Carnival

Carnival is tied to the calendar, and the dates are new every year. You have already picked a city and now want to work out which days to book travel for, which parades are the main ones and what has to be bought in advance. Those are the questions people bring to this section. Here we have gathered pieces on specific carnivals and on how to build a trip around the celebration.

The core of the section is guides to individual carnivals. In Europe these are Venice with its balls and main events, Cologne with its parades, Basel and its Fasnacht, Nice with its corsos, Viareggio with its parades, Cádiz, where people listen to coplas, and Binche with its Gilles, oranges and wax masks. The Canary Islands are covered by two pieces: one on Las Palmas with its gala shows and one on Tenerife with the Coso parade and the Burial of the Sardine. Across the ocean there are Mardi Gras in New Orleans and the carnival in Rio de Janeiro with its samba parade and street blocos.

Besides the city guides, there are overview pieces. One brings the carnivals of several European cities and their dates into a single calendar. Another explains why Cologne, Mainz and Swabia celebrate so differently within Germany. A separate piece is devoted to event travel: how to plan a trip when its center is not a city but an event. Next to them are pieces that go beyond the topic: the festival calendar of Crete, the holidays of Portugal, a first trip to Brazil, the seasons in the Dominican Republic. They help if carnival is only one part of a bigger trip for you.

Each piece opens with a short answer: when the carnival takes place and which days of the program matter most. Then come the practical sections: processions and parades, tickets for grandstands or balls, places for spectators, things that come in handy in a crowd. For every date and price we give the source and the day we checked the data. We compare the program against the organizers' official websites. We are direct about the downsides: crowds, lines, closed streets, expensive accommodation during the celebration.

The section suits those who are going to a specific carnival and want to understand the program before buying tickets. It is also useful if you are still choosing between several cities and comparing the format of the celebration. If you need a general guide to the city outside the carnival days, these pieces will be too narrow. They are written about a few days of the year. There is not much detailed history of traditions and costumes here either: we explain exactly as much as a spectator needs.

If you have not chosen a city yet, start with the overview of European carnivals and the piece on the differences within Germany. They help you see which format is closer to you: street processions, parades with paid grandstands or costume balls. Then open the guide to the city you chose and check the dates against your vacation. The piece on event travel is best read last. It helps you put the whole trip together: accommodation, transportation, a spare day.

"Carnival" belongs to "Festivals & Celebrations", which in turn is part of the larger section "When to Travel". Go one level up if you want to compare carnival with other events of the year or choose a season for your trip. Next to it is the section "Christmas & New Year". It is built in a similar way and covers the winter holidays.

Carnival dates change every year, so we update the pieces for each new season. The headline states the year the program refers to. Before buying tickets, look at the date of the check in the text and open the carnival's official website: organizers sometimes change parade routes and the schedule. If the program for next year has not been announced yet, we say so.

The practical takeaway is simple. Settle on the city, check the dates, find out what needs a ticket and what you can see from the street without one. For that, the guides include practical sections for visitors: what to bring, where to stand, how to get around the city on parade days. After that, planning accommodation and transportation becomes noticeably easier.