Endless delight: The 15 destinations we never get tired of revisiting

Imagine you’ve just arrived at that one destination you’ve visited multiple times. What’s the first place you’re going to make a beeline to as soon as you hit town, that one that keeps drawing you back every time you return?

It could be a specific bar or cafe or maybe that favourite restaurant. Or perhaps you’ll head straight to a beloved museum or art gallery, take a dip at a cherished beach or a pool or go for a stroll along a certain irresistible street or promenade?

You don’t have to love books to love the New York Public Library.Credit: Max Touhey

Whatever your choice, you may understand the power and the thrill that familiarity can bring to a traveller. You understand just how good it is to already know and love somewhere and to be fortunate to be able to return to it.

This may seem all little counterintuitive, given the whole point of travel is so often to go to new places and have new experiences.

However, the chance to revisit a favourite location, to feel the glow of familiarity, is like reuniting with an old friend.

There’s also, that warm – and yes, slightly smug – feeling of being in the know and knowing a particular place overseas almost as well as the locals.

For the Traveller team, being always on the go invariably means we visit many destinations repeatedly and get to know them intimately.

Of course, we’ll always remain eager to explore new territory, finding places that are different and surprising. But we’ll never forget those old favourites that keep on proving that familiarity really can breed delight.
- Ben Groundwater

Orchids, Honolulu, US

Orchids restaurant at Halekula

The beach is calling. After touching down in Honolulu, the first thing I do is say hello to Waikiki. I’ve never seen an ocean blue quite like it. If it’s warm and sunny, which is to say almost always, I change into swimmers right away and splash off the jet lag as bronzed surfers paddle out. If I’m staying a few days, I’ll buy an inflatable float from the ABC Store and pass it on to another holidaymaker when I go.

Hungry now for something delicious, my taste buds always lead me to Orchids, the elegant beachfront restaurant at Halekulani Hotel. The service is impeccable and the ocean breeze a soothing balm, but it’s the seafood curry I can’t forget. Plump scallops, juicy prawns, tender fish and other gems of the sea in a sauce that’s good enough to drink. I hope it stays on the menu forever. See halekulani.com
- Kristie Kellahan

Read Traveller’s Hawaii Destination Guide

Taqueria Los Parados, Roma Sur, Mexico City

Tacos: The world’s best street food.Credit: iStock

I’m propped against a wall getting the fix I’ve longed for, eyes roll back in my head with euphoria as a sticky ooze dribbles down my chin. When it comes to the world’s best street food, it’s tacos all the way for me. And as soon as I’ve checked into the best little B&B in Mexico City – the divine Red Tree House – I take a hike through the buzzing streets of Condesa to my go-to taqueria, joining salivating carnivores queuing for the famed lashings of carne asada al carbon (meats cooked over coals) slapped onto sizzling tortillas at Los Parados on Monterrey.

My order of choice is chicken and nopal (cactus), served with a side of avocado and cebollitas (grilled green onions). And the wall? Parado means “to stand” – there are no chairs and tables on offer. See theredtreehouse.com
- Julie Miller

Fuku Yakitori, Tokyo, Japan

I come to Tokyo to eat and when I do that, I want to eat everything: old, new, familiar, challenging, cheap, expensive, local, foreign. I want to cast my net wide and go on a foodie adventure with no boundaries and no rules. But first I will have dinner at Fuku Yakitori. This neighbourhood restaurant is my Tokyo pole star, the one I always return to. It’s not too expensive, but it’s also high quality, with a range of skewers, mostly chicken, grilled to succulent, singed perfection.

Fuku is small, but it’s not so small that you can’t get a last-minute seat. It’s set in a quiet suburb, though it’s still close to the action of Shibuya and Shinjuku. It’s tourist-friendly, though it’s also popular with locals. It’s easy-going. It’s fun. And it’s on every single one of my Tokyo itineraries. See sumibikushiyakifuku.com
- Ben Groundwater

Read Traveller’s Tokyo Destination Guide

J Bar, Hotel Jerome, Aspen, US

J-Bar at the Jerome Hotel on Main Street, Aspen.Credit: Alamy

I may not be the high-flying regular at this glamorous, cashed-up Colorado mountain town but I have had the great fortune to visit four or five times and enjoy its stunning snow and skiing – a quality sometimes obscured by the celebrity gloss. Long before it was a booming ski town, Aspen had a silver mining boom and it was in those years that Jerome Wheeler spread his gains building the opera house and the Hotel Jerome.

