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Stargaze in the middle of a desert, dig for clams, or dine well without breaking the bank in Canada.

This is the ultimate way to explore Italy’s sensational southern region.

Just outside Paris, a secret world has offered city dwellers an escape for centuries. In the charming towns along the Marne River, generations of revelers come together to eat, drink, dance, and enjoy the season.

Both South American countries claim the spirit as their own—but who’s right?

Wandering Chef: Adam Wilson in Paris

Seeking the wonderfully disorienting effect of travel, writer Taras Grescoe ventures to Budapest, where bewilderment ensues.

In the country’s wine region, you can pick grapes, sing songs, and keep ancient harvest traditions alive. It’s so much fun, you can taste it.

First step: Pinkies up. Next step: Bottoms up, too.

Wandering Chef: John Gorham in Barcelona and Madrid

Wandering Chef: Massimo Bottura in Milan

People-watch with a glass of wine at a sidewalk café, pop into a five-star hotel lounge for an aperitif, or savor innovative craft cocktails at a trendy late-night bar – and propose a toast to Paris, a city that knows how to tipple with style.

In Guadeloupe, drinks and meals go hand in hand, and not just as sundowners. Locals wash their appetizers down with a classic ti’ punch or perhaps a planteur rhum punch as an aperitif, while wine and fresh juices accompany heavier meals. As a result, restaurants double as excellent bars, each well-stocked with a variety of local and imported drinks.

Located in the East End of Melbourne is a creative cocktail bar called Bar Ampere. According to chef Victor Liong of Ho Lee Fook in Melbourne. “Bar Ampere is great for an aperitif or a night cap.”

Both the bar and kitchen are open until 3 a.m. each night, making it an excellent place to swing by for a late night drink and bite to eat. Don’t miss the steak sandwich with onion jam or the crispy ham and cheese croquettes. Though, of course, the drinks are the main reason we know you’ll be headed here.

Genuine Magallanes fare such as open-flame, spit-roasted lamb is what you find on the menu at this bucolic oceanside estate on the Eberhard Fjord in Patagonia. Aperitifs in hand, visitors can watch how the flavor-packed food that just keeps coming is prepared, and the service is a paean to Patagonia’s renowned hospitality. Connoisseurs recommend ordering the matambre, an especially tasty cut of beef. Tables hold parties of six or more, and individual diners are seated with whatever group can accommodate them. Reserve on the restaurant’s website (and remember that mobile service can be intermittent in this corner of the planet). Open mid-September to late April.

The apéritif of choice in the Dordogne (and in many parts of France) is this sweet dark liquor called walnut wine, but there’s nary a grape in site. The vin de noix is made from young green walnuts harvested between La Fete de St. Jean (June 24) and Bastille Day (July 14), when the shells are still soft and green. Walnut wine is a typically home-brewed concoction. Think moonshine, with a sophisticated French flair. Though I have found it commercially, the best accompanies a good meal with friends around a kitchen table or at the region’s numerous Fermes Auberges (Farmhouse Inns), where all products are made on site. Walk in to any home and you’ll likely be offered a sip. There are hundreds of family recipes for this elixir, each claiming to be the best, bien sur! But most agree, the longer it sits in the cupboard, the better (6 months to years). But it’s worth the wait. Recipe: green walnuts, dry red wine, sugar, and some patience. Et Voila! I’ve often been asked what it tastes like, and my description usually results in a nose wrinkle. A blend of port and prune juice---and it’s delicious. My friend Roland, knowing my love of the apéritif and the memories it summons, sent me these two glasses he’d found in an antique shop in Perigueux, along with a small bottle of his homemade walnut wine. I set the glasses out on my terrace, poured in the chocolate-hued liquor, and toasted to the memory of my beloved Dordogne, and the people from there who have flavored my life.