Top Billing: 6 Best Festivals Around the World for Culture and Tradition
The right timing can turn a great adventure into something else entirely.
Arrive in the right place at the right moment, and you could find yourself cheering on young jockeys racing across the Mongolian steppe, following a candlelit procession through Mexico or joining thousands of festivalgoers celebrating in monasteries across Bhutan.
That’s where travelling with our expert local guides makes all the difference. They know where to stand, what to look for and, most importantly, the stories behind what you’re seeing. With us, you’re not a spectator; you’re actively drawn deeper into the traditions and customs at the heart of each celebration.
So, get your calendars at the ready. Here are six of the best festivals around the world for culture and tradition, and how to experience them with Exodus.
1. Inti Raymi, Peru
Every June, Cuzco turns back the clock for the Inti Raymi Festival, or the ‘Festival of the Sun’ – one of Peru’s most important celebrations of its Inca heritage. Held around the winter solstice, the festival honours Inti, the Inca sun god, and traditionally marks the renewal of life and hopes for a bountiful harvest.
The celebrations begin at Qorikancha, the former Inca Temple of the Sun, where the Sapa Inca (emperor) and his entourage reenact ancient rituals in elaborate traditional dress. From here, colourful processions make their way through the streets of Cuzco before arriving at the mighty Sacsayhuamán fortress. Expect music, ceremony, crowds and no shortage of colour as thousands of locals and travellers gather to watch the story of the Inca Empire brought vividly to life.
You can join them on our special Essential Peru – Inti Raymi Festival Departure, timed to put you in Cuzco for the celebrations. And once the festivities are over, Peru isn’t exactly short on encores. Continue to Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley before heading to Lake Titicaca, where you’ll visit the floating Uros Islands.
Experience it on
Essential Peru – Inti Raymi Festival Departure
Wonders of southern Peru and attend a festival in Cuzco
2. Pushkar Camel Fair, India
For most of the year, Pushkar is a peaceful pilgrimage town on the edge of Rajasthan’s Thar Desert. Then the camels arrive.
Held annually, the Pushkar Camel Fair began as a livestock trading event, drawing herders from across the region to buy and sell camels, horses and cattle. Today, it’s grown into one of India’s most colourful festival – although there’s still plenty of serious trading going on behind the scenes.
For several days, the desert fills with thousands of people and animals, while the town comes alive with camel races, folk music, traditional dancing, bustling bazaars and famously competitive camel beauty contests. Wander between stalls piled with textiles, jewellery and handicrafts, watch elaborately decorated camels parade through the fairground and see traders putting their negotiation skills to work. If you’ve ever wondered what constitutes a particularly handsome camel, this is your chance to find out.
Each year, we time a special Colours of Rajasthan departure to coincide with the fair, giving you a full day to dive into the festivities with an expert local guide who can take you beyond the spectacle and share the traditions behind it.
And that’s just one chapter of Rajasthan. Search for Bengal tigers on two game drives in Ranthambore National Park, explore the palaces and mighty forts of Udaipur, Jodhpur and Jaipur, then watch the sun rise over the Taj Mahal. Quite the supporting cast for a camel fair.
And Pushkar isn’t the only celebration you can experience with us in India. We also have special departures timed for Holi, when the streets erupt in clouds of colour, and Diwali, when cities glow with lanterns, candles and fireworks.
Experience it on
Colours of Rajasthan
Discover the domain of the maharajas: regal residences, the Taj Mahal and tigers
3. Sakura Matsuri, Japan
Few countries eagerly anticipate the arrival of spring quite like Japan. As cherry trees burst into bloom, towns, parks and castle grounds across the country hold sakura matsuri (cherry blossom festivals), celebrating a spectacle that can last little more than a week in each location. And for those keeping a close eye on the blossoms, there are even official government forecasts, bloom maps and regular local news updates that track its progress north.
At the heart of the season is hanami, the centuries-old tradition of gathering beneath the blossoms to admire them with friends and family. Parks fill with picnics, food stalls and lanterns, while temples, shrines and castles are framed by clouds of pink and white. The blossoms have long been associated with renewal and new beginnings, but their fleeting appearance is part of the appeal too – blink and you really might miss them.
Our cherry blossom departures are timed for this much-anticipated season, with adventures taking you to some of Japan’s most celebrated blossom spots, from Kyoto and Tokyo to Hiroshima. And because timing nature is never an exact science, our expert local guides know where to look when the blossoms make an appearance. For more on the traditions, timings and best places to see them, read our guide to the sakura season in Japan.
Experience it on
Ancient & Modern Japan
Explore Zen gardens, temples and the most iconic sights of Japan
4. Day of the Dead, Mexico
For a festival centred around death, Mexico’s Día de Muertos – Day of the Dead – is remarkably full of life.