Its J Bar is everything a good bar should be – friendly welcome, pressed metal ceilings, leather-clad bar stools, shining rows of bottles and glasses made double by the shining mirrors, and bar staff who know their stuff. Want to feel really at home? Order an “old fashioned” cocktail and let that bourbon and bitters with some special J Bar touches soothe away the day. See aubergeresorts.com/hoteljerome
- Jim Darby

Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome, Italy

Della Rovere chapel with scenes from the life of Saint Jerome in the Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome.Credit: iStock

For me, Rome is a spiritual experience. The art, architecture and history inspire me. The people and culture uplift me. Craving more of that, I return often and the first place I head is the 15th-century Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo in the northern corner of the vast Piazza del Popolo. Inside is Caravaggio’s painting, Conversion on the Way to Damascus. The raw emotion and vivid light the artist captured in this work astounds me every time. It was the first Caravaggio I saw up close and it changed the way I feel about art.

The church is filled with other important pieces, including sculptures of female saints dangling their legs from the rafters, part of a Bernini revision. I usually stay near the Spanish Steps, so it’s a nice leg stretch and re-acquaintance to take the short walk through Centro Storico to Piazza del Popolo, going back via the steps up to Viale della Trinita dei Monti which skirts the Villa Borghese gardens, offering lovely vistas of the city below. See turismoroma.it
- Julietta Jameson

Read Traveller’s Rome Destination Guide

Fleet Street, London, UK

Fleet Street looking towards St Paul’s Cathedral, London.Credit: iStock

Perhaps it’s the journalist in me, but I can never resist a walk along Fleet Street, the historic home of the British press. Most of the publishers left decades ago, but their old offices still stand – including the art deco Daily Express newspaper building – while classic journos’ pubs, like the Punch Tavern and Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, and wine bar El Vino remain charming spots for a bite and a drink. Red double-decker buses and black cabs are forever servicing Fleet Street but travelling on foot is the best way, heading east from Covent Garden and the Strand, past the hulking Royal Courts of Justice.

At the end of Fleet Street, you can either turn right towards Blackfriars Bridge and survey London landmarks across the River Thames, loop back into the medieval, lawyerly Temple district or continue walking up Ludgate Hill, towards the awesome domed spectacle that is St Paul’s Cathedral. See visitlondon.com
- Steve McKenna

Read Traveller’s London Destination Guide

The Last Bookstore, Los Angeles, US

The Last Bookstore’s iconic book tunnel.Credit: Alamy

I always assumed I wouldn’t like LA. Then I went there. Now I’m a great fan of the City of Angels, and particularly of its revitalised Downtown neighbourhood. One of the most walkable neighbourhoods in this sprawling city, DTLA is a repository of wonderful architecture from the early 20th century, much of which has been repurposed.

A prime example is The Last Bookstore, which occupies a magnificent former banking chamber in the Spring Arts Tower, a 1914 structure which was a cornerstone of the historic Spring Street Financial District. The interior is a delight, an airy lofty space with solid Grecian pillars among the shelves, with shoppers relaxing in strategically placed armchairs. Art installations decorate nooks and crannies, including a whimsical tunnel made from old books. I love to head there to take a break from the urban hustle, and browse for a new or used literary delight. See lastbookstorela.com
- Tim Richards

Colaba Market, Mumbai, India

This fresh food market is a locals-only kind of affair.Credit: iStock

I come for the sandals, really. Each time I return to Mumbai I head straight to Colaba Causeway Market, home to the world’s best hole-in-the-wall handmade leather sandal emporium. I stock up on a few pairs of kolhapuri chappals, each about $30 and of a quality I could only dream of at home, then continue along the causeway. Buzzing day and night, it’s lined on one side with permanent stores, the other with stalls selling everything from peacock feather fans and faux-gold jewellery, to wooden flutes and paper-thin cotton pyjamas. It’s chaotic, alright, but it immediately plugs me back into Mumbai’s frenetic energy.

Eventually I make it to the end of the market, where the real Colaba Market awaits. This fresh food market is a locals-only kind of affair, where live chickens roam around stalls heaving with fresh vegetables and every spice you can imagine. One whiff of turmeric mixed with incense and cow dung and I’m back. See incredibleindia.org
- Nina Karnikowski

Philosopher’s Path, Kyoto, Japan

The Philosopher’s Path is best enjoyed at a contemplative pace.Credit: Alamy

I never leave Kyoto without walking the Philosopher’s Path, which follows Biwa Canal below the Eastern Hills. The soulless can walk it in an hour but, as its name indicates, it’s best enjoyed at a contemplative pace. Listen to birds twitter, ponder Zen gravel, and detour to places ignored by tourists, such as tranquil Otoyo-jinja Shrine with its statues of guardian mice.

