Fathom

The Kahala Hotel & Resort Kahala, Honolulu, Hawaii Island Classic, $$$$ Waikiki has its charms, but sometimes the best way to enjoy Honolulu is to stay just outside the action. Set on a secluded white-sand beach in the residential Kahala neighborhood, The Kahala Hotel & Resort feels far removed from the city's busiest stretches, even though Waikiki is only about ten minutes away. The result is a proper Hawaiian beach resort that comes with easy access to Honolulu when the mood strikes.

An annual mother-daughter girls' trip graduates from room service and Taylor Swift to redwoods, hot tubs, and a gloriously remote inn on the Mendocino coast. For this year’s annual girls’ trip with my 11-year-old daughter, Ruby, her best friend Amelia, and her mom, Alison, we landed on two nights in Mendocino — and it was magic.

For a friends' getaway with all the privacy and space of a rental home — and absolutely none of the cooking, cleaning, or dishes — Sally Kohn discovers the particular genius of a luxury hotel villa at Four Seasons Resort and Residences Napa Valley. Let me start with an audacious, perhaps even controversial, assertion: It is not a vacation if you have to do dishes. I say this, of course, as the person who most often is charged with doing the dishes at home.

Mirror Lake Inn Resort & Spa Lake Placid, New York Mountain Elegance, $$$ Lake Placid may be best known for Olympic history and rugged Adirondack adventure, but who says a mountain getaway has to involve roughing it? Overlooking Mirror Lake and the Adirondack High Peaks, family-owned Mirror Lake Inn Resort & Spa — an AAA Four-Diamond Exceptional hotel for 42 years — is the polished home base for exploring this beautiful corner of upstate New York.

Beaches, Modernisme architecture, tapas, natural wine, and a walkable Old Town make Sitges an irresistible seaside escape just 40 minutes from Barcelona. STIGES, Spain — Does the ideal beach town exist? I’ve clocked countless hours by the sea on a quest to find it, from Palm Beach to Portofino, but I haven't come close to the experience I’d want to repeat day after day, summer after summer. Until, that is, I went to Sitges.

Checking In and Checking Out Tiffany Davis finds endless experiences under one very chic roof in Atlanta. Of course I’d heard about FORTH. Wandering up after a Beltline stroll with girlfriends for a late night dinner at Elektra. Getting the scoop on run-ins with the mayor, culture movers-and-shakers, and visiting fitness celebs at their gym and members-only social club. But spending a few hours versus a full day at FORTH are distinct experiences. One leaves you feeling flirty.

Kenya’s safari lodges have started offering travelers everything from spa treatments to quad biking excursions, but few allow their guests to run unaccompanied in such a wild environment. At one family-run lodge in Laikipia, Emma McClelland swaps a game drive for an unforgettable, adrenaline-packed morning — and hopes she can outrun obese hippos. LAIKIPIA, Kenya — Just outside the fenceline lay a dead giraffe, deflated as a popped balloon.

Skip the scene and head north of the highway, where artists, baymen, quiet beaches, and family traditions reveal the East End's enduring soul. SPRINGS, New York — My mom swears her first memory is looking down at her new red shoes on the front step of a weathered saltbox in Springs, New York. Her grandparents bought the modest house in the 1940s so their kids could escape the sticky summers in Queens.

Want an off-beat alternative to an Italian countryside vacation? Fathom contributor Erik Trinidad visits Kairos Farmhouse, an organic olive farm turned intimate agritourism retreat in Muğla, Türkiye. I sat atop a hill, surrounded by rows of grapevines, glass of wine in hand — of course. A slight briny breeze wafted in from the brackish waters of Lake Bafa some kilometers away. The Mediterranean sun prepared its daily descent below the horizon among a display of pink and orange hues.

As international brands arrive and development accelerates, Turks and Caicos is entering a new chapter. A journey from Providenciales to South Caicos and Pine Cay reveals where travelers can still find the quiet beaches, unhurried rhythms, and understated luxury that first made the islands unforgettable. I saw a terrible thing on Instagram recently.