Planet Earth, BBC’s award-winning documentary brought together some of the most stunning nature footage from over 200 locations in 62 countries. The Traveller’s Guide to Planet Earth, Lonely Planet’s new photo-filled companion to the series, tells you how to visit 50 of the documentary’s most memorable destinations.
We asked Lonely Planet founder Tony Wheeler and Planet Earth producer Mark Brownlow to do the impossible: select their three favourite spots around the world that best encapsulate the beauty and wonder that is Planet Earth.
One lap of Mt Kailash and all the sins of my lifetime are washed away. Well, this lifetime; it would take another 107 circuits to clean up all my lifetimes.
Those sin-cleaning capabilities are just a sample of the magic of western Tibet. It’s a place of endless vistas, forgotten cities and people whose beliefs seem to merge with the landscape. The final magic comes when my travels end and I turn east for the drive to Lhasa. How many places in the world can you end up a solid week’s drive from the nearest airport?
It’s the sheer simplicity of Antarctica that is so amazing. There is no rainbow spectrum of colours, everything is either blue (the sky, the sea), white (the snow, the ice and half of every penguin) or black (the rocks, the whales and the other half of those penguins). The wildlife is equally simple, equally dramatic – you don’t get hundreds of different animals or birds, but the lack of variety is easily overwhelmed by sheer numbers. One penguin is a delight, 10,000 are mind blowing. It’s hardly surprising that far from being a one-off experience of a lifetime, a visit to Antarctica seems to inspire return trips.
The cities are beautiful, the Barrier Reef is a wonder, but it’s the Outback – the deserts – that really brings Australia home. I’ve never done an Australian Outback trip that wasn’t a great experience – whether it’s roller-coasting in a 4WD up and down the thousand sand dunes across the Simpson Desert or trekking on foot along the rocky spine of the Larapinta Trail. Yet, that Australian love affair always carries a hint of danger: the Outback can be that edgily dangerous lover who just might pull out the knife hidden under the bed one night.
If you suffer from vertigo this is not the place for you. With no safety rail to steady you, peering over the near-1000m drop of the world’s tallest waterfall is a heart-in-the-mouth experience. Such is the height of these falls, that long before the water can reach Devil’s Canyon below, it is blown away as a fine mist. Away in the distance lies the inspiration for Arthur Conan Doyle’s Lost World: a prehistoric land of impenetrable jungle and isolated mountain plateaus. Is that a pterodactyl I can see in the distance?
The booms of fracturing ice echo all around you as the planet’s largest freshwater lake begins to melt. The harsh Siberian winter is finally retreating under the radiant spring sunshine and the lake’s metre-thick icy crust is breaking up. This is not exactly what you want to hear when crossing the world’s deepest lake by campervan. But it’s only during this three week window in March, when conditions are just right, that you can squeeze through an ice hole into the freshwater wonderland below. Dramatic ice sculptures and green forests of living sponge provide the backdrop for the lake’s unique population of bizarre creatures – from giant amphipods to the comical Baikal seal.
Few things prepare you for such a display of raw brutality, a sobering reminder that for many animals life is still a battle for survival. The war zone is Seal Island, 12 miles off Simon’s Town, a sleepy coastal resort in the Eastern Cape. The victim, a doe-eyed Cape fur seal pup, is on its daily trek out to its fishing grounds. The enemy, every swimmer’s worst nightmare, is a one-ton great white shark. At dawn it is possible to take a ring-side view onboard one of a handful of charter boats and bear witness to jaw-dropping attacks as these terrifyingly huge sharks torpedo out of the water. It’s voyeuristic and bloody, but mesmerising. On returning to shore you may think twice about jumping on that surf board. Ignorance is bliss.
Believe it or not, there are places that regularly experience colder temperatures than we’re feeling in the parts of Europe currently locked in a deep freeze. How cold are we talking? Jolly cold. The coldest temperature ever recorded was in Antarctica, the frosty thermometer reading -89°C or -128°F. Brrr.
These chilly destinations should make you feel better about pulling on that third sweater. Want to know exactly where it could be worse?
Greenland
Many visitors to Greenland make a beeline for the iceberg-studded Disko Bay, and more specifically to Ilulissat, the centre of the country’s tourist industry. The town is home to star attraction Ilulissat Kangerlua (Jakobshavn Icefjord), the northern hemisphere’s most prolific tidewater glacier. The massive ice-choked expanse it creates disgorges gargantuan icebergs – some weighing up to seven million tonnes – into Disko Bay, a truly stunning sight.
