Where to go in 2027, month by month: January to June

The first half of 2027 is packed with fixed dates, so pick the date first and the place second. Carnival and Lunar New Year land in the first week of February, Easter falls early on 28 March, and Eurovision and Kyoto’s biggest procession share 15 May. The table below puts each month’s best places beside the dates that can make or break the trip.

Start with the month, or the year

If you know when you can go but not where, begin with the month article. Each one gives the weather averages from the national met services, so you can compare places on numbers rather than brochure adjectives. If you have the opposite problem and want a shortlist for the whole year, the lists piece reads Lonely Planet, Skyscanner and Expedia side by side and tells you what each one is actually counting.

• Where to go in 2027: three lists, read together: which picks appear on more than one list, and when to book flights.
• Where to go in January 2027 (from 7 Nov): twelve places that are good in January specifically, warm and cold.
• Where to go in February 2027 (from 12 Nov): the most date-heavy month of the half, with Carnival, snow and whales.
• Where to go in March 2027 (from 17 Nov): blossom, Holy Week, Holi and the desert wildflowers.
• Where to go in April 2027 (from 22 Nov): eight picks ordered by date, from tulips to Hokkaido.
• Where to go in May 2027 (from 26 Nov): the Mediterranean before the heat, plus the big 15 May clash.
• Where to go in June 2027 (from 30 Nov): long daylight in the north, dry season in the Andes and Bali.

Build the trip around the date

Some dates have no flexibility, and the planning gets harder the closer you sit to them. Rio’s grandstand seats are R$250 a night at face value, and the cheap ones are gone or nearly gone. Hotels there usually insist on a four or five night minimum over Carnival. Lunar New Year is the other way round: it closes small restaurants for two or three days, and it fills transport in the weeks either side.

Three dates in particular reward an early start. Carnival runs 5 to 10 February, with the Série Ouro on 5 and 6 February, the top schools on 7, 8 and 9 February, and the champions back on 13 February. Lunar New Year is Saturday 6 February, with the Lantern Festival on 20 February. US spring breaks cluster hardest from 13 to 21 March, when four of the six big schools we checked are off at once.

• Rio Carnival 2027 dates and tickets (from 17 Nov): which night is which, what a seat costs and why the Champions’ Parade is the escape hatch.
• Lunar New Year 2027 travel (from 9 Nov): which countries get which days off, and what shuts.
• Spring break 2027 trips (from 5 Nov): eight priced trips for 7 nights, from Puerto Rico to Japan.
• Northern lights 2026-27 season (from 20 Nov): new moon dates for December to March and the cloud odds in six places.

For the northern lights, the date that matters is the moon, not the calendar. A week either side of the new moon is the darkest, and the best match in this half of the year is early March, with the new moon on 8 March. Plan four nights in one base, because one clear night in four is a normal result.

Dates beyond June, and the one just before

Two events are big enough that the booking starts now, even though they fall outside this half. The total solar eclipse on 2 August 2027 crosses Spain, North Africa and Egypt. Luxor gets 6 minutes 20 seconds of totality, Tarifa gets 4 minutes 39 seconds, and the named Egypt tours and most Nile cruises have already sold out. The Men’s Rugby World Cup runs from 1 October to 13 November in Australia, opening in Perth and ending at Stadium Australia in Sydney.

The other end matters too. If you are reading this before 31 December, New Year’s Eve 2026 is the first date in the run, and several of its tickets are already on sale.

• Solar eclipse 2027 trip (from 9 Nov): Spain or Egypt, how long totality lasts in each place and what is still bookable.
• Rugby World Cup 2027 in Australia (from 30 Nov): the seven host cities, ticket prices from A$40 and what an American needs to enter.
• New Year’s Eve 2026 trips (from 22 Nov): seven cities, which are free and which sell tickets.