For the seasoned traveler, few things are as gratifying as when someone notices an object you bought during your journeys, be it from Paris, Tokyo or São Paulo. The thrill isn’t just in the nod to a jet-setting lifestyle — it’s also in the chance to reminisce about a past adventure.

Slideshow: 10 of the world’s top shopping streets

 

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People shop abroad for different reasons. Some hit the tarmac ready to hunt for that next souvenir to add to a collection. (After all, one rarely sees a lone tribal mask.) Others delight in snagging whatever a country does best, be it knitwear in Iceland or watches in Switzerland. Still others rejoice in finding favorite luxury designers wherever they go, reveling in, say, an Hermès bangle bought in Qatar as much as one snapped up in Arizona. Then there are those who shop simply for shopping’s sake. For these folks, even sourcing the necessities is a joy.

 

No matter which type of shopper you are, perusing a country’s wares is an essential part of traveling — not just because of what you might buy, but also because of the experience you’ll have while doing it: discovering a store, falling in love with something fantastic, interacting with a salesperson and walking out with a treasure.

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Few forms of escapism are as wholesome as yoga. As its millions of acolytes attest, regular yoga practice not only alleviates stress and improves strength and flexibility (recent reports even credit it for enhanced sexual health), it’s also an activity that can be done just about anywhere. Just taking a smartphone-free hour to practice sun salutations can feel like a mini-vacation.

Slideshow: See these and more top yoga retreats

But even for the yogically inclined, more than an hourlong getaway is sometimes necessary. It’s certainly alluring, especially since there are so many options for rolling up your sticky mat and dashing off to an exotic locale.

These days, there are yoga retreats that cater to every ability level and goal. Some, such as the Ayurvedic Rejuvenation Retreat at Shreyas Resort in Bangalore, emphasize the traditional holistic benefits of yoga (participants receive health and dietary consultations, plus personalized ayurvedic spa treatments, along with their classes). Others, like Yada Yada Yoga’s Bespoke Yoga Retreat at the St. Regis Bahia Beach, offers guests the opportunity to combine yoga with other activities like paddleboarding, kayaking and hiking, while others offer it as a double bill with music, photography and cultural study.

Whether the goal is serenity or invigoration, ancient traditions or innovative approaches, here are five places to make your escape.

Ayurvedic Rejuvenation Retreat, Shreyas Resort, Bangalore, India

At this ashram-style retreat in India, guests receive personalized ayurvedic therapies (like abhyanga, a traditional Indian massage) with one-on-one pranayama (guided breathing) and meditation sessions. The retreat is designed to help guests take their practices with them when they leave, incorporating vegetarian cooking classes and consultations on integrating yoga practice into daily life. Shreyas practices karma yoga, the yoga of giving back; guests can do service by working in a community garden, volunteering in the local school or planting trees. Seven-night stay, from $3,340; shreyasretreat.com.

Bespoke Yoga Retreat, St. Regis Bahia Beach Resort, Puerto Rico

Boutique yoga agency Yada Yada Yoga has teamed up with the St. Regis Bahia Beach to create this retreat, which offers daily instruction by a Yada Yada yogi set against the expansive natural backdrop of the five-star resort, which is the first and only gold-certified Audubon Signature Sanctuary in Puerto Rico. Classes are taught in the Forrest yoga style, which works to overcome physical and emotional blocks. Guests can explore the 483-acre property and its wildlife through hiking, biking and guided bird watching. Not in the bird mood? Lounge beachside, take a plunge in the resort’s seafront pool or linger in the spa’s garden after indulging in a treatment. From $1,575; June 15–18; 954-624-1784.

Kuxan Summ, Maya Tulum, Mexico

According to the Mayan calendar, this year’s winter solstice will mark the dawn of a new spiritual era for mankind; yoga resort Maya Tulum is celebrating with a weeklong retreat, incorporating yoga, meditation and Mayan culture. Guests will practice yoga twice a day, visit nearby Mayan ruins and take part in ceremonial drumming and a shaman-led Aztec energy dance. Those looking for a little less adventure can opt to explore the resort’s beaches (which lie along the world’s second-longest coral reef) or indulge in a Mayan-influenced spa treatment. From $2,360; Oct. 27–Nov. 3; mayatulum.com.

Quantum Yoga, Shunya Resort, Ibiza, Spain

Nestled in the countryside of northern Ibiza, near Benirras Beach, the Villa at Shunya Resort provides a peaceful backdrop for this retreat by Quantum Yoga. By day, guests participate inpranayama-breathing sessions, Vinyasa-flow classes and seminars in yoga philosophy. After hours, those interested in mixing the spiritual with the worldly can head into town to take advantage of the stellar shopping, sample the local cuisine and explore the island’s legendary nightlife. From $1,900; Aug. 3–12; quantumyoga.com.