Canada’s Dempster Highway
Starting from Dawson, the last remnant of the Yukon gold rush, the Dempster winds its way through pristine wilderness flanked by craggy peaks and rolling tundra before arriving at the Arctic hub of Inuvik, gateway to the remote communities of the Western Arctic. One of the most incredible road trips on earth, the Dempster Hwy is one of only two roads in North America that cross the Arctic Circle. It’s a road deep in history, with stunning scenery and myriad chances to see wildlife. You may catch sight of moose, and wolves as well as peregrine falcons, golden eagles, and Arctic terns, all without leaving the road.
Russia: Yakutsk
Talk about bizarre: Yakutsk, the world’s coldest city stands on stilts (the shifting permafrost collapses buildings otherwise) and is pretty much cut off from the already remote Far East. A dodgy road to the BAM line (a branch of the Trans-Siberian Express) takes a ferry ride and 24 hours, while airfares can be extremely expensive! Yet, unlike so many remote Russian cities out here, Yakutsk roars with optimism and gusto.
Mongolia: Ulaanbaatar
Often described as the world’s coldest capital, Ulaanbaatar is an enormous city of pulsating commerce, heavy traffic, sinful nightlife and bohemian counter-culture. As Mongolia’s cultural, political, economic and social hub it is the logical base for excursions into the countryside. First however, take the time to explore its excellent sights and museums, fill up at some great restaurants and soak in the eclectic vibe. But wrap up warm; nostril freezing temperatures are the norm from December to February.
Antarctica: The South Pole
The average temperature on Antarctica’s polar plateau is -49.4°C or -56.0°F but wind chills can send mercury plummeting to -110°C. It is possible to visit the South Pole, usually by flight from mainland South America. You’ll probably visit the Ceremonial Pole and the Geographic Pole to take your ‘hero pictures.’ You can also expect to be invited inside the US scientific research station for a visit to the dining room and possibly a quick look around. The station shop sells souvenirs, and you can have letters or postcards stamped with the station’s postmark.
How to beat the winter blues
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Miami residents doing what they're famous for: cycling and rollerblading along South Beach
Lee Foster
Lonely Planet Photographer
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New Year’s Eve has been and gone and it doesn’t seem like there’s much to look forward to. Right?
Wrong. There are loads of destination based activities that are perfect to explore at this time of year and they’re sure to help wash away those winter blues. Here are just some:
Wildlife watching in Antarctica
January and February are the perfect months to visit Antarctica. The continent is experiencing summer time, though don’t be fooled into thinking it will be warm – it won’t, Antarctica never is. But it is at least light.
January is the height of the austral summer, bringing warmer temperatures and up to 20 hours of sunlight every day, penguins are hatching eggs and chicks are feeding. In the late summer months of February and March, whale-watching is at its best, penguin chicks are beginning to fledge and adult penguins are ashore molting.
Soaking up the sun in Miami
The beginning of a new year is the height of the tourist season in Miami. Expect fair weather, crowds of visitors, higher prices than usual and a slew of special events including the Art Deco weekend. February is the last hurrah for northern US residents needing to escape the harsh winter. It brings arts festivals and street parties such as South Beach Wine and Food festival, as well as warm days and cool nights.
Adventure sports in Peru
Cuzco’s human history is Peru’s biggest tourism drawcard, but there’s more on offer. Locals and visitors alike are waking up to the adventure-sport possibilities of a region perched on the eastern edge of the Andes, where you can drop from breathtaking snowy altitudes to the suffocating heat of the Amazon jungle at dizzying speed. While Cuzco’s trekking opportunities are already well known, its biking and rafting routes are now gaining the recognition they deserve. There are extreme sportspeople who have been to Cuzco more than once and never visited Machu Picchu: they’re too busy biking, hiking, running rivers and climbing.
Partying in Taiwan
Shang Yuan, or Tawain’s lantern festival, is well worth planning your trip around. In 2011 the event falls on 17th January to celebrate the last night of Chinese New Year and it’s full moon.
Celebrations begin with participants releasing lanterns into the night sky. In the capital Taipei, Shang Yuan related activities include a 15-day festival in Wenxin Forest Park – where giant floats depicting the Chinese New Year animal and other effergies are lit up from within.
- Read more in January’s Lonely Planet magazine
Safari in Namibia
With only a car window separating you from the surrounding white plains, a thermos of early-morning coffee and cameras ready, there are few places that can match the wildlife prospects of dawn in Etosha National Park. Just one day of wildlife watching at a single waterhole can produce literally thousands of sightings, which has justifiably earned Etosha the reputation as one of the best wildlife reserves in the world.
If you have the time to spare, don’t overlook northern Namibia’s other highlights, which run the gamut from lofty plateaus and art-laden caves to hulking meteorites and dinosaur footprints.
