Is there a food more humble yet universally adored than the sandwich?

And while one person’s go-to hamburger snack might be another’s katsu sando or chivito, there’s hardly a country on the planet that doesn’t turn to some type of bread with something stuffed inside it to cure a craving.

Traveling the world’s sandwiches is, in a way, like traveling the world.

To help narrow your choices for the sandwich to plan your next trip around, here are 25 of the world’s best sandwiches:

Bocadillo de jamón Ibérico, Spain

There are ho-hum ham sandwiches and then there’s this simple handheld featuring some of the world’s finest jamón, luxurious Iberian ham from acorn-fed pigs. The thinly sliced meat is piled on crusty bread that’s brushed or drizzled with extra virgin olive oil. Fresh tomatoes and perhaps some cheese can be added, but the ham is undoubtedly the star of this show.

A culinary remnant of French colonialism, the baguette sandwich was reinterpreted to their own taste by the Vietnamese. Bánh mì are now sold from food carts on nearly every street corner in Ho Chi Minh City and across Vietnam and are widely loved well beyond the country’s borders.

The classic version is pork-based, starring chả lụa (Vietnamese-style pork roll), shredded pickled carrots, pickled daikon, cilantro leaves, mayonnaise and other ingredients. You can find variations with tofu and thinly sliced lemongrass chicken, too. The taste is crunchy, fresh, savory and utterly delicious.

Torta ahogada, Mexico

This “drowned” sandwich is the most popular street food in Guadalajara, the capital of Mexico’s Jalisco state. Chopped pork is tucked into crusty bread influenced by the French occupation in the 1860s, then drowned in a spicy red sauce that’s said to have become a tradition by accident when a sandwich fell into the sauce

Tramezzino, Italy

While originally from Turin, Venice has taken this popular lunchtime bar snack to the next level — properly stuffing English tea style-triangles of white bread with fillings that include everything from olives and tuna, soft boiled eggs and vegetables to piles of crispy prosciutto with truffle.

Bars all over Venice pull out platters of tramezzini at lunchtime. If you’re doing things right, you’re enjoying them canal-side with a glass of local wine.

Shawarma, Middle East

Shawarma’s name comes from the Arabic word for “turning” — a reference to how this favorite Middle Eastern sandwich’s meaty filling cooks on a vertical spit. In adaptations that spread to the Mediterranean and Europe, shawarma has been reinterpreted as gyro in Greece or doner kebab in Germany, via Turkey.

While there are many variations of this popular street food, its base is grilled spiced meat (usually chicken, lamb or beef) shaved from the rotisserie and tucked into a light sleeve of pita bread, topped with things such as tomatoes, onions and parsley and perhaps tahini sauce and hot sauce, too.

Pambazo, Mexico

Tortillas might first come to mind when it comes to Mexico. But one of the country’s most famous antojitos (street snacks or appetizers) is the pambazo, a favorite street food sandwich from Veracruz and Puebla said to have been inspired by the shape of a Mexican volcano

It’s a seriously filling thing featuring bread tinted red thanks to a soak in slightly spicy guajillo sauce. Open up wide for the potatoes and Mexican chorizo inside, topped with lettuce, cheese and cream.

Muffaletta, New Orleans, United States

Italian immigrants who settled into New Orleans’ Lower French Quarter in the late 19th and early 20th century are to thank for inventing this quintessential New Orleans sandwich made from round, sesame-covered loaves of Sicilian bread that can easily outsize your head.

Inside the muffaletta, layers of chopped olives, Genoa salami, ham and various cheeses (often with Swiss and provolone) mingle to mouthwatering effect.

Chivito, Uruguay

While this Uruguayan sandwich’s name translates to “little goat,” that ruminant’s meat is decidedly absent from this decadent assemblage of thinly sliced steak (called churrasco), ham, bacon, lettuce, mayonnaise and melted mozzarella.

iled high into a roll that’s similar to a hamburger bun or ciabatta, the chivito is customarily topped off with a fried egg – just to make sure you don’t leave hungry.

