Mexico City’s Day of the Dead Grand Parade Returns
On November 2, Mexico City will transform into a river of color, culture, and remembrance as the Day of the Dead Grand Parade returns for 2025, featuring giant skeleton puppets, floats, music, dancers, and costumes. This extraordinary four-hour procession honors ancestors who have passed while celebrating the joy of life. At the same time, it offers travelers from around the globe an unforgettable immersion into one of Mexico’s most cherished cultural traditions. It’s a case of life imitating art! Or even...
10 Global Harvest Festivals Beyond Oktoberfest
While Munich’s Oktoberfest gets all the press as the world’s most famous fall festival, autumn is a season of celebration around the world. Ancient cultures thanked the gods for abundance and prayed for their families to survive the leaner months ahead. The harvest traditions that have been passed through the ages and centuries still today give us a wealth of unique flavors, rituals, and cultural insights. Here are ten festivals worth timing your autumn travels around. Festa della Vendemmia“Grape Harvest Festival:” Tuscany,...
Do's and Don'ts of a European Christmas Market Trip
You can’t actually celebrate Christmas in July in Europe… but it’s the perfect time to plan a Christmas market visit to celebrate the season. There really is no better way to get into the spirit of the holidays than to immerse yourself in the markets, traditions, food, beverages, arts and crafts of the lands and cultures that shaped our own holiday celebrations. But take these tips to make sure you get the best of the best holiday – and holiday experience! DO:...
Don’t Miss This: The Once-in-a-Generation Tradition Transforming Rome This Year
Once every 25 years, the epicenter of the Catholic faith becomes an even greater pilgrimage destination for the world’s faithful, with a Holy Year. Jubilees have been part of Church tradition since the 1300’s, held at 25-year intervals so that every generation can participate in at least one Holy Year. Jubilee 2025 is celebrated throughout Rome, the Vatican City and even across Italy, starting at Christmas 2024 and ending at Epiphany (after the 12 days of Christmas; January 6), 2026. This...
How Hong Kong Celebrates 2025’s Year of the Snake
Chinese New Year is celebrated in over a dozen countries, but Hong Kong’s festivities make it one of the most exciting, colorful, flavorful places in the world to ring in the Lunar New Year. Our friends at the Hong Kong Tourism Board have shared the top 10 festive Chinese New Year activities, but don’t take our word for it! Add Chinese New Year in Hong Kong to your travel bucket list! Beloved and ancient traditions meet charming modern twists in uniquely...
Disneyland Resort Celebrates its 70th Anniversary in 2025 with Limited-Time Events
Beginning in May, 2025, Disneyland is inviting the world to ‘Celebrate Happy’ as it marks 7 decades of making joy. Anniversary celebrations continue through summer 2026, with new festivals, décor, food and beverages, collectibles and events just for the milestone celebrations in Anaheim, California. You’ll find family fun across two theme parks, Downtown Disney District and three hotels. Disneyland is bringing back the ‘Paint the Night’ parade, and debuting a new ‘World of Color Happiness!’ Disneyland’s anniversary celebrations see the triumphant return...
Hotels that Put you at the Heart of Europe’s Top Christmas Markets
The holidays are just around the corner, and nothing gets you into the spirit of the season like a pre-Christmas trip to Europe, where so many of our favorite festive traditions originated. Europe’s Christmas markets, many of which have been around since the Middle Ages, are magical places to embrace the holiday spirit and celebrate in the month leading up to Christmas. Immerse yourself into the Christmas spirit by laying your head just wandering distance from the market, soaking in the ambiance...
Bye-bye Bunnies: Different Spring Traditions Around the World
Spring has sprung and cultures the world over celebrate the season of fresh color and new life. It’s not all about bunnies, lambs, chicks, eggs, chocolate and spring flowers. Here are just a few different traditions that inspire us to travel in the springtime: Climb a Mayan Pyramid on the Spring Equinox in MexicoSpring officially begins on the Spring Equinox, usually March 20, the astrological moment when the Sun is directly above the equator, making day and night the same length....
VIDEO: The Best Christmas Markets on a Viking Rhine River Cruise
A Christmas market river cruise in Europe may be the very best way to capture the magic of the season. Our Viking Christmas on the Rhine river cruise from Switzerland to the Netherlands took us to four countries, each with its own Christmas markets, traditions, flavors and specialities. WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE with highlights of some of the best Christmas markets on a Viking Christmas on the Rhine river cruise! On our Viking “Longship,” we sailed from Basel, Switzerland, into a mediaeval...
6 Resorts Where You Can Celebrate Mexico's "Day of the Dead"
Til death do you party! Dia de los Muertos is a cherished Mexican holiday honoring the memories of loved ones who have passed away. Coming just a day after Halloween, and symbolized by an elegantly-dressed skeleton, Day of the Dead is often thought of as a similar celebration of the supernatural, but it is a uniquely Mexican holiday that’s more family than frightening. A number of cultures honor their deceased family members, and Mexico’s Dia de los Muertos has its own...