Writers are waxing lyrical this week.  John Humphry’s on the Peloponnese, Francesco Guerrera on immortal Rome, Adrian Mourby on Chopin’s birth place, Warsaw.  We’ve also got reunions on the Nile, cycling with SatNav and swamp tours.  This week’s special categories are a little out of left field.   We have Come Dancing which will whisk you through Vienna and Paris via Brazil.  We also have The Overlooked for those who have never considered North Korea as a holiday hotspot or didn’t know that Prenzlberg is the prettiest neighbourhood in Berlin.

CITY

• “If Frédéric Chopin were to return to Warsaw on his 200th birthday next week he might think he recognised the place. The old medieval city and the mansions along ul Krakowskie Przedmiescie look remarkably like they did when Chopin was born on 22 February 1810, and when he left this gracious city for ever 20 years later,” writes Adrian Mourby in The Independent who gives us a glimpse of the remarkable architecture of Poland’s capital. Warsaw looks just as it did in Chopin’s day. Well, almost.
• “In other cities, the meeting of light and stone is often an unhappy one. The warm rays and the cold surface seem to repel one another – a cosmic battle between radiance and matter. Rome’s stone is defined by light – the contrast of shadow and bright spots is what gives the city’s ruins that ethereal, immortal quality.” In The FT, Francesco Guerrera is reminded of The magical quality of Rome.
• In The Times Peter Hughes recommends Dresden for the weekend. “With extraordinary art collections, remarkable architecture, a mighty musical tradition – and two fine orchestras to perpetuate it — as well as a fleet of antique paddle steamers plying the Elbe, Dresden has to be one of the most rewarding short-break destinations in Europe.
• “No wonder Vancouver is often heralded as one of the world’s most livable cities. It is blessed with a snowcapped mountain backdrop and crystal blue harbors. It is also a gateway to the Inside Passage — the marvelous maze of glacier-carved fjords and forested islands that are a cruise lover’s delight,” writes Denny Lee in The New York Times. “But what really sets Vancouver apart is its urban density. With sprawl kept in check by geography, the city thinks vertically. Neighborhoods overlap, apartments rise. That seems to heighten the city’s international mix, and not just when the Olympic Games are in town.” Lee gives you the highlights of 36 Hours in Vancouver, British Columbia.
• In The Independent Harriet O’Brien gives us the guide to 48 Hours In: Rome. “Right now Italy’s capital is looking at its romantic best, bathed in the haunting light of late winter. Share a cone of hot roasted chestnuts from street stalls by the Trevi Fountain and enjoy Rome without the crowds. For a more earnest reason for a visit, next weekend a major Caravaggio exhibition starts at the Scuderie del Quirinale”

ESCAPE

• The Observer features John Humphrys’s top Peloponnese places. “Before I bought my house in the Peloponnese, my son Christopher and I walked extensively in the area. Late winter or early spring is the best time to go, before it gets too hot and the heat haze obscures the view – you can see forever at that time of year. It’s an unspoilt region in the best sense of the word, with the kind of wild flower meadows we’ve lost in this country. The scenery of the Lousios Gorge is the most staggering I’ve encountered: monasteries hanging from the cliffs as if suspended. It’s the most extraordinary sight.”
• Is This How Cleopatra Felt? asks Jennifer Conlin in The New York Times. Conlin qualifies the madness of booking a private Nile cruise for 80 people. “Strolling onto the roof deck of the Sun Boat IV, a 40-cabin river vessel, as it churned slowly up the Nile in early January, I relished the scene before me. Lounging on white chaises and overstuffed couches, swimming in the heated pool, reading and sipping drinks were dozens of people from various parts of my life.”
• In The Telegraph Robin Gauldie dismisses claims that Greece has become an expensive destination. “The Greek tradition of open-handed giving to strangers is still alive and kicking. When I first started walking over the cobbled mule paths of Samos, a lush, hilly island, some 30 years ago, I was touched by the kindness of farmers and villagers who would press small gifts of food or drink on me – a handful of almonds, some figs, a bowl of fresh sheep’s milk, a slice of watermelon, whatever was in season. Walking the same trails with Ramblers Holidays in October, I found this spirit – which the Greeks call philoxenia – lives on.” This is Greece: an insider’s holiday guide.

