Chalkida, the small peninsula on central Evia (Euboea) just an hour’s drive from Athens, is an ideal day-trip destination for urbanites. It’s famous for an unusual phenomenon, in which the tide in the Strait of Evripos changes direction several times a day, and it’s also known among tourists for its fresh and delicious fish and seafood. When Chalkideans want fresh seafood, however, they head to the less touristed town of Nea Artaki, just north of Evia’s main city. In the tiny port, there’s a classic promenade lined with taverns, and the penultimate, Teskos, is our favorite destination. On a recent visit, the weather was beautiful, sunny and cool enough for us to sit on the sidewalk adjacent to the sea.

As soon as spring has sprung, Shanghai’s expat population flocks to the many patios, rooftops and terraces of the city’s dining establishments to eat and drink, but finding a Chinese restaurant with an outdoor space, especially one in the sun, can be difficult. However, just because the sun is out doesn’t mean you have to eat Western. We’ve rounded up five great places in town where you can wield your chopsticks while soaking up your daily dose of Vitamin D. In no particular order:

Sooner or later almost everyone in Athens, tourist or local, heads for the flea market, the city’s oldest bazaar, below Monastiraki Square. Although it’s busiest on Sundays, all week long you can rummage through the antiques – furniture, bric-a-brac, mirrors, paintings, vintage toys, statuettes, vases, silverware – spread out in colorful disorder in front of the small shops that line all four sides of Avissinia Square.

In Athens, apart from traditional or nouvelle Greek, you can find almost any kind of cuisine you crave, but usually not under one roof. Thanks to the influx of immigrants and diaspora Greeks in the past 20 years, the city’s roster of foreign restaurants is no longer confined to Italian, French and a sprinkling of swanky Asian and Indian places with white tablecloths.

Here we are in the Bishop’s Belly, La Panxa del Bisbe, which is not the midsection of a Catalan priest, but both a restaurant and a mountain. The latter is one of the peaks of the sacred Catalan mountain of Montserrat, so-called because its shape evokes a small head over a rotund, pronounced belly. It’s frequented by numerous mountain lovers, like Xavi Codina, chef and owner of a restaurant that he named in honor of the peak. The restaurant La Panxa del Bisbe sits not in Montserrat, but in upper Gràcia, in Barcelona, very close to Codina’s home.

Kifisia, as we’ve mentioned before, used to be a holiday destination for wealthy Athenians, and its suburban charms remain intact. Green spaces, high-end shops and close proximity to most of Athens’ international schools have seduced a number of expats into settling down here. We’ve written previously about the original Nice ‘n’ Easy in Kolonaki; it’s one of the few non-smoking establishments in a city where everyone puffs up all the time.

Anchoring one end of Poblenou’s quiet and lovely Prim Square, Els Pescadors sits surrounded by the white houses that once belonged to the fishermen for which it’s named. The old tavern opened in 1848, and through the 19th century, it was frequented by those fishermen, as well as workers from the numerous textile factories in the area. The factory workers earned a little extra by fishing along the nearby beaches.

The cosmopolitan island of Aegina sits in the center of the Saronic Gulf, a few miles away from Piraeus – close enough for a quick day trip from Athens. Aegina may not have the gastronomic reputation of the Cyclades or Crete, but it does have its famous pistachios, the first Greek agricultural product that earned the European Union’s Protected Designation of Origin status, in 1996. Pistachio trees arrived in Greece around 1850 and were first cultivated in Zante. A few years later, a local named Dr. N. Peroglou decided to cultivate pistachio trees in Aegina using rootstock from Syria. Over the years, local farmers grafted the Syrian trees with those from Chios, yielding a new variety that produces superb nuts.

What are the odds that after you’ve been to an exhibition of finds from a long-ago shipwreck you’ll end up having lunch at a place named Shipwreck of Angels? We’d been to the National Archaeological Museum in downtown Athens to see a roomful of haunting statues wrenched up from the deep off the tiny island of Antikythera. Though half the marble exposed to the saltwater was corroded and raw-looking, the torsos, limbs and faces that had lain under the sand for 2,000 years remained flawless and smooth. The sight of them was both moving and troubling, as if they were souls that should not have been disturbed.

In a couple of days, Brazil will be the center of the world. And over the course of the World Cup, Rio will host seven matches, including the big final. Needless to say, the city is already packed with visitors from all over the world, all of them hoping for a ticket to watch at least one of those matches at legendary Maracanã Stadium. But only a privileged few will get to see the beautiful game in person; most people will support their national teams in front of a TV. But where? Inside a boring hotel room? Of course not. Everybody will be on the streets trying to find a good place to watch the games and have a lot of fun at the same time. And in Rio, watching soccer matches at bars is a national sport that is almost as important as the futebol itself. Here’s our list of the best “watch-and-drink” bars in town.

The favorite outdoor pastime of most Barcelonans is eating and drinking on a terrace. From the simplest bars to the most sophisticated, multi-starred alta cocina restaurants, something like half of our fair city’s eateries have space where diners can enjoy their meals a la fresca (and smoke a cigarette, too). Many of the best-known terraces sit on the rooftops of hotels, providing lovely tables and astonishing views that extend to the limits of the Mediterranean and menus that fill the pages of the latest Michelin guide.

In Barcelona, these are fortunate times we’re living in, gastronomically speaking. We’re blessed with a growing multitude of tapas bars whose humble appearances belie the excellent culinary chops behind them. Bar Resolís is one of these. The eatery is known mainly because of its location in the heart of Raval, the most multicultural neighborhood in Barcelona. It sits on a street lined with vintage clothing shops and is outfitted with a cute mini-terrace, a small open bar and windows that frame a wall full of colorful graffiti in the passageway adjacent. It’s the ideal laid-back setting for us to enjoy a vermut with our elbow on the sill while checking out the intriguing handbags in the shop window in front.

There is something magical about the area where To Mavro Provato is located, near the rather mysterious Proskopon Square in Pagrati. The square itself, hidden behind Vasileos Konstantinou Avenue, is usually dark even in the daytime thanks to the tall shady trees that fill it.

Behind 2,340-year-old Kallimarmaro Stadium, located in the picturesque area of Athens between Mets and Pagrati, lies a scene that would not be out of place in a provincial city: small neighborhoods, old houses, hilly roads, stray cats, a couple of abandoned houses and old taverns. Among the last, we love Vyrinis, which is especially old and now in the hands of the third generation of the same family. The restaurant has been renovated and updated but still retains some elements of the old tavern, such as the huge wine casks that serve as decoration and the small backyard. Here, young and old contentedly intermingle, and the friendly, always smiling waiters add to the cozy, welcoming atmosphere.

Morro Fi and Mitja Vida are two relatively new entrants to Barcelona’s vermuteo (“vermouthing”) culture, whose history stretches back to the turn of the last century. These two bars are the product of nostalgia for a bygone era fused with the social network- and urban design-driven present. The vermouth tradition in Barcelona was started in the early 20th century by Flaminio Mezzalama, who represented the Italian company Martini & Rossi in Spain, at his fabulous modernist Bar Torino. Vermut began to be produced in Catalonia, and in the following decades, the province developed its own style of the aromatic fortified drink. At the same time, the custom arose of having vermut before lunch with some pickles to whet one’s appetite. That tradition faded over time but has emerged in recent years as a kind of retro, hipster-approved pastime.