Arriving at a destination and discovering a major festival occurring can either be wonderfully blind luck that
makes your vacation all the better, or it can absolutely ruin your time abroad. Every year in January, the Los
Angeles Times publishes an extensive list
of upcoming festivals and events around the world for this very reason. For example, tourists can either plan
their trips to include the wonderful beer and festivities of Munich’s Oktoberfest (September 16-October 3), or
they can use this list to avoid the debauchery and gluttony of Munich’s Oktoberfest.
The list, at least for me, also serves as motivation to start planning early for those things I’ve wanted to
do all my life. For example, I see that the Tomatina festival in Buñol, Spain will be
occurring on August 30th this year. I’d like to think that tomorrow I am going to go and book a flight and
finally catch the world’s largest tomato fight. Unfortunately, I have the feeling that next year at this
time, I will be saying the same thing.