Self-Discovery Retreat, Byron Bay Yoga, Australia

This retreat, set in Australia’s most famous spiritually minded community, aims to treat the whole self: daily classes in yoga, Pilates, meditation andpranayama are augmented by massage, Yoga Nidra (deep relaxation) and organic vegan ayurvedic cuisine. The centerpiece of the program is Core Energetics Body Psychotherapy, designed to put students in touch with the mind-body-spirit connection; those who need a day off, though, may find a stroll along one of Byron Bay’s lovely surfing beaches, or the wooded nature trails at Cape Byron Headland Preserve, just as healing. From $1,595; March 30–April 4; yogahealthretreats.com.

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Ma Bailey couldn’t have been more right in "It’s a Wonderful Life" when he said, “It’s deep in the race for a man to want his own roof and walls and fireplace.” It’s no different when you’re at the mountaintops for ski season or just enjoying time away from home during the chilly months. Curling up next to a classic stone fireplace can be the perfect antidote for a long day of shopping, skiing and sightseeing. And let’s face it: Sometimes spending a lazy afternoon fireside with a good book and a cup of cocoa is the most anticipated part of a traveler’s itinerary.

Slideshow: See these and more hot fireplaces

Departures.com scoured the country to find hotels that offer not just a roof and walls, but also decadent fireplaces to fend off the cold. Park City, Utah’s hillside Washington School House hearth is filled with 18th-century charm, while The Little Nell in Aspen, Colo., features a double-sided fireplace built with local stone. The crackling blaze of The Equinox in Manchester Village, Vt., is the fabled meeting place of the state’s Green Mountain Boys, and over in New York City’s East Village, an urban oasis awaits in the lobby of The Bowery Hotel. And for a change of pace, soak up some southwestern warmth in front of an ornate adobe-beehive fireplace at Camelback Inn in Scottsdale, Ariz., or next to the buffalo-adorned one at the Gage Hotel in Marathon, Texas. Here, a menagerie of glowing hearths that would make Pa Bailey blush, from modern architectural marvels to bastions of old-world glamour.

The Bowery Hotel, New York City

Travelers looking to escape the city’s chaos can seek shelter in this hotel’s lobby, which is soothingly lit by a vaulted Gothic fireplace. A mural depicting 19th-century New York wraps around the room, surrounding oversized chairs, sofas and antique wooden newspaper racks alongside the cozy wood-burning fireplace. The atmosphere is casual and unhurried, perfect for lingering guests. Rooms, from $425; 212-505-9100; theboweryhotel.com.

Camelback Inn, Scottsdale, Ariz.

Visitors to the West’s most Western town can kick off their boots and unwind by the fire at this homey oasis in the Sonora Desert. The original adobe-beehive fireplace (installed in 1936, the same year the resort was built) is flanked by vibrant Navajo rugs and plush leather couches — perfect for travel-weary cowboys to sink into at the end of a long day. Rooms, from $160; 480-948-1700; camelbackinn.com.

The Equinox, Manchester Village, Vt.

This legendary meeting place for the fathers of the American Revolution has been serving up comfort by the fireplace’s warm glow since 1769. The original stone hearth from the tavern where Ethan Allen and the militia group Green Mountain Boys once regularly gathered now sits amid the browns, burgundies and old hardwood floors of the resort’s upscale restaurant. Oversized tables and cream leather banquettes make it the ideal spot for guests to connect over a leisurely meal. Rooms, from $200; 800-362-4747; equinoxresort.com.

Hotel Burnham, Chicago

The landmark building, designed by legendary Chicago architects Daniel Burnham, John Root and Charles Atwood, offers an intimate, one-of-a-kind architectural setting. The living-room-style lobby, washed in burgundy and gold, has modern, cozy touches that make snuggling up to the marble-framed hearth an easy segue to happy hour. Rooms, from $160; 312-782-1111; burnhamhotel.com.

The Little Nell, Aspen, Colo.

After a day on the slopes, guests — and their dogs — can enjoy a cocktail around the lobby’s double-sided-wood-burning hearth, crafted using local buff sandstone. Guests seeking a little more privacy are in luck: Each of the 92 Holly Hunt–designed guest rooms at The Little Nell — the only ski-in and -out hotel in the city — have an electric stone fireplace. Rooms, from $265; 888-843-6355; thelittlenell.com.

