In the last six months, I have traveled twice over a destination’s holiday. One was unintentional and one was on purpose but without understanding the full implications. As a result, I have a few thoughts about the pros, cons and other considerations.
Last holiday season, friends and I traveled to Puerto Rico. I knew we would be there 31 Dec and 1 Jan and made the appropriate provisions to make sure we had a dinner reservation on the 31st and firm plans for New Year’s Day so we weren’t faced with closures. What I didn’t realize is that 6 Jan, Three Kings Day (also known as Epiphany) is a huge deal in Puerto Rico. There are additional closures and it is considered part of the holiday celebrations.
This summer, friends and I traveled to the Baltics. Based on work commitments, once the dates were finalized, I realized we would be in Finland over the summer solstice. They have an annual festival and this became an important part of our trip. However, what I didn’t realize is this is a major National holiday, that it lasts more than one day, and that Estonia also celebrates it, but a couple of days later. This resulted in days of unanticipated closures and other impacts to our trips.
Published and unpublished closures are definitely the most significant impact of traveling over a holiday. In Finland, while I was definitely aware of the midsummer holiday, I expected it to be more like Saint Patrick’s Day in the United States. More social and festive than an actual bank holiday and deeply rooted cultural heritage. Everything from museums to restaurants were closed.
#1: Before any trip, do a basic research for any holidays during your time there. Then definitely dive deeper to determine the impacts of closures.
#2: Based on your research, if you still plan to travel over those dates, make arrangements to mitigate the impact. As an example, if I realized all cafes in Helsinki would be closed, I should have paid for breakfast at the hotel. In Puerto Rico, I arranged an all-day boat excursion on New Years Day.
For both trips, I am glad I was there over a holiday. I definitely learned more about the culture than I would have in a museum.
#3: Find a way to participate in the holiday. And if possible, do what the locals do. While in Helsinki, we went to the midsummer festival on Seurassari island. This was not a cheesy event for tourists, but a local celebration for those residents left in the city. While in Puerto Rico, the day before Three Kings Day, we were in Saint Germain and saw them setting up for a festival. We asked what was going on and ended up returning the next day to participate. It ended up as a highlight of the trip!
#4: Learn more about the holiday and the culture. For both trips, we were able to dive deep and learn so much more about the location and the culture based on the holiday. In Puerto Rico we were now attuned to references and pictures of the Three Kings. Turns out they are everywhere!! And if I had been there any other time of the year, their significance would have been lost on me. Following Helsinki, while in Estonia and Latvia, numerous references were made to the significance of the midsummer festival. These of course caught our attention, led us to ask questions and do additional research on our own. It added so much texture to our trip.
Other than having a better plan for breakfast, I don’t think I would do anything different for either trip. In fact, I enjoyed the learning opportunities so much, in the future, I may try to travel during a unique holiday if possible!
Life Kinetic Travel Research 