In London, the world capital of the after-work drink, when the flowers bloom, so do the hotels’ cocktail menus. A shot of daisy-infused gin, some puréed yuzu and basil, a little floral liqueur — such is the stuff of the season’s best drinks. For some help composing pastel-tinged cocktails to match the lingering summer sunsets, we asked five experts for their closely guarded recipes.

Erik Lorincz, the American Bar
Long one of London’s most highly regarded hotels, the Savoy has recently re-opened its doors after a three-year renovation. Following in the footsteps of such shaker-wielding legends as Ada Coleman, Joe Gilmore and Harry Craddock (inventor of the White Lady and author of the seminal 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book) is Erik Lorincz, the master bartender whose journeyman years were spent at the Sanderson and the Connaught. Now he’s been trusted with the menu of the equally legendary American Bar, where he’ll spend the coming months taking orders for his Summer Garden. It’s a drink so light, refreshing and perfect for warm weather that, were this any less august an establishment, one would almost be tempted to strip down to swimwear in order to fully get into the spirit of it.

•45 ml Bombay Sapphire
•30 ml lemon juice
•15 ml simple syrup
•60 ml unfiltered apple juice
•4 fresh raspberries
•Fresh mint leaves

Agostino Perrone, the Connaught Bar
Restored by designer David Collins (in a bit of a Cubist mood), with black banquettes and a palette of old rose, the Connaught’s bar, in tony Mayfair, delights purists with the quality of its Martini — gently stirred, never shaken (with apologies to 007’s famously eccentric taste). A native of Como, “Ago” Perrone adds a dose of Italian liquore — Galliano, amaro, maraschino, Gancia Dry vermouth — and scours the markets for fresh, seasonal ingredients. His recommendation for a summer day? The Mulata Daisy, his refined reinterpretation of the humble daiquiri, combining vanilla and floral notes with the richness of crème de cacao.

•45 ml Bacardi Superior white rum
•20 ml lime juice
•1 spoonful superfine cane sugar
•1 spoonful fennel seed
•15 ml Crème de Cacao Brun
•10 ml Galliano

Pedro Paulo, the Lobby Bar
Opened in 1998, One Aldwych may be the youngest of this bunch, but it’s a grand dame all the same, as demonstrated with panache by the beloved Lobby Bar. Each month, head bartender Pedro Paulo’s menu follows the “Mixologist’s Muse” wherever it might lead, crafting new recipes to suit the season’s mood. The current collection features the Floral Revival, a fresh and fruity drink with subtle anise notes atop a base of vodka and pink vermouth.

•50 ml Zorokovich 1917 vodka
•25 ml Martini Rosato
•20 ml grenadine syrup
•15 ml lime juice
•15 ml lemon juice
•5 fresh pomegranate seeds
•3 drops of absinthe

Alessandro Cogoni, the St. James Bar
Last November, the bar at the Sofitel London St. James — a space inspired by Coco Chanel’s Paris apartment — featured four competing cocktail creations inspired by the London perfume house Penhaligon’s. Alessandro Cogoni, the young winner of the Sofitel’s bar competition, has taken inspiration from the hotel’s own history as one of London’s great old banks to create the bittersweet Good Hope. In centuries past, the bankers who worked in this same room frequently had to cross the Cape of Good Hope to do business in India, a long journey that certainly would have called a stiff drink, or a few. Cogoni’s inspired cocktail is thus a mix of classic British and Indian flavors.

•50 ml Tanqueray No. 10
•10 ml Chambord
•5 ml Fernet-Branca
•15 ml lemon juice
•15 ml egg white
•15 ml cardamom & Kaffir lime syrup
•3 dashes Angostura bitters

Marios Elias, the May Fair Bar
Haute couture palace par excellence, the May Fair has an assured style which is illustrated by the fashion-inspired “collections” of its cocktail bar. After the last Fashion Week’s burst of footwear-inspired cocktails — the Strappy Sandal, the Velvet Mule, the cherry-liqueur Red Stiletto — mixologist Marios Elias came up with Martini and Champagne-cocktail “flights,” designed to travel from Amsterdam to Milan. This summer Marios invites you to spend the warm months with his new Royal Mojito, from his molecular-inspired “elements” collection. But while it’s a playful drink, he’s deadly serious about keeping the recipe a secret…

The New York hotel rooftop is a precarious thing. At its worst, it can be an unctuous cocktail of vertigo, claustrophobia and unpracticed inebriation — granted only after you’ve groveled with some dead-eyed doorman for the privilege, and served for your displeasure at premium prices. But you persevere; and then it’s that magic hour on the longest day of summer when last call and first light start closing in on one another and you’re gazing at the shores of Jersey City with someone lovely at your side and, good God, since when does Jersey City look like that? In New York, this most vertical of American cities, the hotel rooftop occupies its own special vantage point — human pageant below, human pageant on high, a macro urban landscape that goes on for days, and a self-contained scene unto itself. Here, in honor of summer’s arrival, we present a Manhattan rooftop for every day of the week.

