Have you ever wondered why people travel? Why they leave their homes and journey to far flung corners of the earth, sometimes halfway around the globe? 3 billion of us do it every year, though have you sat down and actually asked yourself why?
The reasons why people love to travel are both personal and varied, but one of the most powerful is a curiosity of other cultures. There’s adventure in not knowing what to expect, and in deepening your knowledge of other lifestyles. How do other people live? What do they eat? What are their habits, norms and values? What are their houses like?
Many travelers leave home in search of an authentic and immersive experience, and one of the best ways to achieve this is by timing your travel to coincide with local festivals and events.
Cultural Immersion Through Festivals and Events
“Festivals are a living museum of cultures and traditions in an increasingly globalised world. There is no better place for travelers to understand a country than an event where it proudly celebrates its individuality, whether through music, camel races or monumental food fights.”
But when you Google “best events in the world”, you’re greeted with hundreds of different articles, all listing their 10 – 50 top picks for festivals you absolutely have to attend.
Now that’s fantastic as an inspirational post, but what if you want access to information about all events in one place? As in a database that would give you a calendar view of every event happening in every location around the world? Something that would show you upcoming events based on your interests as opposed to planning your travels around what an internet list says you should see?
Travelendar is that resource – a free online database set up for travelers who never want to miss a festival or event.
Where to Find the Best Information and Tips For Worldwide Festivals and Events
You can hover over these (or any image) to quickly pin it!
Hundreds of small festivals and events take place across the world each year, and our friend Ben Ooi has recently set up a free travel event calendar to ensure you have access to the best information and tips for events all over the world, and never miss out on an important travel event.
After travelling to over 30 countries on his Australian passport and enjoying unique events held in each country throughout his trips, he decided there should be an avenue where he could share his knowledge and research.
A list, map and schedule of travel events and attractions that occur at different times throughout the year, Travelendar is an online database which has been created to be the number one place to visit when you need travel tips, ideas and inspiration on any event or festival.
The aim is to help make travel planning easy and fun for those who are new to the world of travel, and for seasoned travelers who might not have heard about an event.
This is Ben at Oktoberfest
How to Use the Website
When you jump over to www.travelendar.com, you’re greeted with upcoming travel events which you can filter by your interests and dates, recent posts from the blog, and additional travel planning resources.
The site has three calendars you can use to help you with your travel plans, which are a Travel Event Calendar, a Yearly Event Calendar, and a Weather Calendar.
The Travel Event Calendar presents information on when and where each event takes place. You can filter events based on categories for cultural, music, nature, public holiday, sport, or ticket sale, and filter by month.
Each listing has their own page which further information, which includes dates, locations, contact details (event website), an event overview, travel tips, and lists the closest international airport.
The Yearly Event Calendar presents all of the events in one simple and easy to read page. If you’re not sure where to go but want to avoid bad weather, the Country Weather Calendar displays the average maximum temperature and rainfall probability of cities in various countries.
There’s also an Event and Attraction Map which is a map of the world with event pins set up to give you an overview of which countries have the best festivals and events. When you click on each marker it reveals information on the best time to visit.
Don’t Settle for a TV Screen
Don’t settle for a TV screen when you can be right in the middle of the action and experience it live. Travelendar is a fabulous free resource where you can find the best information and tips for worldwide festivals and events.
Whether it’s a major film festival like Sundance or Cannes, famously popular event like Rio’s Carnival, or something local you may have never heard of, add Travelendar to your bookmarks so that you never miss out on an important travel event.
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Photo credits: Holi festival photos (Pinterest, featured image & first image in post) by Steven Gerner.
28 Comments
Wow! Thanks, this is amazing. Now I will know when nice Event will take place for my next destination. All the best to you :-)
Glad we could introduce you to Travelendar Michael – now you’ll never have to miss an event! :) Happy travels!
Thanks so much for sharing!
You’re welcome Rashmi! Happy travels :)
What a fantastic idea. Bookmarked and shared. Thanks Megan
You’re welcome Katy! Glad we could introduce you to the site :)
Wow, yes personally myself why I love to travel is because of cultural immersion and everything about the place. The happiness I get is always beyond compare. Thank you so much for sharing about this one, I now know what to see next.
So glad to hear it! Hope Travelendar can set you up with a couple of festivals or events happening on your travels along the way :)
This is amazing! I am bookmarking it right now.
Awesome Nisha :) Hope you enjoy it as much as we do!
What a great idea! I will definitely bookmark this to check it our further. Festivals bring a place to life. I love visiting a destination during a festival and always try to time my travels. My next festival is the Yukon Quest in February.
Have an amazing time at the Yukon Quest in February Christina! Totally agree that festivals are when a destination comes truly alive!
The culture of a place is best experienced through its festivals. Festivals offer an immersive experience like none other. This seems to be a valuable resource to keep a track of festivals around the world and plan your travels accordingly.
Absolutely Vyjay – Ben has put an incredible amount of effort into creating the best resource possible :) Hope you love it as much as we do!
There is definitely no reason to settle for that TV screen in this day and age. There are numerous events and festivals that aren’t high flying or super popular everywhere though and they are just as worthy for a trip out. I loved growing up with sauerkraut fests and strawberry festivals too.. townie fun, but gosh darnit fun!
Absolutely Hallie, and I’ve found that the smaller local festivals and events which fly under the radar are often the most rewarding as you can really connect with the locals who have come out :)
Sauerkraut and strawberry festivals sound like a blast!
This is a great idea! Especially as I don’t always remember to check for public holidays and festivals before traveling to a place. I accidentally (or luckily!) was in Mexico City for their independence day. So much fun!
Pretty awesome surprise to find yourself in the middle of one of the biggest celebrations of the year! I’ve done the same though, I traveled to Dubai without realizing it was Ramadan, had quite the adventure trying to find food!!
Thanks for sharing this travel website! I’m always excited when I arrive in a new country or city and find out there’s a festival going on. One of the festivals I would love to attend is Holi in India. Unfortunately I missed it while I was there but I plan on returning one day.
You’re welcome Lydia – glad we could introduce you to the site. Totally agree – Holi in India is at the top of our list also :)
I love the idea of planning travel around events and festivals. Such a great way to immerse yourself in a new culture and place.
Absolutely – no better way to experience the culture than to jump right in!
This is such a great idea. I feel like I always miss the current stuff when I am traveling. I never have quite enough time to find out what is going on at the present time unless I just stumble upon it. I am going to try to be more conscious of activities and festivals in the future. I have a few on my bucket list for next year already. Mainly Oktoberfest and the Christmas Markets.
Oktoberfest and Europe’s Christmas Markets are great places to start – such an amazing atmosphere across each one! We found we were missing out on crazy fun festivals and events too when we would travel, sometimes by only a matter of a couple of days. So I love that I have a decent resource now that I can consult before we lock in our dates :)
Happy travels!
Ooh! I’m totally going to download this app! My husband and I are headed to SE Asia next year and one of the big plans is visiting the Holi Festival in 2018! I’d love to be able to add more festivals to the trip! Thanks for sharing!
Not an app, but you can view the website on your mobile :) Have an amazing time at Holi in 2018! Hopefully you can pick up some other festivals and events along your way for 2017 too :)
This is brilliant. Thanks for sharing. It will save me a lot of google time
Thanks Rebecca, glad we could help! Yes, it will absolutely save a lot of research – it’s so nice having everything in the one place :) Happy travels! X