OUTDOOR/ADVENTURE

• Joanna Walters, in The Times, takes A walk on the wild side in Florida, on a tour (known as “Never safe, always fun”) of the Everglades National Park. “A million people visit this area every year, usually by airboat, which roars across the marsh like a tiny hovercraft. But I wanted to try a quieter, greener way to get close to nature.”
• Laura Burgess and friend indulge in Cycling for softies, with satnav and silk sheets for The Observer. Cycling from Highland Perthshire to the Trossachs National Park via four star hotels and accompanied by some useful technology, Burgess discovers that “The combination of quiet roads and comfortable accommodation was a winner. I secretly enjoyed the climbs and the excuse they gave me to eat fine food in the evenings.”
• “Road trips are a relatively new concept in Turkey and yet this country is made for driving: vast sweeping landscapes, pine-clad mountains and lush agricultural plains, with ramshackle villages punctuated by minarets and cypress trees. Sadly, a road system that belongs in the 19th century and the Turkish proclivity to see driving as a white-knuckle sport have tended to put visitors off the self-drive option.” Nevertheless The Guardian’s Annabelle Thorpe goes Driving into the heart of the Turkish countryside.

COME DANCING

• In The Telegraph Lucy Davies is in Vienna: learning to waltz at a Viennese ball – a lady’s guide. “Vienna is intoxicating, other-worldly, more romantic than Paris, I dare to suggest…Late one evening, in a dreamy haze, we began seeing figures looming from the dark in cloaks and gowns, fresh from a ball and looking for all the world like visitors from another age. Mozart, Strauss, Marie Antoinette – none of these former inhabitants of the city would have blinked.” Two years later, as a wonderfully romantic gesture from her partner, “I found myself back in Vienna – to attend the Coffeehouse Owners’ Ball.”
• Natalie Paris recommends Five of the best dancing holidays in The Telegraph. From tango in Buenos Aires to flamenco in Spain to merengue in the Dominican Republic, here are five ways to combine cool dance moves and hot destinations.
• In The New York Times Sarah J. Wachter discovers that Forró Raises Pulse of Parisians. “Paris is gripped by folie de forró…a rustic country dance from northeastern Brazil that has fired the romantic imaginations of Parisians young and old, at a weekly gathering devoted to the dance.”

THE OVERLOOKED

• “The strangest of all the very strange things about the strangest place on earth, North Korea, is that it’s surprisingly easy to go there. Or at least, not as hard as it somehow ought to be. I’d always thought that it was only marginally less difficult than going to the moon or, say, Eton, but my amazing revelation is this: type “North Korea” and “tourism” into Google, and you’ll find Koryo Tours, a British-run, Beijing-based travel firm.” In The Observer, Carole Cadwalladr is Inside North Korea: the ultimate package tour. “barely 1,500 people a year visit North Korea. Or, to put this in context, several thousand fewer than make it to the British Lawnmower Museum.”
• In The Independent Cathy Packe is on the Trail of the unexpected: Pachacamac. “The temporary closure of Peru’s greatest wonder will mar many an itinerary.” With Machu Picchu still cut off Packe visits the lesser known “sacred city dedicated to Pachacamac…Until the buildings of the modern capital began to encroach, this was a remote, inaccessible place; for the modern visitor, it is the cliff-top location, overlooking the ocean, that impresses.”
• “Through the accidents of history in which this city specialises, the forgotten “Prenzlberg” has become Berlin’s prettiest neighbourhood,” writes Simon Kuper in The FT. “I had barely visited Prenzlauer Berg since 1991, and walking around it with Ulrich recently, nothing looked familiar. The facades, cleansed of brown coal dust, are suddenly luminous. The centrepiece of the neighbourhood, the Kollwitzplatz, is now surely Berlin’s best square.” The Prenzlauer Berg transformed.

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