Monday — Sky Terrace at the Hudson
It’s half past six, happy hour. Your day so far’s been rough. But here you are at the Hudson, and against all odds you find yourself sunk into that coveted hammock, with its green and white hillock of pillows. You’re trying not to spill your kaffir lime sake sangria as you plant it, swaying, on the ground below. With its urban-oasis atmosphere and a crowd that thins out after sundown, the Hudson’s Sky Terrace is at its best during the just-after-work hours, its views of the Statue of Liberty beyond the river welcoming you into the world of Manhattan’s hotel rooftops.

Tuesday — Bar d’Eau at the Trump Soho
For sheer elevation, Trump Soho’s seventh-floor Bar d’Eau may not quite measure up to the competition, but with a sprawling outdoor pool deck and a surprise bocce court, it manages to compensate in other ways. You resign yourself to handing some hard-earned dollars over to the ownership, and in exchange you get a well-crafted cocktail and some prime people-watching, plus the chance to play the most scenic game of boules this side of the Atlantic.

Wednesday — Poolside at the Thompson LES
“No diving,” read the stern warnings painted onto the tiles around the pool, and you wonder for a minute if maybe they’re being a little defensive about their Lower East Side location. Poolside is a good distance, at least in spirit, from the teetering gilded monuments across town, but with the be-shaded visage of one Andy Warhol lithographed onto the bottom of the pool, it hardly lacks for style. And should you wish to flush out your Blue Ribbon cocktails with some cheap post-party beer, some of Manhattan’s best dive bars are right in the neighborhood.

Thursday — Rooftop and Lounge at the Gansevoort Park
After a long last night on the Lower East Side, you clean yourself up and head to Murray Hill, where the Gansevoort Park Rooftop and Lounge calls to you like some sotto voce Siren, a soothing daytime reprieve from the city that surrounds it. With a stand of skyscrapers crowding above and the Empire State building towering in the distance, it’s about as urban a backdrop as you could possibly have for a swim. Just try to pull yourself away at a reasonable hour. There’s a big weekend ahead, and the quiet daytime scene turns into a just-plain-scene by night, when doors open to the public.

Friday — Le Bain at the Standard, High Line
You show up very late and it’s still much too early, but maybe that’s not so bad; at least you can get in the door. Up in the penthouse discothèque is le bain itself, a sloshy plunge pool with gyrating patrons to match. This, as we’ve said elsewhere, is what hedonism looks like at its most dolled-up, and if you just let go and get into the spirit — and the world-class DJs, gut-rumbling sound system and soaring views all do their bit — it’s hard not to feel that it looks pretty alright. You think of Hieronymus Bosch, or Blake, or you don’t think at all and you have a fantastic time.

Saturday — The Cabanas at the Maritime
Face it; you didn’t make it home last night. But on the upside, you’ve already got your party pants on, and it’s a short walk up to the Maritime, where the leafy rooftop cabanas offer just enough shade from that bright, bright sun. The crowd control is a serious business here, a pain at the door but a joy from the other side. Once you’ve stepped over the threshold, you can settle into one of the cushy sofas and do your celebrity gawking in peace, or just play it cool and relax with a drink.

Sunday — Rooftop Garden at the Gramercy Park
It’s been a long, strange week, and you’ve got to come back down sometime — but not before making a trip to the Gramercy Park’s Rooftop Garden, where brunch is mercifully served until three in the afternoon. Stumptown coffee helps pry those tired eyes open, the better for taking in the Andy Warhol and Damien Hirst masterpieces amidst the tropical foliage. And then, with a belly full of fancy pancakes, you head downstairs and fall into a deep sleep in your dreamy hotel bed.

Many of these venues are weather-dependent, and some are technically guests-only. If it’s early in the season or if you plan to visit without booking a room, you may want to call ahead.

As a cosmopolitan port city in a country with a serious cooking tradition, Lisbon has long produced some of the world’s most accomplished seafood chefs. Recently, the rest of the world has begun to take notice, especially in London, where Lisbon-born chef Nuno Mendes now presides over Viajante at Town Hall, and Luís Baena, formerly of Lisbon’s acclaimed Manifesto, is setting up shop in Notting Hill. Not that the flames are going untended back in Portugal. The recent Peixe em Lisboa festival, the High Mass of wine-and-fish pairings, proved that local chefs continue to find plenty of inspiration right where they stand, on the banks of the Tagus.

Top Chefs
Leading the “media darlings” category is José Avillez, an old student of Ferran Adrià and a rising star at Belcanto, in the Chiado, where he earned a Michelin star in 2012. In a newly updated dining room Avillez serves avant-garde cuisine that utilizes local fish: from “Jackson Pollock skate” to cod with rice chips. Meanwhile, at 100 Maneiras in the Bairro Alto, Belgrade-native Ljubomir Stanisic creates outstanding nine-course seasonal menus. The signature appetizer is “cod on a clothesline,” served with cilantro aioli. Over in the Santos district, TV chef Henrique Sá Pessoa keeps things entertaining at Alma. The cloud-white space is offset by a riot of color in dishes like thyme-roasted grouper and tempura sardines. And finally, in Belém, chef José Cordeiro revives forgotten flavors at the Altis Belém Hotel & Spa’s Feitoria, as in sake-poached bream served with barnacles and chayote. Bring your culinary dictionary.