No place on earth compares to this vast white wilderness distilled to an elemental haiku: snow, ice, water, rock. Antarctica is simply stunning. The enormity of its ice shelves and mountain ranges invariably heightens feelings of humanity’s insignificance and nature’s grandeur. Antarctica’s peculiar beauty may haunt you for the rest of your days. Even the trip over, crossing the Southern Ocean is an experience – with no landmass, low-pressure systems circle clockwise unimpeded, eventually reaching incredible speeds. The Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic are often included in a trip to Antarctica
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Because the continent has never had a native population – even today, scientists and other staff members at research stations are only temporary residents – Antarctic wildlife is still unafraid of people. Well-behaved visitors usually elicit no more than disinterested yawns from seals and penguins focused on rearing their young and evading predators. The human reaction is exactly opposite: almost all visitors to Antarctica find that their experiences here exceed their expectations.
Everyone – scientist, support worker, government official and tourist alike – who comes to this, the most isolated continent, must ‘earn’ Antarctica, either by making an often-difficult voyage or a costly flight. Ice and weather, not clocks or calendars, determine the itinerary and the timetable of all travel here.
An international treaty signed by 46 countries, representing the large majority of the world’s population, governs Antarctica. The continent, the treaty parties concur, is too large and important to belong to just one country. They further agree that Antarctica, unique among the world’s landmasses, should remain a peaceful, free and demilitarized place of international cooperation and scientific research, open to all, with a minimum of human development.
Antarctica’s most pressing issue is its environment and how best to protect it. The major impacts on the Antarctic environment are caused by people who have never even visited it. Climate change and ozone depletion are prime examples of the way human activity elsewhere affects Antarctica. But studies have also found that lead particles from gasoline combustion are blown to Antarctica as soon as one month after they leave exhaust pipes in South America, Australia and New Zealand, and pesticide residue has been found both in seabird guano and in penguin tissues. Plastic and other rubbish washes up on Antarctica’s beaches in ever-increasing amounts.
Human activity in the Antarctic is also having negative impacts. Longline fishing for Patagonian toothfish has been a twofold environmental disaster. Toothfish are caught in enormous and unsustainable numbers, with much of the catch illegal, and albatrosses in their thousands are also caught on the steel hooks, dragged down hundreds of meters and drowned – an ignoble end for such magnificent fliers.
Despite continuing concerns that oil drillers or miners will ruin Antarctica’s snowscape, the continent’s largest industry by far is tourism. While governments fret over how best to regulate tourism to minimize its impact, they’re hindered by the fact that since no one owns Antarctica, no single country can legislate behavior here. Meanwhile, tour companies police themselves, although no industry has ever been completely successful at that task, fraught as it is with conflicts of interest. For Antarctica’s sake, may the parties involved use their best judgment for the sake of safeguarding the Antarctic environment, and not just their own individual financial concerns.
From the lazy beaches of the South Pacific and Micronesia where coconuts fall and time is lost to the thrumming capitals of Australia and New Zealand, this is a region where the rainforest meets the sea (and city) with jaw dropping landscapes and vibrant metropolises offering a myriad of opportunities for exploring incredible culture, festivals and food.
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Embrace the tyranny of distance. Whether you’re floating the sunset away in Tuvalu or floating down Tasmania’s Franklin River, the Pacific offers more islands than you can shake a snorkel at.
World’s best festivals in January
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Performers amongst audience of Festival in the Desert.
Hugh Watts
Lonely Planet Photographer
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This is an excerpt from Lonely Planet’s A Year of Festivals.
Festivals are a living, dancing museum of cultures and traditions in an increasingly globalised world. There is no better place for travellers to understand a country than an event where it proudly celebrates its individuality, whether through music, camel races or monumental food fights.
The top festivities for January are listed below. Start the year with a bang, a drum, a chant, a bath, etc.
Junkanoo
Location: Nassau, Bahamas. Dates: 1 January and 26 December Celebrated throughout the country, Junkanoo is at its wildest best in the capital city, Nassau, where the first ‘rush’ (as the parade is known) takes place on Boxing Day and the second on New Year’s Day. Read more.
Kaapse Klopse (Cape Minstrel Carnival)
Location: Cape Town, South Africa.
Dates: Starts 2 January, and goes for a month
Cape Town’s largest carnival is a noisy, joyous and disorganised affair featuring marching troupes adorned in practically every colour of satin, sequin and glitter. Read more.
Carnaval de Blancos y Negros (Carnival of Blacks & Whites)
Location: Pasto, Colombia
Dates: 5–6 January
One of South America’s oldest festivals, Pasto’s piebald celebration dates back to the time of Spanish rule, when slaves were allowed to party on 5 January, with their masters showing approval by painting their faces black. Read more.
Bikaner Camel Festival
Location: Bikaner, India
Dates: Varying dates in January (during the 10th month of the Indian lunar calendar)
Held over two days, it’s a homage to the humped ones. There are camel races, camel rides, camel tugs-of-war, a camel pageant, dancing camels, competitions for the best decorated camel and the best camel haircut, and even a camel beauty contest. Read more.
