City Getaways: Ultimate Bucket List

The fifth-century-B.C. temple devoted to Athena remains the ne plus ultra of man’s monuments to the divine. The best view? From the rooftop bar of the Grande Bretagne Hotel.

Filled with mosques, palaces, souks, and artisan workshops, the ancient walled medina has barely changed since the ninth century.

Every Tuesday feels like carnival in the Pelourinho district (Old Town), which comes alive with frenzied revelers, shirtless samba dancers, and drummers juggling flaming sticks.

Where to go for an authentic tango experience? Stick to the older establishments, says author and dancer Patrizia Chen. Start with a class at Club Gricel, followed by a glass of Malbec and a corte especial (strip streak) at La Brigada ($$). Later, catch a milonga show at Torquato Tasso.

How to condense New York City into a single perfect day? Here’s one take, from hotelier, entrepreneur, designer, and lifelong Manhattanite Ivanka Trump.

10:30 a.m.: “The exhibits at the Museum of Modern Art are so inspiring. I like to pick up stylish housewares at the museum store.”
1 p.m.: “Head to Casa Lever ($$) for antipasti; the dining room is very Mad Men.”
2:30 p.m.: “Stroll through Central Park to see the Carousel—my daughter, Arabella, adores it.”
3:30 p.m.: “You’ve got to make time to shop, so hop a cab to SoHo. Two musts: Odin for men’s wear and Warby Parker for great sunglasses.”
8 p.m.: “My husband and I love Supper ($$$), in the East Village. The mint pasta is insanely good.”

Design shopping in the Danish capital will make you feel like the idealized, shelter-magazine version of yourself, all clean lines and polished functionality. Browse our favorites—Hay House, the just-opened Apartment, and Illums Bolighus—and bring home a touch of contemporary cool.

The best day in London is layered with one-off experiences. Accessories designer Anya Hindmarch shows you how to fit it all in.

8 a.m. Go for breakfast at the historic cabmen’s shelter on Pont Street ($); it’s for cabbies only, but you can sweet-talk them into making you a bacon-and-egg sandwich.
10 a.m. Gallery-hop in Mayfair: Haunch of Venison and Timothy Taylor are standouts.
Noon: Take a turn through Old Spitalfields Market before exploring East London’s heritage architecture.
1 p.m. Stroll to the Rochelle Canteen ($$) for lunch, then cab it to the Museum of Brands, a window into 20th-century consumer culture.
5:30 p.m. Grab a delicious sausage toast at the Dock Kitchen ($$$).
7:45 p.m. The Royal Court Theatre gets it right with every production. Case in point: Jez Butterworth’s The River is now playing.

A meticulously reconstructed wooden warship that sank in 1628 and remained mired in mud for centuries, which kept its masts, cannons, and intricately carved ornamentation—even a chamber pot—fully intact. vasamuseet.se

“My trip to Jerusalem with my daughter was so special. The Holocaust museum at Yad Vashem during a downpour was melancholy and unforgettable. The boats of the heroic Danes and the deeds of others on the Wall of Remembrance are the exceptions that prove the rule of selfless heroism.” —Amy Fine Collins, writer

“I could’ve spent years at the Grand Bazaar, in Istanbul, sifting through rugs and kilims, the amazing baubles at Sehrazat, and the all-natural bath products at Abdulla. The trip informed my entire Resort 2013 collection. Everything I saw—the jewel-like colors; the architecture of the Old City; the handcrafted decorative details—added up to a dazzling inspiration board.” —Michael Kors, fashion designer

Tap into the local scene by learning to salsa at Hoy Como Ayer, Little Havana’s fieriest dance club.

See T+L’s Complete Bucket List

Admit it: you want to spot a celeb. The best stargazing is dinnertime at the Sunset Tower Hotel’s Tower Bar ($$) and poolside at the Chateau Marmont ($$$).

