Zurich. Photo credit: Pedro Szekely

Each Monday, powered by Globalista, we bring you the best of the weekend’s travel pages. Looking for an escape? Look no further.

Magical cities
“Summer brings out the best in Switzerland’s largest city, where prosperity has fuelled vibrant culture and nightlife. Zürich has more than 50 museums and an opera house that has staged the highest number of world premières,” Anthony Lambert declares in The Independent’s 48 Hours In: Zürich. Meanwhile, Boston’s $15 million (and way over-budget) Big Dig project has given the historic city a new lease on life, Katie Zezima claimed in The New York Times, in her quick 36 Hours in Boston: “Boston is known for its bricks and brownstones, but the city is starting to take on a glossier, more modern sheen. With the completion of the $15 billion Big Dig, downtown now stretches unimpeded to the harbor, making Boston feel like a whole new city.”

A bit further afield,The New York Times’s Susanne Fowler discovers a new festival Blending Jazz and Religion in Istanbul: “A series of eight concerts will be held at two open-air venues…But the most interesting element linking the shows is that they are taking place during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, as part of a series called — what else? — Jazz in Ramadan.”

Beach holidays, with a twist
Looking for somewhere sandy to go as the summer days drain away? If you’re in the UK, look no further than your own backyard. “Seaside holiday or city break? Happily, Brighton offers both…because Brighton comes with all the perks of a big city – museums, galleries, parks, sleek hotels, unforgettable architecture, fabulous shopping and food from every continent – while having one of best-loved beaches in the country,” The Independent’s Fiona Sturges claimed, after exploring Brighton: Oriental excess in seaside Sussex. In The Guardian, Patrick Barkham finds the perfect bolthole on the UK coast in Beach huts: cabin fervour: “A tropical paradise the Lincolnshire coast is not. And yet the land here is strangely affecting. The coast here feels like an island, desolate and full of surprises.” Just over on the Continent, The New York Times’s Seth Sherwood is forgoing the Cote D’Azur for its quieter counterpart, the Côte Fleurie, and  enjoying Normandy’s Quiet Glamour in Honfleur, Cabourg and Deauville.

If you’re searching for somewhere a bit more exotic, The Telegraph’s Lisa Grainger suggests Mozambique: Earth at its most raw and beautiful: “To walk stretches of powder-fine white beaches without another footprint on them. To gasp at a voluminous orange full moon rising at 9pm over the dark sea, its mountains visible with bare eyes. And to marvel at the energy and enthusiasm of this country, desperately trying to rebuild itself.”

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