Festival in the Desert
Location: Essakane, Mali
Dates: Second weekend in January
For three days a year, a desolate patch of Saharan sand, 65km north of Timbuktu, hosts ‘the world’s most remote music festival’. Read more.
Voodoo Festival
Location: Ouidah, Benin.
Date: 10 January
The celebrations begin when the supreme voodoo priest slaughters a goat to honour the spirits, and are marked by much singing, chanting, dancing, beating of drums and drinking of gin. Read more.
Location: Mt Wakakusa-yama, Nara, Japan
Date: Second Sunday in January
Winter in the Japanese region of Kansai would seem a good enough excuse for one of the world’s biggest bonfires, but in Nara they point to history as the reason for setting alight an entire hill each year. Read more.
Black Nazarene Procession
Location: Quiapo, Manila, Philippines
Date: 9 January
The miracle-wielding Black Nazarene is a life-size statue of Christ carved from ebony. It was brought to the Philippines from Mexico in the 17th century and placed in Manila’s Quiapo Church in 1767. Read more.
Location: Kalibo, Philippines.
Dates: Third week in January
The amazing Ati-Atihan is the Philippines’ biggest, wildest and best Mardi Gras, a week-long street party that rages from dawn to dusk, peaking on the third Sunday in January. Read more.
Location: San Sebastian, Spain.
Date: 20 January
At the stroke of midnight a flag is raised in Plaza de la Constitucíon and regiments of soldierly drummers begin parading through the resort town, banging and thumping at drums and barrels to celebrate (or wake from the dead) the city’s eponymous patron saint. Read more.
Location: Fasilidas’ Bath, Gonder, Ethiopia
Dates: 18–20 January
Ethiopia’s most colourful festival commemorates Jesus’ baptism in the River Jordan and is celebrated around the country, though it’s most spectacular in the former capital of Gonder. Read more.
Accompong Maroon Festival (Accompong, Jamaica; 6 January) Celebrates the ongoing legacy of the Maroons (descendants of runaway slaves) with traditional dance, song and Maroon war drums. Rose Parade (Los Angeles, USA; 1 January) www.tournamentofroses.com Cavalcade of floral floats along Pasadena’s Colorado Blvd, followed by the Rose Bowl football game. Polar Bear Swim (Vancouver, Canada; 1 January) Welcome in the New Year on English Bay Beach, joining hundreds in an ice-cold winter dip. Winter Festival (Moscow, Russia; 25 December-5 January) Outdoor funfest in which competing teams build elaborate ice sculptures in front of the Pushkin Fine Arts Museum and on Red Sq. Kite Festival (Jaipur, India; 14 January) Celebrated all over India on Makar Sankranti, it’s most spectacular in Jaipur where, Kite Runner–style, participants compete to cut down each others’ kites in a crowded sky. Gangasagar Mela (Sagar Island, India; 14 January) Hundreds of thousands of Hindu pilgrims converge to bathe en masse at the point where the Ganges meets the sea. Vogel Gryff (Basel, Switzerland; 12, 20 or 27 January) www.vogel-gryff.ch, in German Symbolically chases away winter from Kleinbasel, with three key figures – the griffin (Vogel Gryff), the savage and the lion – dancing to a drum beat on a raft on the Rhine. Dubai Shopping Festival (Dubai, United Arab Emirates; dates vary in January) www.dubaishoppingfestival.com Month-long shoppers’ bonanza in Arabia’s retail ringleader. Tamworth Country Music Festival (Tamworth, Australia; culminating on last full weekend in January) www.tamworthcountrymusic.com.au Ten-day festival featuring more than 700 artists. World Buskers Festival (Christchurch, New Zealand; mid-January) www.worldbuskersfestival.com Ten-day gathering of the world’s best street performers. Sundance Film Festival (Utah, USA: beginning on the third Thursday in January and running for 10 days) www.sundance.org/festival The USA’s largest independent film festival. International Circus Festival of Monte Carlo (Monte Carlo; from the third Thursday in January) www.montecarlofestivals.com, in French. Clowning around for 11 days in the cashed-up principality.
World’s best festivals in April
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Partygoers wearing orange novelty hats celebrate Queen's Day on Thorbeckeplein.
Martin Moos
Lonely Planet Photographer
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This is an excerpt from Lonely Planet’s A Year of Festivals.
Festivals are a living, dancing museum of cultures and traditions in an increasingly globalised world. There is no better place for travellers to understand a country than an event where it proudly celebrates its individuality, whether through music, camel races or monumental food fights.
The top festivities for April are listed below.
Semana Santa (Holy Week)
Location: Antigua, Guatemala and Seville, Spain. Seville’s carrera oficial (official route) begins on Calle Campana, follows Calle Sierpes to Plaza de San Francisco and then joins Avenida de la Constitución to the cathedral.
