Cordillera Blanca, Peru, is home to the highest tropical mountain range on earth, with 50 major summits of more than 18,000 feet. (Getty Images) Every Thursday I write about place I'd love to visit, if I had the time and the money. I just got an email from Adventure Life that has me drooling over a new 14-day northern Peru backcountry trekking tour. Here is the email: This tour journeys to the highest tropical mountain range on earth, with 50+...

Belly up to these top cocktail bars from Boston to Seattle. (Michael McGill) Stop me if you’ve heard this one. Guy walks into a bar. Asks the bartender for a Manhattan with extra bitters. The bartender says, “You want orange bitters, lavender honey bitters, 19th-century Boker’s bitters, Mexican chocolate bitters, or plain old Angostura bitters?” Well, okay, maybe it’s not much of a joke. But it points up two things: we’re in a golden age of cocktails. And to order...

Torrens Lake and the Adelaide skyline at dusk. (Getty Images) In my mind, Adelaide is forever hot and sunny. That’s the way it looks on television when the cricket’s on, with the velvet voice of Richie Benaud welcoming viewers to a day’s play. As a teenager I’d watch rapt while the great man intoned, “Yesss, it’s a very good morning and welcome to the Adelaide Oval, the most picturesque cricket ground in the world.” But of course the city is...