Top festivals around the world

Whether celebrating life or death, wildlife, religious deities, rowing, or even ice sculpting, festivals add another dimension to your travels. Streets thrum with music and kaleidoscopic parades, you might see traditional rituals that aren’t performed at any other time, and you’re fully embraced in local life as everyone joins in with the celebrations.

Below, we share our pick of festivals around the globe that we feel are worth experiencing as part of a wider trip.

Diwali, India

This festival of lights usually occurs between mid-October and mid-November, and is celebrated by a number of religions across India and beyond. Marking the triumph of good over evil, light over darkness, and knowledge over ignorance, it’s interpreted differently across Hindu, Sikh, and Jain communities.

Walking through towns and cities, you’ll see houses, shops, and public places lit with lanterns and small earthenware lamps called diyas, while flower displays brighten the streets further. Over five days of festivities, parades and live music take place, fireworks are set off, and gifts and sweets are exchanged.

Get me there: If you would like to visit during Diwali or one of the other festivals in India, your specialist can suggest the best stay depending on where you want to visit and what sort of experience you’d like to have.

Día de los Muertos, Mexico

A Mexican festival that takes place between 31st October and 2nd November, Day of the Dead is when families come together to pray for and remember lost relatives. Altars, called ofrendas, are constructed in both public spaces and private homes, and are often richly decorated with pumpkins and other squashes, marigolds, candles, and sugar skulls. More of a portal than a site of worship, ofrendas are intended to welcome home the spirits of loved ones. Some cities, notably Oaxaca, also host costumed parades.

At dusk, families gather at gravesides, but the atmosphere is far from funereal: there’s feasting, storytelling, singing, and sometimes even a roving mariachi band.

Get me there: For an intimate look at Day of the Dead rituals, we can arrange for you to visit a cemetery in one of the oldest towns in the Valley of Oaxaca, Xoxocotlán. With your guide, you’ll watch the village’s families bring in their flowers and candles to celebrate.

Songkran Festival, Thailand

Songkran is the welcoming of the Buddhist new year in Thailand. It’s also celebrated across Southeast Asia, albeit under different names and on slightly different dates. In Thailand, it usually occurs over a long weekend in mid-April. Festivities include parades, markets, and dance performances, but the festival’s best known for its water fights.

In temples, it’s customary to wash Buddha images with water to prepare for the new year. Outside, this tradition has evolved into a country-wide water fight, with entire communities hitting the streets with water pistols, water balloons, and buckets of water to hurl at each other. Passers-by aren’t exempt, so you’ll quickly find yourself soaking up the celebrations (quite literally) — plus, the water is a refreshing respite from April’s dry heat.

Get me there: Your Thailand specialist can steer you towards the best stay for the experience you’d like, whether that’s a quiet festival in the countryside or something more raucous in the cities.

Semana Santa, Guatemala

To mark the start of Holy Week, towns throughout Guatemala host celebrations with giant floats, each featuring wafting incense, sumptuous costumes, and enormous statues of Jesus and the Virgin Mary.

Beginning on Palm Sunday and ending on Easter, Antigua is the most spectacular place in the country to experience Holy Week. Here, residents line street after street with intricately woven alfombras (carpets), all made by hand using flowers, brightly dyed sawdust, and palm fronds, all planned months in advance. The alfombras have a vivid but fleeting beauty — they help cushion the feet of the volunteer float bearers (cucuruchos) who carry the huge statues as an act of penitence.

Get me there: To experience Semana Santa in Guatemala, ask your specialist to suggest the best Antigua hotel for you.

Obon Festival, Japan

For more than 500 years, the Japanese have commemorated their ancestors during Obon, a three-day festival that’s usually held in August. It’s celebrated through Bon Odori folk dances, seasonal cuisine, and the lighting of bonfires. Some of the largest fires are in the hills surrounding Kyoto, with huge bonfires arranged in the shape of kanji, Japanese characters.

