LOW BUDGET
For $3,000
Miami Beach, Florida
Tan, plunge, shop, party. Repeat.
Stay: André Balazs’s Standard Miami has a pool, sundeck, and mud lounge overlooking Biscayne Bay, and a free shuttle service to the beach every 30 minutes. Book room 88 or 89, with partial bay-and-garden views, or room 21, which has a private terrace and outdoor bathtub (standardhotel.com; from $225).
Eat: Get stone crabs and Key-lime pie takeout from Joes Take Away, ropa vieja and arroz con pollo from David’s Cafe II, and granola pancakes at Front Porch Café. Splurge at Table 8, one of the hottest, toughest-to-get reservations in town.
Play: By day, rent a kayak (from South Beach Kayak, $40 per hour) or book a treatment for two at the hotel’s spa ($380). At night, hit clubs Mokai and SET for the predictable but still enjoyable sexy-sweaty South Beach–VIP scene.
MID-RANGE
For $8,000
Mendoza, Argentina
Feast on rack of Patagonian lamb, sip (or guzzle) the best Malbec, go vineyard-hopping, and make repeat trips to the spa for hardly any money at all in the Napa Valley of South America.
Stay: The Park Hyatt Mendoza is twenty minutes from the best wineries (mendoza.park.hyatt.com). Book room 733, if you can (from $250).
Eat: Order Angelica Zapata 2003 at any meal. Lunch at Almacén Del Sur, a farm with a homey, twelve-seat restaurant, Cava Gourmet. At La Bourgogne, feast on rabbit thigh after a tour of Carlos Pulenta’s VistAlba winery. For dinner, get the giant bistecca at 1884 at the Bodega Escorihuela winery.
Play: Hire a guide-driver to take you on excursions to Catena Zapata Winery; visit Alba and Achaval-Ferrer (from $120 per person, per day; vintura.com.ar). After long, hard days of wine tasting, book super-affordable treatments at Park Hyatt’s luxe Kaua Spa (a 60-minute aromatherapy massage is just $37).
HIGH-BUDGET
For $15,000
Panarea, Italy
Swim, scuba dive, fish, and surf off the most exclusive island in the Aeolian archipelago, free of the tourist deluge that plagues Capri.
Stay: The Hotel Raya has a cultlike following (open April through October). For a patio with panoramic island views of Stromboli volcano, book a duplex deluxe suite like 17 CQ, in the hotel’s “Il Raya Alto” ($270 to $970 per night).
Eat: Take your nightly aperitivo at the place to be: Bar del Porto. Dine on eggplant gnocchi and Sicilean Regaleali wine at Da Pina, or at Hycesia, whose seafood dishes are renowned. The most romantic restaurant is on the rooftop of Hotel Raya. Party at the hotel’s open-air discothèque after a few limoncellos.
Play: Rent a barcino—a small wooden motorboat (from Eoile Mare; $100)—and visit islets Basiluzzo, Dattilo, and Lisca Bianca. Or explore aboard a five-star private catamaran, making stops to scuba dive and climb the volcano, or have a gourmet meal on open water (from Ombre Blu; $608 per couple, per day; ten-day charters available).
SEE ALSO: Where to Go for Two Weeks