Festivals and Events

Aug 24, 2010 • 4 min read

Hong Kong has taken an ancient ceremony in China and turned it into one of the world’s fastest growing sports. Modern dragonboat racing, with its…

Aug 4, 2010 • 7 min read

Where else in America can you wallow in natural hot springs in the morning, take photos of mountains at lunch time, roll up in one of the world’s coolest…

Jul 29, 2010 • 3 min read

Visit Edinburgh in August and you’ll find yourself caught up in a phantasmagoria of festivals.

Jul 20, 2010 • 5 min read

Right up there with parades as one of the great simple timeless joys are fairs, state and county, little and big -- fairs where pigs are judged by girth,…

Jul 20, 2010 • 4 min read

These days do people really believe that the apostle James, a fisherman from the Holy Land, was buried at Santiago? Get the polygraph out and not many…

Jul 16, 2010 • 3 min read

You know a place is authentic when the cobblestones are so uneven that your feet take a brutal beating soaking up the nooks and crannies around every…

Jul 13, 2010 • 3 min read

Mumbai is big. It’s full of dreamers and hard-labourers, actors and gangsters, stray dogs and exotic birds, artists and servants and fisherfolk and…

Jul 12, 2010 • 3 min read

The British capital’s top summer knees-up, a celebration of the local Caribbean community, has enlivened this part of town since the 1950s. During the end…

Jul 8, 2010 • 4 min read

Spain could be Europe's most exotic country. From soulful flamenco and delicious food to avant-garde architecture and cities, Spain is a beguiling mix of…

Jun 22, 2010 • 2 min read

Most people know the classic Fourth of July locales -- the inspiring fireworks show over Washington, DC; the riverside spots of New York City (which moved…

Nov 27, 2009 • 3 min read

If the festive season is not your season to be jolly there are plenty of great places to leave it all behind. Here are five ways to ensure that Christmas…

Nov 12, 2009 • 2 min read

For most of the year, Derby, in the Kimberley area of Western Australia, sits in mud flats, about as vivid as a brown cardigan; but it turns on the colour…

Nov 10, 2009 • 3 min read

Festivals, food and sport are three primal passions of the Spaniards, and often they're fused together in chaotic fiestas where launching foodstuffs is…

Nov 10, 2009 • 2 min read

The pilgrims' walk from the shores of Lake Tana to Kristos Samra church is no more than a few hundred metres, yet feels like a 2000 year time-drop.

Nov 6, 2009 • 2 min read

Dominic travelled to Mexico on assignment for Lonely Planet. You can follow his adventures on Lonely Planet: Roads Less Travelled, screening…

Oct 29, 2009 • 3 min read

With Halloween and Day of the Dead fast approaching, it's only natural that our thoughts turn to subjects spooky and supernatural. Kids running around in…

Sep 30, 2009 • 3 min read

For six months every two years, Venice turns into the hotbed of the world's contemporary art by hosting the famous Venice Biennale.  So how do you tackle…

Sep 24, 2009 • 1 min read

Divali, the Festival of the Lights, is one of the happiest, brightest spots on the Indian calendar, full of marigolds and sweets and fireworks. Having…

Sep 22, 2009 • 2 min read

Australia's largest state, to describe Western Australia as vast is an understatement.  Much of its 2.5 million square kilometres is rough and dry, rich…

Sep 21, 2009 • 1 min read

Pumpkins at the ready! It's Halloween and no one turns on the ghoulish good times better than the Big Apple.

Aug 27, 2009 • 1 min read

Notting Hill is a lively patch at the best of times, but during the annual Carnival in August the crowds go into overdrive. It is a spectacle not to be…

Aug 18, 2009 • 2 min read

Indra, the ancient Aryan god of rain, was once captured in the Kathmandu Valley while stealing a certain flower for his mother, Dagini. He was imprisoned…