Dates: Easter week
Easter week is a big deal across the Spanish-speaking world but, an ocean apart, it’s Antigua and Seville that celebrate it with the most gusto. In the Americas, Antigua really comes alive during Semana Santa, when the streets are covered in breathtakingly elaborate alfombras (carpets) of coloured sawdust and flower petals. Read more.
Holy Week
Location:Braga, Portugal. Celebrations are centred on Sé Cathedral.
Dates:Easter week
A religious power base since the 6th century, Braga is known as the Rome of Portugal, so it should be no surprise that, like Seville and Antigua, it holds one of the world’s great Easter celebrations. To help drive out worldly thoughts during Holy Week, Gregorian chants are piped throughout the city centre, and at night streets are ablaze with makeshift candlelit altars. Read more.
World Marbles Championships
Location:The Greyhound, Tinsley Green, England Date: Good Friday
You probably played marbles as a kid but did your parents ever tell you that if you knuckled down and worked on your tolleys you could be a world champion? The championships are held each year in the car park of this West Sussex pub – the Wembley of marbles. Read more.
Location:Allahabad, Haridwar, Ujjain or Nasik, India
Dates: Vary widely, occurring when Jupiter enters Aquarius and the sun enters Aries. The event lasts for more than one month.
The largest religious gathering on earth occurs four times every 12 years, when tens of millions of Hindu pilgrims come together to take a ceremonial dip in the sacred Ganges, Shipra or Godavari Rivers. Location:s for the gathering hopscotch across the plains between Allahabad, Haridwar, Ujjain and Nasik, cities where drops of the nectar of immortality were spilled from its kumbh (pitcher) during a battle between demi-gods and demons. Read more.
Bisket Jatra (Nepali New Year)
Location: Khalna Tole, Bhaktapur, Nepal
Dates: Mid-April (the beginning of the Nepali month of Baisakh)
Bisket Jatra heralds the start of the Nepali New Year and is celebrated with the most aplomb in Bhaktapur. In one of the most exciting annual events in the Kathmandu valley, a huge and ponderous chariot carrying images of the god Bhairab is hauled by dozens of villagers to Khalna Tole. Read more.
Sisters’ Meal Festival
Location: Shīdòng, China Dates:Begins on the 15th day of the third lunar month (usually mid- to late April)
Love is in the air in this courtship ritual in eastern Guìzhōu, when young Miao (or Hmong) women and men set about finding themselves partners through the medium of sticky rice. Read more.
Songkran Water Festival (Thai New Year)
Location: Throughout Thailand Dates: 13–15 April
The Lunar New Year in Thailand marks a time when the country literally goes to water. Part a time of respect and part riot, Songkran is an occasion when images of the Buddha are ‘bathed’ and young Thais seek the blessing of their elders by pouring scented water over their hands (a ceremony known as rod nahm dum hua). Read more.
Feria de Abril (April Fair)
Location:El Real de la Feria, Seville, Spain
Dates: Two weeks after Semana Santa (the week leading up to Easter Sunday)
A jolly postscript to sombre Semana Santa, the Feria de Abril is the biggest and most colourful of all Andalucía’s ferias (festivals). If the name suggests pie bake-offs and apple bobbing, it’s misleading, for the Feria de Abril promises a week of full-blown partying. Read more.
Feria de San Marcos (Festival of St Mark)
Location:Expoplaza, Aguascalientes, Mexico
Dates: Dates: vary: starts mid-April and runs for almost a month
Mexico’s largest annual state fair started out in 1828 as a simple agriculture and livestock show but now routinely attracts one million visitors with exhibitions, a beauty pageant, rodeos, free concerts (recent performers have included Shakira and Julio Iglesias), the National Poetry Award and an extravaganza of other cultural events. Read more.
Walpurgisnacht (Witches’ Night)
Location:Brocken, Harz Mountains, Germany Date: 30 April
What better way to see out April than on a mountain top in the company of witches and warlocks. According to local mythology, said witches and warlocks gather on Walpurgisnacht (which takes its name from Saint Walburga, whose feast day is 1 May) at locations throughout the Harz Mountains before flying off to 1142m Brocken on broomsticks or goats. Read more.
New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
Location: Fair Grounds, New Orleans, USA
Dates: Last weekend of April and first weekend of May
Where else would you want your jazz than in the city that spawned it? After Mardi Gras, ‘Jazz Fest’ is New Orleans’ second-biggest reason to party, a feel-good musical smorgasbord served up on more than 10 stages across two weekends. Jazz Fest began as a celebration of the city’s 250th birthday in 1968, an event that attracted musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Dave Brubeck. Read more.
Fiesta de Moros y Cristianos (Moors & Christians Festival)
Location:Alcoy, Spain. The processions converge on Alcoy’s main plaza.
