Events & festivals in January
7 curated experiences happening in January — festivals, natural phenomena, food seasons, sport. We highlight the off-the-beaten-path versions of famous events.
Festivals & Cultural
🇬🇧
Up Helly Aa Fire Festival
Lerwick · Last Tuesday of January
Vikings burn a 30-foot longship at midnight.
Hidden gem
🇬🇧
Burns Night
Edinburgh · January 25
Scotland's poet laureate Robert Burns gets a national dinner: haggis, neeps, tatties, and recited verse — most enthusiastic in his hometown of Alloway and pubs across Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Hidden gem
🇨🇳
Harbin International Ice & Snow Sculpture Festival
Harbin · January – mid-February
Football-stadium-sized ice castles lit from within with rainbow LEDs.
Rising
Nature & Wildlife
🇲🇽
Monarch Butterfly Migration
Sierra Chincua · Late October – mid-March (peak: January-February)
100 million monarch butterflies flying 4,500km from Canada to overwinter in 12 Mexican mountain forests.
Hidden gem
🇳🇴
Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis)
Tromsø · Late September – early April (peak: November–February, dark hours)
Tromsø sits in the auroral oval — the band where Northern Lights are most likely.
Mainstream
🇲🇽
Whale Shark Migration
La Paz · October – mid-April (peak: November-March)
La Paz Bay, Baja Sur — juvenile whale sharks (12m long, gentle, plankton-eating) gather close enough to swim with from a boat tour.
Hidden gem
🇧🇷
Iguazu Falls, peak flow
Foz do Iguaçu · November – March (rainy-season peak flow)
275 individual waterfalls, 80m drops, 1.
Mainstream