With a spate of revamped hotels and upgraded kitchens, a robust local art scene, and those ever-gorgeous beaches, the summer perennial has rarely looked better.

New yorkers are drawn to other cities in much the same way great chefs like to check out each other’s restaurants. We’re confident that we do, in fact, live in the best place in the world, but we’re curious to see what other people have done with their urban environment. For this special edition of Strategist, we subjected six great metropolises—London, Paris, Los Angeles, Sydney, Rome, and Miami—to the same scrutiny we bring to our own city every week. Where are the best places right now to drink, shop, flirt, eat, sleep, dance? We found them. Now all you have to do is get on the plane.