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Larkin Soap executive Darwin D. Martin gave Frank Lloyd Wright one of the defining commissions of his Prairie period. Wright treated the Buffalo estate as a “domestic symphony,” designing the buildings, furnishings and almost 400 pieces of art glass as a single composition.

The family abandoned the property in 1937. It sat vacant for years, and the pergola, conservatory and carriage house were demolished in 1962 for apartment buildings. A restoration begun in 1992 eventually removed those apartments and reconstructed the missing Wright buildings from the surviving plans. The work was completed in 2019. At what point does exact reconstruction become part of a landmark's authentic history?

Wholesale grocer William Haas built this 11,500-square-foot house for his family in 1886. When the earthquake struck 20 years later, the building survived—and the firestorms were stopped at Van Ness Avenue, only a block away.

Three generations of the Haas–Lilienthal family lived here for more than eight decades. In 1973, the heirs entrusted the house, along with much of its original furniture and art, to San Francisco Heritage. It became the city's only Victorian-era house museum: not a reconstructed period interior, but a family home that narrowly outlived the disaster that erased so many of its neighbors.

I understand paying for a guide who can get a small group into places that are hard to navigate, explain what’s being served, and help with language. I’m less interested in paying luxury prices to visit three restaurants that already have English menus and hundreds of Google reviews.

For anyone who booked a luxury food tour in Japan, what made it worth the premium? Access, quality of the guide, private rooms, meeting chefs, not having to book everything yourself?

And which city was best for it?

A room facing Mount Fuji may be one of the most tempting upgrades in Japan and one of the biggest weather gambles.

On a clear morning, opening the curtains to Fuji can become the image that defines the trip. On a cloudy stay, the same premium may buy a very attractive window facing a wall of white sky.

The decision probably comes down to more than the view: whether the hotel is somewhere you would choose anyway, whether the room has an outdoor bath or terrace, and whether the rate still feels acceptable if Fuji stays hidden.