CITY

• In The FT Jan Morris discovers that Oxford adapts to modern times. “Universitas Oxoniensis is presenting itself to the outside world anew, in its constant need for outside funding and official sanctions, and in doing so it seems to have found altogether new sources of energy…Over the rooftops north and south, towering cranes speak of new quadrangles, laboratories, halls of residence and research institutes…and, if you need somewhere to stay, not far away is the luxurious Malmaison, which until lately was the Oxford prison.”

• In The FT Mark Hudson visits Venice in winter. “In winter, Venice becomes a different place. The sense of this ancient, decaying city as a slightly sinister labyrinth – unforgettably captured in the 1973 film Don’t Look Now – comes to the fore…I wouldn’t come at any other time. In winter, Venice seems to revert to an earlier version of itself, to become just the place where the Venetians live.”
• “Bombay is indisputably India’s first city,” says Stanley Stewart in The Times. The Mumbai mix: a city guide reveals the many different sides of Mumbai. “In such an ancient land, Bombay is a young upstart. Developed in the 19th century to be the great port of the Raj, it hardly thought of itself as an Indian city at all until the turn of the 20th century. Now it bestrides the subcontinent like a colossus.”
• Christopher Solomon in The New York Times brings us 36 Hours in Whistler, British Columbia. “Walk down the main promenade and see everyone from rich urban castaways and old-school hippies to French-babbling Québécois and weathered dropouts shouldering skis the size of ironing boards. It makes Whistler feel worldly and cosmopolitan, even when gold medals aren’t being handed out.”
• The Telegraph features Nicky Haslam’s heaven on earth: Istanbul. “There is something quite extraordinary about Istanbul, thanks to its location on the edge of two continents…The city doesn’t just have the most amazing history, it has a fantastically glamorous setting on the Bosporus, and every time I cross the bridge linking the European and Asian parts my hair stands on end.”

ESCAPE

• In The Guardian Benji Lanyado stays in Egypt’s first eco-lodge, “The Basata Ecolodge is a collection of 20 bamboo huts and beautiful adobe chalets scattered across the seashore and backed by mountains, 46 miles south of the Israeli border….This, I realise, is the ultimate writer’s retreat.” Lanyado then proceeds onto The Al Karm Ecolodge in the heart of Sinai – one of Egypt’s most remote lodges.
• In The Guardian Kate Rew goes to Scotland’s Buddhist retreat, “a weekend’s mindfulness meditation course at the first Tibetan Buddhist monastery to be built in the west…The monastery is set in a remote valley by the river Esk, surrounded by low fells and patches of coniferous forest.” But did Rew discover inner peace? Read on…
• “There’s a problem with holidays,” writes Dixe Wills in The Observer, “However glorious the vistas, however thrilling the pursuits…there will always come a time when it is Monday morning again and you are returned to the humdrum realities of real life. The solution, of course, is to change that humdrum real life. So it was that I found myself on a holiday that promised to do just that. The mission of the Simple Living weekend is to teach “the survival skills for living outwardly simpler but inwardly richer lives”.” Wills discovers Why the good life is simplicity itself.
• “Over the past 12 months, I’ve…hiked mountains, swum in lakes, sailed rivers and canals, and lounged on beaches both Mediterranean and Atlantic. I have driven through grand landscapes convinced that I was the only person on Earth. I’ve visited more chateaux than Richard the Lionheart, and more village festivals than I can count. I’ve eaten brilliantly, whether from the village butcher and baker or a Michelin-starred chef. And afterwards I’ve wandered into midnight city centres for coffee and cognac.” Picking some lesser known destinations in France, Anthony Peregrine offers us the France holiday guide: take a fresh look in The Telegraph.
• “The mesmerising hula and big waves of Hawaiian legend do not disappoint, but there are many other reasons to visit the archipelago’s six islands,” writes Alexandra Ferguson in The Telegraph. “whether you seek beach life, outdoor adventure or indigenous culture, Hawaii has plenty to offer.” Ferguson reveals her Hawaiian highs: what to do on Oahu, Big Island and Maui.