Celebrated around 1 and 2 November, this centuries-old tradition is a time to remember and welcome back loved ones who have died, not with sombre silence, but with music, food, flowers and gatherings that spill from family homes into streets and cemeteries.
Across the country, families create ofrendas (altars) decorated with photographs, candles, favourite foods and vivid orange marigolds, whose colour and scent are traditionally believed to help guide spirits home. Markets fill with seasonal treats such as pan de muerto, while cemeteries glow with candlelight as families gather at the graves of relatives.
With us, you can experience Día de Muertos in two very different corners of Mexico. On our Discover Mexico – Day of the Dead (Oaxaca) departure, follow the rhythm of a street parade before heading into rural Oaxaca, where you’ll join a Zapotec family for traditional dishes, learn about their Day of the Dead shrine and later visit a cemetery after dark, when brass bands, candles and marigolds fill the night.
Or head into the Chiapas highlands on our Discover Mexico – Day of the Dead (San Cristóbal) departure. Here, you’ll visit cemeteries, markets and bakeries before travelling to the Chamulan village of Romerillo, where huge blue wooden crosses decorated with chrysanthemums cover the cemetery and traditions have changed little over the years. This trip offers a fascinating glimpse into traditions far removed from the celebrations of Mexico’s bigger cities.
And once the celebrations are over, Mexico has a few more things up its sleeve. Continue through colourful colonial cities and ancient Maya and Zapotec sites to the jungle ruins of Palenque and mighty Chichén Itzá. Quite the afterparty.
Discover Mexico – Day of the Dead (Oaxaca)
Pre-Columbian temples, colonial towns, highlands and jungles.
5. Tshechu Festivals, Bhutan
Bhutan famously measures Gross National Happiness. Judging by its festival calendar, it takes celebrating pretty seriously too.
Across the Himalayan kingdom, centuries-old tshechus transform the courtyards of dzongs and monasteries into great social and religious gatherings. Held in honour of Guru Rinpoche, who helped establish Buddhism in the country, these traditional Bhutanese festivals bring Buddhist stories to life through elaborate costumes, music and sacred cham dances – while giving families and friends an equally good reason to come together.
But no two festivals feel quite the same. Spring’s Paro Tshechu is one of the country’s most important religious gatherings, filling the Paro Valley with monks, laymen, masked dancers and local people gathered in collective celebration.
For something on a grander scale, choose the Thimphu Tshechu, Bhutan’s largest religious gathering in autumn, when the capital city becomes the stage for a full day of performances alongside thousands of local festivalgoers.
Or venture deeper into Bhutan’s historic heartland for Trongsa Tshechu. Held within the kingdom’s political and religious centre for centuries, Trongsa Dzong, in December, it has a strong sense of local participation and offers a more intimate setting for its sacred dances.
Then there’s the Black-Necked Crane Festival, which gives the masks some feathered competition. Held each November in the Phobjikha Valley, it celebrates the return of endangered black-necked cranes from Tibet and the community’s efforts to protect them. Schoolchildren perform a locally created crane dance alongside folk songs, traditional masked dances and conservation-themed plays – a wonderfully Bhutanese meeting of culture, community and wildlife.
Experience it on
Festivals of Bhutan – Paro
Experience traditional Buddhist cultures of Bhutan
6. Naadam Festival, Mongolia
If you want to understand what makes Mongolia tick, the Naadam Festival is a very good place to start. Held every July, the country’s biggest festival dates back centuries and centres around the ‘Three Manly Games’: wrestling, archery and horse racing – skills once considered essential for Mongol warriors and still fiercely contested today.
On our special Discover Mongolia – Naadam Festival departure, you’ll be in Ulaanbaatar as the celebrations get underway, joining the crowds for an opening ceremony of dancing, athletes and elaborate traditional dress.
Then comes the competition. Watch wrestlers grapple for victory and archers test their aim before heading out of the capital for perhaps Naadam’s most exhilarating event: horse racing across the open steppe. Forget neat laps around a racetrack – young jockeys race their horses cross-country over distances of up to 16mi (25km), with thousands of spectators gathered to cheer them home.
And if Mongolia leaves you wanting more, head west to the Altai Mountains on our Mongolia Golden Eagle Festival departure. Here, Kazakh eagle hunters gather with their magnificent golden eagles to compete in tests of speed, agility and centuries-old hunting skills.
Experience it on
Discover Mongolia – Naadam Festival
Explore Mongolia's vast open lands and the Naadam Festival
If this has inspired you to join our expert local leaders for some of the most incredible cultural festivals around the world, take a look at our popular Festival Departures.
