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From small boutiques to a sprawling outdoor art mart showcasing local crafts, San Diego offers a variety of cool finds to complement hot weather. The area is home to many wonderful artists including glassblowers, painters, photographers, clothing designers, and jewelers.

Glassblowing and shaping will make an artist out of anyone. GatherHouse owner and artist John Hudnut holds glassblowing demonstrations on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 2 to 6 p.m., and offers hands-on glassblowing classes by appointment. The three-hour classes are limited to four students, who learn the basics of glassblowing by assisting in the process; then John helps them find inspiration to make something simple on their own, such as an ornament, vase, or tumbler that the student will get to keep. Students can choose from a variety of colors and types of glass for their project, so every item that comes out of the studio is totally unique. There’s also a one-hour mini glassblowing class.

The Glass Academy is the instructive branch of the Furnace Design Studio, a glassblowing gallery and workshop in metro Detroit. Visitors can register for monthly classes and studio workshops that teach everything from beadmaking to beer mug design—and swing through the gallery shop to (carefully!) take a look at each one-of-a-kind creation.

Tucked away in a private jungle on the edge of a powdery white-sand beach, Soneva Fushi eschews typical Maldivian overwater bungalows in favor of castaway-chic villas, ranging from split-level one-bedroom cabins to a nine-bedroom, 60,000-square-foot complex called the Private Reserve villa, complete with its own spa, waterslide, and gym. But the on-site activities are the real draw. Along with the requisite surfing, fishing, snorkeling, and scuba diving common at resorts throughout the atoll, the resort offers plenty of unique experiences all its own, including Cinema Paradiso, an outdoor movie theater with lounge-chair seating, a celestial-themed dinner cruise, in which guests can sail out to sea with resident astronomers, and glassblowing workshops. Also noteworthy are the four restaurants serving everything from Mediterranean to Peruvian, as well as the Six Senses Spa.

Located in the Ta Qali Crafts Village near Mdina, Valletta Glass runs a workshop producing custom designed glassware and two retail outlets. Watch glassblowers at work before picking up your own souvenir bowl, plate, vase, candleholder or animal ornament. A selection of gifts are available to preview online.

Opened in 1960, Silver Dollar City mimics an 1880 mining town, complete with themed rides and employees who dress the part. Visitors to the kitschy theme park will find more than 40 rides—the Time Traveler is the fastest, tallest, steepest spinning roller coaster in the world, but also make time for the family-friendly Fire-in-the Hole indoor coaster. After the rides, be sure to indulge in the surprisingly delicious food on offer, including tater twists, funnel cakes, and cast-iron skillets of succotash. Also be sure to swing by one of the many craftsmen shops, where you can catch woodworkers, glassblowers, and candy makers in action, and don’t leave without walking through Marvel Cave (this is Missouri after all) and posing for a tintype photo (props provided).

A brief description of Skansen—a 75-acre open-air museum with historic buildings and a zoo—doesn’t convey just how much fun it is. You can easily spend a happy half-day here, looking at wolves, reindeer, moose, seals, and other Nordic creatures, then popping into old buildings that have been brought here from all over Scandinavia and reassembled. In some you can talk to people in costume who are playing the roles of the original inhabitants. Elsewhere you can watch glassblowers at work and visit old-fashioned stores. Open since 1891, it remains one of Sweden’s top tourist draws.

With more than 100,000 items in its collection, the Deutsches Museum is one of the most important science and technology museums in the world. Even though only around a quarter of the collection is on display at any one time, the breadth is nonetheless mind-boggling, ranging from the Stone Age to the present and touching on everything from cellular biology to atomic physics. Indeed, the holdings are so massive—and still growing—that they’re divided between several venues, including a hangar at Schleißheim airfield and the Deutsches Museum in Bonn. Specific highlights in Munich include the first motorized aircraft built by the Wright brothers, the first motorcar made by Karl Benz, and a U1 submarine. Also worth checking out are interactive displays that detail glass-blowing and paper-making, and the live demonstrations and experiments that take place each day. A dedicated children’s area with hundreds of activities caters to younger visitors, but, kids or not, plan to spend at least half a day here—and be pleasant overwhelmed.

