Events & Festivals

Are you planning to travel to a FESTIVAL or for a SPECIAL EVENT this year? Perhaps you travel to the same festival every year, or maybe you are indulging in a little wish fulfilment and doing something you've always wanted to do.

Whatever your motives, it really does make sense to let the train take the strain: flying is expensive, environmentally taboo, and saddles you with the hassle of airport transfers both ends of the trip, and taking the car is nothing but a headache with some of these big events - I mean, where are you going to park, just for starters? And most long distance trains are so well appointed with bars and buffets and gourmet dining cars that you can get festive from the moment you step on board. Some trains even feature casinos and nightclubs if you pick the right routes!

If you are travelling for that special sports event, or following your favourite team, then rail is still the one of the cheapest, chummiest and certainly the easiest option.

Wherever you are off to, the biggest perk of all is that if you get a little too festive, you'll be able to sleep it off in your very own couchette on the way home...
So let's have a peek at what's out there...

In Europe you are spoilt for choice. If you like a bevvie or two, try the wine festivals of southern France, or the beer festivals of Bavaria. For sheer joie de vivre, try Spain - there's tomato splatting, bull-running and the glorious fire festival (fallas) of Valencia. Music? Well try the Montreux jazz festival on Lake Geneva (Paris to Geneva takes just 3 hours and costs, at the time of writing, just £23 return), or one of those mega rock concerts like the Roskilde in Denmark.

And then near Christmas our thoughts turn to... why shopping of course. If you haven't visited Germany's famous Christmas markets, you really should. Don't forget there are always station porters to help you load your parcels for the return journey.

If you are planning to go to Japan this year, don't forget to check out what's on - the country has some really beautiful and fun festivals, and it would be worth lining up your trip to coincide with one of them. Try the Sapporo Snow festival in February, or the famous cherry blossom festivals held all over the islands. Perhaps the most famous is the Kyoto Gion festival - a glorious month long street festival. Kyoto is but three hours from Tokyo by bullet train ('shinkansen'), so it's an easy trip - especially if you've been sensible enough to purchase a rail pass in advance.

America is famous for its diversity of festivals (a lot of them, we have to be honest, of somewhat, er, fringe appeal) - in the summer months why not grab yourself a USA Rail Pass and cruise the blues, world music and jazz festivals? For around £300 you can get yourself unlimited peak time travel with Amtrak.

Australia can offer you the same great deal - why you can get a backpacker rail pass offering unlimited travel for six months for under £200! So if you're planning to visit to follow your cricket team or attend one of the many aboriginal tribal gatherings, there's no excuse not to do a spot of touring at the same time.