In the old days, you went to Porto simply for the famous fortified wine, that sweet, dark, and engaging shot of history and culture in a glass. Now the city itself is the draw: resurgent neighborhoods, packed and port-soaked bars, blocks of galleries and multifangled arts/retail spaces. I wanted to lose myself for a few days in the anti-grid of crazy hills, winding vertical lanes paved in black and white tiles, architecture layered in various stages of glory and decrepitude.
How to Get There: Francisco de Sá Carneiro Airport
Where to Crash: The Yeatman (go big) or The Four Rooms (go budget)
How to Kill an Afternoon: The galleries, cafés, and design shops along Rua de Miguel Bombarda
Insider Info: Port lodges are all the same. Pick one.
North African style is probably my favorite out of 12 recipies of grilled eggplant
Preparation
Cut eggplants into 1-inch-thick rounds; make shallow cuts on both faces and rub with a mixture of 3 tablespoons olive oil and 1 tablespoon minced garlic. Add 2 tablespoons honey and 1 tablespoon ground cumin. Grill, covered, until tender and lightly browned, turning and brushing with more oil as needed, about 20 minutes. Layer with grilled tomato and onion and if you like, cooked ground beef or lamb. Garnish: Parsley.
No city I know offers more wonderful settings in which to dine. From the rooftop restaurants, which are in abundance, you can look down on edifices that are undeniably heart-wrenching yet remarkably vibrant: Ottoman Empire palaces, soaring mosques, all of them illuminated first by the setting sun, then by floodlights, and finally, and most appropriately, by a crescent moon.
Or you might prefer a table situated along a cobblestone passageway in Sultanahmet, the heart of the old city. I have a preference for the restaurant Balıkçı Sabahattin, where alley cats beg for scraps of your grilled sea bass and white-shirted waiters chase them away with spritzes of bottled water, inflicting momentary terror. (The cats recover swiftly and return.)
I also appreciate a well-set outdoor table only a few feet from the banks of the Bosporus, a strait more impressive than Paris's moody Seine. At Feriye Lokantası you might see small dolphins on a pleasure trip from the Black Sea leap into the air for their own amusement as well as yours. (A confession: I've never observed this, but the woman seated across from me swore she did, and our waiter said that on warm nights, after work, he sometimes went for a dip with them.)
Port: Kuşadasi, Turkey
One of the world’s largest and best-preserved ancient Roman cities, Ephesus was home to a quarter of a million people in the first century B.C.—and when cruise ships dock at Kuşadasi, 20 minutes away, you may feel like the city’s population has rebounded to its ancient peak.
Ancient Turkey in 8 Hours Read more
The entire atoll, 80 miles north of Caracas, is a Venezuelan national park. There is just one town, of 1,600 people, on one island, set amid some 850 square miles of lagoons, reefs and the most ridiculously gorgeous beaches either well-traveled American had ever seen. There are no cruise ships or large hotels in Los Roques — just nearly limitless stretches of lonely sand surrounded by water so dazzlingly clear that snorkelers may have to squint behind their masks.
"Though the island measures about 25 miles in length, it is less than 2 miles wide at its broadest point, and only a small portion is inhabited. The southern part is made up mostly of mangroves, while the northern shore is all beach. The only town is a collection of colorfully painted one- and two-story concrete structures on a grid of about a dozen blocks. Even in town, the roads are made of packed white sand."
Hotel Corisco
C. Pou de la Vila 8, 17320 Tossa de Mar, Spain
Simple hotel with balconies overlooking the beach . Recommended: clean rooms and friendly staff.
Despite Madrid's efforts to catch up, Barcelona arguably remains the design capital of Spain, and Vinçon (Passeig de Gràcia, 96; 34-93-215-6050; www.vincon.com) is among its most revered shrines for smart and stylish house wares.
Cal Pep may be the iconic place to eat in Barcelona, but its sibling, Restaurant Passadís del Pep (Plaça del Palau, 2; 34-93-310-1021; www.passadis.com) remains an under-the-radar favorite precisely because it is so hard to find: down an unmarked narrow passage (passadís in Catalan), with a brooding figure standing in its arched portal.
The Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, better known as MNAC (Parc de Montjuïc; 34-93-622-0376; www.mnac.es; admission 8.50 euros), appears as a vast palace crowning the Montjuïc park. Back down the hill are Mies van der Rohe's 1929 Barcelona Pavilion (Avinguda del Marquès de Comillas, s/n; 34-93-423-4016; www.miesbcn.com) and CaixaForum (Avinguda del Marquès de Comillas, 6-8; 34-93-476-8600; www.fundacio.lacaixa.es), a converted textile factory that houses temporary exhibitions.
Photo: João-Pedro Marnoto for The New York Times
Must see in Lisbon including Pavilhão Chinês, Pastelaria-Padaria São Roque, Museu do Oriente, Hot Clube de Portugal, Feira da Ladra (Campo de Santa Clara), Jesuit São Roque Church, Chafariz do Vinho. Read the article for phone numbers and addresses and enjoy a lovely Lisbon slideshow.