Carnival
Four countries, four unrelated traditions and a date that moves with Easter — how to choose which Carnival you actually want.
One week before Lent, celebrated in four countries in four ways that have almost nothing in common beyond the date.
The Essentials
Carnival is not a single festival, and treating it as one is the most common way a trip to it disappoints. What the celebrations share is a position in the calendar: the days immediately before Lent, which is why the date moves every year with Easter and usually lands in February or early March. What they do not share is a form. A samba parade in a purpose-built stadium, a masked ball in a lagoon city, a steelpan procession at dawn and a series of neighbourhood parades are all called Carnival.
The decision is therefore which Carnival, not whether. Brazil is the largest and the most organised, with a ticketed parade at its centre and street parties around it. Italy offers the opposite in Venice: costume, masks, a compact historic centre and no parade at all. Trinidad and Tobago runs the Caribbean tradition the region's diaspora carnivals descend from, and New Orleans keeps the American version. Each rewards a different traveller.
For a visitor from India the practical difference is the flight rather than the festival: Rio and Trinidad are long-haul with a connection, while Venice sits inside a European itinerary you might be taking anyway. That, more than the spectacle, tends to decide which one is realistic.
Where to experience Carnival
The places this happens, and what each one is actually like.
The parade version. Samba schools compete over several nights in a purpose-built stadium, with street blocos across the city around it. The most organised and the most ticketed of the four.
The costume version. No parade and no stadium — masks, historic dress and a small centre that fills completely. Better for photography and for pairing with the rest of Italy than for crowds you want to dance in.
The Caribbean tradition, with steelpan, calypso and a pre-dawn opening that most visitors underestimate. The template the diaspora carnivals in London and Toronto follow.
The American version, spread across weeks of neighbourhood parades rather than concentrated into one arena, and the easiest of the four to attend without a ticket.
The street version — trios elétricos moving through the city on defined circuits with the crowd walking behind them, rather than an audience in a stand. Physically demanding and largely free to join.
Frevo and maracatu rather than samba, and giant papier-mâché puppets carried through Olinda's hill streets in daylight. The version to choose if a ticketed stadium is the opposite of what you want.
How to plan your Carnival trip
The date moves, so fix the year before the flights. Carnival is tied to Easter and can fall anywhere from early February to early March. Confirm the year's dates with the host city before booking anything, because a week either side is an ordinary week in the same place.
Accommodation is the constraint, not the ticket. In every one of these cities the rooms go long before the events do, and prices during the week bear little relation to the rest of the year. If you are going, the room is the first thing to hold.
Plan how you get home at night. Streets close, transport reroutes and taxis become scarce exactly when the crowds disperse. Staying within walking distance of where you intend to be is worth more than a better room further out.
Plan your journey
Our travel designers turn knowledge and inspiration into a journey crafted entirely around you.
Plan My Journey →