Festivals and Events

Oct 26, 2017 • 6 min read

With year-round sunshine, huge, sandy beaches, gorgeous scenery and vibrant, world-class cities, the Valencia region can pretty much guarantee most of…

Sep 20, 2017 • 5 min read

In some parts of the world January means hunkering down and hibernating to avoid the chill, but elsewhere hotter climes mean the cultural offerings are…

Aug 11, 2017 • 4 min read

Brussels may not scream Speedos and sunscreen, but when the big ball in the sky is ablaze and the city’s thermometers are on the up, the Belgian capital…

Jun 1, 2017 • 6 min read

As the former HQ of the Hapsburg Empire, the Austrian capital has a flabbergasting stash of cultural and art treasures – more than you could ever hope to…

May 22, 2017 • 5 min read

Sequinned revellers, shiny pants, pilgrimages and historic towns – July certainly has a lot in store for the culture-conscious traveller.

May 10, 2017 • 6 min read

Secluded in the mountainous Hida region of central Japan, Takayama is a place where Japanese history and tradition flourish in the 21st century…

May 9, 2017 • 6 min read

Tokyo is dazzling, frenetic and fashionably cool, but there are times when the population crush and non-stop energy turns this urban paradise into a…

May 2, 2017 • 5 min read

Valencia’s myriad attractions are no secret, and the Costa Blanca is never short on visitors; but you don’t hear a great deal about the province of…

Feb 24, 2017 • 9 min read

Dawn is tinting the Atlas Mountains rust-red as the rose-pickers of Hdida set out for work. Dressed in flip-flops and djellabas (full-length hooded…

Jan 8, 2016 • 5 min read

High-tech and traditional, conservative and innovative, quaint and quirky – there’s much more to the Free State (as Bavaria is known) than the…

Jan 7, 2016 • 4 min read

When it comes to adventure, you can’t go wrong in Ecuador. There are towering Andean peaks and volcanoes, vast swaths of Amazonian rain forest, chilled…

Sep 25, 2015 • 5 min read

Sandwiched between tourism giants Argentina and Brazil, Uruguay might suffer from ‘middle child’ syndrome. Lip service is paid to the Portuguese-founded…

May 5, 2015 • 5 min read

There’s nothing quite like Friday night fight night at the Arena México. This long-standing venue in central Mexico City is the place to see one of the…

Apr 13, 2015 • 5 min read

Every February the infectious sights and sounds of carnaval (carnival) return to Rio de Janeiro. The world’s best known party has taken place in the month…

Mar 11, 2015 • 5 min read

Carnival – a festive season that typically includes parades and public street parties – is serious business in the Caribbean. The saying here goes that…

Feb 25, 2015 • 5 min read

This month, hope swells in the heart of every New Yorker: spring is on the way! It’s a false hope, though, as aside from the springing forward of the…

Feb 17, 2015 • 4 min read

From reggae to dancehall, few countries are so defined by their music as Jamaica. For its size, the country produces more music than any other place on…

Jan 7, 2015 • 5 min read

It’s an engineering marvel, a multibillion-dollar commercial behemoth. The Panama Canal, which joins the Atlantic to the Pacific, is certainly Panama’s…

Dec 11, 2014 • 6 min read

There you are, playing table tennis with a stranger in the middle of a park. All around you loom primeval trees festooned with vines. Around noon, you…

Dec 8, 2014 • 5 min read

There are few places on earth as festive-feeling as Barcelona's chocolate-box medieval heart over the Christmas period (which here runs until Epiphany, or…

Dec 1, 2014 • 7 min read

Central America is one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet but its natural assets are just part of its allure. The “sweet waist of America", as…

Dec 1, 2014 • 4 min read

The run up to Christmas is one of the most charming times to visit Barcelona, its streets hung with twinkling lights and lined with craft and food markets…