Dates: 22–24 April
More than 80 towns and villages south of Valencia hold a Fiesta de Moros y Cristianos to celebrate the Reconquista, the region’s liberation from Muslim rule in the 13th century. Biggest and best known of the festivities are those in Alcoy, where hundreds of locals dress up in elaborate traditional costumes representing different ‘factions’ or filaes. Read more.
Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Date: 30 April (if 30 April is a Sunday it’s celebrated on 29 April)
Birthday celebrations for queens are supposed to involve tea and polite conversation, but the Dutch like to give their queen a more rollicking party. This nationwide holiday honours Queen Beatrix (though it’s held on the birth Date: of her mother Queen Juliana) and in Amsterdam in particular it’s a crazy, wonderful madhouse celebration. Read more.
Golden Mask Festival (Moscow, Russia; throughout April) www.goldenmask.ru Two weeks of performances by Russia’s premier drama, opera, dance and musical performers, culminating in a prestigious awards ceremony Carnaval Des Soufflets (Bellows Festival; Nontron, France; first weekend in April) A bizarre day in which the townsfolk use bellows to blow air up each others’ nightshirts, claiming that they’re blowing away evil spirits Kanamara Matsuri (Kawasaki, Japan; first Sunday in April) The ‘Festival of the Steel Phallus’ sees a huge pink penis paraded through the streets…it’s all about protecting 17thcentury prostitutes from syphilis, apparently One World Unity Party (Rustler’s Valley, South Africa; Easter) Music festival in a remote and stunning valley near the Lesotho border. Trelawny Yam Festival (Albert Town, Jamaica; Easter Monday) Capers such as yam-balancing races, best-dressed goat and donkey and the crowning of the Yam King and Queen. Aurudu (Throughout Sri Lanka; 14 April) The Sri Lankan New Year is a time of family rituals and special Aurudu food; Sri Lankan expats like to celebrate it in the cooler hills around Nuwara Eliya. French Quarter Festival (New Orleans, USA; second weekend in April) www.fqfi.org Jazz Fest’s smaller cousin, with the advantage of less people, an intimate Vieux Carré setting and free admission. Bun Pi Mai Lao (Luang Prabang, Laos; 13–15 April) The Lao New Year is celebrated in similar, damp style to Thailand’s Songkran. Chaul Chnam (Cambodia; 13–15 April) A lively New Year in Cambodia, when the Khmers go wild with water and talcum powder, as well as exchanging gifts and making offerings at wats Tyme (Iqaluit, Canada; second or third week in April) www.tooniktyme.com Arctic Canada welcomes back the sun with five days of dog races, fishing, igloo building and seal hunting. Beltane Fire Festival (Edinburgh, Scotland; 30 April) www.beltane.org A Scottish variation on Walpurisnacht, this pagan fi re festival sees more than 10,000 people converge on Calton Hill for an incredibly wild and wacky night. Fêtes Des Masques (Dogon Country, Mali; April) Five days of dance featuring traditional Dogon masks. Coachella (Coachella Valley, USA; last weekend of April) www.coachella.com Three-day Californian music festival that has featured the likes of Björk and Red Hot Chili Peppers.
World’s best festivals in February
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Kumquat and Peach trees are taken home in readiness for the Tet Festival, not unlike Christmas trees in the west, kumquats and other trees or New Year Trees (cay neu) are decorated to ward off evil spirits
Mason Florence
Lonely Planet Photographer
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This is an excerpt from Lonely Planet’s A Year of Festivals.
Festivals are a living, dancing museum of cultures and traditions in an increasingly globalised world. There is no better place for travellers to understand a country than an event where it proudly celebrates its individuality, whether through music, camel races or monumental food fights.
The top festivities for February are listed below.
Chūn Jié (Spring Festival/Chinese New Year)
Location: Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong
Dates: Lunar New Year (between 19 January and 20 February)
Chinese New Year is celebrated around much of the world – where there’s a Chinatown there’s invariably a Chinese New Year party – but there’s something special about being in one of China’s major cities for the the high point of the Chinese year. Read more.
Tet Nguyen Dan (Festival of the First Day)
Location: Throughout Vietnam Dates: Lunar New Year (between 19 January and 20 February)
In Vietnam, Tet ushers in the New Year and is by far the biggest day on the national calendar. Tet rites begin a week before New Year’s Day, and the first three days of the New Year are official holidays, but the event visitors will really want to experience is New Year’s Eve. Read more.
Location: Zhaolin Park and Sun Island Park, Hāěrbīn, China
Dates: 5 January–15 FebruaryChina’s northern Hēilóngjiāng province may be cursed with one of the coldest climates in Asia, but its capital Hāěrbīn has made the best of a bad thing with its International Ice and Snow Festival. Read more.