It’s a time in Japan when people reunite to visit family cemeteries and make food offerings at temples, shrines, and home altars. At the end of the festival, many communities gather around lakes and rivers to float paper lanterns that help guide their relatives back to the spirit world.

The city of Tokushima adds a unique element to the Obon Festival — the Awa Odori dance festival. The performance dates back more than four centuries and today involves large teams of dancers, known as ren, who parade down the streets, stepping in unison wearing brightly dyed yukata.

Get me there: To experience bonfires in Kyoto or Tokushima’s Awa Odori festival, contact one of our Japan specialists.

Hermanus Whale Festival, South Africa

Known as South Africa’s whale-watching capital, the small seaside town of Hermanus sits on Walker Bay, just a couple of hours southeast of Cape Town. Here the water stays deep right up to the shoreline, so even when you’re not out on a boat trip, you’ll often have close-up views of resident Bryde’s whales and, between June and late November, migratory southern right and humpback whales.

The town is proud of its status and even has a whale crier who keeps watch for passing whales, blowing on a horn made from dried kelp to alert the public when any are spotted. And, at the end of September each year, Hermanus hosts its own whale-themed festival. Visit at this time, and you’ll find interactive exhibits about local marine life and conservation, street parades, and live music performances, as well as food trucks and craft stalls.

While you’re visiting, you can sample local cuisine with a guided food tour and visit some of the region’s quieter vineyards.

Get me there: To see the Hermanus Whale Festival, speak to a South Africa specialist, or read our guide to whale watching in South Africa.

Tsechu, Bhutan

It’s wildly inaccurate to say that Bhutan only enjoys festivals. In fact, Bhutan erupts into joyful celebrations — known as tsechu — on the tenth day of every lunar month. At the heart of the event are cham dances, which depict moral stories and scenes from the life of Buddhist saints.

Held everywhere from tiny, isolated villages to some of the country's largest dzongs (monasteries), they might involve elaborate festivities, with carefully choreographed dances and bright costumes, or just a few monks in a field. The biggest are held in Thimphu and Paro, but even in the smaller villages, visitors are welcome to attend these joyful celebrations.

Get me there: You can ask your specialist where to go for a tsechu that coincides with your visit to Bhutan.

Mardi Gras, New Orleans, USA

Flashy floats, sequined masks, feathered costumes, and the pursuit of “bon temps” (good times) all define New Orlean’s annual riot of revelry known as Mardi Gras. Beginning early in the year and culminating on Fat Tuesday (the day before Lent), this city-wide bacchanal includes parades, elaborate balls, jazz music, and ample drinking, not to mention plenty of cuisine that New Orleans is known for.

The city is a popular destination during the lead up to Mardi Gras, though devotees of the celebration say that the crowds are just part of the fun. If, while you’re visiting, you want to step away from the party, there are other ways to immerse yourself in New Orleans’ singular culture. You might take a food tour or cooking class, cruise the Mississippi on a paddlewheel steamboat, or attend a jazz performance.

Get me there: Your specialist can suggest the best New Orleans stay for your Mardi Gras trip. You can also read our guide to the music culture of the American South.

Venice Carnival and the Regata Storica, Italy

Held across the two weeks leading up to Lent, Venice Carnival is renowned for its extravagantly decorated masks and costumes. Dating back to the 11th century, the carnival includes parades, live music, and other open-air entertainment focused around Saint Mark’s Square, as well as a contest for la maschera più bella (the most beautiful mask). You can also watch gondola and boat parades along the Grand Canal.

For a greater focus on boat parades, though, visit Venice on the first Sunday in September to experience the Regata Storica, a centuries-old celebration of the city’s long history in rowing. From vantage points along the canal, you can watch boat races, as well as parades featuring brightly decorated gondolas with costumed crew.

Get me there: If you’d like to attend Carnival in Venice, we’ll arrange for tickets to the balls as well as costume rental.