Self-proclaimed "beer nerd" Lynn Stachnick loves to visit Portland, ME, to sample the local craft brews. She and her husband even have a beer city bucket list, with San Diego near the top.

"Ballast Point Brewing has an India Pale Lager I've read about and most likely will never find...

A well-designed park is more than green space in the midst of a concrete jungle--it makes a city lovable and livable.

The most beautiful city parks combine meadows, woodlands, ponds, lakes, and streams with museums and other man-made attractions. At San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, as Catherine Nagel,...

At the Mio Buenos Aires hotel, the bathtubs are works of art: Argentine Mario Dasso personally selects only the most beautiful pieces of calden wood (naturally felled by fire) and carves them into luxurious, oversize soaking tubs.

The coolest bathtubs give guests a sense of their own private...

On most cruise ships, your accommodations, standard meals, entertainment, and daytime activities are included in your fare. Then the nickel-and-diming begins.

Want a soda? Add it to your tab. Take a Pilates class? Expect a fee. Indulge at one of the fancy specialty restaurants? There's a charge for that, too....

When David Bakke visits Savannah, he loves dining at the upscale Olde Pink House. But Bakke, a writer for personal finance site MoneyCrashers, has figured out how to avoid the high price tag--he sits in the restaurant's basement section, the Planters Tavern. "By taking the trip downstairs," he says, "you...

"I went through a bad divorce with a lot of heartache," says Lucie Muns, who went surfing in Costa Rica following her split. She found the ocean healing and the all-female Surf Diva camp filled with supportive surfers--many were also nursing breakup wounds. Her advice: "Disconnect from the immediate place...

You might thank a small Spanish island for the current daytime pool-party scene in the Nevada desert.

Las Vegas has been called the new Ibiza, though in typical Vegas fashion, hotel casinos have taken the daytime electronic dance music scene and amplified it--with 32,000-watt subwoofers and custom lasers, international resident...

Want to go out on a limb for your next vacation -- literally? Once the sole province of young boys and Ewoks, treehouses offer adventurous travelers (read: unafraid of heights) a unique travel experience in an age of roadside motel chains and globe-stretching hotel corporations.

Building a hotel...

In a cozy bakery in Boston's South End, where sticky buns drip with caramel pecans and donuts are sold out by noon, a cheeky sign above the register proclaims: "Make life sweeter—eat dessert first."

There's no arguing with pastry chef Joanne Chang, whose Flour bakery sees crowds lining up as...

Shellfish, displayed on ice in wire baskets, are the main attraction at Seattle's Walrus & Carpenter, where the shucking of Pacific oysters is itself a work of art.

Such dedication to the finest local ingredients unites the best seafood restaurants across the globe, where what's fresh is what's...

Telling time is hardly the role of clock towers anymore. But, they can still draw a crowd. Take the face of Chicago's Wrigley Building. While there are no official numbers on how many visits its clock tower gets, the Windy City did see 42 million visitors in 2012, many of...

For Dallas-based Crissy Lintner, a certain kind of voice can transport her to another place -- and even make her hungry.

"When I hear a Cajun accent, I picture hanging moss trees, French-style architecture, and good food," she says.

No wonder: that vocal Creole is heard on the streets of...

Opened in 2012 by a father-and-son team, Hattie B's has become the Nashville spot for fiery, cayenne-infused, deep-fried "hot chicken." It's an inspired twist on a dish that's comfortingly familiar.

Like beignets (made from a 143-year-old recipe) in New Orleans or a bagel sandwich in New York, the best regional...

Writer David Wood once joked that college was an amazing time--when parents fork over their savings to let kids go to a strange town and spend four years in a bar.

Seriously, though, the best college bars offer more than cold beers and hot cheese fries. They're fan...

Although taxes are one of life's certainties, they can still surprise you.

Consider the iconic New York bagel: decide to have yours toasted, and it'll come with a tax. The rationale is that sliced bagels are usually consumed on a café or store's premises--and restaurant meals are taxed,...

At Bangpo Seafood on the island of Koh Samui, tables in the sand are piled with deep-fried red snapper and spicy mango and sea urchin salad -- flavors as intense as Thailand's sunshine.

Like many of the best beach restaurants and shacks, family-run Bangpo makes food that's fresh, authentic, and...

The word pretty isn't often associated with the shantytowns of Rio de Janeiro. But gazing across the hills toward the notorious Santa Maria favela, you might be pleasantly surprised by the burst of colors --the result of a recent social art project launched by Dutch design duo Haas&Hahn.

"We chose...

Ever played the game of Twister on water? The green, yellow, and brown polka dots that form on British Columbia's Spotted Lake each summer make it look like you could.

It's a far cry from the stereotypical landscapes of clear blue lakes, rolling green hills, and white-sand beaches that inspire...

Maple-bacon biscuits. Chocolate-dipped donuts. A lavish spread of eggs. Is there any meal more comforting than breakfast?

Whatever time zone you wake up in, the best breakfasts will brighten your mood, fortify you for the day, and give you a taste of daily life in that destination. Our short list...

For ambitious cities, a soaring Ferris wheel has become the latest status symbol. The Las Vegas Strip is buzzing with construction on the High Roller wheel, which will set a new height record in late 2013. That is, until New York or Dubai catch up: both have unveiled...