Location: Batu Caves, outside of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Date: Full moon day in the 10th Tamil month of Thai (mid-January to mid- February)
The most spectacular Hindu festival in Malaysia is a wild orgy of seemingly hideous body piercings, marking the day when Lord Shiva’s son, Murugan, was given a lance to vanquish three demons. Read more.
Carnaval de Québec (Winter Carnival)
Location: Old Town, Québec City, Canada. Events centre on Parc de l’Esplanade.
Dates: Late January to mid-February (varies each year)
Billing itself as the world’s largest winter carnival, the 17-day Carnaval de Québec was first created in 1894 as a way to beat the winter chills, though it only took on its current form in the 1950s. Read more.
Carnevale Venezia (Venice Carnival)
Location: Venice, Italy. Piazza San Marco is the focus of the festival.
Dates: Begins two Fridays before Ash Wednesday, finishing on Fat (Shrove) Tuesday
The high point in Venice’s social calendar, Carnevale is a masked extravaganza, and your chance to spend 12 days looking like the Phantom of the Opera. The world’s best-known baroque fancy-dress party, it’s as extravagant as Rio’s Carnaval is riotous, celebrating the approach of spring with refined gusto. Read more.
Pasola
Location: Sumba, Indonesia
Dates:During February and March; the timing is determined by the arrival of a type of sea worm called nyale
A riotous tournament between two teams of spear-wielding, ikat-clad horsemen, the Pasola has to be one of Asia’s most extravagant, and bloodiest, harvest festivals. Read more.
Argungu Fishing Festival
Location: Argungu, Nigeria Dates: Around mid-February
Don’t come to this fishing festival expecting to see a few people lazily casting lines into the river; this is one of the more unusual events you’re ever likely to witness. Read more.
St Valentine’s Day
Location: Terni, Italy. The feast takes place outside the Basilica di San Valentino.
Dates: Throughout February, but particularly 14 February
Where better to swing hands with a loved one on St Valentine’s Day than at the St Valentine’s feast in the eponymous saint’s Umbrian hometown. Read more.
Saidai-ji Eyō (Naked Festival)
Location: Kannon-in temple, Saidai-ji, Japan
Date: Third Saturday in February
Naked Festivals are common (if a little overstated, since participants wear loincloths) throughout Japan in the early New Year but the most extraordinary is the one in the Kannon-in temple outside of Okayama. Read more.
Carnaval de Binche
Location: Binche, Belgium. The parade begins at the town hall.
Date: Fat (Shrove) Tuesday
Come prepared for a bruising at Belgium’s most bizarre carnival celebration. Listed by Unesco as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, the Binche carnival sees local men, known as Gilles, stomp around while wearing strange green-eyed masks and shaking sticks to ward off evil spirits. Read more.
Location: Ivrea, Italy. The battle takes place in the town’s main square.
Dates: Concludes on Fat (Shrove) Tuesday
A part of Ivrea’s carnival celebration, Battaglia delle Arance is something of an orange version of Valencia’s famed La Tomatina. For three consecutive days, nine teams of ‘revolutionaries’ (3,500 people in all) pound each other with 400,000kg of oranges. Read more.
Art Deco Weekend
Location: Venues around Napier and Hastings, New Zealand
Dates: Third weekend of February
When the Hawkes Bay town of Napier was all but destroyed by an earthquake in 1931, Art Deco moved in. Rebuilt almost entirely in Art Deco style (with a splash of Spanish Mission thrown in), the town – along with neighbouring Hastings – is now one of the world’s best examples of Art Deco design. Read more.
Location: Oruro, Bolivia
Dates: 10 days around Ash Wednesday
Listed by Unesco as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, Bolivia’s largest annual celebration is a massive event said to draw in around 400,000 people. Its centrepiece is La Diablada, the ‘Dance of the Devils’, an extraordinary parade that showcases demonic dancers in extravagant costumes. Read more.
Jenadriyah National Festival
Location: Al Jenadriyah, Saudi Arabia Dates: Late February or early March
Held at a special site 45km northeast of central Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s major cultural event promotes and fosters traditional cultures and crafts. The festival opens with an epic camel race that sees up to 2,000 participants sprinting across a 19km track, and then settles into a less frenetic pace. Read more.
Location: St Charles Avenue, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
Date: Mardi Gras is French for ‘Fat Tuesday’, also known as Shrove Tuesday
In 2006, the Zulus were supported for the first time by dancers from South Africa. A testament to the city’s resilience, the 2006 Mardi Gras was held just six months after the devastation of hurricane Katrina. No matter what battles it has to fight, New Orleans will be New Orleans on Mardi Gras. Read more.
