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A quintessential Old West mining town, Park City, Utah is delightfully picturesque. Each winter, a wondrous blanket of fluffy snow piles up on the city's rooftops and covers the long boughs of tall evergreens with sparkly white. It's a paradise for skiers and snowboarders, who are easily spotted gliding down nearby slopes, or riding up on the lifts that pass right over the roadways. And during those brief breaks between downhill runs, Park City offers all sorts of distinctive shops and delicious restaurants to explore.

With its bevy of enticing storefronts, Main Street is the obvious first stop on your Park City shopping adventure. Crosby Collection (No. 419) is a jewel box of Native American treasures. You'll find Navajo weavings, Pueblo pottery, and loads of turquoise. For cute clothes (ladies and babies only), stop in at Mary Jane's (No. 613), then satisfy your inner cowboy at Burns Saddlery (No. 363). For lunch, head off the beaten path to Park Avenue. This quaint, quiet road that runs parallel to Main Street is lined with adorable miner's homes that date back to the 1880s. At No. 703, the High West Distillery and Saloon is the perfect place to warm up with a hearty burger and a highball. The brand new restaurant, housed in a hundred-year-old garage, is the first whisky distillery to open in Utah since the 1870s. After lunch, satisfy your sweet tooth a few doors down at Sugar Buzz (No. 651). Just be sure to stock up on enough jelly beans to last through the rest of your stay at the luxurious St. Regis Deer Crest Resort. It's going to be hard luring you out again from this cozy retreat nestled among the high peaks of Utah's majestic Wasatch range. Although a glance out the window is all the incentive you'll need to get back out onto those impeccable Deer Valley slopes.

The Westin Book Cadillac Detroit is a 1924 landmark, surrounded by downtown Detroit's most stylish historic skyscrapers. In contrast, the McDougall-Hunt neighborhood, just two and a half miles away on the city's eastside, seems like the country. Here, the rural landscape is defined by old shingled houses and grassy vacant lots. Most of the region is pretty poor, and pretty desolate, but there is one segment of Heidelberg Street that will make any visitor grin. Colorful circles dot the asphalt, smiling faces line the sidewalks, teddy bears cling to the tree trunks, and painted tires litter the lawns like oversized Life Savers. This is the Heidelberg Project, a 20-year-old open-air art exhibit created by local artist Tyree Guyton and his grandfather Sam Mackey.

After a stint in the Army, Guyton returned to his childhood neighborhood to find it in an astonishing state of devastation. So he started enlivening the vacant houses with bright colors, painting rainbow hued circles, and attaching whimsical scraps to the paint-chipped shingles and porch rails. Over the years, the project has met with lots of controversy, and a couple of the city's mayors have ordered the destruction of several neighborhood houses. But the handful still standing are certainly worth a gander. Take a stroll or a drive down Heidelberg Street and see "The Dotty-Wotty House," "The House that Makes Sense," "Numbers House," and "The House of Words." You might even catch site of Guyton himself, painting and nailing away among the dirty plush duckies and baby blue hubcaps.

Look out the window as you come in for a landing at New York's Kennedy Airport. You'll spot a tall clock tower rising among the brownstones of Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn. Dating from 1927, the historic Williamsburgh Bank building is one of the borough's most iconic landmarks, and since January, it's been home to the Brooklyn Flea.

A paradise of antique treasures (old vinyl, silver plate flatware, vintage clothing, and mid-century furniture) and handmade crafts (hand printed stationery, organic soaps, knit hats, and all sorts of jewelry), the Brooklyn Flea takes place every weekend. About one hundred vendors set up their wares in three of the bank building's architecturally stunning floors. Beyond the iron grates of original bank teller windows, Polaroid cameras line up alongside Halston shoes. Swedish clogs point toward embroidered pillowcases. And milk glass lamps illuminate Pucci scarves. Tantalizing aromas drift from the bank vault, a destination in itself where dozens of food vendors cook up their lobster rolls, tacos, papusas, chocolate chip brownies, and red velvet cupcakes. Even Martha Stewart says, "it's a fantastic way to get a taste of everything that the borough has to offer."

Half a mile from the soon-to-open Sheraton Brooklyn New York Hotel, the Brooklyn Flea is at 1 Hanson Place, its winter location, through the end of March. Starting the first week in April, all those fabulous finds move outside. The Fort Greene outdoor market sets up every Saturday at the Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School's sprawling parking lot on Lafayette Ave., still just a short walk from the hotel. And on Sundays, it's under the Brooklyn Bridge in Dumbo.

Just simply walking anywhere is a recommended pastime for London visitors, but if you're looking for something more sonically stimulating, the London Beatles Walks may be the right sort of magical mystery tour for you. These unique musical tours are led by a gentleman who may be the Beatles' number one fan in the world, no easy feat indeed. Richard Porter owns the Beatles Coffee Shop in the St. John's Wood neighborhood, not coincidentally where the Beatles vital haunt Abbey Road Studios (see video) still resides. It's also not coincidentally a stop on Porter's three different Beatles tour paths, including a private walk for "die-hard" fans available by appointment only. No matter what direction you head in, it only takes a few moments of hearing Porter speak to understand that you're in the hands of one of the most knowledgeable and caring sources of Beatles information around.

Stay at The Park Lane Hotel and you'll be within short walking distance not only of excellent public transportation, but of many sights you'll see along the London Beatles Walks so you may return to your favorites and linger longer. You'll also doubtless see many intriguing restaurants, shops, and attractions for further exploration. From vampires and ghosts to chocolate and cheese, we love a good walking tour and would love to know, what are your favorites you've taken? Please let us know in the comments section.