Pan bagnat, France

If you like a good salade Niçoise, chances are you’ll be a fan of the pan bagnat — a sandwich that similarly hails from Nice in the South of France and is made using crusty pain de campagne, a boulangerie favorite.

Sliced in half (but not completely through), the bread hinges open to reveal layers of raw vegetables, anchovies, olives, sliced hard boiled eggs, chunks of tuna and liberally applied olive oil, salt and pepper. Bon appétit, indeed.

Smørrebrød, Denmark

Beloved all over Scandinavia but particularly iconic for being one of Denmark’s national dishes, this open-faced sandwich translates to “buttered bread” — but smørrebrød is so much more.

With rye bread as the typical base, toppings include scores (perhaps hundreds) of combinations that range from curried or pickled herring and tiny pink shrimp to sliced boiled eggs and rare roast beef atop a layer of butter. In true Scandi style, smørrebrød goes big on aesthetics, too — the sandwiches are as pretty to look at as they are delicious to eat. Spatlo, South Africa

Particularly linked to the Gauteng province and Johannesburg, South Africa’s spatlo sandwich (often called kota, loosely translated as quarter) is made from a quarter loaf of bread that’s been hollowed out and stacked to the max with meat and much more.

Inside, find seasoned fries, cheese, bacon, polony (bologna), Russian-style sausage and perhaps a heaping of spicy atchar sauce (made from green mangoes) and a fried egg.

Montreal smoked meat sandwich, Canada

Carnivores say oui to this seriously stacked sandwich from Quebec made with smoked beef brisket layered between slices of light rye bread and drizzled with tangy yellow mustard.

The best briskets used in a true Montreal smoked meat sandwich are said to soak for up to two weeks in brine and savory aromatics such as coriander, peppercorn and garlic before being smoked and hand-sliced to go down in eternal sandwich glory.

Po’boy, New Orleans, United States

A classic belly buster that traces its roots to New Orleans, the po’boy (aka poor boy) is rumored to have been invented to feed the city’s streetcar drivers during a 1929 strike.

The history remains fuzzy, but the taste of this sandwich certainly is not.

Folks who sink their teeth into this mayonnaise-laden French bread stuffed with fried oysters (or perhaps fried shrimp or roast beef) and piled with lettuce, tomato and pickles is in for one beautifully delicious mess.

Fricassé, Tunisia

With a comforting deep fried yeast bun for an exterior and a savory mashup of tuna, potatoes and boiled egg inside, this North African sandwich delivers a filling feed in a deceptively small package.

unisia’s favorite picnic and street food sandwich, the fricassé, often gets livened up with additions such as sliced black olives, preserved lemon and harissa – the ubiquitous spicy condiment in this part of the world made from dried red chili peppers, garlic and a spice mix that usually includes caraway, cumin and coriander seed.

Cuban sandwich, Cuba/United States

Originally a luxury item in Cuba, according to Andy Huse, the author of a book on the Cuban sandwich, this Florida favorite is cause for constant debate in Miami and Tampa, where purists spar over its fundamental ingredients as well as its origin.

Whether you take yours with salami (à la Tampa) or not (à la Miami), this sandwich layered with boiled ham, roasted pork, pickles, mustard, Swiss cheese and butter and pressed between pieces of fluffy Cuban bread is a simple, hearty and most often affordable feed.

Cucumber sandwich, United Kingdom

On the dainty side of the sandwich spectrum, cucumber sandwiches are a traditional English afternoon tea staple, often spotted on the same tiered platters with scones and mini-pastries.

Extra soft white bread with the crusts removed gets layered with razor-thin English cucumbers (peeled, please, then lightly salted and drained), butter, a light dusting of fine pepper and perhaps a spray of fresh herbs such as dill. Cut the sandwich into neat triangles and pair with a pot of tea.

Chip butty, United Kingdom

The opposite of elegant, the chip butty means business – after all, this is a sandwich sheathed in buttered white bread and stuffed with fries (aka chips in its native Britain) that seem to carve out their own space in all that soft goodness.