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With all things retro back in style, shopping vintage has reclaimed its place in the sartorial pecking order. Emerging from the shadow of massive malls and contemporary flagship stores, a handful of off-the-beaten-path vintage shops are attracting the globe’s chicest stylemakers, who hunt for exclusive items from eras past.

Slideshow: See the world’s top vintage stores

“Women wear vintage to express individuality,” says shopkeeper Angela Petraline of Dorothea’s Vintage Closet, a second-hand shop in Iowa. The Midwestern boutique attracts a growing circle of both rural devotees and urbanites, including New York socialite Helen Rockefeller, who regularly frequents Des Moines for the well-priced designer selection. According to Petraline, although designer labels are coveted, but no-name pieces hold just as much clout for their craftsmanship and cut. “The beauty about vintage is the rarity and exclusivity,” adds Fiona Stuart of Rellik, in London’s Notting Hill neighborhood. “There may be only one available in the world to buy.”

Even modern style icons have retro fever. Kate Moss and Sienna Miller have long rhapsodized about the virtues of vintage, and who can forget the ’90s Valentino gown Julia Roberts wore when she received her "Erin Brockovich Oscar" — a style coup in 2001. “Vintage clothing has a lot of history and sometimes allows for a stronger statement than the must-have of the season,” says stylist Danielle Nachmani, who works with such starlets as Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen and Rosie Huntington-Whitley. Nachmani adds, “For me, the pieces I love most tend to be found in overlooked, offbeat areas.”

As vintage mania sweeps through the Western World, we’ve uncovered 10 destinations that are guarding some of the best-kept gems. From a legendary dealer of Hermès on the outskirts of Paris to a fashionista mecca in the Balearic Islands, one finds oases of style in the unlikeliest of places. But if the thought of conquering a cluttered shop packed to the brim with lived-in luxuries is daunting, don’t fret. We’ve sifted the racks for you and uncovered what to skip and what to grab. Now the only question that remains is: Do you have a good dry cleaner?

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The Skypark pool atop the Marina Bay Sands hotel, in Singapore, might be one of the most magnificent pools on Earth: It’s an infinity-edged oasis 650 feet above ground with a mind-blowing view of the city’s skyline. It’s part of a massive rooftop entertainment platform perched atop three skyscrapers.

Slideshow: See some spectacular hotel rooftop pools

While it may vie for the most dramatic, this high-altitude hot spot is now one of many built in major metropolises. These days pools are popping up on top of skyscrapers from New York to Sydney and everywhere in between, often with bars and restaurants that help transform the pool deck into a social scene all its own.

“In densely populated cities where space is at a such a premium, if you want to build something new and innovative, the only place to go is up,” says Thompson Toronto project architect Rob Cadeau, who turned the hotel’s rooftop into a gathering place by designing a bar adjacent to the pool area. Other designers have used increasingly dramatic effects — infinity edges, cantilevered pool tanks, see-through flooring — in order to distinguish and gain international attention for their offerings.

“Every time someone does something new, someone else has to up the ante,” says Cadeau. “In the future, we’re going to see even more acrobatic engineering on rooftops, features that will stretch our perception of the pool edge, the height and the sensations you experience once you’re swimming.”

The trend to create entertainment hubs above the hectic urban bustle started a decade ago in New York, where 35 hotels now feature a rooftop bar, many of which have pools. Boutique properties like the Soho House were the first to get in on the action, and other hotels followed suit, from Hotel Frasano’s Phillipe Starck–designed rooftop pool in Rio de Janeiro to the Joule in Dallas, where part of the pool hangs off the building.

Eventually the laws of physics may keep designers from pushing the envelope any further. In the meantime, the sky’s the limit.

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Among the world’s most celebrated fashion designers, there are those whose collections are so iconic and truly transformative that, given the opportunity, you would choose to live in their creations. Now, thanks to an emerging trend in travel, you can — by simply making a reservation.

Over the past few years, a growing number of international style arbiters, from Christian Lacroix and Armani to Missoni and Dior, have been teaming up with high-end resorts and hotels to put their distinctive stamp on properties around the globe.

Slideshow: Top fashion designer hotels and suites

Some, like Diane Von Furstenberg and Oscar De La Renta, were tapped to rework the décor of a suite or series of rooms at a single property, while others have gone so far as to partner with major developers to launch eponymous hotel brands that span from Australia to South America to the Middle East.

These ultra-chic living spaces reflect the fashion brands’ unique personalities and exemplify the way that they themselves would choose to travel and live. For example, the Bottega Veneta St. Regis Hotel suite in Rome features a sophisticated, neutral palate. “We wanted to respect the character of the hotel and acknowledge the light of Rome through Bottega Veneta colors, materials and furniture,” said Tomas Maier, the brand’s creative director.