Famous for its long history of handblown glassmaking, Murano sits just a few minutes’ ferry ride offshore in the Venetian Lagoon. The main attraction is the Glass Museum (Museo del Vetro), which recounts the history of glass through the centuries, with the largest focus on important pieces of Murano glass produced between the 15th and 20th centuries. You can also join a guided tour and catch a glassmaking demonstration here. When finished, do a bit of shopping for locally produced glass at some of the boutique shops. Also check out the Romanesque-style Church of Santa Maria and San Donato, which may or may not house the bones of a slain dragon under its boldly hued mosaic floor.

Once a separate municipality, San Ángel—in the city’s south, nestled into its western foothills—is a leafy, genteel enclave whose relative isolation adds a soigné feel (for better or worse) you won’t find in neighboring Coyoacán. Ground zero for promenading is quaint Plaza San Jacinto, whose cute parish church (and beautiful cloister garden) is a sort of spiritual last stand amid the surrounding area’s high-toned consumerism. That said, the plaza’s true spirit comes alive Saturdays, at the so-called Bazar Sábado, an artisanal market that fills the area with stall after stall of handmade jewelry, textiles, crafts, and accessories, plus a great deal of art—some finer, some less so—in styles that go from hippie to haute. Strolling musicians and performers add to the carnival atmosphere.

Once the base for the British Royal Navy in the Atlantic region, this enormous port complex is now a buzzing mix of restaurants, shops, art studios, excursion outfitters and more that occupy former warehouses. Among the premier attractions is the National Museum of Bermuda, housed in the fort. Other popular spots include the South Tower (a clock) and the North Tower (a tidal gauge). Buy local souvenirs at Dockyard Glassworks, the Bermuda Rum Cake Company and Bermuda Clayworks.

With more than 250 acres of grounds, the New York Botanical Garden manages to fit a number of different landscapes and experiences into its garden walls. The garden was established in 1891, the inspiration of Nathaniel Lord Britton and his wife, Elizabeth, who returned from a trip to England determined that New York should have its own equivalent to London‘s Kew Gardens. They found backing among New York society and created one of the country’s leading research institutions that also happens to be an ideal place to commune with nature right in the city. The rose garden designed by Beatrix Farrand is a highlight, while an abundance of azaleas reaches their peak in May. In all there are some 20 different gardens, including one dedicated to native plants, a rock garden, and a wetlands trail. The conservatory, constructed in 1902, is the largest in the country and includes 11 different climatic zones. When the last of the fall foliage has fallen from the trees, the conservatory hosts the popular annual Holiday Train Show (from the end of November to mid-January).

The Great Wall of China runs more than 21,000 kilometers (over 13,000 miles), not as one continuous wall but rather as fortified wall sections. Some of the sections date back more than 2,500 years, though only 8.2 percent of the existing wall is original. The Mutianyu Great Wall is one of the more accessible portions. Hike (because that is what you’ll be doing, even on the wall itself) up the Great Wall, then slide down the side of the mountain on a toboggan. Alternatively, explore the Simatai Great Wall, which retains a more authentic feel—save, of course, for the fake water town at the bottom. Even more remote is the Jiankou section, which is largely unrestored, so book with an experienced group like Beijing Hikers or Wild Great Wall.

Saguenay’s answer to Murano, Touverre (which means “everything glass”) is owned by master glassblower Giuseppe Benedetto, one of the artisans featured along the region’s Craftsmen Road (La Route des Artisans). Besides his beautiful handblown glassworks for purchase, Benedetto offers demonstrations and classes (Tuesdays–Saturdays in July and August, and weekends September–June; reservations required for groups).