Using Holiday Calendars for Travel Planning

Booking a trip without checking local public holidays is one of the most common and costly travel mistakes. Arriving in a city during a major national holiday can mean closed museums, packed transport, inflated hotel prices, and streets either jam-packed with locals celebrating or eerily empty with everything shut. A quick check of the destination country's holiday calendar before booking can completely transform your experience.

Some holidays are worth deliberately travelling around. Experiencing Diwali in Jaipur, Carnival in Rio, Songkran in Chiang Mai, or the King's Day celebrations in Amsterdam are bucket-list experiences. The key is to book flights and accommodation 3–6 months in advance when travelling for a major festival — last-minute availability often disappears entirely, and prices can triple.

Business travellers and those seeking value should generally avoid major holiday periods in their destination country. China's Golden Week (first week of October) and Lunar New Year see hundreds of millions of people travelling internally, making transport extremely difficult. Spain and France in August experience mass domestic tourism while many businesses close for summer holidays. These periods often mean higher prices and reduced service across hospitality.

Many of the best value travel opportunities arise from long weekends created by public holidays. A Monday holiday in your home country means a potential 3-night trip without using annual leave. Strategic use of the holiday calendar — combining public holidays with a day or two of leave — can create 8–10 day trips using only 3–4 days of annual leave. Our holiday calendars help you spot these opportunities across 20 countries.

For trips that span multiple countries, checking the holiday calendar of each destination is essential. Bank holidays close ATMs, exchange offices, and government services. Religious holidays like Ramadan change restaurant hours and atmosphere across entire cities in Muslim-majority countries. Planning around these dates — or into them for the authentic experience — is the mark of an experienced traveller.