In each of these runway-ready locales, it’s not simply the linens on the bed or fabric upholstered onto the settees that subtly (and, in the case of Missoni, perhaps not so subtly) speaks the designer’s name. It’s also the branded amenities in the bathroom, commissioned artwork on the walls and an array of quirky signature services that evoke an idealized — and always stylish — travel lifestyle.

Even when you aren’t living out of a carry-on, it can be an ongoing challenge to keep ahead of the trends. Fortunately, these ten properties make it infinitely easier to stay in style — even if you never leave your hotel room.

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Several years ago, a house guest visiting me in New York said, “You’ve taken me to four bars and two restaurants, and none of them have been marked. What is going on?”

It was the height of Manhattan’s speakeasy craze, and although it may have gotten — and may still be — a little out of hand, there was something irresistible about exploring an underground New York just for New Yorkers.

Slideshow: Hard-to-find travel destinations

In a city that sees 48.8 million visitors each year, the best way to claim a corner of one’s own may be to hide it behind a secret phone booth, underneath a pizza stand, beyond the kitchen, on the other side of the wine cellar or in a train car.

The same is true in other cities, of course, which is why digging for insider tips and word-of-mouth directions before a trip always pays off. The legwork is far more fun when the results are guaranteed.

Take, for example, La Petite Cuisine a Paris. British ex-pat Rachel Khoo moved to town to train at the Cordon Bleu, and she ran this two-seat restaurant out of her 256-square-foot apartment. She served lunch just two days each week, on Wednesday and Saturday. Guests were treated to soufflé, ragout or coq au vin, depending on the chef’s inclination.

Khoo is closing her kitchen soon, so here are ten other word-of-mouth addresses worth investigating.

Whether this list leads you to a hilltop spa in Mexico, a helicopter-access-only slope in the Canadian Rockies or a kitchen filled with Italian grandmas hell-bent on perfecting your pesto is up to you. When you’ve arrived, you’ll know you’re there. 

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Art and food have always had a harmonious relationship — just look at Leonardo Da Vinci’s The Last Supper. Indeed, Pablo Picasso, Norman Rockwell and Pierre Auguste Renoir all created artworks about breaking bread and, in fact, Picasso and Henri Matisse were both known to paint for their dinners. So it comes as no surprise that a big trend in art today has to do with eating: Fine-dining establishments are morphing into art galleries.

Slideshow: See the art in the eateries

At first, world-class restaurants simply started popping up in museums. In 2005, the Museum of Modern Art debuted The Modern, in which restaurateur Danny Meyer elevated institutionalized museum fare to a Michelin-starred level in a setting overlooking works by Alexander Calder, Auguste Rodin and more in MoMa’s Sculpture Garden. Wolfgang Puck has been dabbling in the museum restaurant arena for years as well, setting up shop in Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles and Washington; the view from his 20.21 restaurant at Minneapolis’s Walker Art Center (now a new bôite called Gather) was the cherry on top (literally — diners had a view of Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen’s iconic sculpture Spoonbridge and Cherry).

These days, though, you don’t have to eat at a museum to see excellent art. Restaurants around the world are attracting patrons with their own art collections and rotating exhibitions. In Zurich, Kronenhalle’s original owner, Hulda Zumsteg, and her son, Gustav, spent decades amassing a personal art collection, filling the restaurant with art by German and Swiss painter Paul Klee, Russian Abstract painter Wassily Kandinsky, Swiss painter Ferdinand Hodler and others. The furniture is also priceless: The tables in the bar area are by Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti. On the Strip in Las Vegas, the Bellagio’s Picasso restaurant has originals by the namesake. Even Puck has gotten in on the craze with his steak house Cut, at London’s 45 Park Lane Hotel, where Damien Hirst’s Pslams series is on view.

Similar to gallery owners who champion the work of emerging artists, restaurateurs are doing so too. Mr. Chow is perhaps the modern pioneer: he traded noodles for artwork n the height of the 1980s art craze; now his restaurants have shown works by artists ranging from Andy Warhol to Keith Haring. Meanwhile, the Santa Monica outpost of New York power-lunching hub Michael’s has an upstairs gallery with rotating exhibitions with work by local artists. And the Michelin-starred Number One, at the Balmoral in Edinburgh, displays work by graduates of the Royal College of Art in London.

With restaurants becoming the world’s best galleries, here are eight spots worth the art and food. Grab a glass of wine, a comfortable chair and a delicious excuse to sit and stare at the walls for an hour or two.

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