Rio de Janeiro Carnaval
Location: Sambódromo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Dates: Culminating on Shrove Tuesday (Fat Tuesday), but beginning in earnest on the previous Saturday
In Rio de Janeiro, Indian costumes and African beats were incorporated into the celebrations in a rebellious show of indigenous identity. Today, the anticipation of Carnaval fills the air months before the actual event. A key feature here is the Brazilian bandas – street parties guided by drummers and singers through the streets of Rio and tailed by whoever wants to dance behind them. Read more.
Tenerife Carnaval
Location: Santa Cruz, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
Date: Mardi Gras is French for ‘Fat Tuesday’, also known as Shrove Tuesday
Tenerife, a tiny Spanish island off the coast of Africa, is home to one of the world’s largest Carnival celebrations. Some quarter of a million partygoers converge on the Canary Island capital of Santa Cruz. This three-week event (culminating in the 24-hour party on Fat Tuesday) draws in everyone, if only because no-one can escape the action which captivates the whole island. Read more.
Trinidad Carnival
Location: Port of Spain, Trinidad, Trinidad and Tobago Date: Mardi Gras is French for ‘Fat Tuesday’, also known as Shrove Tuesday
Today, the steel-pan band Panorama competition is a key feature of this Carnival, as are the Calypso Monarch talent battle, and the Kings and Queens Costume Competition, in which towering creations are embellished with light and sound special effects. Read more.
Maslenitsa
Location: Vassilyevsky Spusk, Moscow, Russia
Dates: Last week before Lent
Akin to Mardi Gras, Russia’s only surviving pagan festival celebrates the end of winter and the beginning of spring, kicking off Orthodox Lent on a very full stomach. The word ‘Maslenitsa’ comes from the Russian for butter, which is a key ingredient in the festive treat, bliny (pancakes). Read more.
Location:Viareggio, Italy Dates: Four Sundays leading up to Lent
Famous either as a sun-and-sand resort or the spot where the poet Shelley drowned, Viareggio is otherwise known to festival-goers as host to one of Europe’s finest carnival celebrations. In Italy, it’s second only to Venice’s Carnevale for party spirit. Read more.
Groundhog Day (Punxsutawney, USA; 2 February) www.groundhog.org Watch Punxsutawney Phil emerge from his burrow to forecast the year’s weather…it all depends on his shadow. Madurai Float Festival (Madurai, India; full moon of the Tamil month of Thai — between mid-January and mid-February) www.madurai.com The goddess Meenakshi and her consort are paraded in a colourful float around an island shrine in Lake Teppakolam. Chiang Mai Flower Festival (Chiang Mai, Thailand; first weekend in February) Colourful floats exhibit Chiang Mai’s cultivated flora. Setsubun (Japan; 3 or 4 February) To celebrate winter’s end and drive out evil spirits, the Japanese indulge in bean-throwing while chanting ‘fuku wa uchi oni wa soto’ (‘come in happiness, get out devils’). Jaisalmer Desert Festival (Jaisalmer, India; dates vary in February) Tourist-oriented festival with camel races, dances, turbantying contests and the famous Mr Desert competition. Jorvik Viking Festival (York, England, mid-February) www.jorvik-viking-centre.co.uk Celebrate York’s Viking heritage, bar the pillage and plunder. Pineapple Cup Montego Bay Race (Caribbean Sea; February) www.montegobayrace.com A bi-annual yacht race between Florida and Montego Bay (Jamaica), that’s also an excuse for four days of partying in Montego Bay. Sauti Za Busara (Zanzibar, Tanzania; around the second week of February) www.busaramusic.com Four-day celebration of Swahili music in the Stone Town. Lantern Festival (Mainland China and Taiwan; 15th day of the first month in the Chinese Lunar Year) Marks the end of the New Year period and is the day for lovers; people walk the streets at night with paper lanterns and make dumplings of glutinous rice with sweet fillings. Berlinale (Berlin, Germany; begins on the first or second Thursday of February) www.berlinale.de Berlin’s international film festival, with flicks vying for the coveted Golden Bear. Basant (Lahore, Pakistan; second weekend of February) Lahore celebrates the onset of spring with this one-day kite-flying festival. Holland Flowers Festival (Zwaagdijk-Oost, Netherlands; starts on the third Wednesday of February) www.hollandflowersfestival.nl Festival of Dance (Khajuraho, India; 25 February–2 March) The cream of Indian classical dancers performing amid floodlit temples in the western enclosure. Abu Simbel Festival (Abu Simbel, Egypt; 22 February) Twice-yearly festival (also in October) to mark the occasion when the sun shines directly into the interior of Abu Simbel temple. Festival de Jerez (Jerez de la Frontera, Spain; last week of February and first week of March) www.festivaldejerez.es Two-week festival dedicated to music and dance, particularly flamenco. Cape Town Pride (Cape Town, South Africa; mid to late February) www.capetownpride.co.za Cape Town’s gay and lesbian community flies the rainbow flag during this 10-day festival, which includes arts events as well as dance parties and a street parade.
