I jump-started my summer travel by saying yes to an invitation by the World Sauna Forum to discover Finland through its bathing culture, at the heart of which is the sauna. Meant to be shared, in good company, the country’s sauna ethos is all about steaming, sweating, and dissolving into a wonderful kind of togetherness, among family, friends, and even strangers.

“Provence is a country to which I am always returning,” the English food writer and original influencer Elizabeth David famously said about this slow-paced paradise of jagged limestone cliffs, sharp sunlight, and an earthy, expressive cuisine.

The main point of traveling, I have always felt, is not to follow someone else’s footsteps but to find your own way. It makes discoveries that much keener. The exception to this is flea markets and bookstores. Recommendations required. A potent example is Quagga Rare Books and Art, in Kalk Bay, South Africa, a palm-sized town snugged into the surf coast of the Indian Ocean, just a few miles from the delicious Constantia wine country.