OUTDOOR/ADVENTURE

• In The Guardian’s Rwanda Gorillas in the mix: touring Rwanda, Homa Khaleeli goes on the trail of the mountain gorilla, relaxes on one of Africa’s great lakes – Lake Kivu – and goes on safari in the Akagera national park. “there is a breathtaking amount of beauty to protect,” writes Khaleeli, “At dawn, as the dark lifted, the mist remained, turning the hill tops into islands in a seascape of cloud.”
• “Most people fall for Rio de Janeiro the moment they glimpse it from the plane,” writes Stanley Stewart in The Times. “It had never occurred to me that there were people who jumped into that view…Rio is made for altitude junkies. Its sheer-sided mountains make it a climber’s challenge and a hang-glider’s paradise. In a moment of bravado – inspired by half a dozen caipirinhas – I signed up for the hang-gliding.” Stewart takes a leap of faith and goes Hang-gliding over Rio de Janeiro.
• In The Observer Carol McDaid discovers Bergs and brutal beauty in Greenland’s magnetic north. “In early September the nightless days are over, the endless nights still to come, and home for me for a few otherworldly days was a sleek Norwegian cruise liner heading north up the west coast and bound for Disko Bay, which in my dreams at least was full of mirror balls.”
• In The Times, Nicholas Roe is on the West Coast of Scotland “on the summit of a 946m Scottish Munro in a 50mph wind that was dashing hail and ice chips painfully into our faces, me regretting that I was without goggles so was near-blind up there – stumbling, falling, flailing. My face felt raw.” This is Wild winter walking in Scotland. “The scenery was magically appearing and vanishing in fierce snow bursts. I was panting. It was cold. It was wonderful.”

FOOD

• “LA’s army of taco trucks has come a long way since the “Roach Coach” days.” writes Laura Goodman in The Times. “In this new age of mobile gourmet treats, the rides have been pimped, and so have the menus – on a trip to the beach you might unwittingly find yourself mere feet from golden grilled cheese sandwiches, sticky Korean barbeques, or sinful chocolate marshmallow cake…But if you can’t wait for the trucks to find you, they all have Twitter accounts, so that you can happen to be in the right place at the right time.” Discover California’s Food trucks: the new LA dining scene.
• Bonnie Tsui indulges in the Exotic Tastes of the Big Island in The New York Times. “Hilo, Hawaii — CHERIMOYA, calamansi, rainbow papaya. Puna ricotta, poha berries, lilikoi. Lava salsa, dinosaur kale, Hamakua mushrooms. This is the exotic-food litany on the lips of pilgrims who go to the Hilo Farmers Market, held twice a week on the lush eastern side of the Big Island.” Tsui takes us on a gastronomical tour of Hawaii.
• Stephanie Hills reveals the Top 10 Paris cafes for sipping vin chaud in The Guardian. From “swooningly romantic” cafes to a “swanky erstwhile writers’ haunt”, and find out where to combine vin chaud and a clairvoyancy with a Parisian twist.
• In The New York Times Paola Singer is On the Trail of Spain’s Acorn-Fed Hams. “Night was falling, and before us were Gothic churches, Roman arches and Moorish towers, glowing in the soft light of lanterns. It was an arresting sight, but our thoughts soon veered elsewhere – to food and the sumptuous meal we were anticipating…Most people travel to this ancient city for its architectural treasures; my friends and I had come to eat pork.”

ARTS

• Adam Nagourney is Alone (or Almost) With Michelangelo in Vatican City. “As anyone knows who has endured a visit to the Sistine Chapel during the day – the shoulder-to-shoulder scrum of tour groups, the guards barking “no pictures, no pictures,” the fight for seats, the pressure to move on to make way for the crush behind you,” writes Nagourney in The New York Times. Well, here’s an alternative: “With little fanfare, a few tour operators have in recent years arranged for after-hours group tours of the Vatican Museums, culminating with the Sistine Chapel…Only our footsteps broke the silence. We had the place to ourselves.”
• “On a recent fall evening in Sarajevo, a crowd of art enthusiasts sipped drinks as one of Bosnia’s most respected artists and curators, Jusuf Hadzifejzovic, began his remarks at the opening of a new exhibition. Suddenly, the lights went out — but he continued his speech in darkness, unfazed,” writes Yasmine Ryan in The New York Times. “Minutes later, a cleaning woman calmly pushed her cart laden with mops and detergents through the center of the audience. The speeches went on…So goes a typical opening in Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, where the contemporary art scene is in perpetual collision with everyday life.” Ryan finds that Art Crops Up in Sarajevo’s Shuttered Shops.
• In The Times Bettany Hughes uncovers Istanbul – the historian returns to the European Capital of Culture for 2010 and shares her highlights. “This is the deep charm of Istanbul; it is exciting, friendly, richly varied and paradoxical. The city has changed immeasurably since my first visit almost 30 years ago, when the Ciragan Palace was a burnt-out ruin, loos were generally holes in the ground, and the Four Seasons Hotel was still an infamous prison. Now the old really does co-exist with the new. And the arts programme this year reminds us that Istanbul has a gleaming future.”
• In The Independent Jo Caird experiences the Italian hit parade: A small town in Puglia comes alive for one of the world’s oldest festivals. “Every year, Putignano, an otherwise unremarkable town of 30,000 people in the southern Italian region of Puglia, plays host to one of the oldest and longest carnivals in the world…barely a day passes that isn’t marked by a traditional celebration of some kind, including three smaller, daytime parades on each of the Sundays before Lent.”