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The historic kurazukuri district of Kawagoe, a short train ride north of Tokyo, is home to dozens of artisan shops, including Machikan, which has been making and selling knives and swords for generations. While in town, try the famous sweet-potato candy.

Cap your trip to Machu Picchu with a pisco sour on the Orient-Express train ride back to Cuzco. After boarding this luxury train for dinner and the return journey, everyone meets in the bar car for a drink. Live music, the rocking of the train, and the excitement from just experiencing Machu Picchu is a buzz to remember. Soon all the passengers are dancing as they travel through the steep mountainsides under the stars. —Lauren Maggard This appeared in the August/September 2013 issue. Image courtesy of Orient-Express

Jimmy’s Corner is long and narrow, as if some great prophet looked at a hallway and said, I see a dimly lit saloon here, complete with an extended bar and walls plastered with photos of boxers. Opened in 1971 by erstwhile pugilist James Lee Glenn, Jimmy’s sits midblock on West 44th Street, between Sixth Avenue and Broadway, in Midtown Manhattan. Which is what makes this no-frills bar unique. It’s a classic American dive, and the only one around, a relic from when the Times Square area was more depravity than Disney. Bartenders, who can spot a near-empty glass with the eyes of a hawk, are friendly but gruff. Case in point: As a 50-something woman with spiky bleached blonde hair mixed me another whiskey soda, I nodded to the boxer-bedecked wall behind the bar and said to my friend, “They don’t really like boxing much here, do they?” The bartender looked down the bar, pointed her finger at me, and bellowed with a thick Russian accent, “He make feeble attempt at joke!” She might have been right. If you go to this watering hole, make sure you’re thirsty (drinks are cheap) and your jokes are not so feeble. This appeared in the August/September 2013 issue. Image courtesy of Shanna Ravindra

Located in San Francisco’s Noe Valley, culinary-themed Omnivore Books is a charming community gathering spot for the Bay Area’s many food-obsessed readers. Owner Celia Sack recently launched a special section of her online shop devoted to “Quarantine Quenchers,” a collection of cookbooks that allows home cooks to travel the world (My Paris Kitchen by David Lebovitz; Tokyo Cult Recipes by Maori Murota; The Karachi Kitchen by Kausar Ahmed).

Prague’s Grand Café Orient is the only cubist-designed space of its kind in the world. It occupies the first floor of the House of the Black Madonna, designed in 1911 by modernist architect Josef Gočár. Renovated in 2005, the spacious café retains the original silk-shaded hanging brass lanterns and marble-topped buffet-bar. Diners can enjoy such menu highlights as Prague ham and apple strudel or tartar of smoked salmon with black caviar and lettuce, and then visit the Museum of Czech Cubism upstairs.

“First stop in Barcelona is Bar Mut. Great vibes, wine, and this house classic of egg yolk, prawns, and crispy potatoes. Hot damn, it’s good to be here."—Matt Duckor

If I am ever reincarnated as an inanimate object, I wouldn’t mind coming back as one of these lanterns.

Everyone who visits Ecuador knows about Otavalo market: the weavings, the sweaters, the friendly vendors. Well, Saquisili has all those and more. There’s street food (grilled chicken feet anyone?), a shoe section, a live animal market and more people and commodities than you’ll see in most other places. Locals here take market days very seriously. In fact, many meet future partners here, hence why they come decked in their finest attire. To get to Saquisili, stay in Latacunga and hop on a 30-minute bus for 25 cents.

Any visitor to Ethiopia, or any Ethiopian restaurant, is familiar with the ubiquitous injera. Made from the indigenous tej wheat, this crepe is the plate, fork, and bread at most Ethiopian meals. At the Lalibela Cookery School in the ancient capital of Lalibela, Ethiopia, you will learn, on a wood-fired stove, how to make injera and some of the complimentary lentil and chickpea curries and sautéed vegetables served with it. Of course, after the cooking demonstration you will get to taste your creations and finish the meal with Ethiopian coffee.

The Whirling Dervish Lodge in Bursa puts on a nightly spiritual performance that gets you back to the basics of why the whirling dervishes exist. This is no ‘show’ for tourists, this is a spiritual event and service. I felt lucky that they allowed me (a woman) to sit on the main floor to take photos and video. Normally women sit in the top balcony and men are on the main floor. You can see the utter devotion on these men and boys’ faces - a true experience in Turkey!

Tapas in Madrid are usually eaten before lunch, at “vermut” or “aperitivo” time. This can be done before lunch or after work. Apart from eating the Madrid tapas and drinking sangria or beer, these bars are a good place to watch football games and people get together for the occasion; specially when there is a FC Madrid vs Real Madrid game. It is also quite popular to have tapas in Madrid for dinner. Groups of friends like getting together and sharing some tapas at a good price. It’s a budget dinner and it is fun to choose which tapas to eat and taste different Madrid tapas.

Some travelers are exhausted by the haggling in the souks of Morocco, by the barely-organized chaos of the medinas. In Fes, the stunning mosaic tile creations that are so typical all over the country can be bought directly from the artisans who make them in a showroom just outside the walls of the old Medina -- haggle, and stress, free. See how the pottery and mosaic is made then shop till you drop without needing to haggle. The prices are fixed and they ship internationally with Fed Ex. Buy items as small as cups, as large as garden fountains and dining tables. They even accept dollars and euros!

With its colorful characters, cobbled streets and vibrantly painted, ramshackle houses, this dockside Buenos Aires neighborhood almost looks like some kind of theme park. La Boca is actually very real—and yet it has been discovered by tourists. Visitors come to stroll the Caminito, a pedestrian alley with artists’ studios and shops selling artworks, crafts and souvenirs. Here, street performers dance the tango and vendors sell fresh fruit while a stop at a café or bar can provide another glimpse of life in La Boca.

A must-stop on the traditional handicraft circuit, this massive market—stretching four city blocks in Miraflores!—is home to stall after stall of kitschy bric-a-brac, pre-Columbian–style pottery, alpaca everything and an endless array of Andes-inspired arts and crafts. Come and shop around.

On the steep hills above the truffle-obsessed town of Livade in central Istria, Croatia, a man named Vlado Tomažič makes olive oil on his family’s farm. When my husband and I rented the apartment, Casa Maršić (casamarsic.com), adjacent to the farmhouse, we found it the perfect base for exploring the nearby medieval hill towns. We visited Motovun-Montona and Oprtalj-Portole, where we ate fuži, traditional Istrian pasta, with fresh mushrooms and grilled lamb chops at the fantastic Tončić agritourism (agroturizam-toncic.com). We happened to be at the farm during the October harvest and helped Vlado’s friendly crew rake the olives from the trees, taking frequent breaks for gemišt—white wine and sparkling water. Classic Journeys offers seven-night tours of Istria. This appeared in the August/September 2014 issue.