Nightlife here still carries the frisson of the underground. There’s no sign at Tausend; just look for the light above the door under the railroad bridge and knock. Inside you’ll find a loungy vibe and inventive cocktails. Dance until the wee hours at nearby Cookies, tucked into an alley behind the Westin Grand.

Soak in the intensity of the city from its sleek rooftop hotel bars: Felix at the Peninsula, the Mandarin Oriental’s M Bar, and Ozone at the Ritz-Carlton.

There’s no better city for architecture buffs than the birthplace of the skyscraper. See the standouts with an expert from the Chicago Architecture Foundation.

• Carson Pirie Scott: proto-Modernism by Louis Sullivan.
• Seminal Prairie style by Frank Lloyd Wright at Robie House.
  Mies van der Rohe’s 860-880 Lake Shore Drive.

The Palio is a medieval-era race held twice each summer, complete with horses and riders decked out in colorful costumes. Stay at the nearby Castel Monastero ($$$$), which will set you up in a private apartment to view the action.

Go behind the gates of the city’s private gardens—splashing fountains; boxwood topiaries; ancient live oaks—with Charleston Tea Party Private Tours (843/577-5896).

Spend an evening admiring the glowing canal houses from a saloon boat.

“One of the world’s greatest concert halls is the Musikverein, in Vienna, the home of the Vienna Philharmonic, known for the quality of its acoustics.” —Riccardo Muti, conductor

The city reveals its charms once you step off the tourist-clogged path. Thomas Jonglez co-authored the Secret Venice guidebook and recommends shopping at L’Angolo del Passato, where Venetians buy contemporary and vintage glassware, and ditching the (pictured) crowds at St. Mark’s Basilica by going to vespers services (5:30 p.m. in winter; 6 p.m. in summer) or the 6:45 p.m. mass. Entry is through a door on the north side.

“Cape Town is the only place I know where I can indulge almost all of my interests simultaneously. It has beaches on both the Atlantic and Indian oceans, several indigenous cuisines, and a major wine region inside the city limits: Constantia.” —Jay McInerney, writer

A gorgeously meditative space is surrounded by the artist’s somber canvases of black and purple. rothkochapel.org

Visit the room of haunting Black Paintings, completed by Francisco Goya in the years before his death in 1828.

Diego Rivera painted a series of stirring, politically tinged murals depicting Mexican history inside the national palace. palacionacionalmexico.com

The Peacock Room is James McNeill Whistler’s masterpiece of decoration in gold, blue, and green. asia.si.edu

An unmarked doorway in the Uffizi Gallery leads to the hidden Vasari Corridor, the Medicis’ secret passage, lined with 17th- and 18th-century paintings and a collection of self-portraits by such artists as Titian, Bernini, Rubens, and Delacroix. A private guide is required; book through Context Travel.

Nothing captures the moody, magical soul of the city like a stroll around Hoan Kiem Lake, when mist shrouds the surface and fabled giant turtles patrol the depths. The adjacent Old Quarter is a joyful chaos of street-food vendors and honking motorbikes swerving past crumbling façades. After all that, savor the calm of the poolside bar at the Sofitel Legend Metropole.

“I grew up watching vintage Italian movies, but it wasn’t until my forties that I finally got to Rome. It was worth the wait. The people-watching is off the charts—even the nuns and priests at the Vatican are stylish. Buy a sloppy gelato at San Crispino and fantasize about jumping into the Trevi Fountain like Anita Ekberg in La Dolce Vita.” —Simon Doonan, creative ambassador at large, Barneys New York

Hidden inside the red walls of the fortress, you’ll find the Diamond Vaults, which house the Russian crown jewels. For a closer look, book a guide with Exeter International so you can ogle the 19th-century Empress Maria Fyodorovna’s shimmering blue-diamond stickpin.

“Chartres Street is my favorite in New Orleans and has wonderful bookstores and music. But when it comes to jazz, nobody plays it better than the house band at the landmark Preservation Hall.” —Walter Isaacson, author and president of the Aspen Institute