Sushi Fusion
Raw fish is every bit as popular as the cooked stuff in Lisbon, but the city’s ever-tinkering chefs are hardly satisfied to leave a cut of nigiri be. At Yakuza by Olivier, master sushi chef Agnaldo Ferreira incorporates buffalo mozzarella in his uramaki and cod in his gyoza. Back in Chiado, the place to go is Umai, where “swing maki,” the house specialty, combines sushi and tempura, while the wine list features the best of the Douro and Alentejo regions. And near the Cais do Sodré port, the LX Boutique Hotel has an outpost of a Cascais institution, the Confraria do Sushi. Their Confraria LX features an identical menu — Camembert uramaki, lobster hossomaki, and nigiri Saint-Jacques — in a cocktail-bar setting.

Fresh Catch
At Doca Peixe, on the Alcântara docks, you can get the daily catch fresh from the nets, gauging the quality of the octopus or herring before deciding how you want it cooked. Then head back to the Chiado, near the Praça Luís de Camões, for a look at Sea Me in the old fish market. There you can hunt for the perfect market-fresh crab to cook for dinner, or just sit back and attack some oysters and Champagne. Chiado is also where chef Miguel Castro e Silva plies his trade. His restaurant, Largo, is housed in a converted eighteenth-century convent. The address is famous, the space is theatrical, the aquariums are full of jellyfish, and the dishes are confidently executed — think hake and mussels on arugula risotto. Or just think Lisbon.

Summer is the time for simple pleasures, and they don’t come much simpler than this: “beach house” is a phrase that requires very little elaboration.

Here’s something you won’t likely find in Brussels: a food truck. In the Belgian capital, the street food of choice is a plate of caricoles, or sea snails, and it’s not complete without a little white wine to wash it down. It’s a local specialty that gives new meaning to the term “slow food,” proof that the city knows how to savor life’s smaller pleasures — no fancy setting required. It can take some getting used to, this dilly-dallying, stop-and-smell-the-snails approach to urban life, but once you’ve made the adjustment, you’ll never want to return to the rat race.

Watching the Dry Paint
Museums, as we all know, are the slow walker’s natural habitat, all the more so on Brussels’s Mont des Arts. Saunter over to the Magritte Museum, leaving time to sift through goods like pipe-plates and suspended bowler hat lamps at the gift shop. Just down the way, Bozar hosts an eclectic lineup of artist retrospectives, musical performances and theater productions, plus David Martin’s excellent brasserie. In the afternoon, take some time to nurse a drink beside the striking copper vats at the bar of the Wiels Contemporary Art Center, housed in a monumental 1930s industrial building, or lounge by the shaded pool of Villa Empain, where eastern and western art share space in a gorgeous Art Deco house.

After gazing at so much art, it’s an easy transition to the Sofitel Le Louise, a bold hotel with a purple escalator, Bruges lace wallpaper, enormous chandeliers and surrealist pillowcases. If that sounds a bit too frenzied, there’s always the historic Hôtel Amigo in the Grand Place district, refurbished by the Rocco Forte group and a popular choice amongst collectors during the Brussels Art Fair.

Slow Your Brol
Picking through the bric-à-brac for bargains is a Brussels shopper’s specialty, and it all starts with a visit to the antique dealers of the Sablon, where the stalls are overflowing with everything from Delft earthenware to traditional speculoos baking tins. After the obligatory chocolate stop at Pierre Marcolini, head to the Jeu de Balle flea market to pore over comic books, mini models of Brussels’s famous Atomium monument and retro toys. Here, more than anywhere in the city, it’s back to the Sixties, especially in the warren-like Haute and Blaes Streets, where furniture and design objects from around Europe are piled high at places like Passage 125, d+ and Hautes Antiques.

Take the money you saved on your discounted Joe Colombo lamp and head to Easy Tempo Pizzeria, a favorite amongst the sellers, before resting up at Vintage Hôtel. Its kinetic wallpapers and Jacques Tati–style décor are the work of its bargain-hunting owners, eager to share their best finds with guests.

A Properly Paced Meal
For all the traditional little cafés and historic tea houses to hang out in, the meals most worth lingering over are found at Brussels’s newer-vintage restaurants. Two of the best — Nicolas Darnauguilhem’s Neptune and Nicholas Scheidt’s Buvette, the latter set inside a converted Art Nouveau butcher’s shop — come from Frenchmen who fled the high-pitched Parisian food scene for something a little more low-key.

To escape urban life altogether, locals head to Bois de la Cambre, where a ferry ride takes you to the heavenly Chalet Robinson. It’s the perfect spot for a cocktail or a Belgian waffle, and just steps away from the iconic Odette en Ville. The pocket-sized boutique’s eight elegant rooms and Marcel Wanders furniture are a delight, but it’s on the terrace where time really seems to slow down — a good thing, as you’ll want to stick around as long as possible.