Tasting tours and tulips, fish fries and far-flung festivals … Just in time for spring, our editors have selected ten trips that will awaken your senses—and your sense of adventure. Share your favorite and tell us your own trip ideas in the comments.
Holi Festival, Jaipur, India
Photograph by Leeuwenberg, Hollandse Hoogte/Redux
Jaipur, capital of northwest India’s Rajasthan state, owes its “Pink City” nickname to terra-cotta-hued building facades within the Old City walls. Each spring, a tide of raucous revelers magnifies the Technicolor-like glow during the frenetic city’s Holi celebrations. Heralding the arrival of spring, Holi—the Hindu “Festival of Colors”—is marked throughout India and around the world (beginning March 27 this year). In traveler-friendly Rajasthan—Land of Kings—locals and visitors jubilantly join impromptu and organized color eruptions. Prepare to be doused with brightly tinted powders and scented water. Long-sleeve shirts, pants, and a layer of sun block help minimize skin staining, but count on tossing your clothes at festival’s end. Jaipur ushers in Holi with its annual Elephant Festival March 26. Held at the Jaipur polo grounds, the festivities include elephant polo and tug-of-war matches, as well as a parade of elaborately painted pachyderms. Splurge on a luxury tent at the Oberoi Rajvilasto soak your Holi colors away in a vintage, claw-foot tub.
Waikato, North Island, New Zealand
Photograph by Chris McLennan, Alamy
From Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, it’s about an hour’s drive south to the northern reaches of the Waikato region—a 25,000-square-mile mix of rolling farmland, black-sand beaches, volcanic mountains, and glowworm-laden caves. Fans of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey flock here to tour the Hobbiton Movie Set in Matamata. Adventure seekers can rappel and raft through the Waitomo Caves with theLegendary Black Water Rafting Company or ride the waves at Raglan, the iconic surf beach of Endless Summer fame. Waikato is also home to Tūrangawaewae Marae, the official residence of the reigning Māori monarch and site of Turangawaewae Regatta Day’s (March 15 to 16) impressive parade of war canoes on the 264-mile Waikato River, New Zealand’s longest. Get a bird’s-eye view of the region via hot air balloon at Balloons Over Waikato (April 3 to 7), or on helicopter transfer from Auckland Airport to Taupo’s plush Huka Lodge, the exclusive, 25-room Relais & Châteaux retreat near Huka Falls.
Tulpenfestival, Noordoostpolder, Netherlands
Photograph by Siebe Swart, Redux
Late March through mid-May, precise rows of blooming tulips unfurl like crayon-colored ribbons across the flat Dutch landscape. While not as famous as North and South Holland’s Bollenstreek (Bulb District), central Flevoland is home to about 5,000 acres of bulb fields—tops in the country. Most of the fields are located in Noordoostpolder—the Netherlands' youngest tulip-growing area—located about an hour’s drive northeast of Amsterdam. During the annualCountus Tulpenfestival, April 18 to May 6, clearly marked routes make it easy to drive, bike, hike, or ride via special horse-drawn carriage and covered wagon tours along the polder’s most vibrant commercial fields. The fertile land here used to be part of a shallow North Sea inlet (Zuiderzee) reclaimed for agricultural use beginning in the 1920s through a complex system of pumping stations and dikes. On Noordoostpolder’s west coast, walk the brick-paved streets of historic Urk. This charming fishing village was a secluded Zuiderzee island until 1942, when the massive water-to-land reclamation project absorbed Urk into the mainland.
Kentucky Bourbon Trail Tour,
Lexington to Louisville, Kentucky
Photograph by Luke Sharrett, The New York Times/Redux
All bourbon is whiskey, but only U.S.-distilled corn whiskey meeting exacting standards (like being aged in new, charred white oak barrels) can be called bourbon. The seven distilleries comprising the Kentucky Bourbon Trail tour—Four Roses, Heaven Hill Distilleries, Jim Beam, Maker’s Mark, Wild Turkey Bourbon, Woodford Reserve, and Town Branch—produce about 95 percent of the world's bourbon. Guided tours and tastings (don’t miss the chocolate-covered bourbon balls) are included at most stops, many of which are tucked away on Bluegrass State back roads. The tour isn’t a geographic route (distilleries are clustered mid-state from Lexington west to Louisville), so plot your own path past thoroughbred horse farms and historic small towns. Allow about three days to visit all seven, plus a few micro-distilleries on the newKentucky Bourbon Trail Craft Tour. Spend a night at the Woodford Inn in Versailles (pronounced ver-SAYLZ) where the Friday night fish fry includes live bluegrass music on the lawn. Early risers can watch the racehorse training sessions (6 a.m. to 10 a.m. daily) at nearby Keeneland.
Danube Delta, Romania
Photograph by Vadim Ghirda, AP
From April to September, millions of migrating birds visit the Danube Delta’s sandy islands, floating reed beds, cane fields, forests, and freshwater lakes. Situated in southeastern Romania, where the Danube River meets the Black Sea, the 2,200-square-mile UNESCO Biosphere Reserve—and Europe’s largest continuous marshland—hosts more than 300 species of birds, including white pelicans, red-breasted geese, and pygmy cormorants. With few roads, travel is almost exclusively by water. In the gateway village of Tulcea, hire a private boat with an ARBDD-licensed Associatia de Ecoturism guide, rent a kayak or rowboat, or hop one of the regular or fast ferries serving the delta’s three main navigable channels—Chilia, Sfantu Gheorghe, and Sulina. Ibis Tours, Naturetrek, and the Traveling Naturalist are among the outfitters leading small-group, bird-watching tours into the delta. Packages typically include Bucharest airport transfers, meals, English-speaking guides, and basic lodging in floating pontons (hotel boats). Near the fishing village of Murighiol (accessible by car) visit the Halmyris archeological site to observe ongoing excavations at the legendary Roman naval port and supply depot.
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