Trips planned around the table — the cities where every meal was a reason to stay.
Published September 28, 2025
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A laid-back northern city ringed by ancient walls, temples and forested hills.
Chiang Mai, the largest city in northern Thailand, was the capital of the Lanna kingdom and retains a moated, square old town studded with centuries-old temples. Far more relaxed than Bangkok, it sits in a mountain valley and has become a hub for craft markets, cooking schools and a slower pace of travel. Hundreds of temples lie within and around the city.
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Known in Basque as Donostia, San Sebastián is an elegant coastal city built around the near-perfect arc of La Concha bay. It is famous for its belle-époque architecture, its beaches and one of the highest concentrations of acclaimed restaurants in the world.
The city curves around La Concha, a sheltered bay of golden sand framed by green headlands and a small island at its center. A balustraded promenade runs the length of the beach, and the bay is best viewed from above at Monte Igueldo to the west or Monte Urgull to the east.
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Bologna, the capital of Emilia-Romagna, is known for its terracotta-toned medieval center, its leaning towers and nearly forty kilometers of covered porticoes that shelter its streets. Home to the oldest university in the continuous Western world, it has a youthful, working character alongside its history.
The city's porticoes, a UNESCO World Heritage feature, line street after street in brick and stone, including the long covered walkway that climbs to the hilltop Sanctuary of San Luca above the city. At the center, the vast Piazza Maggiore is framed by the unfinished facade of the Basilica of San Petronio, the Palazzo d'Accursio and the Fountain of Neptune.
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The capital of Vietnam, Hanoi is a city of more than a thousand years of history, known for its dense Old Quarter, tree-lined lakes and a blend of traditional Vietnamese and French-colonial architecture.
The heart of the city is the Old Quarter, a tight grid of narrow streets historically organized by trade, still crowded with shophouses, markets and a constant flow of motorbikes. Nearby, Hoan Kiem Lake forms a green civic center with the small Ngoc Son Temple reached by a red bridge.
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A frenetic capital of glittering temples, canals, street food and soaring skyline.
Bangkok is Thailand's sprawling capital and one of Asia's most visited cities, a place of intense contrasts where gilded royal temples sit beside glass towers, riverside slums and elevated expressways. The historic Rattanakosin core holds the Grand Palace and the most revered temples, while the Chao Phraya River and a network of canals recall the city's origins as a place of waterways.
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