PROSPER ASSOULINE (Publisher of luxury coffee-table books): 

My first travel memory is: my parents taking me to Seville, Spain, when I was 5. It’s still one of the most important places in my life. I like the bullfights, the elegance, the walls that are a little bit broken, the smells.
My favorite restaurant is: L’Ami Louis, in Paris. The chicken costs a fortune, but it’s the best in the world. Another favorite is Al Moro, in Rome, where you’ll have the new chairman of Fiat in one corner and the president of something else with a beautiful woman in the other. They’re not welcoming at all. But they respect good product.
The place I’d most like to visit one day is: Copenhagen. I want to see this restaurant, Noma, and understand why some people go just for that.
The world’s best hotel is: Tawaraya in Kyoto, Japan. Each of the rooms has its own garden. Some of the old people have worked there since they were children. They change the soup bowls depending on the color of the sky. There’s a person in charge of just arranging flowers. It’s totally unbelievable.
One thing I always bring on the plane is: a cashmere T-shirt from Hobbs, in Paris. I’ll also buy 20 magazines before I go on and spend the flight tearing out the most interesting pages.
My favorite museum is: the Metropolitan Museum, here in New York. I visit every two weeks. I’ll go for musical instruments or Roman sculptures—something different every time.
A movie about a foreign place that has always stuck with me is: “Shanghai Gesture,” with Gene Tierney. It’s about China in the ’30s—the furniture, the fashion, the opium—and everything in it makes you want to travel.
The worst airport in the world is: JFK [in New York]. The toilets, the people, everything—a disaster. Can you believe all these people arriving in America for the first time and seeing that?
The best places for shopping are: the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, and the Paris flea markets. If you are upset because you didn’t find anything in these places, you don’t understand them! I go to Istanbul more for textiles. You can have things made there by artisans. In Paris you have no idea what the antique dealers will have, because they don’t make it. That’s the beauty of it.
JANE NEAL (British art curator):
WHENEVER JANE NEAL visits Cluj, Romania, she goes into Euphoria—literally. “It’s this amazing music hall with a beautiful garden,” says the 41-year-old British curator, who recently oversaw “This Side of Paradise,” a show highlighting Eastern European artists at Sotheby’s S2 gallery. She found its Hungarian equivalent in Szimpla Kert, a Budapest beer garden she frequents with painter Zsolt Bodoni whenever she’s in town. Just avoid the local plum brandy, she says: “Every region has its own version and it’s incredibly potent.” We caught up with the jet-setter to talk about her favorite spots in Eastern Europe, being prepared for café debates and where to find boars near Budapest.
I discovered Cluj’s main Házsongárdi Cemetery through Adrian Ghenie, who told me one of the first things I should do when discovering a city in Old World Europe is visit its cemeteries, including Prague’s amazing Old Jewish Cemetery and Olšany Cemetery. Throughout the whole Austro-Hungarian empire, in classical cities you find these monumentally beautiful cemeteries, including Vienna’s Hietzinger Friedhof and the Kerepesi Cemetery in Budapest. 
Remember when you visit cafés and restaurants like Baracca, Via or Bricks in Cluj, or the plethora of restaurants in Budapest on streets like Andrássy út or Hajós utca near the opera house, that you are in Old World Europe. The EU smoking ban doesn’t seem to have taken hold at all. And there will be hat and coat stands, so don’t leave your jacket on the back of your chair, it’s rude!
Victor Man first took me to Hoia-Baciu Forest near Cluj in 2005 to bike, which is a great place for wildlife. You can also barbecue there.
In the summer, it is wonderful to head up to the hills of Buda for hiking or horseback riding. Zsolt Bodoni’s studio is in this area called Budakeszi that has wild boars that socialize around outside. It looks like “Little Red Riding Hood” territory. If you want to stay closer to Budapest, go to Margitsziget—Margaret Island in English. It’s in the middle of the Danube, away from the madding crowds in the summer.