The path begins downhill from Silver Temple, actually a wooden pavilion set in raked gardens, and feels almost rural as it passes bamboo thickets, backyards, noodle shops, moss-clad shrines and temples before finishing at Nyakuoji Bridge. The most charming temple might be Eikan-do, where scarlet maple trees erupt in autumn while the changing seasons provide good reasons to keep returning. See kyoto.travel
- Brian Johnston

Tsim Chai Kee wonton noodle restaurant, Central, Hong Kong

The unusually large prawn-filled wontons are the attraction.

When I’m in Hong Kong, Tsim Chai Kee restaurant on Wellington Street is my first stop, my loyalty to its prawn wonton and fish ball noodle soup honed during the six years I lived in the city. There’s often a queue lining the footpath at lunchtime, but my visits tend towards all hours, when I can walk straight in, pull up an antique Chinese wooden bench seat at a booth with strangers and slurp uninterrupted.

The unusually large prawn-filled wontons are the attraction. Their dimpled slippery casings reward with a texturally satisfying prawn crunch followed by a juicy mouthful of minced pork. Combined with firm coriander-laced fish balls, handmade yellow noodles and clear nourishing soup, it’s one of the greats of Cantonese cuisine. A Michelin Gourmand guide recommendation has upped the price slightly but the menu, servings and no-nonsense service (don’t expect a smile) remain, ensuring my favourite Hong Kong dish awaits no matter how long my absence.
- Penny Watson

La Colombe d’Or, St Paul de Vence, France

Share Picasso’s seat and mind your French … La Colombe d’Or, St Paul de Vence.Credit: Trudi Jenkins

This family-run auberge is immune to the vagaries of fashion, and that’s why I love it. I first visited in my early 20s to splash out on lunch in its walled garden restaurant. When I returned years later, the menu, the setting and the formal but friendly service were unchanged. And therein lies its appeal. It’s a renowned hotel that first opened as a cafe in the 1920s then added simple rooms that are now stuffed to the gills with artworks by artists such as Matisse and Chagall, who paid for their lodging with original pieces.

There’s a Calder mobile by the outdoor pool, coloured Spanish tiles on the roof and you can sit at the bar on the same wooden stool as Picasso. They don’t do Instagram, staff can be a little snooty if you don’t speak French and the food is not the best you’ll find. But sitting on that leafy terrace looking over the Provencal countryside with a glass of something cold, there’s nowhere in the world I’d rather be.
- Trudi Jenkins

Boulangerie Maison Menier, Boulevard Diderot, Paris, France

The pink macarons and raspberry tarts here are just teasers with the default choice being a marriage of a snail and an almond croissant. Clutching your prize, turn right out the door and two minutes later, at Avenue Daumesnil, climb the staircase to the Paris Promenade Plantee, the city’s greenway. Find a bench, open the bag to your treasure and wonder for a moment how it is that the word for Paris is not a pastry.
- Michael Gebicki

New York City Public Library, US

The Rose Main Reading Room will have you swooning.

You don’t have to love books to love the New York Public Library though if you do, the Rose Main Reading Room will have you swooning. Take a stroll through its ornate Golden Age public areas, from the imposing entrance to the McGraw Rotunda, where the ceiling is covered in murals (Carrie’s failed wedding in Sex and the City to Mr Big, where he stood her up, was filmed here.) See nypl.org. - - Ute Junker

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Museo Fortuny, Venice, Italy

The moody Gothic Renaissance building with its tall windows and creaking floors is full of beauty.Credit: iStock

This romantic 15th-century palazzo near the Grand Canal was the home, studio and textile workshop of Spanish-born designer, photographer, painter and inventor Mariano Fortuny from 1898 until his death in 1949. The moody Gothic Renaissance building with its tall windows and creaking floors is full of beauty, but it’s Fortuny’s exquisite work that is most compelling. See fortuny.visitmuve.it/en
- Lee Tulloch

Shipwreck Hut Bar, Rarotonga, Cook Islands

Could there be a better location for a sunset bar than the Shipwreck Hut?

This bar, like a Polynesian version of Margaritaville, epitomises the South Pacific. The same two dogs still fish from a coral bombora in the lagoon out front. The air smells of frangipani and salt and something fishy. Sit at a picnic table with your feet in the sand or opt for the better vantage point at the bar and stare across the calm water and out past the reef at the setting sun. See aroabeach.com
- Craig Tansley

Khan Al-Khalili, Cairo, Egypt

Khan Al-Khalili souk in the heart of Cairo, Egypt.Credit: iStock

Khan al-khalili is the heart of Old Cairo – spices, perfumes, fabrics and gold have been traded here for the past 900 years. Sure, it’s a magnet for street hawkers and tourists, but you’ll always find plenty of Egyptians sharing the cushioned bench seats and shisha water pipes at El Fishawy, a cafe that has not closed its doors for several centuries.
- Belinda Jackson

What places do you keep going back to? Post a comment below.