huge selection of salads in the deli, it’s vegetarian and vegan friendly too. If you want an authentic Brussels neighbourhood feel, it’s worth escaping the centre for a trip to Gaudron.

After a long day of hiking, biking, running, and rafting my body usually craves something healthy but also satisfying. I found my perfect summer dish at Element 47, the newly remodeled restaurant at the Little Nell. Don’t be fooled by the simple name on the menu. Element 47’s Spring Vegetable Salad pays homage to the famous French chef Michel Bras who is known for his mastery of vegetables. At Element 47, chef Robert McCormick artfully prepares an assortment of 20 to 30 locally sourced, seasonal vegetables on the plate creating a vibrant dish that offers a surprising pop of flavors and textures with each bite. It’s the type of dish I could order every night without ever getting bored.

This hotel is on our list of The 11 Best Hotels in Chicago.

Designers Lisa Simeone and Gina Deary of KTGY Simeone Deary Design Group oversaw the original design of the Parisian-inspired Waldorf-Astoria Chicago in 2009, and the pair was once again brought in to breathe new life into this 215-room Gold Coast gem. Rooms are now bright white, well-lit, and include pops of uplifting magenta. Before you hit any of them, however, there’s much to entice at street level. Enter from the circular driveway and marvel at the Swarovski chandelier, modeled after a vintage brooch, along with the herringbone wood floors and black-and-white pinstriped stone. Don’t miss the Peacock Lounge and its secret sister, Bernard’s Bar, an intimate craft cocktail and champagne boîte, which is virtually unknown even by city denizens (which means you can always find a seat). Its Scottish and equestrian themes are almost as anachronistic as the Mansard roof and circular driveway, which just adds charm to this newly beloved Chicago hotel.

The guest rooms feature oversize headboards and abstract floral bedspreads, while bathrooms are a marvel of marble. For something more, splurge on either the new 1,800-square-foot Astoria Suite or the redesigned 2,400-square-foot Presidential Suite, both of which will have you feeling you’ve been transported to a Parisian pied-à-terre (the latter’s primary bedroom features a fireplace).

If one is going to throw around the word “iconic,” let’s make sure it’s used appropriately. As with Zuni. The awkwardly shaped restaurant—it’s in a narrow storefront with wider spaces on the mezzanine—was opened in 1979 by Billy West. West’s best move was hiring chef Judy Rodgers in 1987. She put in a brick oven—and thus the Zuni roast chicken was born. This dish, more than any other (except perhaps the Caesar salad), defines Zuni. The chicken is roasted in the brick oven and served over a bread salad: greens with chewy bread croutons. Simple, perfectly cooked, and seasonal. Rodgers died in 2013, but the restaurant soldiers on without her. The menu changes with the season and with what the local farms are growing, and will doubtless explain the provenance of your meat. Rodgers, along with her peer across the bay, Alice Waters, pioneered California cooking, and the cooks who have passed through here have gone on to define today’s vibrant restaurant scene.

Simple, skilled treatment of raw product is the hallmark of the cuisine at Narru. With a chef once named in the Wall Street Journal as a top young chef to watch in Europe, the food here is quite simply delicious. Stars are the tomato salad, the seafood rice dish of the day, the crema de queso for dessert, and the secreto ibérico, an incredibly juicy cut of pork.

Family style restaurant where you can sample virtually everything on the menu. Salad sampler, pasta sampler, meat sampler. GET IT ALL

Dar Roumana is widely celebrated as having the best restaurant in Fes, and with good reason. Its charming courtyard dining room—decorated with cream-colored upholstery and tropical plants that complement the building’s original hand-cut zellij tiles, carved plaster, and painted-wood ceilings—is also rave-worthy. Arrive early enough to sip its signature pomegranate fizz from the crow’s nest, then settle in to indulge in a menu that fuses the flavors of Morocco with the finesse of classical French cuisine. Perennial favorites are the roast pumpkin salad with goat cheese, chilies, and coriander; braised local rabbit in mustard; and an elegant, bitter chocolate tart that could cause even the bistros of Paris to bristle with envy. Top tip: For a romantic winter meal, reserve the table by the fireplace.

If the coffee scene in Paris is as robust as it is today, it’s thanks in large part to Thomas Lehoux, one of the city’s star baristas and co-owner of Ten Belles, just off Canal St-Martin. He collaborated with two Englishwomen, Anna Trattles and Alice Quillet from Le Bal Café, to open this intimate espresso bar in the fall of 2012, and success was immediate. Lehoux and his team turn out some of the finest, if time-consuming, drip coffees in the city, while Trattles and Quillet serve up a small menu of comforting fare—soups, sandwiches, and salads—that rotates daily. The Anglo-inspired desserts—cakes, scones, peanut-butter brownies, and raspberry crumb bars—go down beautifully with a host of coffee drinks. Escape the crowds by heading to the mezzanine, where there are usually seats available, along with a view of the bar from above. But if the weather permits, grab one of the stools and take your coffee outside, or opt for a takeout cup and enjoy it alongside the canal.

Located next to the picturesque Sant Felip Neri Square in the atmospheric Gothic Quarter, the Hotel Neri Relais & Châteaux comprises two historic mansions, one dating to the 12th century. The modernist aspirations of the hotel are immediately apparent, though, from the front entrance’s elegant combination of glass and metalwork to the stone walls of the lobby. Rooms are crisp and subtly decorated in grays and greens offset by the wooden floors, and they’re filled with high-tech features such as satellite TVs and Bluetooth speakers, as well as desks. Bathrooms feature natural stone and rain showers, and most rooms look out onto the Gothic Quarter’s cobbled streets. The hotel also has a romantic restaurant with 12th-century inspiration, and a roof terrace complete with hammocks and a beer-and-wine bar.

It’s a single street after Amsterdam‘s Negen Straats (Nine Streets), but Hazenstraat, the Tiende Straatje (Tenth Street), rates a ten in serious shoppers’ books. Lined with boutiques, cafés and galleries, this cobbled strip in the Bohemian-chic Jordaan begins starts at Lauriergracht, where French urban artist Invader installed one of 26 mini-mosaics inspired by Space Invaders characters. Highlights include: The English Bookshop, as much a literary gathering spot as a place to buy books and DVDs made from them; Petsalon, a hat shop that’s been a Jordaan fixture for 25+ years; Brown Clothes, featuring Kings Road-inspired couture; Joep Buijs’ art studio, with paintings of colorful women, children and dogs; Olivaria, Holland’s oldest olive specialty shop; Coffeeshop Biba, a back-to-the-60s-style smoke shop that’s grown up with the flower children; Chocolátl, a chocoholic’s Nirvana; Cats ‘n Things, for all things feline; Saarein. a bar for all “queer minded people"; La Festa Pizzeria/Bed & Breakfast; ‘t Stuivertje, serving continental cuisine; and Flamework, Daniela Malaica’s glass jewelry shop proffering vibrant necklaces and other contemporary accessories inspired by her African-Italian roots.