Said to trace its roots all the way back to the 1860s and a seaside fish and chips shop in Lancashire, England, the chip butty can be doused with optional condiments ranging from ketchup and malt vinegar to mayonnaise.

Katsu sando, Japan

A deep-fried pork cutlet – pounded and breaded with panko and tucked into a fluffy Japanese white milk bread called shokupan – is the base for this cult-favorite, convenience store snack from Japan.

Considered yōshoku cuisine (Western-influenced), katsu sando is usually garnished with ribbons of cabbage and comes in chicken and egg salad (tamago) versions, too.

Reuben, United States

Ask people from Nebraska, and they’ll say the Reuben was invented there by a local grocer looking to feed a band of hungry poker players. In New York, the story goes that the sloppily sinful sandwich on rye bread was named for the founder of New York’s Reuben Restaurant.

What’s not disputable is the goodness crammed inside a Reuben – sliced corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and Russian or Thousand Island-style dressing. You’ll need napkins. Lots.

Croque monsieur/madame, France

An archetypal sandwich from France that originated as “un snack” in French cafes, this crunchy (croquant) marvel comes in female and male incarnations (madame et monsieur).

or the croque monsieur, slices of white bread are stuffed with thinly sliced ham and emmental or gruyere, often dipped into egg batter, buttered and pan fried. For the croque madame, the egg component is served fried atop the sandwich.

Philly cheesesteak, Philadelphia, United States

Mouthwateringly simple, the City of Brotherly Love’s most beloved sandwich is a delectable hot mess layered with ribeye steak sliced thin, oozing sheets of provolone and sauteed peppers and onions to your liking.

Purists insist the Philly cheesesteak is enveloped inside a hoagie bun. But if you’re whipping one up at home, any thick white bread is sure to be satisfying.

Broodje haring, Netherlands

Like a taste of the salty North Sea distilled into sandwich form, this classic Dutch sandwich is for serious seafood fans only.

Served cold, broodje haring features crunchy baguette-style bread filled with thin slices of chilled herring that’s been cured in salt and piled with diced onions. Depending on where you are in the Netherlands, it might have sliced gherkins, too. Look for it anywhere there’s a market at the stalls called vishandels.

Falafel pita, Middle East

You won’t miss meat in this vegetarian staple of Middle Eastern cuisine. The falafel pita is exactly what its name suggests. Crunchy fried balls of falafel – made from soaked, ground-up chickpeas mixed with herbs – are pushed into a warm and fluffy pita pocket and brightened up with lettuce, tomatoes, tangy tahini sauce and other additions that might include chili sauce and hummus.

You’ll find people lining up for this sandwich on the streets of Beirut, Amman and many other places across the Middle East and beyond.

Choripán, Argentina

Sausages splashed with mustard and chimichurri sauce are the savory makings of this classic Argentinean mouthful whose name is a mash-up of chorizo (sausage) and pan (bread).

Choripán’s origins are thought to trace back to the country’s cowboys called gauchos, known for their grilled meat asados. But today, the casual and filling sandwich is found beyond Buenos Aires and the Andes at food carts, futbol games and restaurants across South America. It’s best enjoyed hot off the grill.

Lobster roll, New England, United States

New Englanders hold their humble lobster roll dear – a summertime coastal treat piled with big chunks of steamed lobster meat that’s often mixed with lemon juice, mayonnaise and herbs and tucked into a roll resembling a hot dog bun.

You can find them at seafood restaurants across the United States. But a classic lobster shack on the stretch of coastline from Maine to Connecticut will make for a scenic backdrop that’s hard to beat.

CNN TRAVEL

Visitors to the US from some of the nation’s closest allies will soon be required to pay higher fees outlined in the Trump administration’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.” Specifically, a hike to the fees associated with the Electronic System for Travel Authorization, which processes travel applications from residents of more than 40 countries that are part of the Visa Waiver Program.

Those countries include the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Israel and most of Europe, as well as a handful of countries in other regions, including Qatar in the Middle East.

