Team Wanderlust | 12 January 2017

2017's best trips for festivals and events

Get front row seats for 2017's biggest parties, remember to bring your dancing shoes and your binoculars. From the Top 50 Trips of 2017, check out these holidays to the USA, India and Chile

6 mins

Click HERE for the full Top 50 Trips 2017 list

1: Chase the US solar eclipse

Portland, Oregon (Dreamstime)

Skip across the Pacific Northwest in search of the perfect spot to catch 2017’s solar eclipse, exploring the wilds along the way.

Chapters Holidays' Chasing the US Great Solar Eclipse trip sees you set off from San Francisco for the giant redwoods and beaches that stitch the Californian coast, before heading north to Oregon for front row seats to the sun’s disappearing act (Aug 21).

Following that, there are detours to the hip music bars and food trucks of Portland, and treks up Washington’s Mount St Helens (2,550m), to breathe lungfuls of lush, pine-scented air, before finishing up in Seattle.

Who: Chapters Holidays

When: 15 Aug 2017

How long: 12 nights

How much: From £5,250 (incl flights)

2: Jam in Rajasthan

Enjoying a sitar at sunrise (D Campbell-Free)

Roam northern India in the company of musicologist Georgie Pope and anthropologist Gopal Singh on Songlines Music Travel’s Rajasthan Musical Adventure.

It’s a chance to not only explore the culture behind the sounds of the region, but also catch local and international artists live at this year’s Rajasthan International Folk Festival, which boasts a fresh new line up for 2017.

Add to that, you'll also enjoy trips to temples, shrines and local forts, a camel safari, and a night in a desert camp to soak up the stories and history of Rajasthan.

Who: Songlines Music Travel

When: 29 Sept 2017

How long: 11 nights

How much: From £2,495 (excl intl flights)

3: See the eclipse from frozen Chile

Night skies in the Atacama desert (Dreamstime)

As the solar eclipse looms, catch the great event 1,600m above sea level on Journey Latin America’s Highlights of Chile with the Solar Eclipse trip. A whistle-stop tour of Chile’s big hitters whisks you from the wineries outside Santiago to the icy Patagonian pinnacles of Torres del Paine NP, with hikes out to the creaking glaciers of the French Valley.

Then make for high ground and the Fraile Ski Resort (near Coyhaique) for the eclipse (Feb 26) before flying north to the arid desert and dark skies of the Atacama, spying flamingos clustered around crystal lagoons and star-spotting in this famous Dark Sky Reserve.

Who: Journey Latin America

When: 17 Feb 2017

How long: 14 nights

How much: From £5,965pp (excl intl flights)