A luxury holiday with a party spirit

A luxury holiday is certainly an occasion in itself but coinciding your trip with a world renowned celebration can be the ideal way to make your experience truly unforgettable.

Incorporating a festival or national celebration into your holiday is not as unusual as it may seem and can serve as the perfect compliment to a wider tour of a region or area. Festivals and carnivals give people the opportunity to express themselves, cut loose and have a great time and what better way is there to gain an insight into the true culture of a nation than by immersing yourself in such an extravaganza.

So what are the kinds of experiences you can get involved in? Well, as you can imagine there are a whole host of brilliant bizarre and fascinating events that go on all over the world; although of course some are more famous than others it is always worth checking to see if anything even at a local level is going on in or around your prospective holiday destination.

If you are a music lover then why not include a trip to a live event in your holiday itinerary. Of course this all depends upon timing but its not unknown for some travellers to arrange a holiday specifically around a weekend festival or performance. In the UK for example Glastonbury is the most famous music and cultural gathering which takes place in the south east of the country and takes place most years with an annual break every four-five years. You need to register for tickets and then partake in an anxious online race to get hold of them on the day of their release but with performers as diverse as Neil Diamond, U2, Paul Simon, Bruce Springfield, Coldplay and rapper Jay-Z it is certainly worth the effort. If camping is not your idea of a luxury holiday then there is an abundance of off site accommodation from homely cottages and B&Bs to grand hotels.

Of course there are a whole host of other music and arts related festivals and events worldwide from the World Of Music, Arts and Dance (WOMAD) gatherings which take place in numerous locations around the world, Coachella in California, Primavera in Barcelona and Splendour in the Grass in New South Wales, Australia. Although festivals of this sort generally have a ‘roughing it’ stereotype, more and more events are organising luxury facilities and accommodation for those who want to experience the sights but retain an air of decorum.

As cultural festivals go they don’t come much bigger than the Rio Carnival. Brazil’s capital of the coast comes alive every year for this world renowned spectacle of lights, music, dancing, food and the most spectacular costumes you will ever see. The carnival traditionally took place on the Sunday seven weeks before Easter Sunday but today is actually initiated when the city mayor hands over key to Rei Momo, the Lord of Misrule and Revelry on the Friday evening and lasts five days until Ash Wednesday the following week.  Rio is a city with an electric energy, perpetually shifting and mercurial Rio has a hat for every occasion. From the beaches to the shopping districts and the iconic statue, ‘Christ the Redeemer’ that looks out over the bay Rio is a superb luxury holiday destination.

One of the other main Mardi Gras celebrations also takes place in the Louisiana city of New Orleans. The festivities usually last for around two weeks and include ‘fat Tuesday’ itself. Activities include parades which take place most days either by foot or on large elaborately decorated floats. For two weeks New Orleans lives, sleepd and eats exuberance, extravagance and energy. The event takes over the whole city and is enjoyed by a culturally diverse community; navigating through each specific neighbourhood within the city promisesa new flavour, a new take on the celebration and new excitements for the visitor.

The most colourful festival in India is Holi, a Hindu celebration which commemorates the start of spring and as a tribute to the colour and vibrancy inherent of the new season men, women and children across India daub themselves in brilliantly hued powders and water. Certainly an unusual but no less spectacular sight, huge crowds of people gather to cover one another in the naturally derived colourings transforming market places and, town centres and streets into kaleidoscope of blue, green, orange, red fuchsia and yellow. Other cultural and social events take place across a series of days in the big build up to Holi festival which takes place on the last full moon of a sacred month (usually falling in February or March).