Prior to the passage of President Trump’s signature legislation, applicants to the ESTA system, as it’s known, paid $21. Now that mandatory fee will nearly double on September 30 to $40.

It’s one of several fee increases associated with travel to the US from abroad. Travelers arriving through a land border will also see their fees go up with an increase inthe I-94 Arrival/Departure Record cost. Right now, travelers required to pay the fee only have to part with $6.
That amount jumps to $30 at the end of the month.

Lastly, travelers from China will be asked to pay a $30 enrollment fee for the Electronic Visa Update System. The September 30 effective date for the fee increases was outlined in a recent notice in the Federal Register.

The increase in fees, combined with the looming $250 “visa integrity fee” for many travelers from non-visa waiver countries, comes at a time when travel to the US from abroad is in a major slump.

As CNN’s Natasha Chen reported, many Canadians and other international visitors to the US are staying away. The World Travel and Tourism Council projected in May that the United States will lose $12.5 billion in international visitor spending in 2025. It was the only country out of 184 economies analyzed by the council, a global tourism advocacy organization, that will see a decline this year.

The new visa integrity fee has not yet been applied. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security repeated to CNN that it “requires cross-agency coordination before implementation.”

Houston-based immigration attorney Steven Brown said he didn’t think the increase in fees will be much of a “hindrance” for most travelers. But he said the visa integrity fee is an entirely new thing.

“It will be intriguing to see because lots of questions are out there,” he told CNN Travel. “So we pay the fee, but how does it get refunded? Who is tracking compliance? How do you prove compliance?”

Source: CNN

he first thing Annie and her partner do when they wake up in the morning is ask each other how well they slept. “And I literally say, ‘I’m not sure yet, let me check,’” – and Annie, a chief people and safety officer, reaches for her smartwatch.

Annie started monitoring because she worried she wasn’t getting enough good-quality sleep. Now she’s a self-confessed sleep data “nerd”, mining her sleep data for insights into her general health and wellbeing, using it to inform lifestyle decisions and even occasionally to guide how much she aims to accomplish in a day.

Sleep monitoring is a boom industry, mirroring what devices and apps such as Fitbits and Strava have done for physical activity. Market reports vary on the value of this industry, but it is clearly lucrative and growing rapidly. A quick search reveals a wide range of devices – rings, headbands, watches and other wrist-worn devices, under-mattress devices and bedside devices – all suggesting their use will unlock such quality sleep as to make Rip Van Winkle jealous.

An estimated 40% of Australians are not getting enough good quality sleep, and one in 10 experience chronic insomnia. “We do know there are a lot of people who do worry about their sleep and whether they’re getting enough sleep, particularly if they’re not meeting some of the recommended sleep duration guidelines,” says Dr Hannah Scott, a senior research fellow in sleep psychology at the Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute in Adelaide, and co-inventor of a wearable device that tracks and treats chronic insomnia

Scott sees the rise in the use of sleep trackers as generally good news. “They’ve certainly improved awareness around the importance of sleep and around healthy sleep patterns so overall, I’d say they’ve probably had a positive effect.” But there’s a downside. “If you try harder to exercise, you’ll become fitter, but we have the opposite problem with sleep actually; that the harder you try, the harder it is to actually obtain sleep,” Scott says. “We can be creating some problems over people becoming too obsessive about trying to optimise it.” There’s even a term for it: orthosomnia, which describes an unhealthy preoccupation with sleep-tracking data.

The most accurate picture of sleep health is derived from what’s called polysomnography, which requires a person to spend the night in a sleep laboratory with their head and body covered with electrodes that monitor and measure brain wave activity, eye movement, breathing, heart rate, muscle movement and blood oxygen levels. That provides a wealth of information such as time spent in different stages of sleep, how many times someone wakes up and how long it takes them to fall asleep, says Prof Christopher Gordon, professor of sleep health at Macquarie University in Sydney.

