For travellers seeking smaller crowds, fantastic festivals, spring blooms, and mild temperatures, spring is the perfect time of year to travel. Read on for our favourite reasons to think spring when booking travel this year.
1. Smaller Crowds
Spring is still considered shoulder season in many places, so prices are cheaper, crowds are smaller and temperatures are enjoyably mild. Some fantastic destinations to consider to fully take advantage of these benefits during spring travel are touristy hotspots like Cannon Beach (a zoo in the summer), Pike Place market in Seattle, and most European destinations, including capital cities like Madrid, Lisbon, Athens and Zagreb, or head to Australia or New Zealand, where it’s shoulder season, but autumn!
2. Fantastic Festivals
Because we often feel celebratory when we’ve finally kicked winter’s cold temps to the curb, spring is also a time when festivals abound. Spring plays host to a slew of fascinating festivals around the world. In Thailand, join in the New Year celebrations, observed in mid-April, when streets are shut down and the city-wide water fights begin! Head just a few hours west of London to England’s Cooper’s Hill for the annual downhill race to win a wheel of cheese. Over in Zürich, a snowman is dramatically lit ablaze once the first spring blooms arrive, usually on the third Monday of April.
3. Spring Blooms
Spring is the perfect time to take in the colourful bursts of blooms coming to life around the world. Perennial favourites like Amsterdam’s tulips and Tokyo’s sakura will always be beautiful vacation draws. For beautiful fields of poppies, drive just a bit north of Los Angeles and visit the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve or time your trip to align with the California Poppy Festival. If your sights are set on Europe, Italy’s Umbria region is a hotbed for poppies in spring. Road trip it in Austin and treat yourself to sightings of Texas’ state flower, bluebonnets, all along the highways.
