BBC

On Wednesday and Saturday nights, if you follow the narrow, stone streets in Gaziantep, Turkey's old Armenian district to an unmarked silver door and knock three times, you're in for a treat. 

During harsh Himalayan winters, at the roadside kiosk of chef and restaurateur Lal Shahzadi, a heavenly scent of woody apricots tinged with molasses hangs heavy in the air. She is making a centuries-old recipe passed down generations: Bataring Daudo, or apricot soup.

Few places are as synonymous with Jewish food as New York City. Manhattan's Lower East Side neighbourhood served as a culinary cauldron when it was home to the largest Jewish community in the world in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, blending centuries of diasporic gastronomic knowledge.

The butcher was the only place in the Auvergne village of Courpière that showed any signs of life when I visited on an August afternoon. A handful of half-timbered houses and shuttered windows, this sleepy little place was allegedly once home to one of the world's most famous fashion designers: Coco, née Gabrielle, Chanel. Tracking down anything concrete was proving difficult, however, and records of her early life were no more substantial than a whiff of her No. 5 in the breeze. 

The door to the bedroom closet opened wide, revealing dozens of brightly coloured zoot suits and shoes. On a nearby table, there were a wide-brimmed hat with feathers, a chain watch, suspenders and a pair of rhinestone cufflinks. For José de la Rosa, this room connects him with his most genuine self."I am a blood pachuco. My father was a pachuco and my grandfather before him," he said, looking out towards his 1950s Dodge parked outside his Mexico City home. "This is not a costume, it is a way of life and a culture that transcends generations."

This summer, every day seems to bring another headline of tourists around the world behaving badly.

When our iPhones alerted us that the temperature had crept past 37C, we paused. Every sun-drenched step outside felt like we were wagyu steaks sizzling on the grill. Was honeymooning in Japan in July – one of its hottest, most humid months – really a good idea? From Osaka to Kobe to Kyoto, my wife Erin and I planned every day with one goal: avoid melting into puddles. Around us, hordes of tourists were in the same sweaty boat. But a few days in, I noticed something. The locals looked noticeably cooler, less crabby, more comfortable. Why? The answer should come as no surprise. Japan, a nation renowned for its design thinking and innovation, is armed with a fistful of ways to survive punishing heat. While they love air-con as much as the next heat-stricken country, they also find respite in creative remedies, from electrically ventilated clothes to water-based rituals. Solutions like these epitomise a nation where ancient traditions fuse with hyper-modern cities reaching endlessly towards the future. Here's six ways that locals cope with extreme heat.

Overlooking the English Channel is a small resort town bedecked with freestone facades and half-timbered houses. English is heard everywhere, from the Art Deco Westminster hotel to the lighthouse, which, on the occasion of the late Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee, was lit up with Her Majesty's favourite colours. The bells of city hall chime in an echo of Big Ben, and it was just announced that the town's airport will soon be rechristened after Queen Elizabeth II.

Yellowmeal has been a cupboard staple of Irish kitchens for nearly 200 years. Its prevalence in Ireland is little known outside the country, as is the fact that it became a staple as a direct result of its use during the Great Irish Famine of the mid 19th Century.

This summer, Aperol Spritz has been flowing from the counters of the most enchanting venues in New York City, from the rooftop of the Independent Art Fair in Tribeca to the flamingo-themed new bakery on my Brooklyn block. In Singapore, you can take an Aperol Spritz bar crawl, and in Paris, it's now a fixture at most cafes next to the local pastis and kir.

With around 17,000 places to eat in Hong Kong, you're never far from a steaming bowl of something delicious. The city's culinary landscape features world-class Michelin-starred tasting menus and fine dining, but the majority of restaurants are humble, local spots where the prices are low and the proudly Cantonese dishes are comforting.

Legend has it that the dramatic rock-hewn churches of Lalibela were created with the help of a team of angels. Buried deep into the rock in the highlands of northern Ethiopia, the 11 monolithic churches were built in the late 12th and early 13th Centuries by King Lalibela, who, so he claimed, had built the churches on the instruction from God.

The narrow path weaved along the side of a vertiginous promontory carpeted with ferns and the occasional cluster of buttercups and purple hollyhocks. Wispy tendrils of fog dissolved, and the June sunshine warmed my back as I stood on a wind-sculpted granite boulder and peered into the Atlantic Ocean's cobalt depths. The cries of gulls mixed with the sound of waves crashing against the rocks, releasing cascades of salt-charged spray. I could still see the fingernail outline of the creamy beach we'd traversed earlier, where plovers scuttled from the incoming tide.

As summer ramps up in the northern hemisphere, many of us will begin packing suitcases, carry-ons and duffel bags as we prepare to head away on holiday.  

I was 20 years old and had J Robert Oppenheimer's house all to myself. From the porch of the small yellow cottage, four steps led down to the beach where coconut trees swooped low at the water's edge and the Evian-clear Caribbean gently lapped the sugar-white sand. Day after day, I'd hike here after work to marvel at the parrotfish, butterflyfish and hawksbill turtles that glided between the shallow coral reefs, never once seeing another soul. 

Located in the centre of New Zealand's North Island, the town of Taupo sits sublimely in the shadow of the snow-capped peaks of Tongariro National Park. Fittingly, this 40,000-person lakeside town has recently become one of New Zealand's most popular tourist destinations, as hikers, trout fishers, water sports enthusiasts and adrenaline junkies have started descending upon it.

After a pandemic slump, quality of life is again on the rise in many of the world's cities. In fact, overall liveability has reached a 15-year high, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit's annual Global Liveability Index, which rates 173 cities on factors including stability, healthcare, culture & environment, education and infrastructure.

Flanked on three sides by picturesque wine regions and blessed with an array of award-winning distilleries, South Australia's capital has always punched above its weight when it comes to high-quality alcohol. But until recently, Adelaide was a city where the corner pub reigned supreme and many of the best drops were destined for export.

The massive red sandstone St Magnus Cathedral  looms over Kirkwall, the capital of the Orkney Islands. Inside lie the bones of Magnus Erlendsson, the Viking Earl of Orkney who, in the early 12th Century, was murdered on the island of Egilsay on the orders of his cousin, a rival chieftain named Haakon.

New Zealand's most populous city sprawls across an isthmus between two harbours, its downtown commercial district perched on the waterfront of the Waitematā, a spiky cluster of skyscrapers and sails. Auckland is home to the largest Polynesian population – and one of the most culturally diverse populations – in the world, and its refreshingly unique food culture is heavily inspired by this multiculturalism, along with the region's fertile volcanic soils and its bounty of seafood.

"Erected by citizens of Bristol as a memorial of one of the most virtuous and wise sons of their city, AD 1895", said a dark plaque decorating an empty plinth in the centre of Bristol, the largest city in south-west England. That "most virtuous and wise son" was Edward Colston, a 17th-Century merchant who oversaw the enslavement of 84,000 Africans, 19,000 of whom are thought to have died en route to the Americas.