“Wearables – and that’s lumping a lot of different devices in one word – but generally they’re not that accurate at being able to tell how long you took to fall asleep and how long you’re awake and asleep overnight, and that’s because it’s not measuring brainwave activity,” he says. That brainwave activity is used to determine time spent in different stages of sleep: stage one, two and three of non-REM sleep and REM sleep

What wearables can detect and measure – in varying combinations and with varying degrees of accuracy – is heart rate, temperature, movement and blood oxygen levels, which are then fed into algorithms that determine whether the picture painted by that data is of someone sleeping soundly or restlessly awake. “It could be a device that’s specifically measuring movement only, and it’s looking at algorithms that say if your arms are moving a lot you’re awake, if it’s not moving a lot it’s sleep,” Gordon says. But “that has very little agreement with what happens in your brain in terms of the qualitative aspect of sleep”.

The other challenge is that there isn’t a clear understanding of exactly what good sleep looks like, says Associate Prof Jen Walsh, director of the Centre for Sleep Science at the University of Western Australia in Perth. “It’s an area that’s debated within our profession,” she says. There’s sleep quantity – simply the amount of time spent asleep – and sleep quality, which is more complex and takes into account time spent in different stages of sleep, whether sleep is broken, how often and for how long. “Sleep quantity is quite easy to define and calculate, whereas sleep quality is somewhat harder,” she says. Current guidelines suggest adults should aim for between seven and nine hours of sleep a night but there isn’t such clear advice on what type of sleep – how much of each stage – is optimum.

Sleep quality is also highly subjective and sometimes doesn’t match what even the most accurate lab-based monitoring says, according to Dr Maya Schenker, a postdoctoral researcher on trauma and sleep at the University of Melbourne. “If we feel like we slept very badly, it doesn’t matter what the watch is telling me,” she says. Even in people with chronic insomnia, sleep often looks a lot better on the polysomnography than what they subjectively report.

Rachel says her sleep-monitoring ring has helped her to understand some of the factors that help her get a better night’s sleep. “If I do pilates in the evening, I seem to mostly sleep better,” the Canberra-based public servant says. And Annie has noticed that if she has a glass of wine at any time in the evening, her heart rate during sleep is about 10% higher.

This is where most experts see the usefulness of sleep trackers in a consumer setting: helping people understand how their lifestyle habits and behaviour affect their sleep, and making changes to improve it.

“A lot of people are interested in changing their sleep habits, but it’s hard to find a place to start,” says Dr Vanessa Hill, a sleep scientist at the Appleton Institute at CQ University in Adelaide, who also consults for Samsung Health. Data alone isn’t generally enough to change behaviour, but “if your watch can send you a notification where it’s like, ‘hey, yesterday, you went on a walk at this time and it improved your sleep’, or ‘yesterday you stopped drinking caffeine around this time’ or whatever, and that helps you fall asleep faster”, that can motivate people to change, she says, “I think that’s the best potential that these kinds of trackers can have.”

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Hill uses a smartwatch and a ring to monitor her sleep, and says she does check her sleep scores – particularly her heart rate during sleep, which she says may predict oncoming illness – as soon as she wakes up. “I look at what they’ve been overnight, because if I am getting sick or getting a cold or something like that, my heart rate variability will actually tell me before I feel any symptoms myself,” she says. “If, for whatever reason, I have really bad heart rate variability one night, I’m just like, I need to take it easy today, something’s up with my body.”

Many experts stress that consumer sleep trackers are not diagnostic tools and have some important limits. “If you train an algorithm on a set population that is healthy, you’re not going to necessarily pick up the same signal out of a population with, say, peripheral vascular disease with reduced blood flow into the fingers,” says Dr Donald Lee, a respiratory at sleep physician at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research in Sydney. Sleep habits also change over the lifespan, which may not be reflected by the algorithms used.

However sleep trackers do provide an opportunity to encourage healthier sleep habits, Lee says. “If we can engage people to … go to bed with a purpose, to turn out the light and go to sleep and improve their sleep habits by engaging in the conversation, it’s a good thing for the health trackers to be doing.”