Viator Travel Blog

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, stores are flooded with candy hearts, chocolates and stuffed animals. In the US, shelves brimming with teddy bears and boxes of chocolate are typical Valentine’s Day fare, but not every country turns to greeting cards and heart-shaped candies to declare love. Some exchange wooden spoons and pressed flowers, while others hold a special holiday for the loveless to mourn their single lives over black noodles. Here is a look at how 10 countries celebrate Valentine’s Day around the world.

In case you’re a visitor to the great land Down Under (or an Aussie traveler), we have decided to produce a list of activities you can take part in besides the typical Aussie barbecue no matter where you might be traveling on the big day. All of these options have been chosen to help people get better acquainted with the country that is being celebrated.

As the Christmas lights start to fade and the holiday season is coming to an end, there’s still one final bash to send out 2012. With the New Year just around the corner, now’s the time to make your New Year’s resolutions, drink away the last year’s regrets and celebrate starting all over again in 2013. From riotous street parties and fireworks extravaganzas, to marching bands and torchlight processions, here are 20 of the best New Year’s Eve parties from around the world.

There are different ways people bring in the New Year around the world.

Let’s take a trip, shall we?

Whether you choose to take a trip to the North Pole, ride in Santa’s sleigh or check out some of Santa’s most unique pastimes, here are 10 spectacular ways to discover Santa Claus around the world.

Who needs to hang out with the living, when you can go and visit the dead? With Halloween just around the corner, there is a fabulous and fascinating itinerary of ghosts and gravestones, haunted histories and underground vaults to be explored – from Memphis to the Orbs of Oahu, via Vegas, Rome, Venice, Stockholm and Boston.

For many Americans, July 4th is a family holiday – it involves backyard barbecues, maybe a parade through town, and a local fireworks show. Some people, however, have grander dreams of celebrating the nation’s birthday with more pizzazz. Thankfully, there are plenty of options around the country that deliver Fourth of July festivities worth traveling for.

These 11 places around the US each offer something special for July 4th, whether it’s a stunning backdrop for fireworks or a party that makes you forget the fireworks altogether.

At this time of year the three great cathedral cities of England‘s south east, Canterbury, Chichester and Winchester, all within about 60 miles of London, offer a particularly attractive alternative to the often glacial demeanour of the average shopping mall. They also provide the visitor with the added attraction of getting down with some culture while sidling up to an endless supply of the big retail names plus an abundance of classy independents.

In 1923, the 1^st Lady Grace Coolidge, wife of President Calvin Coolidge, would start the tradition of the lighting the National Christmas Tree at the White House in Washington DC. On Christmas Eve of 1923, the first tree was a 48 ft. Balsam Fir from Coolidge’s native state of Vermont, lit on the south side of the White House area called the Ellipse.

Need some help with your travel itinerary? Why not take inspiration from the world’s rich smorgasbord of festivals, and plan your next vacation around the dates and locations of some of the planet’s most exciting events. To get you started, here’s our top 12 far-flung festivities, one for every month of the year…