Long Night of the Museums will see 70 museums and galleries stage special exhibitions, films and concerts between 6pm and 2am on 28 January. This year, it celebrates the 300th birthday of Frederick the Great, with venues holding related events, but there’s also an eclectic programme of other happenings, from a midnight screening of Faust at the Museum of Musical Instruments to a Pinocchio programme at the Puppentheater. I-escape.com lists seven great places to stay in the city, including Brilliant Apartments in the buzzy Prenzlauer Berg neighbourhood.
Photograph: Sergej Horovitz/VisitBerlin Photograph: Action images
Based in the white mountain village of El Burgo, the Andalucían International Walking and Cultural Festival (tinyurl.com/burgowalking) is the brainchild of Callum Christie, who runs walking company Frontier Holidays (frontierholidays.net) and lived in the village for 20 years. Activities include two guided walks a day, and masterclasses in cooking and wine tasting, painting, pottery, bird watching and photography, plus guided tours. The festival coincides with two local celebrations: the Día de Andalucía on 28 February when the village becomes one big street party; and Carnaval (bring a costume and join in!). Departing 26 February, the seven-night package costs from £1,100 (£70 single supplement), including half-board accommodation, transfers and all activities.
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There can be few more spectacular settings than Sydney Harbour. Throw in a world-class opera and you have the ingredients for a pretty special event. Opera Australia is staging Verdi’s La Traviata there, on a floating stage above which a giant Swarovski crystal chandelier will be suspended from a 26-metre crane. Running from 24 March to 15 April, tickets cost from A$85 (around £56). Another must for art-lovers is the Museum of Contemporary Art (mca.com.au) which reopens in March after a £35m redevelopment. Stay at the family-owned Arts Hotel in Paddington (artshotel.com.au), a great base for exploring nearby galleries, with B&B doubles from £113 in March (two-night minimum stay).
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Join the crowds of revellers who flock to one of Japan’s most colourful events as the ancient town of Takayama hosts its famous celebration of spring on 14-15 April, a festival believed to date back to the 17th century. Flags and lanterns decorate the houses, and the streets are lined with ornately decorated floats (yatai), which are crowded with people carrying brightly coloured portable shrines (mikoshi). Inside Japan’s (insidejapantours.com) 14-night Traditional Japan self-guided adventure winds through the heart of the Japanese Alps and includes a stay in a traditional ryokan in Takayama. It costs £2,370pp, based on two sharing, including accommodation and some meals and transfers, but excluding international flights. British Airways (ba.com) flies from London to Tokyo in March/April from around £740 return.
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If you're a fan of Gustav Klimt, Vienna is the place to be this year. No less than 10 of the city's museums are marking the 150th anniversary of the artist's birth. A good starting point is the Belvedere (belvedere.at), home to the world’s largest permanent Klimt collection. The Wien Museum’s collection of more than 400 drawings will be on display from 16 May–16 September (wienmuseum.at); and Klimt: Up Close and Personal is a display of personal postcards on show at the Leopold (24 Feb-27 August, leopoldmuseum.org/en/exhibitions/43/gustav-klimt-up-close-and-personal). The Daniel Wein (hoteldaniel.com) is one of the newest hotels in the city, offering chic, minimalist rooms in a listed 1960s building from €92 a night.
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Novelists, local storytellers, performance poets, children’s authors, singer-songwriters and scriptwriters will be among the artists to descend on the historic town of Llandeilo, overlooking the river Tywi in Carmarthenshire, for the inaugural bilingual Dinefwr Literature Festival. Taking place over three days (29 June-1 July), it's being touted as the Welsh Port Eliot. There will be a dedicated camping field in the bucolic grounds of Dinefwr Park and Castle (tinyurl.com/dinefwr), plus outdoor entertainment and stalls offering local food. If you don’t fancy sleeping under canvas, the Cawdor hotel (thecawdor.com) in Llandeilo has double rooms from £65 B&B. Photograph: Alamy
Tickets are selling fast for the Royal Academy of Art’s blockbuster exhibition of David Hockney’s large-scale paintings of the Yorkshire Wolds through the seasons (21 January-9 April). If the RA exhibition inspires you to seek out more Hockney, head to Yorkshire this summer to see the region at its most colourful. Visit Salts Mill (saltmills.org.uk), a gallery and arts centre in a former factory in Saltaire, West Yorkshire, which holds a large collection of his work. Then travel east to explore landscapes that he recreates in his artworks – including the Woldgate Woods, Three Trees near Thixendale and The Tunnel (near Kilham). Stay at the boutique Kilham Hall (kilhamhall.co.uk), close to many of the scenes he painted. The hotel reopens on 24 February and B&B doubles cost from £120.
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A highlight of Scotland's cultural Olympiad programme, Speed of Light is part sporting event, part performance art. Thousands of runners wearing special energy-harvesting suits will light up Arthur’s Seat as they make their way up the famous hill, every night for three weeks from 10 August-2 September. Join in by signing up to take part in the choreographed event as a runner, or apply for tickets to watch (on sale from late March at the Edinburgh festival website). The event coincides with the Fringe Festival, so it’s advisable to book accommodation early. Try Visit Scotland. Or Cottages and Castles currently has a one-bed apartment available for two weeks from 22 August, costing £800.
Photograph: visitscotland.com/surprise Photograph: Alan McAteer/other
Every year on the first Sunday in September, the canals of Venice are taken over by the Regata Storica, a flotilla of brightly decorated gondolas and ornate 16th-century Venetian craft, their crews wearing period costume. The water procession commemorates the welcome given to the Queen of Cyprus when she abdicated her throne in favour of Venice, and this year it takes place on 2 September. Bloom B&B overlooks the Campo Santo Stefano, just a few minutes’ walk from St Mark’s Square, and has stylish, spacious doubles from £182 in high season, with a minimum stay of three nights. Photograph: Alamy
Done Benicassim? Exit? Sziget? Festival-goers looking for an alternative music extravaganza this year should look west. New Orleans’ Voodoo Music Experience is a three-day music festival over Halloween weekend (26-28 October 2012) in City Park. It's split into four areas: “Le Ritual” features more mainstream music, “Le Plur” focuses on Electronic/Dance, “Le Flambeau” has hometown, Big Easy-style sounds, and “Le Carnival” showcases indie bands and burlesque acts. Once the festival ends, Voodoo Music Experience events continue in some of the city’s clubs. A three-day ticket costs $110. For small hotels and local B&Bs, visit neworleansbandbs.com/bed-and-breakfasts.html.
Photograph: Sean Gardner/Getty Images Photograph: Sean Gardner/Action images
The town of Santiago Sacatepéquez in Guatemala celebrates All Saints Day on 1 November with a kite festival. Hundreds of spectacular giant kites with colourful designs are made by locals and flown over the cemetery on this day. For more information, see visitguatemala.com. Sunvil Traveller has a 10-day trip to Guatemala, including four nights in Antigua, two nights in Lake Atitlan and three nights in Peten, return flights with Iberia, some meals, excursions (including to the kite festival) and private transfers, that costs from £2,800pp (based on two sharing). Photograph: PR
A growing number of cities are putting on light festivals in the depths of winter – in the UK, Durham’s Lumière programme is particularly impressive – but none can hold a candle to Lyon’s Fête des Lumières for scale or ambition. An awesome, four-day spectacle (6-9 December) that sees artists lighting up the city’s buildings to stunning effect, it attracts up to 3 million spectators. Needless to say, this means you need to book early to secure a room. There is an extensive list of hotels and guesthouses in and around Lyon on the tourist board’s website. Photograph: PR
